2009 24 Hours of Le Mans - Qualifying

Qualifying

Stéphane Sarrazin claimed his third consecutive pole position at Le Mans, planting the No. 8 Peugeot at the front of the field with a lap time of 3:22.888. He set the lap on the third of his flying laps during a run near the end of the four-hour qualifying session, bettering Allan McNish's lap time by 0.8 seconds. McNish's lap was set on the final lap of the first two hour qualifying session, beating the Peugeot of Franck Montagny who led much of the first session. McNish's lap remained at the top of the charts for much of the second session until Sarrazin's performance. Peugeot planned to practice race setups during the entire qualifying session, and were not seeking to obtain the pole position.

At the end of qualifying Peugeots filled the next three places on the grid behind the front row with the car of Pescarolo Sport settling in at fourth fastest. Aston Martin were able to secure the fastest lap for a petrol-powered car, with the No. 007 entry on a few thousandths of a second behind the No. 3 Audi and followed by the No. 008 Aston Martin and No. 13 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Aston Martin.

The Porsche RS Spyders continued their dominance in the LMP2 category, with Casper Elgaard of Team Essex ahead of Team Goh with a lap time of 3:37.720. Third in the category was the No. 33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola-Judd which was over three seconds behind the Porsches. Corvette Racing secured the front row in the GT1 category, with Jan Magnussen's No. 63 entry half a second ahead of the No. 64 sister car. Jetalliance Racing's privately entered Aston Martin was under two seconds behind, and followed immediately by the two Luc Alphand Corvettes. The JLOC Lamborghini struggled with mechanical issues and was never able to lift itself from last place on grid.

The GT2 category was led by Porsche who bested their rivals Ferrari with two cars. Pole winner Flying Lizard Motorsports' 4:03.202 was less than a tenth of a second ahead of the No. 77 Felbermayr-Proton car. Risi Competizione led the Ferrari fight with a third place qualifying time, joined by JMB Racing and BMS Scuderia Italia. The Aston Martin of Drayson Racing was ninth in the category, while the Spyker was eleventh.

Several incidents occurred during the qualifying session. The Pescarolo Peugeot drive by Jean-Christophe Boullion spun at the Tetre Rouge corner and ripped the left front fender off the car after impacting the wall. The Peugeot was able to return to the pits and be repaired. The No. 007 Aston Martin also hit a wall after losing control during braking for the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Jan Charouz was traveling at 270 km/h (170 mph) at the time of the incident. The incident occurred in the closing minutes of qualifying, but the car was repaired.