Peugeot on provisional pole
Peugeot have come out on top in a thrilling last-minute charge during the second qualifying session on the opening day for the 75th 24 Hours of Le Mans
Stephane Sarrazin used his final flying lap to produce a 3:26.344 effort, putting the No. 8 Peugeot that he shares with Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais on to provisional pole position with another two qualifying sessions still to run tomorrow.
The two-hour night session began slowly, with sections of the track that were still damp from earlier rain discouraging drivers from chasing a time.
It was only in the final 20 minutes that the conditions had improved to a point where the teams were ready to push, and Sarrazin was the first to take advantage of it, getting things rolling with a 3:27.029 lap that moved him to the top of the sheets.
Nicolas Minassian responded by going just 0.7 seconds slower in the sister Peugeot, and for several minutes the French cars held the two fastest times.
But Audi's Allan McNish had other ideas, shaving 0.012 seconds off Sarrazin's time to go fastest with five minutes remaining, and then finding an extra tenth the next time around.
As the clocked ticked down the split times suggested that Minassian would be the Peugeot's best hope of dislodging Audi from the top, but Sarrazin seemingly came from nowhere to take the honours instead.
With the weather forecasters predicting heavy rain tomorrow night, early talk is that tonight's times could well have determined the final grid for Saturday's race.
Jacques Villeneuve used the session to rack up some extra miles in the Peugeot, posting times comparable to the Audis during his run.
However, on the Audi side of the fence, Tom Kristensen spent much of the evening in the garage, leaving Dindo Capello and McNish to do the work in the No. 2 car.
Robbie Kerr was quickest of the LMP2 drivers in the Team Barazi Epsilon entry that he is sharing with Adrian Fernandez and Haruki Kurosawa, despite the car losing time earlier in the evening to electrical problems.
First blood in the GT1 showdown between Corvette and Aston Martin has gone Aston Martin's way.
The AMR Labre entry of Christophe Bouchut, Fabrizio Gollin and Casper Elgaard went quickest with 3:50.761. However, rather than a Corvette chasing them across the line, it was a Saleen S7R in the form of the Team Oreca car of Stephane Ortelli, Soheil Ayari and Nicolas Lapierre.
Early GT2 bragging rights went to the Team Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari F430 GTC of Andrew Kirkaldy, Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos.
The session was sprinkled with a few minor incidents, the most notable being Iradj Alexander-David crunching the Swiss Spirit LMP1 at the Playstation chicane.
Adrian Newey caused some excitement in the Team AF Corse garage when he inadvertently set the fire extinguisher in the car off while the Ferrari F430 was having rear-end damage attended to.
Meanwhile Marco Apicella, who was involved in a massive accident in the opening session, was confirmed to have escaped uninjured, although his Lamborghini is in rather worse shape.
It is not yet known whether the car will be seen again this weekend.
Qualifying 1 final results:
Pos | Cl | Drivers | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
1. | LMP1 | Lamy Sarrazin Bourdais |
Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP | 3:26.344 | |
2. | LMP1 | Capello Kristensen McNish |
Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 TDI | 3:26.916 | 0.572 |
3. | LMP1 | Gene Minassian Villeneuve |
Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP | 3:27.724 | 1.380 |
4. | LMP1 | Biela Pirro Werner |
Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 TDI | 3:28.301 | 1.957 |
5. | LMP1 | Luhr Rockenfeller Premat |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R10 TDI | 3:29.736 | 3.392 |
6. | LMP1 | Collard Boullion Dumas |
Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:33.590 | 7.246 |
7. | LMP1 | Gounon Moreau Johansson |
Courage Competition | Courage LC70 AER | 3:35.171 | 8.827 |
8. | LMP1 | Barbosa Hall Short |
Rollcentre Racing | Pescarolo Judd | 3:35.559 | 9.215 |
9. | LMP1 | Lammers Hart Bleekemolen |
Racing For Holland | Dome S101.5 Judd | 3:35.660 | 9.316 |
10. | LMP1 | Campbell-Walter Ortiz Nakano |
Creation Autosportif Ltd | Creation Judd CA07 | 3:36.279 | 9.935 |
11. | LMP1 | Yoong Mucke Charouz |
Charouz Racing | Lola B07/17 Judd | 3:37.737 | 11.393 |
