Audi's Biela fastest in qualifying 1

The four-time winner of the race set the fastest time of the session during a long run, while the majority of teams claimed that the circuit was too dusty to set a fast time.

Biela's lap of 3:28.301 was just one tenth of a second slower than he managed at the pre-event test nearly two weeks ago, and the German admitted that he did not expect the Audi R10 to go much faster in qualifying trim.

The No. 1 Audi was the pacesetter throughout the early stages of the session, and shortly after the first hour the session was red flagged after Marco Apicella had a huge accident at the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight.

The session was stopped for around 45 minutes, and when it restarted there was little action as half of the circuit was hit by a heavy rain shower.

Peugeot were patient during the first hour of the session while the Audis completed long runs, but Stephane Sarrazin eventually set the second-fastest time.

Lucas Luhr put the number 3 Audi third fastest during a long run early in the session, while Nicolas Minassian put the second Peugeot fourth.

Allan McNish was the fastest of the drivers in the number 2 Audi, but the Scottish driver's best lap was more than three seconds adrift of Biela's.

McNish then handed the car over to Tom Kristensen, who completed his first laps at Le Mans this year after he missed the pre-event test while he was recovering from injury.

The lead Pescarolo was the best of the petrol cars, as Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Romain Dumas were sixth fastest in the session. However, they were five seconds slower than the fastest time.

The Barazi Epsilon Zytek was comfortably fastest in the LMP2 class, as Adrian Fernandez set a time good enough for 13th overall.

However, even the class pacesetter did not have a trouble-free session, as the car spent most of the first hour in the garage trying to solve a misfire.

Team Oreca proved that they could upset the regular front-runners in the GT1 class, as the Saleen of Stephane Ortelli, Soheil Ayari and Nicolas Lapierre outpaced the lead Aston Martin of Darren Turner, David Brabham and Rickard Rydell.

British team Scuderia Ecosse set the pace in the GT2 category, as Andrew Kirkaldy went just 0.5 seconds faster than the IMSA Performance Porsche.

Last year's GT2 winners Team LNT had a difficult session. Rob Bell suffered a spectacular tyre failure on the Mulsanne straight, which seriously damaged the front end of his car.

Meanwhile, the other Panoz Esperante spent most of its time in the garage, as the car suffered clutch problems at the start of the session.

Qualifying 1 results: