Sarrazin takes pole for Peugeot

Sarrazin beat Peugeot team-mate Simon Pagenaud to the top spot by just over a second in what was effectively a one-lap qualifying shoot-out. Rain started to fall on the Chinese circuit as they completed their first flying laps, which meant neither was able to improve his time.

Sarrazin, who like Pagenaud set his time on intermediate tyres, said: "I didn't know I only had one lap, but you always have to push on new tyres. There was only a narrow dry line, but I didn't make any mistakes and did a very good lap."

Tom Kristensen ended up third-fastest for Audi on slick tyres, a further two tenths behind the second Peugeot. He completed one reconnaissance lap on wets before pitting for slicks.

GT1 honours went to JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago driven by Yuhi Sekiguchi. The Japanese driver ended up 1.7 seconds ahead of Pedro Lamy in the Larbre Saleen, the only other car in the class.

Gianmaria Bruni took pole in the GT2 class for the AF Corse Ferrari team. The Italian was three tenths of a second quicker than Richard Lietz in the best of the Felbermayr-Proton Porsches.

Pos  Cl    Drivers                    Car                Time       Gap
 1.  LMP1  Montagny/Sarrazin          Peugeot            1m21.868s
 2.  LMP1  Bourdais/Pagenaud          Peugeot            1m22.953s  + 1.085s
 3.  LMP1  Kristensen/McNish          Audi               1m23.152s  + 1.284s
 4.  LMP1  Capello/Dumas              Audi               1m24.589s  + 2.721s
 5.  LMP1  Drayson/Cocker             Lola-Judd          1m28.916s  + 7.048s
 6.  LMP1  Wakisaka/Mitsuyama         Courage ORECA YGK  1m30.869s  + 9.001s
 7.  LMP2  Nicolet/da Rocha/Lafargue  Pescarolo-Judd     1m32.936s  + 11.068s
 8.  FLM   Zacchia/Zhang/Lee          ORECA              1m33.227s  + 11.359s
 9.  GT1   Iiri/Sekiguchi/Yuya        Lamborghini        1m33.516s  + 11.648s
10.  GTH   Bergmeister/Long           Porsche Hybrid     1m33.789s  + 11.921s
11.  GTC   Lee/Yoong/Marsh            Audi               1m34.959s  + 13.091s
12.  GT1   Bornhauser/Groppi/Lamy     Saleen             1m35.217s  + 13.349s
13.  GTC   Watts/Meins/Yu             Audi               1m35.682s  + 13.814s
14.  GT2   Bruni/Vilander/Melo        Ferrari            1m35.810s  + 13.942s
15.  GT2   Lieb/Lietz                 Porsche            1m36.114s  + 14.246s
16.  GT2   Muller/Werner              BMW                1m36.166s  + 14.298s
17.  GT2   Ehret/Quaife/Kirkaldy      Ferrari            1m36.210s  + 14.342s
18.  GT2   Westbrook/O'Young          Porsche            1m36.300s  + 14.432s
19.  GT2   Ragginger/Ried/Roda        Porsche            1m36.527s  + 14.659s
20.  GT2   Goossens/Gentilozzi        Jaguar             1m37.379s  + 15.511s
21.  GTC   Ma/Beche                   Aston Martin       1m37.800s  + 15.932s
22.  GTC   Richard/Li                 Audi               1m37.888s  + 16.020s
23.  GT2   Giroix/Goethe              Lamborghini