Former Minardi failure Stephane Sarrazin nabbed the Peugeot team's third straight Le Mans 24 Hours pole position with a dramatic late run in the dark at the La Sarthe track, bumping last year's winners Audi down to second place.
Sarrazin's team mate Franck Montagny had seen his long-time session topper in the daytime qualifying run beaten at the last by Allan McNish in his Audi R15, and so the French marque felt the need to fight back during the late qualifying runs in the darkness. His final pole time was only a few seconds slower than his pole-winning lap from 2008, despite the slowing measures introduced by the organisers to curb the speed of the cars. The #8 Peugeot of Sarrazin, Montagny and Sebastien Bourdais will therefore start from pole for the 2009 Le Mans race, which represents a rare departure from the back of the grid for Bourdais, with the winners of the race last year in McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen starting alongside in the #1 Audi.
Aside from McNish's heroics, Peugeots dominated qualifying in LMP1, with the #7 car ending third, while the #17 private Pescarolo Sport entry ending the day in a hugely impressive fourth place. THe final works car of David Brabham, Marc Gene and Alex Wurz will start from 5th place, ahead of the other two works Audis.
The best of the Lola Aston Martins, the #007 car, will start 8th, ahead of the sister #008 car and the similar car of the privateer Speedy Racing Team entry.
In LMP2, the Porsche Spyders began their expected dominance, the Team Essex entry stealing the class pole and 20th overall thanks to Casper Elgaard's fastest lap. They start just one place, and one tenth of a second ahead of the similar Team Goh #5 entry, and some four seconds ahead of the next-best class car, the #33 Speedy Racing Lola Judd.
The GT1 pole was, as largely expected, the private domain of the works Chevrolets, with the #63 car ending a mere half a second ahead of the sister #64 car over the length of the 13km track. The Jetalliance Aston Martin DBR9 took a decent third in class ahead of the privateer Luc Alphand-owned Chevrolet pair.
Back in GT2, the #80 Flying Lizard Porsche took an impressive class pole with Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Jorg Bergmeister, by 3 hundredths of a second from the similar car of Felbermayr-Proton. The best Ferrari was the Mika Salo, Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer Risi-run F430 in third in class, 40th overall.
The teams and drivers now have a day off on Friday before the Saturday warm-up session and the race start on Saturday afternoon.
| 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours Grid | ||||
| Pos | Car | Drivers | Time | Class |
| 1 | #8 Team Peugeot Peugeot 908 | Bourdais/Montagny/Sarrazin | 3:22.888 | LMP1 |
| 2 | #1 Audi Sport Audi R15 | Capello/Kristensen/McNish | 3:23.650 | LMP1 |
| 3 | #7 Team Peugeot Peugeot 908 | Klien/Lamy/Minassian | 3:24.860 | LMP1 |
| 4 | #17 Pescarolo Peugeot 908 | Boullion/Pagenaud/Treluyer | 3:25.062 | LMP1 |
| 5 | #9 Team Peugeot Peugeot 908 | Brabham/Gene/Wurz | 3:25.252 | LMP1 |
| 6 | #2 Audi Sport Audi R15 | Luhr/Rockenfeller/Werner | 3:25.780 | LMP1 |
| 7 | #3 Audi Sport Audi R15 | Bernhard/Dumas/Premat | 3:27.105 | LMP1 |
| 8 | #007 Aston Martin Racing Lola AM | Charouz/Enge/Mucke | 3:27.180 | LMP1 |
| 9 | #008 Aston Martin Racing Lola AM | Davidson/Turner/Verstappen | 3:27.707 | LMP1 |
| 10 | #13 Speedy Racing Lola AM | Belicchi/Jani/Prost | 3:28.134 | LMP1 |
