LMP3: Brundle takes pole for Le Mans support race

Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle took pole position for Saturday's Road to Le Mans support race for the 24 Hours after recording the fastest time in Thursday's qualifying session.

The Briton, who is competing in the hourlong race for LMP3 and GT3 machinery with the United Autosports team in its Ligier JSP3 alongside Christian England, edged out the Ginetta P3-15 of Charlie Robertson by 0.185s in Thursday's half-hour session held in dry conditions.

Brundle, who won the 1990 Le Mans 24 Hours race in a Jaguar XJR-12, was second for much of the interrupted session before improving his time with three minutes remaining to move into provisional pole with a 3m55.748s. He and a number of other drivers were set to go faster again on their next laps, but Hiroshi Hamaguchi's crash in the #55 McLaren 650S brought out the second red flag of the session shortly afterwards, leaving no time for a restart.

Brundle therefore secured his first pole at Le Mans since he took the Toyota GT-One to first in qualifying for the 1999 24 Hours.

"I don't really know the car very well at all and we never really got up and running [in wet practice]," said Brundle, who is making his first appearance at Le Mans since he shared a Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan with son Alex and Lucas Ordonez in 2012. "So it was almost like turning up to a race event and going straight into qualifying. The car was just perfect and I could push and push.

"I was finding my way a bit and I was too cautious on the brakes and then improved it dramatically. I found some space and every time I came round I thought 'that's a great lap' and I heard P2, you need two tenths and I thought 'come on, give me a break, I'm 57 years old.' I knew I was still P2 so I just went for it basically.

"I pushed my luck; I had a couple of scary moments through the Porsche Curves where I had to scoop it up. It's nice to come back and to be starting from the front."

Robertson, in one of two non-Ligiers in the P3 field, managed like Brundle to squeeze a lap in before the red flag, but ended up a frustrated second, just two tenths down.

Practice pacesetter and longtime leader Thomas Laurent was one of those set to improve his time before the red flag forced him to abandon his lap, the Frenchman instead settling for third in the Yvan Muller-run DC Racing Ligier.

Egidio Perfetti took pole in the GT3 class, finishing six-tenths clear of the field in his Porsche 911 GT3 R.