Johnny Herbert will start the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance sportscar motor race on Saturday afternoon from the second row of the grid as Audi claimed four of the top-five places for the gruelling marathon.

The 1991 Le Mans winner’s 220mph Audi R8 failed to improve on the previous evening’s qualifying time of 3min 34.349secs, an average speed of over 140mph around the 8.45-mile road circuit in France last night (THURS) in the final time trials, the American Champion team preferring to concentrate on setting the car up for the race.

"I’m very happy to be starting my first Le Mans for nine years from the second row," confirmed Johnny. "Third position is great and we’ve got ourselves an excellent racecar – it’s a joy to drive. It would have been nice to get more time behind the wheel but I reckon I’ll get that opportunity over the weekend!"

Herbert (36) will be partnered by Ralf Kelleners (D) and Didier Theys (Bel) for the 69th running of the world famous race which sees Audi aiming to repeat its dominant 1-2-3 result from last June.

2000 Le Mans victors Frank Biela (D), Tom Kristensen (Den) and Emanuele Pirro (It) were denied pole-position when the "sister" factory Infineon Audi R8 of Laurent Aiello (Fr), Rinaldo Capello (It) and Christian Pescatori (It) snatched the no.1 spot by just 0.029secs.

Capello was last night (THURS) one of only a handful of leading cars to improve on times set the previous evening which had seen Kristensen quickest.

Capello remarked: "On my qualifying lap I had to pass one slower car, the rest of the lap was almost clear. But still I did not know how fast I was going because I could not see the time on my display in the car. I just tried to push until the end and had the feeling that it was a good lap. When I saw the time on the pit board I was really happy. It is a great feeling to have pole at Le Mans, because I like this race very much. I am only 0.029s ahead of Tom which means I was not really faster than him, just more lucky."

Another to improve however was the British-based Gulf Audi of Stefan Johansson, BAR Formula One test driver Patrick Lemarié and Dutchman Tom Coronel. Johansson, a Le Mans winner in 1997, moved up three places to fifth on the capacity, 48-car grid.

"The car’s steering felt vague on the straight and we changed the rack," said Johansson. "I put on qualifiers just before 9pm and moved up to fifth but shaved off a few more tenths immediately at the re-start despite making a small mistake on that lap. Losing early running time meant we were only able to concentrate on our race set-up for the final 90 minutes but I’m confident we’ve got ourselves a good racecar."

The historic race, which is expected to be affected by rain, starts at 3pm (BST).