Sarrazin celebrates 'best ever' lap

The Frenchman battled with Audi's Allan McNish in the final minutes of Wednesday's session, and he grabbed pole position with his final lap of the night.

"It was my best ever lap," Sarrazin told autosport.com. "On my last run I did every lap on the limit, but at the end of the run I was thinking that I could not miss this chance.

"On the last lap there was no limit anymore," he added. "It was a really big push. I knew that I did not have any traffic towards the end of the lap, so I was driving at 150 per cent."

While the drivers have all said that grid position has little effect on the race itself, Sarrazin and McNish both admitted that their battle for pole was very important to them.

"For me this was not the time to finish second," said the Frenchman. "It was very important to be first, and I was very happy."

However, the 32-year-old admitted that he went off at high speed on his penultimate lap, when he missed his braking point at one of the chicanes.

"Qualifying was difficult because it was at night, and I couldn't see so well," he said. "One time I missed my braking point by 100 metres.

"I was going very fast, and I was watching a Corvette in front of me. Then I tried to find my braking point but it was behind me already.

"I crossed the gravel, but I was going so fast that I didn't collect any gravel in my car, and it was still an OK lap!"