Lack of traffic helped Kristensen claim pole

The Bentley driver was hampered on his first qualifying attempt in today's first session by heavy traffic, but managed to find some clear space on the track early in the second session - exactly when the track was in its sweet spot.

Kristensen lapped the track in 3m32.843s, but still thought he could have gone faster. "I could have lapped in 3m31s, but I had to slow down for a backmarker," he said. "But compared to the first session, when I encountered so much traffic when I was on track running on qualifiers, to meet only one car on my lap is very lucky. I think I passed nine cars on my qualifying lap in the first session tonight!"

With over 50 cars out on track, and the GT class cars lapping over 30s slower than the Bentley, Kristensen is used to encountering traffic around the Circuit de la Sarthe.

"I have never done a lap of Le Mans that has been completely free of traffic, never," he said. "I had to pass one car on each of my two flying laps tonight, but that's as close as you can get to a free lap around here."