Le Mans Practice and Qualifying

No improvements of lap-times in final qualifying
Audi Sport Team Joest will tackle the 75th running of the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours from the front row of the grid. Heavy rain showers on Thursday evening prevented improvements over the times from Wednesday’s first qualifiyng session. The starting grid thus remained unchanged.

Allan McNish fastest in the rain
Fastest on the rain-soaked track on Thursday was Allan McNish who set the best time of the day in 4m 01.257s shortly before midnight. 24 hours before, the Scotsman at the wheel of the number two Audi R10 TDI, had lost the exciting battle for pole-position against the best Peugeot by just 0.572 seconds.

Strong performance also from Tom Kristensen
Tom Kristensen set almost an identical time as Allan McNish on Thursday evening. The Le Mans record winner proved as in the previous day that he is in a good shape following his accident-enforced break.

On Saturday, Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello will start from second on the grid with their Audi R10 TDI. The two other diesel- powered sports cars from Ingolstadt will go into the race from the second and the third rows of the grid. Last year’s winners Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner qualified fourth, the "rookie” team of Lucas Luhr, Alexandre Prémat and Mike Rockenfeller fifth.

With positions two, four and five, Audi has achieved a very good basis for the "race of the year”. The three Audi R10 TDI sports cars also ran without major problems on Thursday evening. All three cars were disassembled and rebuilt after the first qualifying session on Wednesday. In the second qualifying session they were already running in their race configuration.

Similar changeable weather conditions as during the two days of qualifying are forecast for the race which will start on Saturday at 3 p.m.


Result of the test day

1 Lamy/Sarrazin/Bourdais

2 Capello/Kristensen/McNish

3 Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve

4 Biela/Pirro/Werner

5 Luhr/Prémat/Rockenfeller

6 Collard/Boullion/Dumas

7 Gounon/Moreau/Johansson

8 Barbosa/Hall/Short

9 Lammers/Hart/Bleekemolen

10 Campell-Walter/Ortiz/Nakano

Entries

1 AUDI Sport North America 

2 AUDI Sport North America 

3 AUDI Sport Team Joest

5 Swiss Spirit 

7 Team Peugeot Total

8 Team Peugeot Total

9 Creation Autosportif LTD

10 Arena International Motorsport

12 Courage Competition 

13 Courage Competition 

14 Racing For Holland BV 

15 Charouz Racing System

16 Pescarolo Sport 

17 Pescarolo Sport 

18 Rollcentre Racing 

19 Chamberlain - Synergy Motorsport 

20 Pierre Bruneau 

21 Team Bruichladdich Radical

24 Noel Del Bello

25 RML LOLA B05-40 

29 T2M Motorsport 

31 Binnie Motorsports 

32 Barazi Epsilon 

33 Barazi Epsilon 

35 Saulnier Racing 

40 Quifel - ASM Team 

44 Kruse Motorsport 

006 A.M.R. Larbre Competition

007 Aston Martin Racing

008 A.M.R. Larbre Competition

009 Aston Martin Racing

53 Jloc Isao Noritake 

54 Team Oreca 

55 Team Oreca 

59 Team Modena 

63 Corvette Racing 

64 Corvette Racing 

67 Convers Menx Team

70 PSI Experience 

72 Luc Alphand Aventures

73 Luc Alphand Aventures

100 Aston Martin Racing BMS 

71 Seikel Motorsport 

76 IMSA Performance Matmut

78 AF Corse 

80 Flying Lizard Motorsport

81 TEAM LNT 

82 TEAM LNT 

83 GPC Sport SRL

85 Spyker Squadron B.V.

86 Spyker Squadron B.V.

87 Scuderia Ecosse 

93 Autorlando Sport 

97 RISI Competizione 

99 RISI Competizione 

Complied by LJ