Stephane Sarrazin ducked under the two minute qualifying barrier to snatch pole position for the Spa 1000km from under the nose of Audi veteran Allan McNish.
Once again, the Peugeot team chose not to go out at the very beginning of the session, leaving McNish's Audi R10 to post the first serious lap time – a 1min 58.705secs effort – before red flags were shown for an accident involving the Lola-Mazda.
When action resumed 15 minutes later, the two Peugeots, driven by Sarrazin and Marc Gené, took to the track, but the Spaniard only had time to manage a 2min 01.799secs riposte before the red flags came out again. With only six minutes remaining before the stoppage, drivers were left with just enough time for two flying laps, and consequently had no margin for error.
In the end, however, Sarrazin only needed one flyer to secure pole, completing a 1min 58.069secs lap to maintain his 100 per cent qualifying record following a similar result in Spain.
"It's always difficult to stay concentrated when a session is interrupted by two red flag incidents as it was today, but I found my car easy to drive and nicely balanced through both the tight and faster turns,"£ Sarrazin said, "Even so, my best lap wasn't perfect because I wanted to get a decent time under my belt. My car deserved better!"
Prior to Spa, Audi's R10 had not qualified on the front row of a Le Mans Series race but, at the third time of asking, McNish finally did enough to reverse the trend. Where they had hampered Peugeot's strategy, the two red flags actually played into Joest's hands, with McNish's early outing paying dividends as he split the two 908s.
