Scot Allan McNish will line up on the front row for today’s second round of the Le Mans Series, the eight-hour race at the Paul Ricard Circuit at Le Castellet in France.
The Scot, partnered by Italian Dindo Capello in their diesel-powered Audi R15TDI-plus, clocked a best time of 1min 41.632secs to miss out on pole position by just 0.437secs.
But while the Peugeot 908 HDi of Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre starts ahead of him, the 39-year-old from Dumfries is confident he can continue his build-up to the Le Mans 24-Hours in June with victory today.
“We’ve tested well and we know how fast, strong and reliable the Audi is under race conditions,” McNish said yesterday. “It’s going to be a tough battle, because we all know how strong the Peugeots are.
“Having sad that, while we’re here to win we’re also using it as another development stage for the new car in the run-up to the 24-hours race in June. That remains our primary goal this year.”
Behind double Le Mans 24-Hours winner and multiple American Le Mans champ McNish, fellow Scot Andrew Kirkaldy will line up third in the GT2 class.
The St Andrews ace, partnered by Englishman Tim Mullen in their CRS Racing Ferrari F430, lapped the French circuit in 1:58.475s missed out on pole by 0.625s.
Italian Gianmaria Bruni in the works’ AF Corse Ferrari was fastest, while Kirkcaldy racer Peter Dumbreck, making his debut for the Spyker team, lines up ninth in GT2.
JM