Corvette upbeat despite Saleen pace

The factory Corvettes finished second and third in class, but were ahead of both factory Aston Martins, who were expected to be their biggest rivals.

The No.64 Corvette of Oliver Gavin/Oliver Beretta/Max Papis finished the first session with a time of 3:51.461. That was half a second slower than Bouchut, but 1.5s quicker than the fastest Aston time, set by Antonio Garcia in the car he shares with Darren Turner and David Brabham.

Johnny O'Connell, who shares the No.63 Corvette with Ron Fellows and Jan Magnussen, believes the best is yet to come.

"We started out well, but the cars really aren't as comfortable as we'd like right now," he told autosport.com. "We're fighting the rear of the car, so we'll let the engineers look at the data and figure out how to make them quicker."

O'Connell also believes the team have closed the straight-line speed deficit it has given away to the Aston in recent years. That was backed-up by the speed trap figures, which show the C6.Rs to be marginally ahead of the DBR9.

"There's been a lot of research done on straight-line speed in the off-season," added O'Connell. "We used to be 6-7mph slower than them down the straights, so hopefully we're a little bit closer to them."

Despite the set-back, the Aston Martins believe they can also improve. Karl Wendlinger, driver of the No.007 car, said: "We're just working up to it. We have had not much experience at Le Mans in this car.

"We should get quicker and quicker, and the circuit will as well."

O'Connell also pointed out that the Saleen should not be discounted, at least in the fight for pole.

"We felt all along that the Saleen, in the right hands, could be a lethal car," he said. "I think it's going to be a five-way battle between the two Corvettes, the two Aston Martins and the Saleen."