Le Mans pole for Ecosse

Published on Thursday 14 June 2007 12:06

WINCHBURGH-BASED Ferrari team Scuderia Ecosse bagged provisional GT2-class pole position for this weekend's 75th Le Mans 24-Hour race.

With rain forecast for both today's final two two-hour sessions, Fifer Andrew Kirkcaldy's time of 4mins 04.185secs in his Ferrari F430GT round the 8.47-mile circuit faces a strong possibility of not being beaten.

"We're happy with that," the St Andrews racer, who finished second in class last year and is partnered by Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos, said immediately after last night's midnight session. The car went well and we were able to push and get progressively faster as the session went on.

If the rain comes, there's no way anyone will beat our time."

There was disappointment though for fellow Scot Allan McNish, favourite to win the race overall in his diesel-powered Audi R10TDI, who was dislodged from LMP1 pole position with just seconds of last night's two-hour session remaining.

In the pitch black, the 37-year-old stormed round the closed-off French country roads in 3mins 26.916secs to temporarily top the time-sheets but, just seconds later, the Peugeot 908HDi of Stefan Sarrazin pipped him by 0.582s.