Sebastien Bourdais answers media questions at Scrutineering. He qualified on pole for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Photo credit: Rick Dole for Michelin North America

Thursday’s four hours of qualifying, split into two two-hour sessions, see the same fastest qualifiers as ended yesterday. Michelin technical partners have scored pole positions in all four classes, LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2, in advance of Saturday’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Peugeot’s turbo diesel-powered 908 HDi FAP closed-top prototypes start in positions one through four in the 55-car field. Sebastien Bourdais backed up his provisional pole time set Wednesday with the second fastest lap of the week during Thursday’s second session, 3:20.212. Bourdais drives with Simon Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy in the No. 3 Peugeot.

Audi’s diesels made an improvement of several seconds from their times yesterday. Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 9 Audi R15 TDI finished fifth overall at 3:21.981, which was just under eight tenths of a second behind the Oreca-prepared No. 4 Peugeot in fourth.

The LMP1 subcategory of gasoline-powered cars has its highest starter in eighth with the No. 007 Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin, driven by Stefan Mucke, Harold Primat and Adrian Fernandez. Aston Martin also secured the GT1 class pole with the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9.

LMP2 pole changed hands in the intermission between Thursday’s sessions. David Brabham took Highcroft’s HPD ARX 01-c to provisional pole, but after the break Danny Watts regained the top spot at 3:33.079 in the sister HPD, for Strakka Racing.

GT2 is incredibly close. While the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari held pole from its Wednesday time, the two Corvette Racing C6 ZR1s got to within two and five tenths of a second, a microscopic amount around the 8.4-mile circuit. ALMS regulars Wolf Henzler and Patrick Long start fifth and sixth in separate Porsches, while the Flying Lizard Porsche lines up 10th and the second Risi Ferrari in 12th. The second AF Corse Ferrari, driven by Mika Salo, Matias Russo and Luis Perez Companc, has been withdrawn from the race after an accident in Wednesday’s qualifying session.

In a 24-hour race, qualifying isn’t necessarily as important as it would be in a regular-length event. Many teams opted to use Thursday’s sessions as additional practice and warmup to run race setups. At 9:00 a.m. ET Saturday (3:00 p.m. local in France), the 78th running of the world’s premier sportscar endurance race goes green.

Top 3 Times in Class

–LMP1–
1. #3 Peugeot Sport Total, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, 3:19.711
2. #1 Team Peugeot Total, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, 3:20.317
3. #2 Team Peugeot Total, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, 3:20.325

–LMP2–
1. #42 Strakka Racing, HPD ARX 01-c, 3:33.079
2. #26 Highcroft Racing, HPD ARX 01-c, 3:34.537
3. #25 RML, Lola HPD Coupe, 3:39.648

–GT1–
1. #52 Young Driver AMR, Aston Martin DBR9, 3:55.025
2. #70 Marc VDS Racing, Ford GT, 3:55.356
3. #60 Matech Competition, Ford GT, 3:55.583

–GT2–
1. #82 Risi Competizione, Ferrari F430 GT, 3:59.233
2. #63 Corvette Racing, Corvette C6 ZR1, 3:59.435
3. #64 Corvette Racing, Corvette C6 ZR1, 3:59.753