Pescarolo take pole at Jarama

Emmanuel Collard was somewhat surprised by his achievement, as Pescarolo had lagged behind the Courages in Friday practice. But in qualifying, he was able to outpace Jean-Marc Gounon by half a second.

"We certainly did not expect to be on pole," said Collard. "The Courage has been quicker than us so far this weekend.

"It is important to stay in front because it is impossible to overtake here and in traffic. It is always better to be ahead."

One potential issue for Pescarolo is that Collard damaged his tyres by spinning while trying to improve his qualifying time.

"The only problem that we had was my spin and I have a little flat spot on the tyres," he said. "It is not big, but it is there."

The Pescarolo aside, Courages dominate the leading LMP1 positions - with the factory cars of Gounon and Shinji Nakano starting second and third, and the Swiss Spirit example fifth.

LMP2 polesitter Tommy Erdos splits them in the RML Lola. Erdos and co-driver Mike Newton have a three point advantage over Michael Vergers and Juan Barazi in the class title battle, but their rivals will start nine places lower.

In the GT classes, Stephane Ortelli put the ORECA Saleen on GT1 pole despite a strong challenge from the Team Modena Aston Martin, and Marc Lieb's Autorlando Porsche heads the GT2 contenders.