Lancaster takes first pole at Le Mans

The result comes just three rounds into the Briton's Formula Renault 3.5 campaign and propels former champion team Comtec back to the sharp end of the grid after a fallow period in which they have endured a heavy turnover of drivers.

Lancaster will start this afternoon's reverse grid race in 12th position after incurring a four-place penalty for an incident involving Greg Mansell in the last round at Silverstone.

After an abortive entry into this year's F3 Euro Series, which severely disrupted his season, Lancaster was understandably delighted: "I have gone through a difficult period, as has the team, but I feel like I am back where I belong. I had two laps to warm up the fronts and then nailed it.

"I have heard that the stewards have me under investigation. The only thing that I think it could be is for running wide at Turn 1 on a lap on old tyres, but that lap was 1m33s so I don't think they'll be taking my time away."

James Walker produced a gritty performance to finish 0.02s behind Lancaster, only three days after undergoing surgery to his throat. British drivers filled the first three positions as Oliver Turvey was next up for Carlin Motorsport.

Frenchman Charles Pic, a winner at Le Mans in 2008, was fourth fastest ahead of Jaime Alguersuari, Bertrand Baguette and Pasquale Di Sabatino.

There was a welcome reprieve for Baguette, who having qualified outside the top six in his qualifying group, was promoted into the superpole following a penalty to GP2 racer Dani Clos for running outside the bounds of the circuit.

Baguette's Draco team-mate Marco Barba will start on pole position for this afternoon's reverse grid race.

Superpole
Pos Driver                      Team          Time          Gap
 1. Jon Lancaster               Comtec        1m25.677s
 2. James Walker                P1            1m25.692s  +0.015
 3. Oliver Turvey               Carlin        1m25.964s  +0.287
 4. Charles Pic                 Tech 1        1m26.007s  +0.330
 5. Jaime Alguersuari           Carlin        1m26.035s  +0.358
 6. Bertrand Baguette           Draco         1m26.058s  +0.381
 7. Pasquale di Sabatino        RC            1m26.074s  +0.397
 8. Marco Barba                 Draco         1m26.275s  +0.598
 9. Marcos Martinez             Pons          1m26.312s  +0.635
10. Sten Pentus                 Fortec        1m26.375s  +0.698
11. Miguel Molina               Ultimate      1m26.503s  +0.826
12. Edoardo Mortara             Tech 1        1m26.842s  +1.165