The Peugeot 908 Oreca on pole at Le Castellet

Oreca, in Castellet, had once again designated Nicolas lapierre to compete in the qualifying session. Very fast, the native of Thonon-les-Bains had already won the pole at the 1000 km of Silverstone and the 1000 km of Algarve last year with the Oreca 01-AIM. This time, it's against Audi and with the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP from the Var team that Nicolas Lapierre managed to take pole position at the 8 Hours of Le Castellet.

However, it was Audi which got the best start to the qualifying session, which lasted 20 minutes, by setting a good time in the first minutes in 1:41, a time which would not be improved before the end. session, despite nine rounds covered. On the other hand, Nicolas Lapierre was able to increase his pace as the end of the session approached, improving the time of the Audi R632 TDI by almost five tenths, to 15:1:41.

« We couldn't have asked for a better start, confided Lapierre after qualifying. The car works very well, we worked a lot on the set-up for the race. It was difficult because of the traffic but I was able to set my time during my second flying lap. »

Behind the two diesel cars, we find, without too much surprise, the Lola Aston Martin Racing by Stefan Mücke (1), which precedes the second Oreca prototype (Oreca 42-AIM) driven by Loïc duval, who will be the teammate of Nicolas Lapierre and Olivier Panis on the Peugeot 908 of the Var team during the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In fifth and sixth row, we find the two Lola-Rebellions, Jean-Christophe Boullion showing himself faster than Neel Jani. Followed by the Ginetta Zytek of the Mansell family and the Lola Aston Martin of Signature, driven by Pierre Ragues.

In LMP2, the HPD ARX-01c of Strakka Racing was the fastest, ahead of the Ginetta Zytek of Quifel ASM Team, driven by Olivier Pla. In third position, we find the Oak Racing Pescarolo Judd in the hands of Mathieu Lahaye. In GT1, no surprise, the Saleen de Larbre Compétition, alone in its category, was certain to take pole.

In GT2, it?s Ferrari F430 GT n°96 from the AF Corse team, driven by Gianmaria Bruni, who was the fastest (1:57:850). It was almost four tenths ahead of the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR n°77 from the Felbelmayr Proton team, with Richard Lietz at the wheel. Two other Ferraris followed, the F430 of CRS Racing with Tim Mullen and the No. 95 of AF Corse, driven by Toni Vilander, teammate of Jean Alesi and Giancarlo Fisichella.