77th 24 Heures du Mans - page 2

13th/14th June 2009

Thursday Night Qualifying practice session

Thursday night qualifying; an exciting spectacle where cars jostle to get the pole position, not really important for the race to be honnest, but bragging rights for 36 hours or s. The battle between the Audis and Peugeots was close, very close, with pole changing hands frequently as the air temperature dropped and speeds increased. Eventually with little time to spare, a Peugeot in the hands of Sarrazin nailed it. With the diesel cars enjoying their expected margin of superiority, Aston Martin Racing's three factory LMP1 entries will line up seventh, eighth and 17th on the grid for Saturday's race.

The 007 car of Jan Charouz , Tomas Enge and Stefan Mücke  was the quickest Aston Martin with a time of 3m27.180s, qualifying in eighth overall. The sister 008 car of Anthony Davidson , Darren Turner  and Jos Verstappen  was ninth with a time of 3m27.704, while the 009 car of Stuart Hall Peter Kox Harold Primat.  qualified 17th after setting a time of 3m33.968s

The Speedy Racing Sebah team, running last year's Aston Martin-powered Lola, was third quickest of the petrol cars, meaning that Aston Martin engines occupy the top three petrol-powered places on the Le Mans grid this year.

LM2009 page 1