Sebring 12 Hours: Sebastien Bourdais gives Action Express pole

Bourdais, who again shares the car with fellow Daytona 24 Hours winners Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, took the pole with a best lap of 1m51.917s.

That put him just under two tenths clear of the second-placed OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan LMP2 driven by Olivier Pla.

"I took my time and strung some laps together and at the end pretty much optimised the lap," said Bourdais.

"I tried to go again at the end, but overcooked it, so that was pretty much what I had."

Bourdais admitted surprise that there was no challenge from the Ford-powered Daytona Prototypes from the Chip Ganassi and Michael Shank teams, which had shared out the top spot in each of the four free practice sessions.

"It looked like we were four tenths off in every session on the theoretical [fastest lap]," he said.

"I was expecting to close the gap, but not to be on the pole."

The fastest of the Ford-powered DPs ended up only sixth behind Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP, Ryan Dalziel's Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b and Klaus Graf in the Muscle Milk/Pickett Racing ORECA-Nissan 03.

Scott Dixon's 1m53.098s in the best of the Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford EcoBoost DPs left him more than a second from the pole.

CHRISTENSEN PUTS PORSCHE ON GT POLE

New Porsche driver Michael Christensen claimed pole position in the ultra-competitive GT Le Mans class for the factory CORE Autosport team.

Christensen topped the times aboard his Porsche 911 RSR with a 1m58.933s, which gave him the category pole by just under a tenth from Dirk Muller in the best of the Rahal BMW Z4s.

The second BMW, driven by Bill Auberlen, was a further seven hundredths behind in a class where the top six cars were separated by just three tenths.

Bruno Junqueira took the pole in the one-make Prototype Challenge class in the best of the RSR Racing entries.

His pole mark of 1m54.839s put him seven tenths clear of second-placed Tom Kimber-Smith in the 8Star Motorsports car.

Dane Cameron was fastest in the GT Daytona class aboard the Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 with a time of 2m04.258s, which shaded Alex Job Porsche driver Leh Keen's best by just one hundredth of a second

