Peugeot dominate first qualifying

Date published : 10 Jun 2010 - 08:18:38

Peugeot sent out an ominous warning ahead of this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hour race as the French manufacturer locked out the top four spots in first qualifying for sportscar racing's blue riband event.

Former Formula One driver Sebastien Bourdais led the way in his 908 TDI with a stunning lap of three minutes 19.711 seconds around the 13.629 kilometre circuit.

Another ex-F1 racer, Alex Wurz, was second with Stephane Sarrazin putting the customer ORECA Peugeot in a provisional third on the grid. Nicolas Lapierre was fourth in the final factory entry before the first of the Audis, the entry of Mike Rockenfeller, which was a full 3.867 seconds slower than the quickest Peugeot.

The R15 of Scotland's Allan McNish ended the session seventh while the Ginetta of Nigel Mansell, sharing with sons Greg and Leo, was 16th quickest.

In the lower classes the HPD of Jonny Kane led the way in LMP2 and the Aston Martin DBR9 of Tomas Enge, Cristoffer Nygaard and Peter Kox held a comfortable advantage in GT1.

In GT2 Gianmaria Bruni piloted the Risi Ferrari to the top of its class despite the car being sidelined for much of the two-hour session.

The second and final qualifying session will take place on Thursday evening.