Audi secure all front row start
Audi swept the front row in the final session of qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the two Pescarolo Sport cars right behind, filling the second row
The German outfit, like most other teams, set their fastest times in the first 30 minutes of the two-hour session. Dindo Capello took the honours with a lap time of 3:30.466 - less than 0.3 seconds short of the best time set in practice last week by a Pescarolo.
Marco Werner took the second spot in the sister Audi R10 TDI No. 8 with a time just over one tenth slower than Capello's.
Henri Pescarolo, in the second part of the session, said his team are content with starting behind the Audis, their C60s completing an impressive combined total of 187 laps, compared to their German rivals' 100 laps.
The French outfit's best time was set by Emmanuel Collard in the No. 16 car earlier today in the third session, exactly two seconds slower than the No. 8 Audi. The other Pescarolo ended up a further 0.4 seconds behind in the hands of Franck Montagny.
The Courage LC70 of Jean-Marc Gounon took fifth spot, pushing Jan Lammers' Dome-Judd down in sixth place.
The best qualifier in the LMP2 class was the MG-Lola driven by Tommy Erdos with a 3:41.555, two seconds faster than the next best, Clint Field's Lola-AER. Third spot went to Joao Barbosa in the Radical-Judd.
The GT1 class was mostly an Aston Martin affair. The works DBR9 driven by Tomas Enge managed to set the fastest time in the latter part of the session, with a lap time of 3:52.015.
The Czech, grabbing his fifth successive pole at La Sarthe, pipped teammate Stephane Sarrazin in the sister No. 009 car by 0.4 seconds.
During the final minutes, Oliver Gavin put his works Corvette in third position, a second behind the fastest Aston, thus avoiding a 1-2-3 for the historic British marque. The Englishman pushed Christian Pescatori's customer DBR9 No. 69 by BMS Scuderia Italia down to fourth.
The other works Corvette, No. 63, only managed sixth class spot in the hands of Ron Fellows, having been beaten by the Ferrari 550 Maranello driven by Peter Kox.
Top spot in the GT2 class was taken by the No. 76 Porsche 911 driven by Romain Dumas. The car, however, crashed heavily at the Karting Esses after only 25 minutes of the session gone, with Luca Riccitelli at the wheel.
It is believed the car was hit by a prototype under braking, but the IMSA Performance team are hopeful of fixing the 911 GT3 RSR before Saturday's race.
The grid for the 74th 24 Hours of Le Mans:
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