Pescarolo and Audi on a par in Q3

The Frenchman, who already set provisional pole yesterday in wet conditions, managed to get his Pescarolo C60 to the front as he took the session's chequered flag, pipping the best Audi by four hundredths of a second.

His time of 3:32.584, however, is still over two seconds slower than the time set by teammate Franck Montagny in last week's practice at La Sarthe.

Seconds after Collard set his fastest time, a promising last lap by Montagny was spoilt by a slower car not giving way, thus denying the No. 17 Pescarolo from improving on its fourth place, 0.8 seconds behind the sister car.

Squeezed between the Pescarolos were the two Audi cars, with Dindo Capello taking his team's best time, with his No. 8 R10 TDI spending most of the first hour in the pits because the track was deemed too dirty.

The sister No. 7 car ended up 0.3 seconds behind in the hands of Marco Werner.

Jan Lammers took his Racing for Holland's Dome to fifth place, over 2.2 seconds behind Collard.

In the GT1 class, the Aston Martin driven by Stephane Sarrazin finished on top, thanks to a lap of 3:53.402 towards the end of the session.

The sister DBR9 car, No. 007, ended up in fourth class position with Darren Turner at the wheel, 1.2 seconds slower.

Corvette Racing took their C6-R cars to second and fifth class places at the hands of Ron Fellows and Olivier Gavin respectively.

Christian Fittipaldi gave his Acemco Motorsports team third place in class at the wheel of his Saleen S7R.