12. | LMP1 | Frei Cochet Besson |
Courage Competition | Courage LC70 AER | 3:38.371 | 12.027 |
13. | LMP1 | Primat Tinseau Treluyer |
Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:38.753 | 12.409 |
14. | LMP1 | Deletraz Fassler Alexander |
Swiss Spirit | Lola Audi B07/10 | 3:42.626 | 16.282 |
15. | LMP2 | Fernandez Kurosawa Kerr |
Barazi Epsilon | Zytek 07S/2 | 3:44.158 | 17.814 |
16. | LMP1 | Evans Berridge Owen |
Chamberlain Synergy | Lola B06/10 AER | 3:44.721 | 18.377 |
17. | LMP2 | Amaral De Castro Hughes |
Quifel ASM Team | Lola B05/40 AER | 3:45.838 | 19.494 |
18. | LMP2 | Binnie Timpany Buncombe |
Binnie Motorsports | Lola B05/40 Zytek | 3:48.173 | 21.829 |
19. | LMP2 | Greaves Moseley Liddell |
Bruichladdich Radical | Radical SR9 AER | 3:48.332 | 21.988 |
20. | LMP2 | Barazi Vergers Ojjeh |
Barazi Epsilon | Zytek 07S/2 | 3:48.935 | 22.591 |
21. | LMP2 | Erdos Newton Wallace |
RML | Lola B05/40 AER | 3:49.217 | 22.873 |
22. | LMP2 | Jouanny Nicolet Filhol |
Saulnier Racing | Courage LC75 AER | 3:49.621 | 23.277 |
23. | LMGT1 | Bouchut Gollin Elgaard |
AMR Larbre Comp. | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:50.761 | 24.417 |
24. | LMGT1 | Ortelli Ayari Lapierre |
Team Oreca | Saleen S7-R | 3:51.240 | 24.896 |
25. | LMP2 | Rostan Pickering Macallister |
Pierre Bruneau | Pilbeam MP93 Judd | 3:51.342 | 24.998 |
26. | LMGT1 | Brabham Rydell Turner |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:52.471 | 26.127 |
27. | LMP2 | Burgess De Pourtales Siedler |
Kruse Motorsport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:52.552 | 26.208 |
28. | LMGT1 | O'connell Magnussen Fellows |
Corvette Racing | Corvette C6R | 3:52.657 | 26.313 |
29. | LMGT1 | Beretta Gavin Papis |
Corvette Racing | Corvette C6R | 3:53.537 | 27.193 |
30. | LMGT1 | Garcia Menten Fittipaldi |
Team Modena | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:53.727 | 27.383 |
31. | LMGT1 | Groppi Prost Belloc |
Team Oreca | Saleen S7R | 3:54.718 | 28.374 |
32. | LMGT1 | Babini Davies Malucelli |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:55.141 | 28.797 |
33. | LMGT1 | Enge Herbert Kox |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:55.714 | 29.370 |
34. | LMGT1 | Policand Goueslard Alphand |
Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | 3:56.734 | 30.390 |
35. | LMGT1 | Smet Gosselin Peter |
PSI Experience | Corvette C6R | 3:56.922 | 30.578 |
36. | LMP2 | Petrov Halliday Ianetta |
Noel Del Bello | Courage LC75 AER | 3:57.566 | 31.222 |
37. | LMGT1 | Blanchemain Vosse Andre |
Alphand Aventures | Corvette C5-R | 3:59.068 | 32.724 |
38. | LMGT1 | Bornhauser Berville Fisken |
AMR Larbre Comp. | Aston Martin DBR9 | 4:01.674 | 35.330 |
39. | LMGT2 | Niarchos Kirkaldy Mullen |
Scuderia Ecosse | Ferrari 430 GT | 4:04.185 | 37.841 |
40. | LMGT2 | Narac Lietz Long |
Imsa Performance | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:04.622 | 38.278 |
41. | LMGT2 | Salo Melo Mowlem |
Risi Competizione | Ferrari F430 GT | 4:05.358 | 39.014 |
42. | LMGT2 | Van Overbeek Bergmeister Neiman |
Flying Lizard Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:05.588 | 39.244 |
43. | LMGT1 | Apicella Yogo Yamanishi |
JLOC Isao Noritake | Lamborghini Murcielago | 4:06.223 | 39.879 |
44. | LMGT2 | Nielsen Simonsen Ehret |
Autorlando Sport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:08.211 | 41.867 |
45. | LMGT2 | Krohn Jonsson Braun |
Risi Competizione | Ferrari F430 GT | 4:09.065 | 42.721 |
46. | LMGT1 | Vasiliev Kostka Persl |
Convers Menx Team | Ferrari 550 Maranello | 4:09.088 | 42.744 |
47. | LMGT2 | Belicchi Caffi Chiesa |
Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R | 4:10.719 | 44.375 |
48. | LMGT2 | Kimber-Smith Watts Milner |
Team LNT | Panoz Esperante GTLM | 4:11.025 | 44.681 |
49. | LMGT2 | Janis Hezemans Kane |
Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R | 4:11.598 | 45.254 |
50. | LMGT2 | Tomlinson Dean Bell |
Team LNT | Panoz Esperante GTLM | 4:13.049 | 46.705 |
51. | LMGT2 | Marsh Villarroel Rosenblad |
GPC Sport | Ferrari F430 GT | 4:15.669 | 49.325 |
52. | LMGT2 | Collin Felbermayr Sr Felbermayr Jr |
Seikel Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:17.750 | 51.406 |
53. | LMGT2 | Macari Aucott Newey |
AF Corse | Ferrari F430 GT | 4:21.714 | 55.370 |
54. | LMP2 | Longechal Yamagishi Terada |
T2M Motorsport | Dome Mader S101-5 | 4:53.983 | 1:27.639 |
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