Just like last year, Jan Lammers and his "Racing for Holland" Dome/Judd team staged a surprise in the opening qualifying session for this weekend’s 70th annual 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Lammers spent the entire two-hour session in the driver’s seat for the Dome squad, and laid down a marker of 3m31.355sec shortly before the one-hour mark. A red flag, caused by Jonny Kane's stricken MG-Lola (which had blown its engine after the Ulsterman buzzed it on the Mulsanne Straight), prevented the majority of the front runners from posting representative times. Kane's car requires a new engine, so his team will not be out in this evening’s second two-hour session.

Audi's Tom Kristensen led the chase of Lammers, 0.414sec off the lead pace aboard the No. 1 Audi Sport R8—but a massive three seconds ahead of the sister Joest cars driven by Rinaldo Capello and the Audi North America car of Michael Krumm.

"I'm really, really surprised," said Lammers. "We had race tires on at the beginning. The car felt really good and the time came really quickly. We thought we might as well put a set of qualifiers on so we got in a good lap nice and early. It was a good one, it was practically clear. We can go quicker, pole should be in the low 30s or high 29s."

Ralf Juttner, technical director for the works Audi Joest team, said: "We are really surprised by his [Lammers'] times. It could be an interesting battle for pole. The track conditions could be better, though."

Olivier Beretta followed up the Team ORECA Dallara's impressive pre-qualifying performance with a solid fifth place, just 0.2sec behind the final Audi. Last year's third-place finisher Bentley also made a good start, posting a time good enough for sixth place in the hands of Eric van de Poele.

American manufacturers Panoz, Cadillac and Riley & Scott were all out of the top 10, and will attempt to improve on their places in the second session later tonight.

Despite the problems with Kane's car, MG-Lola finished one-two in the LMP675 class in 10th and 14th places overall, comfortably clear of last year's class-winning Reynard/Lehmann of Mark Smithson.

The GTS class was dominated by the Prodrive Ferrari of Ricard Rydell, whose time of 3:58.867 was more than four seconds faster than the leading Corvette of Andy Pilgrim. Lucas Luhr set the pace in the GTO class throughout the session in his Porsche GT3.

First qualifying session, 24 Hours of Le Mans (top 10):

1) Lammers/Hillebrand/Coronel Racing for Holland, Dome-Judd S101, 3:31.355/146.909mph
2) Kristensen/Biela/Pirro, Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8 3:31.769
3) Capello/Herbert/Pescatori, Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R8, 3m34.814s
4) Krumm/Peter/Werner, Audi Sport North America, Audi R8 3:35.871
5) Beretta/Lamy/Comas, Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd, 3:36.121
6) Wallace/Leitzinger/van de Poele, Team Bentley, Bentley EXP Speed 8, 3:38.036*
7) Ara/Dalmas/Katoh, Team Goh, Audi R8, 3:38.129
8) Cottaz/Derichebourg/Bjork, Courage Competition, Courage C60JX-Judd 3:38.224
9) Sarrazin/Montagny/Minassian, Team ORECA, Dallara-Judd, 3:41.329
10) Blundell/Bailey/McGarrity, MG Sport, MG-Lola EX257, 3:41.600**
*=LM GTP
**=LMP675

GTS
Menu/Rydell/Enge Prodrive, Ferrari 550 Maranello, 3:58.867

GT
Luhr/Bernhard/Buckler, The Racers' Group Porsche 911 GT3-RS, 4:12.744



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