McNish pushes Herbert out

As is Le Mans practice, a stack of cars piled onto the circuit when the track opened for the twilight qualifying. Herbert and McNish went head to head, but it was the ex-Toyota Formula 1 man who registered the provisional pole of 1m34.683s, while neither Herbert nor his team-mates could better their time from the earlier session.

"We planned to have a little go at pole at the beginning of the session when there was still some light, but we had a gearbox problem, which got fixed," said Herbert. "We tried again a bit later on but there was too much traffic. To be honest, it is more important for us to get ourselves ready for the race."

If the weather holds tomorrow, then there should still be some scope for improvement. McNish's best is still the best part of two seconds off last year's Bentley pole time. But predictions are for a tempest in tomorrow's session.

The Japanese Team Goh Audi was third. It had problem with front splitter, which had to be changed following contact with a Corvette at Arnage.

The last Audi was the Champion entry, which focussed on a race setup: "You don't win the race in one lap, you win it after twenty-four hours," said driver JJ Lehto. "It's been too long since my win and we are concentrating on having a good car for the race."

Other British runners have had varying fortunes at the race. Former World Rally Champion Colin McRae has had his compulsory night-time laps in the Prodrive Ferrari Maranello 550. His car (co-driven by fellow Brit) Darren Turner and Rikard Rydell) is fifth in the GTS class at this halfway point in qualifying.

British Formula 1 pilots Ralph Firman and Justin Wilson have made steady progress today, in spite of technical problems that halted the car out on track in the first session and delayed their running in the second. Their Racing for Holland Dome-Judd is twelfth overall in the qualifying order.

Armed with a Judd engine this year, the Pescarolo/Courage cars have shown a sure turn of speed and led the way behind the Audi quartet. Sebastien Bourdais got the car up to fifth although it had fuel pressure problems and curtailed its night after a minor shunt for co-driver Nicolas Minassian. The second Pescarolo entry is eighth.

The Rollcentre Dallara-Judd, which showed so well at Sebring earlier in the year before problems in the recent Monza enduro, ended the day in seventh. "I am a very happy man, I expected to come here and do better than at Monza," said driver and team-owner Martin Short. "After testing the car felt absolutely mega. I am fairly stunned that the Zytek is behind us! We worked our way through some things early on, trying to get rid of some porpoising and get the ride height correct."

The Zytek is ninth, after failing to improve its time in the second session. The team had a late driver change just last week, with Hayanari Shimoda stepping in for experienced Swede Stefan Johansson.

In GTS, Corvette threatens to bounce back after its clear defeat by the Ferraris a year ago. Now on Michelin tyres, the American cars dominated class qualifying the Olivier Beretta/Jan Magnussen/Oliver Gavin car was more than two seconds ahead of its sister entry. That is followed by the first of the Prodrive Ferraris, crewed by Peter Cox, Tomas Enge and Alain Menu.

Biela/Kaffer/McNish Audi 3m34.683s
Davies/Herbert/Smith Audi 3m34.907s
Ara/Capello/Kristensen Audi 3m35.169s
Lehto/Werner/Pirro Audi 3m35.892s
Collard/Bourdais/Minassian Pescarolo-Judd 3m36.801s
Lammers/Dyson/Kaneishi Dome-Judd 3m37.323s
Short/Barff/Barbosa Dallara-Judd 3m39.260s
Ayari/Comas/Treluyer Pescarolo-Judd 3m40.339s
Wallace/Brabham/Shimoda Zytek 3m41.181s
Katoh/Michigami/Fukuda Dome-Mugen 3m42.143s
Coronel/Wilson/Firman Dome-Judd 3m43.122s
Newton/Erdos/Kinch Lola-MG 3m48.147s
Nielsen/Elgaard/Moller Lister 3m46.542s
Stirling/Lupberger/McGarrity Nasamax-Judd 3m49.779s
Field/Dayton/Connor Lola-Judd 3m52.862s
Andre/Leuenberger/Vanni Lola-Judd 3m55.780s
Maurylaribiere/Boulay/Besson Reynard-Lehman 3m59.257s
Bourdais/Blanchemain/Berville Panoz 4m06.515s
Andrews/Lockie/Kumpen Lola-Caterpillar 4m14.380s

Frei/Gounon/Hancock Courage-AER 3m42.592s
Jeanette/Pickering/Derlot Courage-Willman 3m57.850s
Terada/Roussel/Porta WR 4m05.852s
Bouvet/Gommendy/Briere WR 4m08.708s
Binnie/Field/Sutherland Lola-Judd 4m08.824s
Belmondo/Gosselin/Saviozzi Courage-AER 6m14.788s

Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen Corvette 3m52.158s
Fellows/O'Connell/Papis Corvette 3m54.612s
Enge/Kox/Menu Ferrari 550 3m56.493s
Bouchut/Goueslard/Dupard Ferrari 550 3m56.920s
McRae/Rydell/Turner Ferrari 550 3m58.493s
Hezemans/Deletraz/Barde Ferrari 575 4m00.714s

Maasen/Bergmeister/Long Porsche 4m09.679s
Melo/Daoudi/de Fournoux Ferrari 360 4m11.025s
Hindery/Lieb/Rockenfeller Porsche 4m11.436s
Kelleners/Ortelli/Dumas Porsche 4m12.237s
Khan/Smith/Sugden Porsche 4m13.009s
Kurosawa/Nishizawa/Oriodo Porsche 4m13.972s
Rosa/van Merkstein/Caffi Porsche 4m14.189s