Audi take 1-2 in first qualifying

Allan McNish's laptime of 4:19.863 was enough to put his No. 7 Audi R10 TDI on provisional pole position, with one more session to run today.

However, due to the soaking wet conditions, lap times are still at least 45 seconds off the dry best, recorded in the official test session last weekend. With clear sky above, times should tumble in the second session, taking place later on tonight.

McNish's lap was more than three seconds quicker than the best of the sister Audi, set by Emanuele Pirro.

Audi's main rivals for the race - Pescarolo Sport - were third and fourth quickest. World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb set the third quickest time in the No. 17 car.

The Frenchman is being given the majority of the driving this evening as he starts to re-acclimatise himself with circuit racing again, having been unable to participate in the official test day earlier this month due to his commitments in the Acropolis Rally.

Loeb's teammate Eric Helary spun early in the session on the wet track.

Erik Comas was fourth quickest in the No. 16 car, having set his time early in the session, before handing over to Emmanuel Collard.

The best of the rest went to the Creation of Jamie Cambell-Walter, Beppe Gabbiani and Felipe Ortiz. Campbell-Walter held the top spot briefly, approximately 45 minutes into the session.

Aston Martin Racing so far have the best GT1 time with the 007 works DBR9, however Andrea Piccini blotted his copy book by spinning the car into the gravel 25 minutes from the end.

Aston's chief rivals Corvette spent the majority of the session in the pits, choosing not to risk their C6-Rs in the wet conditions.

The session was stopped eight minutes shy of the full two hours after a crash by the Chamberlin Synergy of Miguel Amaral at the Dunlop Curves, who damaged the No. 39 car against the guard rail.

A number of cars had spins and minor crashes as drivers acclimatised to the wet condition's including Alex Frei and Shinji Nakano in both of the works Courage entires.

Tracy Krohn's White Lightening Porsche, Christian Vann's Ferrari 550 and Juan Barazi's Courage were among others to have minor offs.