Peugeot keep control in qualifying

The French team continued to occupy the top three positions on the provisional grid in an eventful session that was stopped twice because of huge accidents had by Romain Dumas and Hideki Noda.

Both drivers were uninjured, but Noda's accident happened late enough in the session to bring out the chequered flag 10 minutes earlier than the full two hours.

Dumas went off in the Porsche Curves after losing control of his Pescarolo on oil dropped by the Modena Aston Martin.

None of the 908 HDis were able to better Stephane Sarrazin's remarkable 3:18.513 lap from the first session, but the fourth-placed No.2 Audi did manage to improve its time to 3:24.105 while Allan McNish was in the car. It was however still some six seconds away from its diesel rivals.

Mike Rockenfeller also made the No.3 Audi run in the 3:24 bracket, but almost immediately afterwards spun at the Dunlop chicane while attempting to overtake the LMP2 Barazi Epsilon, which was also on a hot lap.

"In a race I wouldn't have gone for that gap but we were going for a quick time," said Rockenfeller. "He was trying too and turned in, but it's only a scratch."

The Lola Aston Martin had a much better run in the second session after suffering downshifting problems in first qualifying and completing just 13 laps. It returned to the track with the problem fixed later in the evening and finished the session 15th, six seconds off the quickest petrol car.

The Team Essex and Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyders both bettered their previous efforts to knock the Barazi Epsilon car off the top spot in LMP2.

The factory Corvettes improved their times in the second session with the No.63 car taking provisional pole in the GT1 class, just ahead of the sister car, No.64.

That pushed the Saleen, which was the only front running car in the class not to improve its time, down to third, while the Spartak Lamborghini beating the works Aston Martins to fourth in class.

GT1 rivals David Brabham and Luc Alphand had spins in the No.009 Aston and No.72 Corvette respectively.

The Flying Lizards Porsche improved its best time by nearly a second to knock the IMSA Porsche off provisional pole in GT2.