[sssssssss]

well, the hp advantage was stated by peugeot from the start (initial claims of 700 hp vs. 650 hp for the r10) but audi didn't seem too concerned with that. if i remember correctly, they were later intrigued about how the 908 hdi could handle so well with so much power (about 800 hp in 2008), which sounded like peugeot had some kind of trick to make all of that possible - probably the j-damper and suspension development, but then again - would that be so hard for audi engineers to figure out?

in 2010, audi were finally matching peugeot's top speeds at le mans with the r15+ (and they actually had even higher top speed at paul ricard than the 908 hdi) , but that seemed to be more of a low-drag aero setup rather than anything else, since their lap times at LM were still over 2 seconds down.

as for 2011, i think audi were more focused on le mans than anything else and they ultimately were faster that year, since the sole remaining r18, with all the pressure and the shorter stints, still couldn't be topped by any of the 3 908s in either absolute lap time or, especially, in covering the 24 hours faster. pretty much like audi in 2010, peugeot indeed seemed to get top speed (343 km/h vs. 336 km/h for the r18) through LD aero setup rather than engine power. if i remember correctly, their official hp claims about the 2011 car were the same as audi's.

also, concerning r18 2012 vs. 2013, the 2013 car was obviously faster, but, surprisingly, not in terms of top speed (as one would've expected from higher hp), at least as much as we can trust the official audi onboard telemetry: the audis were hitting 318-320 km/h on the first part of the mulsanne both years, when no slipstreaming happened.

was someone also mentioning using a bit of a different type of diesel than audi back in the 908 hdi days?