McNish fastest in first qualifying

Audi spent the vast majority of the two-hour session working on set-up and consistent pace over long runs, but McNish brought the #1 car into the pits in the last five minutes to bolt on a set a new tyres and go for an outright time on a single-lap run.

McNish improved by more than two seconds to lower his best time from a 3m25.9s to a 3m23.6s and pinch provisional pole from Peugeot, who had sat atop the timesheet for almost the entire session thanks to Franck Montagny's early pace in the #8 car.

The Frenchman had been lapping in the 3m25s bracket in the first 20 minutes of the session and went on to lower his time to a 3m24.852s with around half an hour to run.

Montagny was a couple of seconds clear at the head of the field for much of the two hours, until the other Peugeots and Audis increased their pace in the final half hour.

Jean-Christophe Boullion set the third quickest time of the session in the #17 Pescarolo-run customer Peugeot, just two tenths shy of Montagny's original benchmark and 1.2s slower than McNish.

Mike Rockenfeller posted a 3m26.3s lap in the #3 R15 and had been lapping at around the same pace as McNish before the Scotsman's new tyre run.

The other factory Peugeots filled fifth and sixth places, with Pedro Lamy and David Brabham setting the best times in the #7 and #9 cars respectively.

Anthony Davidson put the quickest Lola Aston Martin into eighth place, breaking into the 3m29s during his brief stint, while Danny Watts also ducked below 3m30s to put the Strakka Racing Ginetta-Zytek ninth. The #16 Pescarolo completed the top 10.

Each of the front running cars claimed not to be chasing laptimes, instead focusing on race set-up and consistent pace over long runs.

Casper Elgaard set the best LMP2 class time of the first qualifying session in the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder, more than two seconds quicker than Seiji Ara in the similar Team Goh car.

Just half a second separated the two works Corvettes at the head of the GT1 class, with the #63 car just edging out the #64. Both were two seconds clear of their nearest challenger, which was the Jetalliance Aston Martin.

Jorg Bergmeister set the fastest GT2 time of the session in the Flying Lizards Porsche, ahead of early session pace-setter Marc Lieb in the Felbermayr 911. The BMS Scuderia Italia F430 was the quickest of the Ferraris, one second off Bergmeister's time.