One Pescarolo stays top, one gets penalty.
One Pestarolo prototype went to the top of the timesheets and one went down the order following a penalty after Thursday's first qualifying session at the world famous Le Mans circuit in France.
Whilst the #17 Pescarolo Sport put in a 3min 35.555secs time at the hands of Soheil Ayari, the #16 car which was fastest as the two hour session had reached the half-way mark, saw its top times taken off the timing screens, the reason given as Emmanual Collard having contact with the car after he had swapped driving duties over to Jean Christophe Bouillon.
One Pestarolo prototype went to the top of the timesheets and one went down the order following a penalty after Thursday's first qualifying session at the world famous Le Mans circuit in France.
Whilst the #17 Pescarolo Sport put in a 3min 35.555secs time at the hands of Soheil Ayari, the #16 car which was fastest as the two hour session had reached the half-way mark, saw its top times taken off the timing screens, the reason given as Emmanual Collard having contact with the car after he had swapped driving duties over to Jean Christophe Bouillon.
With the time-loss penalty Collard/Boullion/Comas car dropped to thirteenth on the order, Pescarolo's pain was Audi's advantage as the #4 R8 of Gounon/Ortelli/Montagney moved to second in the order. But it wasn.t to last, and after some forty minutes of deliberation the governing body reinstated the #16 car as second fastest on the monitors, though it had lost its fastest time.
Fourth fastest was the #2 Audi, whilst the #13 Cochet/Jouanny/Nakano Courage placed fifth fastest.
The session saw no real dramas from the front runners save for a red flag session which ended with half an hour to go after the local WR entry of Boulay/Bouvet/Julien had an off.
The superior weather conditions to Wednesday's running was reflected in the times, around half a minute better than those posted just under twenty-four hours prior.
Final qualifying takes place Thursday night with the two hour session ending as the clock strikes midnight.
Top times
1. Ayari/Helary/Loeb Pescarolo Sport 3min 35.555secs
2. Collard/Boullion/Comas Pescarolo Sport 3min 37.050secs
3. Gounon/Ortelli/Montagny Audi R8 3min 38.281secs
4. Lehto/Werner/Kristensen Audi R8 3min 38.494secs
5. Cochet/Jouanny/Nakano Courage 3min 38.825secs
6. Minassian/Campbell-Walther/Wallace DBA 3min 39.098secs
7. Michigami/Ara/Kaneishi Dome 3min 39.541secs
8. Short/Barbosa/Ickx Dallara 3min 40.906secs
9. Biela/Pirro/McNish Audi R8 3min 41.104secs
10. Frei/Schwager/Vann Courage 3min 42.859secs
