Rebellion driver Neel Jani took pole position for tomorrow's Le Mans Series decider at Estoril.
The Swiss left his run late and jumped straight to the top of the times aboard Rebellion's lead Lola-Toyota coupe. His 1m30.118s lap around the former home of the Portuguese Grand Prix put him two tenths clear of Julien Jousse's Pescarolo-Judd.
Jani, who shares with Nicolas Prost, said: "We felt very confident after this morning [when he was fastest in final free practice] and knew we could do it if we got a free lap. I made a mistake, quite a big one actually, but it was still enough."
Jani said he and Prost will do their utmost to win tomorrow's six-hour race, even though teammates Andrea Belicchi and Jean-Christophe Boullion only trail the championship-leading Pescarolo trio of Jousse, Emmanuel Collard and Christophe Tinseau by one point. Asked if team orders might come into play, he said: "I guess we will have to see in the last hour of the race, but we will be trying to win."
Tom Kimber-Smith topped the times in LMP2, the point for pole giving himself and Greaves Motorsport teammate Karim Ojjeh the class title. They are now 15 points clear at the top of the points, which means they would win the title on count back if either of their rivals for the crown win the race and tie with them on points.
Kimber-Smith, who shares the Greaves Zytek-Nissan with Ojjeh and Olivier Lombard, said: "Everyone knew we would be coming here to get pole. Quite a few people have been saying that we haven't shown any pace this year, but today we proved them wrong."
Rob Bell took his first GT pole for JMW Motorsport since last year's Silverstone LMS round. The Briton edged out fellow Ferrari 458 driver Gianmaria Bruni (AF Corse) by less than a tenth of a second.