Enge 'glory lap' completes GTS pole hat-trick.

A sensational lap of 3min 49.438secs from Prodrive's Czech driver Tomas Enge saw him claim Le Mans GTS pole position for the third consecutive year and set a new GTS pole record.

Enge's feat was all the more remarkable given that he had crashed heavily in his Care Racing-owned Ferrari 550 Maranello during the evening's first two-hour session, and the car was not returned to the team's garage until 2115hrs. However, the Prodrive mechanics once again proved their excellence under pressure by repairing the battered machine in just over two hours, allowing Enge to go all out for pole and snatch top spot from the rival Corvette team with just ten minutes remaining to the midnight deadline.

A new front splitter, parts of the steering system, right rear suspension, bodywork and fixings were the main areas that required repair or replacement but, after one installation lap, Enge left the pits on a new set of Michelin qualifying tyres and stunned all within the team when the lap time appeared on the timing screens.

"You can see how good these guys are," the Czech said of his mechanics, "I shunted the car quite badly and they repaired it in two hours time and they made it so good I could put it on the pole. This is the best team I've ever been in."

Team director George Howard-Chappell was equally forthcoming in his praise.

"That's the first part of the weekend accomplished!" he beamed, having made up the deficit to Corvette that had existed since April's pre-race test, "The circumstances were difficult, and it's a real tribute to the team - and particularly to Tomas - to go out there in the dark and deliver a lap like that."

Partly due to the time taken to repair the damaged #66 Ferrari, neither of Enge's team-mates - Alain Menu and Peter Kox - drove during the final two sessions.

The second Prodrive car will start four places back from Enge's 17th on the grid, with its three drivers having concentrated on finding a race set-up with which they were all happy. Sweden's Rickard Rydell's set the crew's best time of 3min 51.775secs on qualifying tyres during the earlier part of the evening, but he and team-mates Colin McRae and Darren Turner were content to take a longer term view.

"I am quite happy with what we have done over the last two days," Rydell insisted, "Our main target was finding a good race set-up, and the other car was going to go for a qualifying time.

"All three of us are happy with our car for the race, although I think I could have done a low 51 and split the Corvettes. However, I had a few problems with the gearshift, and it was also in my mind not to have two cars off in the wall!"

"We've had a really good evening," agreed the #65 car's race engineer David Wilcock, "During the first session, we worked a bit on qualifying, but our main target was our race pace. Once we got a time in, we called it a day on qualifying and concentrated on our race set-up. The most promising thing from my point of view is that Darren and Colin were both very consistent with Rickard's times, right on the mark - and where we need to be."