Lucas Luhr and Michael Krumm win World GT1 qualifying race at Paul Ricard

The German duo took a clear victory in their JRM-run machine after moving to the front during the pitstop sequence. Luhr trailed his team-mate Peter Dumbreck through the first half of the race, but a quicker stop for the second-placed car reversed the positions.

Dumbreck's co-driver Richard Westbrook briefly edged ahead on the start-finish straight at the end of Krumm's outlap, but the German held the inside line into the first corner and was able to hang onto the lead. Krumm subsequently edged away from Westbrook, whose pace dropped off over the last third of the race.

Krumm said: "It was an incredible turnaround; the boys did an amazing job in the pits. I struggled to get my tyre pressures up and Richard caught me and was almost past. It was a hard race until his tyres went off."

Tomas Enge chased down Westbrook in the closing laps in the best of the Young Driver AMR Aston Martins and claimed second place with an opportunist move at the chicane on the Mistral Straight on the final lap.

Westbrook lost momentum and was caught and passed by Stefan Mucke in the second Young Driver Aston for the final podium position at the penultimate corner.

Fifth place, behind the Dumbreck/Westbrook Nissan went to the best of the Marc VDS Fords driven by Maxime Martin and Frederic Makowiecki.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos  Drivers                  Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Krumm/Luhr               JRM Nissan            1h01m48.063s
 2.  Enge/Muller              Young Driver Aston        + 8.350s
 3.  Mucke/Turner             Young Driver Aston        + 9.406s
 4.  Westbrook/Dumbreck       JRM Nissan               + 10.375s
 5.  Makowiecki/Martin        Marc VDS Ford            + 17.171s
 6.  Hohenadel/Piccini        Hexis Aston              + 21.142s
 7.  Winkelhock/Basseng       All-Inkl Lamborghini     + 23.547s
 8.  Enjalbert/Rossi          DKR Corvette             + 25.986s
 9.  Catsburg/Bernoldi        Sumo Power Nissan        + 37.111s
10.  Campbell-Walter/Brabham  Sumo Power Nissan        + 58.282s

Retirements:

     Hezemans/Zuber           Exim Corvette              17 laps
     Pastorelli/Schwager      All-Inkl Lamborghini       15 laps
     Leclerc/Clairay          Belgian Ford               15 laps
     Leinders/Hennerici       Marc VDS Ford               4 laps
     Ickx/Nygaard             Belgian Ford                3 laps
     Piccione/Dusseldorp      Hexis Aston                 2 laps