It’s been officially confirmed that Franck will be the driver behind the wheel of the #8 Peugeot when the 12 Hours of Sebring race gets underway. Sharing duties with Stephane Sarrazin (who will be qualifying it) and Pedro Lamy (who will also be there), Frank will kick things off on the 19th March, which is not this Saturday but the one after. Technical director Bruno Famin reiterated what Peugeot have always said, that these races are always just a test for the real deal - Le Mans.

Franck!!! Taking part in a Peugeot press conference. And by taking part, I mean sitting looking a bit bored. Although he did get to speak for about ten seconds, so he was a bit less bored then. ♥

I’m rubbish at birthdays, okay? Many happy returns to Franck who turned 33 yesterday. I wonder what he did to celebrate, wherever he is hibernating away for the winter. The worrying news is that Franck’s website is no longer working for me. Anyone else? I mean, it’s not like it had been updated in forever anyway, but even so. At this rate, I will not only forget FKM’s birthday, but I’ll be forgetting about him too!

It looks as though FKM has disappeared again, after his win in Zhuhai. His website has not been updated, and the only place to go for any Franck related goodness is Facebook. There are a couple of cool (but old) videos that were posted recently, but as they are in Facebook, I can only share the links. Here is one, and here is another one.

At least that’s the way it seems. An experiment to move I Heart Franck off Wordpress led me to Posterous, which is really good, but not for blogging. It’s great for uploading a picture or some kind of media and sharing it, which is what it is ultimately designed for. As you know, dissatisfied with Wordpress I made the transition to Squarespace, and have found it mostly good, but there is a significant spam commenting problem.

So, last time I was here, we discussed the Thursday test, in which Peugeot dominated. The weather turned against the drivers during Friday practice, and the first session saw Bourdais’ car on top again, with Franck and Sarrazin finishing slightly further down. 1 Team Peugeot Total – Peugeot 908 HDi FAP – 1:28.751 7 Audi Sport Team Joest – Audi R15 TDI – 1:29.389 8 Audi Sport Team Joest – Audi R15 TDI – 1:30.

Franck was out and about today, as he and teammate Stephane Sarrazin took to the track at Zhuhai for two test sessions. These are pre-practice sessions for the weekend, which seems a bit odd, but any testing time is good. The first session had Peugeot on top, but it was the other one, with Bourdais and Pagenaud. Franck’s car was third, with a pesky Audi splitting the two of them. In the second session, they improved and finished first, with Bourdais’ car in second place - a 1-2 finish for Peugeot.

Franck’s next assignment takes place at the beginning of November, when the LMP1 class of cars turn up at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The 7th November will see Franck partnered with Stephane Sarrazin, whilst a second Peugeot car will be fielded by Bourdais and Pagenaud. That’s still a couple of weeks away, of course, so while we’re waiting, here’s a photo gallery (on Facebook) of Franck at Petit Le Mans.

Another tiny quote from Mr M: We were the fastest on track again this year. We didn’t steal this. Same car, same team, same results - the only difference was the rain! Last year’s race clearly affected him more than it appeared!

Franck, along with Sarrazin and Lamy, won the 2010 Petit Le Mans yesterday. I didn’t watch it but all I’ve seen suggests it was a great race, interesting throughout, and it wasn’t until the final couple of hours that Peugeot seemed to have it in the bag. They took up two steps of the podium with Allan McNish for Audi in third. A snippet from the Autosport report: …the Audi R15 of Allan McNish/Dindo Capello/Tom Kristensen had a very real chance of winning, while the second 908 of Anthony Davidson/Marc Gene/Alex Wurz was waiting in the wings on the lead lap.