| 11 | #23 Strakka Racing Ginetta | Hardman/Leventis/Watts | 3:29.798 | LMP1 |
| 12 | #16 Pescarolo Pescarolo | Tinseau/Barbosa/Jouanny | 3:30.466 | LMP1 |
| 13 | #15 Kolles Racing Audi R10 | Albers/Bakkerud/Mondini | 3:31.192 | LMP1 |
| 14 | #14 Kolles Racing Audi R10 | Karthikeyan/Lotterer/Zwolsman | 3:31.548 | LMP1 |
| 15 | #10 ORECA Matmut Oreca AIM | Senna/Ortelli/Monteiro | 3:33.514 | LMP1 |
| 16 | #11 ORECA Matmut Oreca AIM | Panis/Lapierre/Ayari | 3:33.860 | LMP1 |
| 17 | #009 Aston Martin Racing Lola AM | Hall/Kox/Primat | 3:33.968 | LMP1 |
| 18 | #6 Team LNT Ginetta | Tomlinson/Dean/Moore | 3:35.804 | LMP1 |
| 19 | #4 Creation Creation | Campbell-Walter/Ickx/Iannetta | 3:35.960 | LMP1 |
| 20 | #31 Team Essex Porsche | Elgaard/Poulsen/Collard | 3:37.720 | LMP2 |
| 21 | #5 Team Goh Porsche | Ara/Kunimoto/Maassen | 3:37.802 | LMP2 |
| 22 | #12 Signature Plus Oreca | Ragues/Mailleux/Andre | 3:39.326 | LMP1 |
| 23 | #33 Speedy Racing Lola | Kane/Leuenberger/Pompidou | 3:41.724 | LMP2 |
| 24 | #25 RML Lola | Erdos/Newton/Dyson | 3:41.952 | LMP2 |
| 25 | Quifel ASM Ginetta | Amaral/Pla/Smith | 3:42.012 | LMP2 |
| 26 | #30 Racing Box Lola | Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini | 3:42.848 | LMP2 |
| 27 | #41 GAC Racing Zytek | Ojjeh/Gosselin/Peter | 3:44.830 | LMP2 |
| 28 | #35 OAK Racing Pescarolo | Lahaye/Ajlani/Moreau | 3:45.032 | LMP2 |
| 29 | #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek | Barazi/Moseley/Bennett | 3:52.956 | LMP2 |
| 30 | #39 KSM Lola | Noda/De Pourtales/Marsh | 3:53.072 | LMP2 |
| 31 | #63 Corvette Racing Chevrolet | O'Connell/Magnussen/Garcia | 3:54.230 | GT1 |
| 32 | #64 Corvette Racing Chevrolet | Gavin/Beretta/Fassler | 3:54.702 | GT1 |
| 33 | #26 Bruichladdich Radical | Bruneau/Greaves/Rostan | 3:55.320 | LMP2 |
| 34 | #66 Jetalliance Aston Martin | Lichtner-Hoyer/Muller/Gruber | 3:56.126 | GT1 |
| 35 | #72 Alphand Chevrolet | Alphand/Gregoire/Goueslard | 3:57.170 | GT1 |
| 36 | #24 OAK Racing Pescarolo | Nicolet/Hein/Yvon | 3:57.524 | LMP2 |
| 37 | #73 Alphand Chevrolet | Clairay/Jousse/Maassen | 3:58.564 | GT1 |
| 38 | #80 Flying Lizard Porsche | Neiman/Law/Bergmeister | 4:03.202 | GT2 |
| 39 | #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche | Lieb/Lietz/Henzler | 4:03.232 | GT2 |
| 40 | #82 Risi Ferrari | Melo/Kaffer/Salo | 4:04.056 | GT2 |
| 41 | #99 JMB Racing Ferrari | Bouchut/Lebon/Rodrigues | 4:04.084 | GT2 |
| 42 | #97 BMS Scuderia Ferrari | Malucelli/Ruberti/Babini | 4:04.222 | GT2 |
| 43 | #76 IMSA Porsche | Pilet/Narac/Long | 4:04.648 | GT2 |
| 44 | #44 AF Corse Ferrari | Bruni/Companc/Russo | 4:04.938 | GT2 |
| 45 | #92 JMW Motorsport Ferrari | Bell/Kirkaldy/Sugden | 4:04.168 | GT2 |
| 46 | #87 Drayson Aston Martin | Cocker/Drayson/Franchitti | 4:06.482 | GT2 |
| 47 | #89 Farnbacher Ferrari | Simonsen/Farnbacher/Montanari | 4:06.612 | GT2 |
| 48 | #85 Spyker Squadron Spyker | Coronel/Janis/Bleekemolen | 4:08.348 | GT2 |
| 49 | #84 Team Modena Ferrari | Ehret/Mansell/Rusinov | 4:08.508 | GT2 |
| 50 | #83 Risi Ferrari | Krohn/Jonsson/Van Der Poele | 4:08.758 | GT2 |
| 51 | #70 IMSA Porsche | Felbermayer Jr/Felbermayer Sr/Lecourt | 4:10.014 | GT2 |
| 52 | #75 Asia Team Porsche | O Young/Hesnault/Kralev | 4:10.456 | GT2 |
| 53 | #96 Virgo Ferrari | McInerney M/McInerney S/Vergers | 4:10.664 | GT2 |
| 54 | #81 Advanced Eng Ferrari | Dempsey/Foster/Kitch Jr | 4:13.920 | GT2 |
| 55 | #68 JLOC Lamborghini | Apicella/Yogo/Yamagishi | 4:21.812 | GT1 |
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