McNish storms to AUTOSPORT pole

In fact Audi dominated the front row for the inaugural round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup as the expected Peugeot challenge failed to materialise.

The Scot, who shares the #7 Audi R15 TDI with Tom Kristensen, set the initial pace for Audi despite encountering traffic on his first two runs, the second of which was a close near collision with an LMP2 Racing Box Lola into Stowe.

The sister #8 Audi briefly moved ahead when Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard set a 1m44.012s, but only until McNish found some more clear air and banged in a 1m43.417s, putting the matter beyond doubt.

Well... only in as much as Nicolas Minassian's factory Peugeot spun at the arena right-hander - wrecking its tyres - before the Frenchman had even started to lap quickly. He recovered to go third fastest, but was more than a second slower than the pole time.

His quest was not aided by an orange rear body cowling being discarded on the run down to Stowe and littering the track in the second half of the session.

The obstacle was sufficient enough to warrant localised yellows, requiring a cautious approach to sector times in that region of the track. In theory, that put an end to any further improvements.

Despite the broken bodywork chicane, which one front-running driver suggested was cause enough for a red flag, Nicolas Lapierre posted a lap good enough for fourth in the Oreca Pug ahead of Andrea Belicchi's Rebellion Lola and the #009 Aston Martin.

Danny Watts made up for his off in morning practice to take a dominant pole position for LMP2 in the Strakka Acura.

Robert Bell took the first GT2 class pole position of the year for the Dunlop-shod JMW Aston Martin. The V8 Vantage had shown promise by topping a wet/dry practice session on Friday, but delivered when it mattered in the sunny separate 20-minute qualifying session.

The AF Corse Ferraris set the early pace, with first Jaime Melo and then Toni Vilander posting laps at the top of the times, before Bell set his 2m03.340s lap just after the halfway point.

Marc Lieb put the Felbermayr Porsche in the mix to go third, pushing Melo down to fourth ahead of Richard Westbrook's ProSpeed Porsche and Allan Simonsen in the Farnbacher Ferrari.


Pos  Cl   Drivers                         Car                Time
 1.  P1   Kristensen/McNish               Audi               1m43.475s +
 2.  P1   Bernhard/Capello                Audi               1m44.012s +  0.537s
 3.  P1   Davidson/Minassian              Peugeot            1m44.489s +  1.014s
 4.  P1   Lapierre/Sarrazin               Peugeot            1m44.510s +  1.035s
 5.  P1   Belicchi/Boullion               Lola-Rebellion     1m45.731s +  2.256s
 6.  P1   Barazi/Hancock/Mucke            Aston Martin       1m45.911s +  2.436s
 7.  P1   Drayson/Cocker                  Lola-Judd          1m46.259s +  2.784s
 8.  P1   Prost/Jani                      Lola-Rebellion     1m46.451s +  2.976s
 9.  P1   Ragues/Mailleux/Ickx            Lola Aston Martin  1m46.482s +  3.007s
10.  P2   Leventis/Watts/Kane             HPD                1m46.961s +  3.486s
11.  P1   Mansell/Mansell                 Ginetta-Zytek      1m47.421s +  3.946s
12.  P1   Burgess/Mowlem/McMurry          Ginetta-Zytek      1m48.509s +  5.034s
13.  P2   Amaral/Pla                      Ginetta-Zytek      1m49.538s +  6.063s
14.  P2   Ojjeh/Greaves/Ebbesvik          Ginetta-Zytek      1m50.374s +  6.899s
15.  P2   Erdos/Newton/Collins            Lola-HPD           1m51.221s +  7.746s
16.  P2   Lahaye/Nicolet                  Pescarolo-Judd     1m51.625s +  8.150s
17.  P2   Case/Babini/Leo                 Lola-Judd          1m52.792s +  9.317s
18.  P2   Pirri/Cioci/Perazzini           Lola-Judd          1m53.365s +  9.890s
19.  P2   de Pourtales/Ordonez/Kennard    Lola-Judd          1m53.410s +  9.935s
20.  P2   Gates/Garofall/Phillips         MG Lola-AER        1m54.013s + 10.538s
21.  P2   Schell/Da Rocha                 Courage-ORECA      1m55.674s + 12.199s
22.  P2   Frey/Rostan/Bruneau             Radical-Judd       1m56.596s + 13.121s
23.  FLM  Pillon/Verdonck/Hollings        FLM ORECA          1m56.968s + 13.493s
24.  FLM  Zacchia/Lombard/Moro            FLM ORECA          1m57.057s + 13.582s
25.  FLM  Firth/Hughes                    FLM ORECA          1m57.312s + 13.837s
26.  FLM  Kraihamer/De Crem/Delhez        FLM ORECA          1m57.850s + 14.375s
27.  FLM  Barlesi/Cicognani/Chalandon     FLM ORECA          1m59.443s + 15.968s
28.  GT1  Gardel/Goueslard/Rees           Saleen             2m02.640s + 19.165s
29.  GT2  Bell/Turner                     Aston Martin       2m03.340s + 19.864s
30.  GT2  Alesi/Fisichella/Vilander       Ferrari            2m03.499s + 20.024s
31.  GT2  Lieb/Lietz                      Porsche            2m03.643s + 20.168s
32.  GT2  Bruni/Melo                      Ferrari            2m03.728s + 20.253s
33.  GT2  Westbrook/Holzer                Porsche            2m03.759s + 20.284s
34.  GT2  Farnbacher/Simonsen             Ferrari            2m03.840s + 20.365s
35.  GT2  Ragginger/Ried/Dumas            Porsche            2m03.862s + 20.387s
36.  GT2  Dumbreck/Coronel                Spyker             2m03.877s + 20.402s
37.  GT2  Companc/Russo                   Ferrari            2m04.027s + 20.552s
38.  GT2  Muller/Werner                   BMW                2m04.475s + 21.000s
39.  GT2  Pilet/Narac                     Porsche            2m04.595s + 21.120s
40.  GT2  Kirkaldy/Mullen                 Ferrari            2m04.818s + 21.343s
41.  FLM  Kutemann/Basso/Hartshorne       FLM ORECA          2m05.402s + 21.927s
42.  GT2  Ehret/Quaife/Kaffer             Ferrari            2m05.481s + 22.006s
43.  GT2  Giroix/Goethe                   Lamborghini        2m08.916s + 25.441s
44.  P1   Fernandez/Primat/Meyrick        Aston Martin       no time