Pos  Cl    Drivers                            Team/Car                    Time
 1.  P     Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Bourdais        Action Express Corvette DP  1m51.917s
 2.  P     Pla/Brundle/Yacaman                OAK Morgan-Nissan           1m52.086s
 3.  P     Angelelli/Taylor/Taylor            Taylor Corvette DP          1m52.544s
 4.  P     Sharp/Dalziel/Brabham              Extreme Speed HPD           1m52.662s
 5.  P     Graf/Luhr/Mardenborough            Pickett ORECA-Nissan        1m52.667s
 6.  P     Dixon/Kanaan/Karam                 Ganassi Riley-Ford          1m53.098s
 7.  P     Westbrook/Valiante/Rockenfeller    Spirit Corvette DP          1m53.147s
 8.  P     Brown/van Overbeek/Pagenaud        Extreme Speed HPD           1m53.393s
 9.  P     Pruett/Rojas/Franchitti            Ganassi                     1m53.456s
10.  P     Frisselle/Frisselle/Fogarty        Action Express Corvette DP  1m53.590s
11.  P     Pew/Negri/Wilson                   Shank Riley-Ford            1m54.062s
12.  PC    Ende/Junqueira/Heinemeier Hansson  RSR FLM                     1m54.839s
13.  P     Mayer/Kaffer/Saavedra/Popow        Starworks Riley-Honda       1m55.081s
14.  P     Meyrick/Legge/Chaves               DeltaWing                   1m55.468s
15.  P     Curran/Said/Cosmo                  Marsh Corvette DP           1m55.594s
16.  PC    Kimber-Smith/Marsal/Lux/Rayhall    8Star FLM                   1m55.599s
17.  PC    Shears/Matos/Ostella               Performance Tech FLM        1m55.603s
18.  PC    Bennett/Braun/Gue                  CORE FLM                    1m55.660s
19.  PC    van der Zande/Bird/Fuentes/Cheng   Starworks FLM               1m56.152s
20.  PC    Cumming/Tagliani/Mitchell          RSR FLM                     1m56.253s
21.  PC    Bielefield/Ducote/Plowman/Drissi   BAR1 FLM                    1m56.300s
22.  PC    Guasch/Montecalvo/Jeannette        PR1/Mathiasen FLM           1m56.929s
23.  PC    Kearby/Hamilton/Kasemets           BAR1 FLM                    1m57.495s
24.  P     Pace/DeFoor/Hinton                 Highway Riley-Dinan         1m58.366s
25.  PC    Miller/Kraut/Simpson               JDC/Miller FLM              1m58.559s
26.  GTLM  Long/Christensen/Bergmeister       CORE Porsche                1m58.933s
27.  GTLM  Müller/Edwards/Werner              RLL BMW                     1m59.024s
28.  GTLM  Auberlen/Priaulx/Hand              RLL BMW                     1m59.094s
29.  GTLM  Gavin/Milner/Liddell               Corvette                    1m59.222s
30.  GTLM  Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe           Corvette                    1m59.224s
31.  GTLM  Tandy/Lietz/Pilet                  CORE Porsche                1m59.248s
32.  GTLM  Bruni/Malucelli/Fisichella         Risi Ferrari                1m59.890s
33.  GTLM  Bell/Bomarito/Wittmer              SRT Viper                   2m00.111s
34.  GTLM  Henzler/Sellers/Holzer             Falken Porsche              2m00.447s
35.  GTLM  Farnbacher/Goossens/Hunter-Reay    SRT Viper                   2m00.509s
36.  GTLM  Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini            Krohn Ferrari               2m00.538s
37.  GTD   Cameron/Dalla Lana/Palttala/Lewis  Turner BMW                  2m04.258s
38.  GTD   MacNeil/Keen/Frommenwiler          Alex Job Porsche            2m04.268s
39.  GTD   Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen/Keating    Riley SRT Viper             2m04.311s
40.  GTD   Block/Carter/Davison               TRG Aston Martin            2m04.320s
41.  GTD   Case/Marcelli/Balzan/Westphal      Corsa Ferrari               2m04.460s
42.  GTD   James/Farnbacher/Riberas           Alex Job Porsche            2m04.542s
43.  GTD   Plumb/Snow/Heylen/Plumb            Rum Bum Porsche             2m04.561s
44.  GTD   Sweedler/Bell/Mediani/Segal        AIM Ferrari                 2m04.650s
45.  GTD   Engelhart/Ineichen/Konrad          Dempsey Porsche             2m04.784s
46.  GTD   Potter/Lally/Seefried              Magnus Porsche              2m04.965s
47.  GTD   Cisneros/Nielsen/Giermaziak        NGT Porsche                 2m05.029s
48.  GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman          Park Place Porsche          2m05.038s
49.  GTD   Dempsey/Davis/Foster/Siedler       Dempsey Porsche             2m05.087s
50.  GTD   Roda/Ruberti/Venturi               Spirit of Race Ferrari      2m05.146s
51.  GTD   Lindsey/Vess/Estre/Norman          Park Place Porsche          2m05.197s
52.  GTD   Sofronas/Welch/Basseng             GMG Audi                    2m05.404s
53.  GTD   Bamber/Gimple/Melgrati             Muhlner Porsche             2m05.606s
54.  GTD   Miller/Haase/Bell                  Miller Audi                 2m05.798s
55.  GTD   Davis/Riddle/Wilson                TRG Aston Martin            2m05.863s
56.  GTD   Mies/Putman/Espenlaub              Fall-Line Audi              2m05.990s
57.  GTD   Canache/Pumpelly/Latif/Winkelhock  Flying Lizard Audi          2m07.077s
58.  GTD   Neiman/von Moltke/Albuquerque      Flying Lizard Audi          2m09.154s
59.  GTD   Griffin/Cioci/Rugolo/Gerber        Spirit of Race Ferrari      2m10.652s
60.  P     Miller/Nunez/Vautier               SpeedSource Mazda           2m14.095s
61.  P     Tremblay/Long/Devlin               SpeedSource Mazda
62.  GTD   Faulkner/Faieta/Avenatti           GB Porsche
63.  GTD   Bamber/Verdonck                    Muhlner Porsche