Pescarolo Weren't Aiming for Pole

Soheil Ayari's Pescarolo Sport teammate Eric Helary has revealed they hadn't intended to secure provisional pole, in an attempt to give an optimum track time to Sebastien Loeb

Tim Redmayne Jun 15, 2005, 10:45 PM

WRC champion Loeb only completed 10 laps on the official Test Day, and Pescarolo officials decided that the first two qualifying sessions for this year's race should be aimed to giving Loeb more experience of the French track.

However Ayari still managed to top the timesheets with only one minute of the session remaining.

Helary said: "It was very nice to get pole but it was not our target. The aim of today was to give as much time in the car as possible to Sebastien. We didn't want to make pole, everything was wrong to achieve that.

"I only had two laps on intermediate tyres, which yes, did prove to be the best tyres to be on but it is just luck we are on pole. Tomorrow it will be different, the pole was just for fun."