Anthony Davidson, 6 Hours of Zhuhai (Photo Credit: Peugeot Sport)
Anthony Davidson scored pole position for Peugeot in qualifying for the final Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) race of the year at Zhuhai, China.
The Briton edged out Stephane Sarrazin in the sister no.8 Peugeot 908 by just 0.075 seconds to secure an all Peugeot front row and take another pole position to follow his time topping effort at the previous ILMC round – Petit Le Mans.
“This is my third qualifying session in a Peugeot this season, and this is my third pole,” said Davidson. “It was really very close today, because Stéphane Sarrazin did a great lap. I had to push really hard to better his time. We have been on the pace right since we got here. The battle has been intense since the start of the year, so I see no reason why it won't be the same tomorrow.”
Sarrazin had set the fastest lap of the session on three successive laps, whittling down the benchmark to 1:21.844 before Davidson clinched pole, following just seconds behind his teammate on track.
Sebastien Bourdais and Franck Montagny will start the cars from first and second respectively.
After setting the initial pace in the twenty minute session Tom Kristensen, in the best of the two Audi R18 could not match the pace of the 908's and will share the second row with the similar car qualified by Marcel Fassler.
The Rebellion Racing Lola shared by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost will start fifth thanks to Jani, the best of the petrol engine cars ahead of the no.24 Oak Racing entry and Stefan Mucke's Lola-Aston Martin.
Franck Mailleux took LMP2 pole for Signatech Nissan.
Trailing Ferrari by an almost insurmountable 28 points ahead of the final race BMW clawed back a single point after Jorg Muller claimed GTEPro pole for the German manufacturer.
Muller's time of 1:34.506 is almost a half second quicker than Gimmi Bruni could muster in the AF Corse car that not only leads the Ferrari representation trying to defend the manufacturers points lead, but also the team who lead BMW in that championship with a 14 point gap.
Andy Priaulx qualified third in class in the second BMW M3 he shares with Uwe Alzen.
In the GTEAm class there was success for Ferrari and CRS Racing, Tim Mullen beating Proton Competition driver Richard Lietz by just five-hundredths of a second.
For the second year of the ILMC in China the GTC class for GT3-spec machinery has been retained, with a four car entry – three Audi R8 LMS, one Mercedes SLS – taking up the challenge in 2011.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, given that split it will be an Audi that starts from class pole after F3 Euro Series champion turned DTM driver Edoardo Mortara lapped the 4.3km track in 1:34.777.
Mika Hakkinen – making his first appearance in top class racing since leaving the DTM – qualified the lone SLS third in class 0.519 seconds off Mortara's pace.
The 6 Hours of Zhuhai begins at 11am local time.
