McNish starts from Le Mans poleposted in LMANS21 | 06 | 2013
SCOT ALLAN McNISH'S Audi hybrid will start the 90th anniversary Le Mans 24-Hours from pole position. The Dumfries driver is keeping his fingers crossed that history will repeat itself: the polesitter in the last two years has gone on to win the race.
The 41-year-old Dumfries racer's team-mate, Frenchman Loic Duval, had clocked a 3min 22.349secs (150.68mph) around the 8.47-mile track on Wednesday evening – almost 1.5 seconds faster than last year’s “pole” time.
“It has been a hard few weeks in preparation for this race but an Audi 1-2-3 in qualifying is the perfect start," McNish said as he looked over his No2 hybrid-diesel Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
“There is no better place than starting a race from pole. Loic’s lap time from Wednesday, on a very dirty circuit, was immense.
“We have a good balance on our Audi for race conditions. We all feel comfortable with our car – we’re in good shape for the 24 hours despite weather conditions playing a big hand over the past two days.”
The two similar “factory” Audi sportscars of 2011 & ’12 Le Mans winners, Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F) plus Briton Oliver Jarvis, Marc Gené (SP) and Lucas di Grassi (BR), set the second and third fastest times respectively.
Fifer Peter Dumbreck will start second in the ultra-competitive GT Pro class in his Aston Martin. The 39-year-old from Kirkcaldy, is partnered by England's Darren Turner and German ace Stefan Mucke.
"We're really pleased with that," Dumbreck, whose 'sister' car starts from GT Pro pole, admitted afterwards. "Twenty-four hours is a long time, but it's great to know we start the race with a car we know is fast."
But there was frustration though for two other Scots. Marino Franchitti's Level 5 Motorsport LMP2 car struggled with handling difficulties, and the Bathgate driver starts a disappointing 15th in class, 26th overall.
And Wishaw's Ryan Dalziel, who headed to Le Mans feeling confident in his new SRT Viper, starts 11th in the GT Pro class.
"We haven't quite got the car working the way we want it to here," he admitted, but we're confident we'll get to the root of the problems before the race starts on Saturday afternoon."
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Jim McGill
CAPTION: Allan McNish (right) celebrates his Le Mans 24-Hours pole psoition with Audi team-mates Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval.