Jeudi 17 Juin 2001. Après seulement 8 minutes dans la deuxième session de ces qualifications de jeudi, l'Italien Capello a arraché la pole position d'un cheveu, ne coiffant Kristensen que de 29 centièmes.

Le ciel est menaçant mais, la pluie ne vient pas perturber cette première moitié de la deuxième séance d'essais qualificatifs. Presque tous les équipages s'élancent pour un tour de contrôle, avant de repasser par les stands. La piste semble moins rapide que la veille. En effet, parmi les 20 premiers, seuls 7 réussiront à améliorer leurs performances.

L'Audi n°4 est retardée suite à des ennuis de direction, alors que l'équipe Johansson comptait beaucoup sur cette séance pour progresser de quelques places. La Pilbeam connait des soucis d'amortisseurs, mais finalement, Martin O'Connel parvient à réaliser un chrono suffisant pour se qualifier dans la catégorie LM-P 675 (3'59"302). Les deux autres pilotes doivent également réaliser un temps inférieur à 4'04", malheureusement la voiture va subir une nouvelle panne: la rupture du cable d'accélérateur.

En LMGT, on dénombre de nombreux petits soucis. C'est d'abord Michel Neugarten avec la n°75 qui tape à l'arrière à la chicane Playstation. L'équipe de Luc Alphand est victime d'un problème de durite juste après le changement du moteur. Luis Marques, alors au volant, répand de l'huile sur la piste à l'entrée de la chicane Michelin. Mais rapidement les commissaires interviennent pour nettoyer la trajectoire. Georges Bergeois, au volant de la n°79 du team Noel Del Bello part à la faute au virage du karting et endommage l'avant gauche de sa Porsche.

Après 1h15, la première amélioration notable est celle de la Dome de Racing for Holland, pilotée par Jan Lammers. Le Néelandais conforte alors sa 4e place et se rapproche à 5 dixièmes de la Audi du Champion Racing. A noter la belle progression d'Emmanuel Collard sur la Cadillac n°5, auteur d'un temps de 3'37"402 qui lui permet de gagner 2 secondes 5, et de remonter à la 8e place. Mais, c'est incontestablement Jan Magnussen qui réalise le bond le plus prodigieux dans le classement grâce à un gain de 5 secondes avec la Panoz n°12.

Dans la dernière demi-heure, les Courage du team Pescarolo, qui ont peu tournées, réalisent des temps intéressants. Sébastien Bourdais améliore d'une seconde sa performance du mercredi avec la n°17 et Didier Cottaz progresse de 2 dixièmes avec la n°18. En revanche, cela se passe moins bien pour la Courage de l'équipe SMG qui reste presqu'une heure et demie arrêtée dans son stand.

De gros soucis sont également à déplorer pour MG. La n°34 ne sort pas du stand lors de cette séance et la n°33 n'effectue que quelques tours avant d'être ralentie. L'équipe britannique préfère attendre la nuit pour rouler avec assiduité, afin de permettre à tous ses pilotes d'effectuer les trois tours de nuit obligatoires pour se qualifier.

A 10 minutes du terme de la séance, Stephan Johansson, qui a été le seul pilote à rouler sur l'Audi n°4, signe un bon temps: 3'35"985, il remonte ainsi en 5è position. Un rang qui correspond plus à la valeur de sa machine. Le Suédois a sûrement eu une bonne idée en réalisant ce chrono, car la pluie menace de plus en plus au dessus du circuit manceau. Avec ou sans pluie, les Audis officielles, qui occupent les 2 premieres places, ne semblent pas prêtes d'être rattrappées.

Deuxième session

Des émotions fortes au début de cette deuxième session. Rinaldo Capello a pris le meilleur sur l'Audi n°1 en signant le temps le plus rapide. Seul le Racing For Holland a empêché les Audi de réaliser un carton plein en prenant la 4e place.

Rinaldo Capello a joué un bien vilain tour à ses compagnons d'écurie de l'Audi n°1. Après seulement 8 minutes dans la deuxième session de ces qualifications de jeudi, l'Italien a arraché la pole position d'un cheveu, ne coiffant Kristensen que de 29 centièmes. Emanuele Pirro a eu beau prendre un relais très long sur l'Audi n°1, Capello était intouchable de nuit avec ses 3:32.429 minutes. Seul le Racing for Holland de Jan Lammers a pu empêcher un carton plein de la firme d'Ingolstadt. Sa bonne première moitié de la deuxième séance d'essais lui permet d'assurer sa place en 2ème ligne.

Du coup, Stephan Johansson et son Audi-Gulf n°4 ne partiront qu'en 3ème ligne même si le Suédois a été l'un des rares à améliorer son temps lors des deux dernières heures de qualifications avec un chrono de 3:35.128 soit trois petits dixièmes de plus que la Dome n°9.

Mis à part ce bouleversement en 1ère ligne, cette dernière partie de qualifications n'a pas amené beaucoup de changements au classement. En effet, seulement trois voitures ont réussi à améliorer leur temps par rapport à la première moitié de cette deuxième séance de qualifications.

La MG n°34 d'Anthony Reid a ainsi pu grappiller un rang et s'installer devant la Dome-Den Bla Avis en 14ème position grâce à un chrono de 3 :40.243. La voiture danoise a été, il est vrai handicapée par un changement de moteur dans cette 2e moitié de séance. MG a donc eu le nez creux en attendant la nuit pour sortir sa deuxième voiture. Malgré la contre-performance de la MG n°33, les deux anglaises occuperont logiquement la pole position des LM-P-675.

Les Bentley se sont montrées plus discrètes par rapport à la première journée d'essais où elles talonnaient les Audi. Les prestigieuses anglaises ont dû notamment céder leur place à la Cadillac n°5 du trio franco-belge Collard-Goosens-Bernard.

A noter les très gros progrès de la Panoz n°11 qui a gagné quatre places et qui a abaissé son temps de près de 9 secondes avec 3:43.498 contre 3 :51.969 mercredi. L'autre Panoz pilotée par Brabham-Magnussen-Lagorce s'est également améliorée passant de 3:48.083 hier à 3 :42.974 aujourd'hui. En revanche, la Courage Judd n°19 de Philippe Gache n'a pas rééditée son excellente prestation de la veille. Il faut dire à la décharge de SMG, que l'équipe avait mis la boîte et le moteur de course pour cette séance.

La Saleen–Allen Speedlab n°60 a réalisé une superbe performance en améliorant encore son temps avec un chrono de 3:52.849 pour partir en pole position chez les LM-GTS devançant de 3 seconde son premier concurrent. Son temps assuré, la Saleen a tout bonnement décidé d'arrêter une demi-heure avant la fin de cette séance.

En LM-GT, rien n'a changé. En terminant 38ème des qualifications, la Callaway a su résister à l'armada Porsche pour s'emparer de la pole dans cette catégorie habituellement chasse gardée de la firme de Stuttgart.

La grille de départ en images

Audi ahead but under pressure.
 
The Audis had to battle hard on Wednesday to get two cars in the two first places for the first set of qualifying practice sessions.

They saw their domination contested by Racing for Holland's Lammers and the Bentley with Brundle at the wheel.

The Audis were shaken but finally managed to bag the two first places in the first set of practice fought out on Wednesday. As in the preliminaries, Rinaldo Capello proved to be the fastest but the Italian waited until the last five minutes to take the provisional pole position with a time of 3:34.880. For a long while the N°1 Audi was sure of grabbing the 1st place in the practice thanks to Emanuele Pirro's great lap times. It wasn't until Capello began to feel threatened by the fantastic return of Jan Lammers on his astonishing Racing for Holland car, that he beat his team-mates' times. An encouraging session, however, for the first private Champion Racing Audi, that came in 4th place despite being handicapped at the beginning of the session by a problem with the gearbox selector. Disappointment for Stephan Johansson who only managed to fly the mythical orange and blue colours of his Audi-Gulf in 10th position, having occupied 3rd place in mid-session.
Jan Lammers confirmed the good disposition of his Dome. The boss of Racing for Holland could be happy with the 'trick' played on the Audis. Ten minutes from the end of this first qualifying practice session, the Dutchman pushed ahead to 2nd place after having started his first hour of practice fairly timidly in 9th place. Finally, Lammers had to give up his position behind the leader, but with only 1:472 separating him from Capello, the Dutch driver proved he was a serious contender to upset the winning habits of the German cars.
Less surprising, the Bentleys' good performance, especially the number 7 driven by Martin Brundle, who put up a good fight against the Audis before contenting himself with 5th place, only 1:665 away from Capello. The Brit played Ding-Dong Scrap for a long while with the Audis, notably taking 3rd place from Capello just as Lammers was also threatening the German cars.
4:394 behind, the Chrysler-Team Playstation driven by the Beretta-Lamy-Wendlinger trio, proved to be a serious outsider despite the small gap between them and the 5 lead cars. Beretta notably did all he could in the last few minutes of the session when he finally overtook Bernard's Cadillac, who took his time before finding his marks. In the Chrysler camp, they claim they intend to improve, with Dalmas making the most of all his experience in order to grab 8th place.
Disappointment-wise, the Panoz cars didn't manage to convince anyone. Even worse, Magnussen's N°12 stopped just after the Playstation Chicane in the middle of the Hunaudières just before the start of the race, before being handicapped by a blockage in the gearbox. In the end, the cars of Don Panoz took only the disappointing positions of 19th and 22nd place, well below their expectations.
Disappointment also for the Courage-Pescarolo Sport cars, brilliantly overtaken by the Judd-powered Courage driven by Philippe Gache. Despite an electrical problem at the end of the session, the SMG satisfactorily. The N°34 MG was also in for a "nice" surprise : sure of getting into the Top Ten, it finally shifted down into 12th place. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable performance for an LMP675, which all in all managed to stand firmly in the face of many a heavyweight prototype!. The other MG, however, didn't manage to complete a lap, due to some alternator trouble, which in turn caused misfiring.
In the GTS class, after a great fight between the two cars from Corvette Racing Gary Pratt, N°63 driven by Fellows beat Pilgrim at the wheel of N°64. What a shame that the Chrysler-Larbre Compétition-Chéreau was unable to get involved in the fight at the end of the race, handicapped by mechanical problems.
Finally, the French team could find some success in the GT category, since the N°80 Porsche driven by Chéreau, Dumez and Goueslard took first place. Another noteworthy performance came from the Luc Alphand team, which finished in 4th position in GT. Not bad for a first time !.

1-2-3 - Audi secures top three slots !
 
The official Audis didn't take long before they confirmed their status as big favourite in the second have of the practice session.

Dome n°9, the Chryslers and the Bentleys also made a good impression.

After the one hour break from 21:00 to 22:00, the drivers were more than willing to get back in their cars and make the most of the last few moments of daylight. Less than 15 minutes after practice had resumed, the turmoil began. First, it was Martin
Brundle in Bentley n°7 who literally planted himself in the gravel pit at Mulsanne. With help from the marshals, the British driver, who was 6th at the time, soon managed to get back on the track.
After 7 minutes, the two official Audis had already each done a fast lap. Capello's n°2's time was 3:33.514. Next, n°1, driven by Tom Kristensen, did even better with 3:32.458, which relegated last May 6's best lap during the preliminaries to the rank of distant memory.
Olivier Beretta's Chrysler n°16 also put itself in the spotlight by setting the 3rd best lap, although over 3 seconds behind the provisional pole. It wasn't long, though, before the Driver from Monaco was beaten by Jan Lammers, who was in great shape with his Dome n°9. Racing for Holland are by now the «best of the rest", the best car behind the Audis. Indeed, in between, privateer Ralf Kelleners has completed the Audi trio and moved into 3rd place with 3:34.349.
Ron Fellows also tried to improve his time but went over the top. The Canadian damaged the rear of his Corvette n°63 on the piles of tyres on the Michelin chicane. Meanwhile, the MG saga went on. N°34 was slow on the Hunaudières, before it stopped 20 minutes later at Mulsanne, due to a problem with the fuel pressure. During that time, n°33 was a bit more lucky. Mark Blundell's car, which had done only one lap during the first two-hour session, finally began to clock up some miles, and lapped in 3:42.476, 4 tenths behind the other MG. No doubt about it, the two British "lightweights" are the fastest in their class (LMP675), but reliability just isn't there.
After 45 minutes, things became less hectic. The drivers began to set more homogenous lap-times than before, not necessarily trying to improve on the best laps. But the Playstation chicane was there to remind everyone that night-time at Le Mans isn't always simple and fun : many a car went straight on, spun, or braked a bit late there.
Team Freisinger Motorsport's Porsche n°77 got it's own share of problems. First of all, the engine broke, forcing the mechanics to change it, which they did in a record time : the gearbox was replaced too, all in under an hour !. But moments after having resumed practise, young American driver Gunnar Jeannette was slow on the Hunaudières.
The last hour of the session was very calm. Most of the drivers were trying to tune the car just right for the race. Team Pescarolo apparently had balancing  trouble with their Courage-Peugeot, but the local team hopes to be as good tomorrow as they were during preliminaries. At Cadillac's, the aim was to lap in 3:36. They have achieved that yet, though, since they are in 11th and 12th place with 3:39. Another deception came from team Johansson's Audi, which was only 8th, 5 seconds behind the best time. We now expect a reaction from the Suedish driver and, why not, a response from Bentley.

Capello steals the pole right from the start
 
This second session caused some strong emotions right from the beginning. Rinaldo Capello set the best lap in front of Audi n°1. Had it not been for Racing for Holland, the Audis would have filled up the top four slots !.

Rinaldo Capello played an unpleasant trick on his fellow team-mates of Audi n°1. Only 8 minutes into the second session of qualifying on Thursday, the Italian stole the pole by only a fraction of a second, beating  Kristensen by 0.029 seconds. Despite a very long stint on Audi n°1, Emanuele Pirro failed to improve on Capello's 3:32.429, the night-time not helping matters. Only Jan Lammers' Racing for Holland car was able to prevent the firm from Ingolstadt from having the top four slots to themselves. His good performance during the first half of the second qualifying session has earned him a place on the second row of the starting grid.
Consequently, Stephan Johansson and his Audi-Gulf n°4 will be starting the race on row 3, even though the Swedish driver was one of the only competitors to improve on his time during the last two hours of this final session, in 3:35.128, i.e. about three tenths slower than Dome n°9.
Apart from this unheaval in the lead, there were not many changes in this last part of the practice session. Indeed, only three cars managed to improve on their time from the first half of this second practice session.
MG n°34 managed to gain one place with a time of 3:40.243 - it now ranks 14th. It is now ahead of the Dome-Den Bla Avis. It is true that the Dutch car was very much handicapped by a change of engine in the second half of the session. MG was well inspired to take their car out only for the night-driving. Despite the MG n°33's poor performance, the two British cars will logically be in the lead in the LMP 675 category.
The Bentleys were more discreet today than they were yesterday, when they were on the Audis' heels. The prestigious British cars were forced to give up their position notably to the Cadillac n°5 of the Franco-Belgian trio Collard-Goossens-Bernard.
Note the very important progression of Panoz n°11, which gained four places, with a time improved by 9 seconds (3:43.498 - compared to a previous time of 3:51.969). The other Panoz, driven by Brabham-Magnussen-Lagorce, also improved its time, from 3:48.083 yesterday to 3:42.974 today. On the other hand, Philippe Gache's Courage Judd n°19 didn't repeat its excellent performance of yesterday. It must be said in their defence that they drove throughout this session with the gearbox and engine designed for the race.
Saleen-Allen Speedlab n°60 realized a brilliant performance by improving its time to 3:52.849, 3 seconds ahead of its first opponent. It will leave in pole position in the LM-GTS class. After having achieved this time, the team simply decided to stop half an hour before the end of the session.
Nothing changed in the LM-GT category. By finishing at the 38th position, the Callaway succeeded in resisting to the Porsche armada in a category that is usually the exclusive preserve of the Stuttgart company

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