Warm-up: Bentley gets among the Audis

Wallace's 3m38.055s lap, which virtually matched his team-mate Eric van de Poele's qualifying effort, was the third quickest time of the 45-minute session, and pushed the Krumm/Peter/Werner Joest Audi down to fourth. Frank Biela led the way, setting his 3m35.307s best on his first flying lap, over a second clear of the pole sitting R8 of Capello/Herbert/Pescatori.

"We just wanted to see what mileage we got from old rubber and to check the track conditions," said Biela's team-mate Tom Kristensen. "The car is running good."

Cadillac was the only other marque to dip under the 3m40s barrier with its Taylor/Angelelli/Tinseau crewed LMP02. The second car of Bernard/Collard/Lehto was seventh fastest, the pair intersected by the ORECA-run Dallara-Judd of Beretta/Lamy/Comas.

The MG of Blundell/Bailey/McGarrity was eighth fastest, but its sister car ground to a halt in the hands of Warren Hughes due to a clutch failure. Others in the wars included Bill Auberlen, who spun his Panoz into the Mulsanne corner gravel trap, and Nicolas Minassian, who rotated his ORECA Dallara on the exit of the Ford chicane.

Kristensen/Biela/Pirro Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8 3m35.307s
Capello/Herbert/Pescatori Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8 3m36.642s
Wallace/Leitzinger/van de Poele Team Bentley, Bentley EXP Speed 8 3m38.055s*
Krumm/Peter/Werner Audi Sport North America, Audi R8 3m38.213s
Taylor/Angelelli/Tinseau Cadillac, Team Cadillac, Cadillac LMP02 3m39.670s
Beretta/Lamy/Comas Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd LMP 3m40.142s
Bernard/Collard/Lehto Team Cadillac, Cadillac LMP02 3m40.502s
Blundell/Bailey/McGarrity MG Sport, MG-Lola EX257 3m41.899s**
Cottaz/Derichebourg/Bjork Courage Competition, Courage-Judd C60JX 3m41.954s
Lammers/Hillebrand/Coronel Racing for Holland, Dome-Judd S101 3m42.858s
*=LM GTP
**=LMP675


Menu/Rydell/Enge Prodrive, Ferrari 550 Maranello 3m59.040s


Dumas/Maassen/Bergmeister Freisinger Motorsport, Porsche 911 GT3-RS 4m14.486s