Watts puts Strakka on outright pole

Watts left it late before coming out in this morning's qualifying session for today's afternoon-into-evening race, and had just two flying laps. Despite losing a second to his rivals on the straights of sector one, he was able to make up all that time and more in the remaining part of the lap to take pole by 0.4 seconds with his final effort.

Until Watts' stunning lap, Rebellion's Lolas had been set to fill the front row, but Jean-Christophe Boullion and Neel Jani had to settle for second and third.

The ORECA Peugeot will start only fourth, Olivier Panis having been deposed from his early provisional pole and then not found enough time on his next run. In the end he was 1.2s adrift of Watts.

Pierre Ragues slid into the tyres on his first flying lap in the Signature Lola-Aston Martin, before recovering to take fifth ahead of the Beechdean Mansell Ginetta-Zytek.

After a flurry of rapid-fire late position changes, GT2 ended up being dominated by Ferraris.

GP2 star Alvaro Parente made a spectacular debut for AF Corse by putting the car he will share with Alvaro Barba (while usual pilots Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni are on American Le Mans Series duty) on pole ahead of the sister F430 of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Andrew Kirkaldy's #91 CRS car and the third AF Corse entry driven by Matias Russo completed an all-Ferrari top four, and with Darren Turner's JMW Aston Martin and Dominik Farnbacher's Farnbacher Ferrari next up, the best Porsche was Richard Westbrook in the Prospeed example way back in seventh.

In the moribund GT1 class, the Larbre Saleen qualified among the GT2 leaders while the Atlas Saleen lost a wheel on its first lap and did not set a time.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                         Car                Time
 1.  P2   Leventis/Watts/Kane             HPD                1m32.431s
 2.  P1   Belicchi/Boullion               Lola-Rebellion     1m32.888s
 3.  P1   Prost/Jani                      Lola-Rebellion     1m32.924s
 4.  P1   Panis/Lapierre/Sarrazin         Peugeot            1m33.613s
 5.  P1   Ragues/Mailleux/Ickx            Lola Aston Martin  1m35.297s
 6.  P1   Mansell/Mansell                 Ginetta-Zytek      1m35.441s
 7.  P2   Amaral/Pla                      Ginetta-Zytek      1m35.586s
 8.  P2   Moreau/Hein                     Pescarolo-Judd     1m35.873s
 9.  P2   Lahaye/Nicolet                  Pescarolo-Judd     1m36.024s
10.  P2   Erdos/Newton/Collins            Lola-HPD           1m36.250s
11.  P2   Geri/Babini/Leo                 Lola-Judd          1m36.660s
12.  P2   Ojjeh/Greaves/Ebbesvik          Ginetta-Zytek      1m37.256s
13.  P2   Gates/Garofall/Hughes           MG Lola-AER        1m37.796s
14.  P2   Pirri/Cioci/Perazzinii          Lola-Judd          1m38.307s
15.  P2   Frey/Buncombe                   Radical-Judd       1m40.988s
16.  FLM  Toulemonde/Beche                FLM ORECA          1m41.987s
17.  FLM  Firth/Manning                   FLM ORECA          1m42.213s
18.  FLM  Pillon/Verdonck/Capillaire      FLM ORECA          1m42.253s
19.  FLM  Zacchia/Lombard/Moro            FLM ORECA          1m42.461s
20.  FLM  Barlesi/Cicognani/Chalandon     FLM ORECA          1m42.814s
21.  FLM  Kraihamer/De Crem/Delhez        FLM ORECA          1m43.223s
22.  P2   Schell/Da Rocha                 Courage-ORECA      1m45.105s
23.  GT2  Barba/Parente                   Ferrari            1m46.535s
24.  GT2  Alesi/Fisichella/Vilander       Ferrari            1m46.684s
25.  GT2  Kirkaldy/Mullen                 Ferrari            1m46.950s
26.  GT1  Gardel/Goueslard/Rees           Saleen             1m47.005s
27.  GT2  Companc/Russo                   Ferrari            1m47.157s
28.  GT2  Bell/Turner                     Aston Martin       1m46.847s
29.  GT2  Farnbacher/Simonsen             Ferrari            1m47.369s
30.  GT2  Westbrook/Holzer                Porsche            1m47.518s
31.  GT2  Lieb/Lietz                      Porsche            1m47.526s
32.  GT2  Pilet/Narac                     Porsche            1m47.551s
33.  GT2  Ragginger/Ried/Dumas            Porsche            1m47.705s
34.  GT2  Dumbreck/Coronel                Spyker             1m47.800s
35.  GT2  Ehret/Quaife                    Ferrari            1m48.039s
36.  FLM  Kutemann/Basso/Hartshorne       FLM ORECA          1m48.766s
37.  GT2  Felbermayr/Felbermayr/Seefried  Porsche            1m49.977s
38.  GT1  Van Dam/Lemeret/Walchhofer      Saleen