Audi diesel claims Le Mans pole

Audi has claimed both places on the front row of this weekend’s 24 Heures du Mans 2006

The classic motorsport event celebrates its 100th anniversary this weekend and kicks off at 5.00pm on Saturday afternoon. The grueling event sees cars in four main classes race against each other for 24 hours around the 13.65km track.

Lead cars cover over 5000km at an average speed in excess of 200km/h.

Audi’s R10 features a 5.5-litre V12 turbodiesel that produces in excess of 650hp. The prototype racer made its competition debut earlier this year at Sebring in the USA. Audi (or Audi-based) racers have won the last six Le Mans.

The #7 R10 of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello posted the fastest lap of qualifying last night (Thursday, June 15) to grab pole position. Capello was at the wheel and recorded a 3m 30.466s.

It was the Italian’s third Le Mans pole and came after he crashed the #7 car in Wednesday night’s wet practice session.

Just 0.118 seconds behind in the #8 Audi, Marco Werner completed the all-R10 TDI front row. Werner is partnered with Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro.

All six Audi drivers have won the 24 Heures du Mans at least once!

Capello who turn 42 tomorrow said: "This is my present for the team which made a great job after my mistake yesterday. I wanted to give them something back. And fortunately it happened.”

To check out the full grid and live race reports of the 24 Heures du Mans 2006 click here.

24 Heures du Mans 2006 top five qualifying:
1 Capello/Kristensen/McNish (Audi R10 TDI) 3m 30.466s
2 Biela/Pirro/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) 3m 30.584s
3 Minassian/Collard/Comas (Pescarolo-Judd) 3m 32.584s
4 Helary/Montagny/Loeb (Pescarolo-Judd) 3m 32.990s
5 Gounon/Kurosawa/Nakano (Courage-Mugen) 3m 34.120s