Qualifying: Pirro beats flu for pole

The Audi ace turned a best lap of 1m15.756s to head the sister R8 of Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello. The race will be Pirro's first since he was briefly knocked unconscious in a crash Mosport last month.

"It feels good to win the pole," said Pirro, who was the series champion last year. "I wasn't feeling very well this morning and this helps."

The Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 of JJ Lehto and Max Angelelli will start third. Meanwhile, Britain's James Weaver headed the LMP675 class for smaller prototypes. Weaver drove Dyson Racing's new Lola EX257-MG that he will share with Butch Leitzinger.

"Our car is definitely good enough to win the class now," said Weaver. "Our boys on the team are pumped about it and very, very excited. It's a
beautiful little car, very nicely engineered, and they enjoy working on it.
So we've got a bright future with it."

Formula 3000 champion Tomas Enge, in the Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello he will share with Peter Kox, won the pole for the GTS class.

Lucas Luhr, who will co-drive with fellow German Sascha Maassen, won the GT class pole in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela Audi R8 LMP 900 1m15.765s
Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen Audi R8 LMP 900 1m15.876s
Max Angelelli/JJ Lehto Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 LMP 900 1m16.672s
Eric Bernard/Emmanuel Collard Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 LMP 900 1m17.054s
Johnny Herbert/Stefan Johansson Audi R8 LMP 900 1m17.629s
Bryan Herta/Bill Auberlen Panoz LMP-1 LMP 900 1m17.749s
Jan Magnussen/David Brabham Panoz LMP-1 LMP 900 1m17.812s
James Weaver/Butch Leitzinger Lola EX257-MG LMP 675 1m18.432s
Claudia Huertgen/Steve Knight/Chad Block Lola EX257-MG LMP 675 1m18.589s
Jon Field/Rick Sutherland Lola EX257-MG LMP 675 1m18.630s