Peugeot dominate qualifying for Le Mans 24-hour race

The trio of drivers including Davidson will start from third

Peugeot sent out an ominous warning ahead of this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hour race by locking out the first two rows of the grid in final qualifying.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Sebastien Bourdais clinched pole position in his 908 TDI thanks to a lap of three minutes 19.711 seconds around the 13.629km circuit.

Another former F1 racer, Alex Wurz, will start second with Stephane Sarrazin third on the grid.

Wurz is sharing his drive with Briton Anthony Davidson and Spain's Marc Gene.

Scotland's Allan McNish will start from sixth for Audi.

The Ginetta of former F1 and IndyCar champion Nigel Mansell, sharing with sons Greg and Leo, will start from 18th on the grid.

It is the first time a team made up of a father and two sons has competed at Le Mans.

"The goal is to finish and get more competitive, and the biggest goal is to attract a sponsor so that we can continue our dream," said Mansell, 56, ahead of his debut in the endurance classic.

Nicolas Lapierre was fourth fastest in the customer ORECA Peugeot.

Audi had at one stage threatened to trouble the Peugeots, with Mike Rockenfeller clocking a lap of 3mins 21.981secs in R15 to sit fifth and McNish going round in 3:22.176.

But a succession of fast laps late in the session from Bourdais, Minassian and Lapierre underlined Peugeot's dominance, albeit without improving on their times from Thursday.

Peugeot dominated last year's race, with Wurz, Gene and Australian David Brabham securing the marque's first Le Mans victory since 1993 and ending Audi's five-year reign.