Peugeot is still on course to sweep the front two rows of the grid after the second of three qualifying sessions for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The two-hour session began on a damp track following a downpour this afternoon. Although it dried throughout, most teams elected to practice pit stops and driver changes early on, and no competitive times were set until well into the second hour. A flurry of improvements inside the last quarter of an hour jumbled some places down the order, though the frontrunners remained as they were after Wednesday's night session.
Alex Wurz looked on course to challenge Sebastien Bourdais' pole time from Wednesday, posting several purple sector times towards the end of the session. Three-time Le Mans polesitter Stephane Sarrazin hopped into the No. 2 Peugeot for the final run and he too came close to challenging Bourdais' benchmark, but both he and Wurz ran into traffic towards the end of their laps and failed to improve.
Marco Andretti put the No. 12 Rebellion Lola in a provisional 19th after the car failed to set a time during Wednesday's qualifying session.
David Brabham snatched the provisional LMP2 class pole for the Highcroft Racing HPD, pulling out a 3m34.537s to move 1.6 seconds clear of the Strakka HPD. The ASM Ginetta-Zytek remains a distant third.
The GT1 class-leading Young Driver Aston Martin only emerged for the last 15 minutes of the session with Tomas Enge behind the wheel, but held its top spot by just 0.3sec from the Marc VDS Ford GT, which moved ahead of the No. 60 Matech Ford.
Toni Vilander lifted the sole remaining AF Corse Ferrari to second in the GT2 class, behind No. 82 Risi Ferrari which Gianmaria Bruni put on provisional pole yesterday. The No. 63 Corvette is now third, behind Vilander.
The second AF Corse Ferrari, of Mika Salo, Matias Russo and Luis Companc, has been withdrawn from the event following the damage sustained to the car in Russo's accident at the Porsche Curves last night.
Incidents this evening included a crash for Jean-Christophe Boullion at the Porsche Curves in the No. 13 Rebellion Racing Lola. Jacques Nicolet also spun the No. 34 Oak Racing Pescarolo at the final chicane after contact from Stephane Salini in the WR-Zytek.
Manuel Rodrigues had a spin in the No. 14 Kolles Audi R10 with the nose just kissing the barrier, and Mike Newton spun the No. 25 RML Lola on his out-lap inside the last 10 minutes.
The Drayson Lola stopped at the pitlane exit with an electrical problem, but Jonny Cocker managed to restart and coax the car back to the pits. The Spyker and the No. 15 Kolles car also suffered from mechanical niggles.
The JMW Motorsport Aston Martin sat out the session while having a new engine and gearbox fitted.