Qualifying: Katoh takes top spot

The impish Tokyo resident emerged four tenths quicker than Audi Le Mans star Christian Pescatori's Ferrari 333SP, and immediately extolled the virtues of his Sony PlayStation that he had been practising on to learn the sinuous French Grand Prix track.

"I did many laps on the PlayStation game and it looks like it has helped me," said the Den Bla Avis Goh driver.

The Danish/Japanese alliance is proving tough to beat at the moment as they also celebrated their first win at Brno earlier this month. Team principal and driver John Nielsen is now confident of reducing the 19-point gap to series leader Marco Zadra tomorrow afternoon.

"Everything has gone really well and both Hiroki and I are very comfortable with the car at the moment," he said. "We just have to chip away at the deficit and we would like to start that with taking a good chunk of it on raceday."

Pescatori made the early running in the 333SP and said: "I just love driving this car and, as we are seeing, we can still give the new cars some trouble. I am fighting for the championship, not for me but for Marco who is in with a good chance."

In a spectacular third was the Kremer Racing Lola of Jean Marc Gounon and Briton Sam Hancock. Gounon, who only sat in the car for the first time this morning, hurled the Roush-engined car around the 2.64 mile track and tried with all his might to threaten the front row positions. It all came to an end on his final lap when he spun wildly at the Nurburgring Esses before collecting it all together and powering off in a blur of tyre smoke and grass.

The second of the Domes, driven by 1988 Le Mans winner Jan Lammers and his young Belgian team mate Val Hillebrand, will start from fourth on the grid. Behind them is the Courage C60 Peugeot run by the local Pescarolo Sport team, which chose to concentrate more on race set up and trying different compounds of tyres.

Ben Collins will start a rather disappointing seventh with rapid team mate Werner Lupberger in the Ascari, while the Redman Bright-run Reynard of Peter Owen and Mark Smithson lines up tenth.

The SR2 battle was as close as ever with Massimo Monti once again being the star and claiming both his and the little BM Autosport team's second pole position on the trot. Just behind them was the Lola of Thed Bjork and Larry Oberto who ended the session just six tenths shy of top spot.

Bjork was on schedule to grab the pole but did a Gounon and spun dramatically, albeit in the rather safer environs of the slow right-hander before the pit straight.

Walsall's Martin O'Connell will start third with Irish team mate Warren Carway in their Pilbeam Nissan, knowing that they have to win to keep in the championship hunt. The all-British team of series debutant Phil Andrews and young team mate Michael Mallock start seventh.

John Nielsen/Hiroki Katoh, Den Bla Avis, Dome S101-Judd, 1m28.657s
Christian Pescatori/Marco Zadra, BMS Scuderia Italia, Ferrari 333SP, 1m29.027s
Jean Marc Gounon/Sam Hancock, Kremer Racing, Lola-Roush, 1m29.220s
Jan Lammers/Val Hillebrand, Racing For Holland, Dome S101-Judd, 1m29.834s
Jean Christophe Boullion/Laurent Redon, Pescarolo Sport, Courage C60-Peugeot, 1m30.137s
Angelo Zadra/Lilian Bryner/Enzo Calderari, BMS Scuderia Italia, Ferrari 333SP, 1m30.208s
Werner Lupberger/Ben Collins, Team Ascari A410-Judd, 1m30.671s
Mauro Baldi/Alex Caffi, R&M, Riley & Scott, 1m31.296s
Soheil Ayari/Andrea De Lorenzi, Team Durango, GMS-Mader, 1m34.645s
Peter Owen/Mark Smithson, Redman Bright, Reynard 01Q-Judd, 1m35.226s