What wins on Sunday, sells on Monday

North Bend, WA -- It is a true saying -- "What wins on Sunday, sells on Monday." As represented by the French daily sports newspaper L'EQUIPE -- which I think means "The Team" (though my french is less than rusty) you can see that both Audi and Peugeot were winners in the european press.

On the way to Paris on Monday we found a used version of L'EQUIPE and its coverage of motorsports was pretty impressive (considering most newspapers in the US give lip service at best to motorsports) -- it is enough to consider learning French. The cover of the Monday morning edition of L'EQUIPE featured British Formula one star Richard Hamilton winning the GP at Indianapolis with the headline "ROI DES AMERIQUES" which mean King of America if I have my translation right. Next to that headline is a photo of the winning Audi team with the headline "LE MANS RESTE LE JARDIN D'AUDI which means something like Le Man is the garden of Audi. This will give you a little insight into the importance that the European press gives to the Formula One circuit and the respect that the event in Le Mans als has.

The inside coverage of motorsports for the previous Sunday was a treasure trove on articles and advertisements that was very interesting. Consider the fact that the Audi's basically had their way with the pole-setting Peugot's and had it not been for a couple of out-of character incidents during the race the Audis would have been one, two, three in the race with ease. Of course that is why you race -- but in the end the Audi had a 10 lap lead on the Peugeot, which it appears was lucky to finish.

Coverage of the event was in two stories, the first of which was headlined with a picture of the Audi splashing to victory in the rain with the headline "Audi vainc, Peugeot convainc" which again roughly translated means Audi defeats, Peugeot convinces. Accurate and interesting. That the Peugeot team hung in there for the 24 hours put significant pressure on the Audi team, particularly given the fact they were down to one car and had to be thinking "What else can happen?"

A second story was focused on the Peugeot team -- and rightfully so -- this is a French newspaper published for the French fan and Peugeot is a French car maker. The headline here was "Mieux qu'un coup d'essai" which I have no idea how to translate -- something like "Better in the trial than the race" referring to qualifying in the pole position I guess. Below this story there is also a half page add for Bosch featuring the Peugeot car from Le Mans. This partifcular advertisement focused on Bosch and was certainly nice for Peugeot -- given the fact that Bosch is a German company.

There was also inside coverage from the Formula One race and an add touting Michelin's 10 consecutive win at Le Mans -- nice but since they supply 95 percent of the tires there, not surprising.

However, the treat of the day was the full page back cover ad by Audi. It is a very dynamic image with two really nice touches -- first the headline -- which again my translation is not 100 percent accurate -- "C'est normal d'arriver premier quand on a un an d'avance". My translation is "That's normal to arrive first when you are year ahead" which I guess is a shot at Peugeot's three year plan. But the Coup de Grace is the photo -- if you look at the large version of the ad and check the rear view mirror of the Audi -- you will see the Peugeot.