Danielsson takes Le Mans pole

The Comtec driver set the fastest time in the A group with nine minutes of the session remaining and then progressively lowered his times on each subsequent run.

The Swede is joined on the front row by Tristan Gommendy who is making the most of a late deal with Pons Racing, where he hopes to salvage something from a disastrous 2006 season

"We've got a very long run to the first corner, probably the longest of the season," said Danielsson, "so the start is crucial.

"My team-mate (Celso Miguez) was only three hundredths from topping the other session, but it would have been handy to have him behind me because Tristan is a very good driver.

"On saying that, Tristan virtually lives at Le Mans; it's like if I did a race at Mantorp Park.

"The funny thing is that last year, when my car was terrible, I spent the whole race fighting Tristan. He had been on pole but had a drive-through penalty for jumping the start. He came up behind me when I was twelfth and although he was a second a lap quicker he couldn't get passed.

"There's just nowhere to overtake here."

Gommendy, the 2002 French Formula Three champion and a WSR race winner last year, has been inactive for three months after the budget for a GP2 drive with iSport failed to materialise.

"Sito Pons called me up to see if I was interested in driving here but I didn't have a budget," said explained the Frenchman.

"Fortunately he called me back a few days later to say he had found a solution, but we didn't sort out the deal until last Saturday.

"It was really hard to do the time. In the beginning I had too much oversteer, I thought it was stupid to continue so I came in.

"The engineer made a big change at the rear and it worked. I was pushing but the circuit has changed since I last raced here, the first corner is completely different and I wasn't really sure which line to take and how hard to push.

"Immediately after I set my quick lap the gearbox stopped working on the downshifts and I spun, but I didn't realise what the problem was exactly and so that's why I then had another off."

Milos Pavlovic showed well again in his second outing with Draco to start third. Frenchman Patrick Pilet enjoyed his best performance of the year in fourth after switching from GD to Tech 1 for the last round at Donington Park.

Celso Miguez was another to see the fruits of a late season team switch by qualifying fifth. The Spaniard, who languishes in 29th place in the championship, underlined the strength of Danielsson's Comtec team.

"The last round at Donington was my first race with Comtec," said Miguez, "and immediately I liked the team, it's really encouraging to be just a tenth behind Tristan's time."

Best of the British contingent was Robbie Kerr, who had briefly topped the A group for KTR. The Englishman was finally demoted to fourth in his group and a seventh place starting position by a brilliantly judged last second effort by Nurburgring winner Christian Montanari.

Pilet's Tech 1 team-mate Ryo Fukuda starts eighth. The Japanese completed his motorsport schooling in France having won the French F3 title and competed at Le Mans prior to that in Formula Campus.

The four championship protagonists (Andy Soucek, Alvaro Parente, Pastor Madonado and Borja Garcia) will line up back in unfamiliar territory.

Maldonado, who is currently third in the points table, could only manage a provisional eleventh fastest after a catalogue of dramas, including being forced to pit with smoke pouring from his left rear.

"I only had one clear lap without yellows, I had a lot of traffic," said Maldonado.

"With the tyre I don't know exactly what happened, I hit some debris out on the course. The only compensation is the others are behind me. Alright, Danielsson is in front but he is the furthest behind in the points."

Parente is set to join Maldonado on the sixth row, the Victory driver suffering a quick spin on the exit of the final corner in an unsuccessful attempt to improve his standing.

Qualifying group A times:

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time
 1.  Tristan Gommendy      Pons             1:25.788
 2.  Patrick Pilet         Tech 1           1:25.790  + 0.002
 3.  Celso Miguez          Comtec           1:25.816  + 0.028
 4.  Ryo Fukuda            Tech 1           1:26.002  + 0.214
 5.  Sean McIntosh         KTR              1:26.170  + 0.382
 6.  Alvaro Parente        Victory          1:26.203  + 0.415
 7.  Steven Kane           Epsilon Euskadi  1:26.267  + 0.479
 8.  Borja Garcia          RC               1:26.271  + 0.483
 9.  James Rossiter        Pons             1:26.333  + 0.545
10.  Michael Aleshin       Carlin           1:26.342  + 0.554
11.  Eric Salignon         Interwetten      1:26.529  + 0.741
12.  Alvaro Barba          Jenzer           1:26.808  + 1.020
13.  Carlos Iaconelli      GD               1:27.328  + 1.540
14.  Marco Barba           Jenzer           1:27.364  + 1.576
15.  Pascuale di Sabatino  Cram             1:27.402  + 1.614

Qualifying group B times:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time
 1.  Alx Danielsson       Comtec             1:25.559
 2.  Milos Pavlovic       Draco              1:25.596  + 0.037
 3.  Christian Montanari  Prema              1:25.643  + 0.084
 4.  Robbie Kerr          KTR                1:25.967  + 0.408
 5.  Miguel Molino        GD                 1:26.065  + 0.506
 6.  Pastor Maldonado     Draco              1:26.112  + 0.553
 7.  Andy Soucek          Interwetten        1:26.115  + 0.556
 8.  Ben Hanley           Cram               1:26.155  + 0.596
 9.  Davide Valsecchi     Epsilon Euskadi    1:26.303  + 0.744
10.  Hayanari Shimoda     Victory            1:26.830  + 1.271
11.  Bruce Jouanny        RC                 1:26.843  + 1.284
12.  Gregory Franchi      Prema              1:26.972  + 1.413
13.  Gavin Cronje         Carlin             1:28.159  + 2.600
14.  Marcos Martinez      Eurointernational  1:29.489  + 3.930
15.  Mehdi Bennani        Eurointernational  1:30.027  + 4.468

Starting positions:

Pos  Driver                Team
 1.  Alx Danielsson        Comtec
 2.  Tristan Gommendy      Pons
 3.  Milos Pavlovic        Draco
 4.  Patrick Pilet         Tech 1
 5.  Christian Montanari   Prema
 6.  Celso Miguez          Comtec           
 7.  Robbie Kerr           KTR              
 8.  Ryo Fukuda            Tech 1
 9.  Miguel Molino         GD
10.  Sean McIntosh         KTR
11.  Pastor Maldonado      Draco
12.  Alvaro Parente        Victory
13.  Andy Soucek           Interwetten
14.  Steven Kane           Epsilon Euskadi
15.  Ben Hanley            Cram
16.  Borja Garcia          RC
17.  Davide Valsecchi      Epsilon Euskadi
18.  James Rossiter        Pons
19.  Hayanari Shimoda      Victory
20.  Michael Aleshin       Carlin
21.  Bruce Jouanny         RC
22.  Eric Salignon         Interwetten
23.  Gregory Franchi       Prema
24.  Alvaro Barba          Jenzer
25.  Gavin Cronje          Carlin
26.  Carlos Iaconelli      GD
27.  Marcos Martinez       Eurointernational
28.  Marco Barba           Jenzer
29.  Mehdi Bennani         Eurointernational
30.  Pascuale di Sabatino  Cram