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Audi dominates first Le Mans session

The first session of the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours prequalifying was dominated by the pre-race favourites Audi. The silver cars, seen for the first time since finishing 1-2 at the Sebring 12 Hours in March, followed up their Florida victory by clocking the top three times. However, with almost all teams complaining of a very dirty track the times from the two hour session were dubbed 'meaningless' by most.

Despite being without Dane Tom Kristensen (who is away on British Touring Car Championship duties) the fastest time around the 8.45-mile track was set by the Sebring- winning car of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro. "All three cars ran without problems this morning," said Audi Sport head Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich. "The only disappointment was that the track was slippery caused by dirt and then oil later. This morning we ran different programmes on all three cars and everything worked well."

The biggest shock was the Team Rafanelli Lola in fourth. The team reported no real problems and put in a significant amount of laps to dial in not just the car but the mechanics too.

The French DAMS team managed to eclipse the factory Cadillacs with fifth and seventh fastest time. Factory driver Andy Wallace had problems with the new Cadillac gearbox.

The Johansson-Matthews team set a competitive sixth fastest time after having the car almost totally refettled by Reynard over the last month. "We have a lot of work to do," said Stefan Johansson. "It's a pretty steep learning curve at the moment, but we do have reasonable straight-line speed."

Philippe Gache's debut in the Courage C60 will have pleased him after setting eighth fastest time. The car is set to make its race debut at Silverstone's European Le Mans Series race in two weeks time.

The five Panoz cars were experiencing a range of set-up problems, which delayed them, but the team was confident it would be on the pace come the end of the second two-hour session this afternoon. "You have to ballpark the car where we should be after last year," said Johnny O'Connell, who clocked the 12th fastest time. "But every year the variables such as the Michelin tyres are different. So the first two hours is just laying rubber down and setting up seeing how much work we have to do. Then this afternoon will be more representative and we'll get a better idea of where we'll be for the race."

British marque Ascari failed to appear after a gearbox problem and Harrier also missed the first session.

LEADING TIMES: LE MANS PRE QUALIFYING,
FIRST SESSION

Pos Car No Team Car Drivers Time
1 8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R8 Biela/Pirro 3m37.35s
2 7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R8 Alboreto/Abt/Capello 3m38.46s
3 9 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R8 McNish/Aiello/Ortelli 3m40.02s
4 21 Team Rafanelli Lola B2K/10 Schiattarella/de Radigues 3m43.19s
5 3 DAMS Cadillac Bernard/Collard/Montagny 3m44.34s
6 24 Johansson/Matthews Reynard-Judd Matthews/Johansson/Smith 3m44.41s
7 4 DAMS Cadillac Goosens/Tinseau/Kolby 3m44.84s
8 17 SMG Courage C60 Gache/Formato 3m45.73s
9 20 Konrad Motorsport LolaB2K/10 Coronel/Lammers 3m46.10s
10 23 TV Asashi Team Dragon Panoz LMP Kageyama/Kageyama 3m46.53s
11 2 Bill Riley Cadillac Angelelli/Taylor/van der Poele 3m46.74s
12 12 Panoz Motorsports Panoz LMP Katoh/O'Connell/Raphanel 3m47.18s
13 11 Panoz Motorsports Panoz LMP Brabham/Magnussen/Andretti 3m47.61s
14 10 Team Den Bla Avis Panoz LMP Nielsen/Thyrring 3m48.14s
15 1 Bill Riley Cadillac Lagorce/Leitzinger/Wallace 3m48.39s
16 16 Pescarolo Sport Courage C52 Clerico/Grouillard/Bordais 3m48.68s
17 15 Thomas Bsher Promotion BMW LM Bscher/Lees/Gounon 3m49.04s

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