Peugeot retain pole at Le Mans

There was some pride salvaged for rivals Audi, though, with Allan McNish setting the fastest time of the day in the  No. 2 R10 with a lap of 4:01.257. The Audi Sport Team Joest car was not far behind, Lucas Luhr making it around the track in 4:01.629.

Fastest of the Peugeot drivers was Sebastien Bourdais, who managed a 4:01.928 in the pole-sitting No. 8 car.

Peugeot had a bittersweet evening, having watched one car look increasingly secure for pole position - and the other car sitting by the side of the track.

The No. 7 car's running time was cut short when Marc Gene lost control at Arnage and put the car into the barriers, causing just enough damage to the front of the car to sideline it for the remaining 90 minutes of the session.

It was the first real hiccup for either of the factory LMP1 teams all weekend, but Gene could take some comfort in the fact that he was not the only driver to be caught out by the conditions.

The Luc Alphand Adventures Gt1 Corvette C5-R found its way into a tyre-wall. The No. 13 Courage LC70 LMP1, driven by Guillaume Moreau, and No. 31 Team Binnie Lola LMP2 also spent some time bouncing through scenery.

The session was red-flagged five minutes early when the Team PSI GT1 Corvette spun and beached itself for the second time in half an hour.

The heavy rain that had drenched the circuit earlier in the night had mostly disappeared by the time the cars came back out for their final two-hour run, but the damp track and cool conditions kept lap times well outside those being posted 24 hours earlier.

While the tough conditions prompted some of the teams, such as Rollcentre Racing, to opt for an early night, others took the opportunity to make up for lost time.

Bourdais got some serious track time under his belt for the first time all weekend after doing just a handful of laps yesterday. Kristensen also proved that he was back to his old best by completing a long, fast run in the Audi.

Barazi Epsilon has maintained its place as the quickest of the LMP2 cars thanks to the efforts of Adrian Fernandez, Haruki Kurosawa and Robbie Kerr in the number 33 car.

But there could be problems for the No. 29 Dome-Mader shared by Robin Longechal, Yutaka Yamagishi and Yojiro Terada.

The team ended qualifying having managed a best time of only 4:54.729, more than 30 seconds outside a time that would have kept them inside the 125 percent cut-off. The team now face a nervous wait to see whether they will be permitted to start the race.

Quickest of the LMGT1 entries was Rickard Rydell in the 009 works Aston Martin, but his 4:29.918 was still a full three seconds outside the time set by Christophe Bouchot in the Larbre Aston Martin 24 hours earlier.

It was a similar story in LMGT2, where the Team Autorlando Sport Porsche 911 took the Thursday honours, but was still nowhere near Andrew Kirkaldy's time in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari from the opening day.