Herbert takes Le Mans pole

Johnny Herbert has taken pole position for this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours, his first pole at the great race. The Brit edged out compatriot Allan McNish at the start of the final two-hour session to make it an Audi UK front row, with David Brabham claiming third for Zytek Engineering.

McNish had held the initiative going into the final qualifying session, but with the temperatures dropping and daylight persisting, Herbert took to the track early in his bid for pole, clocking a time of 3:32.838 to move four-tenths clear of the Scot.

"I'm obviously highly delighted at achieving my first-ever Le Mans pole-position - that had been missing from my CV," Herbert said. "My lap before the break had been messy so I knew that barring a massive amount of traffic, I could go quicker on the re-start which I managed."

McNish was disappointed to have not taken pole, but was forced to abandon a late run with engine troubles. "I felt a slight misfire and the team felt that it was best to take no chances whatsoever for the race so we immediately initiated an engine change during the interval," he said.

The Zytek Engineering team made it a highly successful evening for Britain when David Brabham snatched third in the penultimate session. "We deliberately saved our qualifying attempts for tonight," said Brabham. "I pushed the car as hard as I could, now we just need to set up for the race. The Zytek guys have done a very good job."

Dane Tom Kristensen, who is aiming to match Jacky Ickx's record of six Le Mans victories, finished fourth fastest in the Team Goh Audi R8 despite improving on yesterday's time. Pescarolo Sport took fifth with the Champion Racing Audi of Emmanuelle Pirro taking sixth.

Czech driver Tomas Enge produced a sensational lap of 3:49.438 - a new GTS record - just ten minutes before midnight to give the Prodrive Ferrari team pole position. The feat was even more remarkable given that he had heavily crashed his 550 during the evening's first two-hour session.