Allan McNish lines-up his turbo diesel Audi on the second row of the 29-car grid tomorrow (SUN) for the seventh and final round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China.

The Scotsman’s co-driver Tom Kristensen (Denmark) set the third fastest time of 1min 22.038secs, an average speed of 117.25mph around the 2.7-mile, 14-corner track, at the wheel of his “factory” Audi R18 TDI in today’s (SAT) 20-minute qualifying session.

“I’m very hopeful for a good result,” claimed McNish. “Tom did a stunning job in qualifying. We were competitive here last year and have worked very hard this week to get ourselves a nicely balanced and competitive R18 TDI for the race on Sunday.

“I’m certain that it’s going to be a fiercely contested battle between Audi and Peugeot throughout the six hours.”

McNish and Kristensen finished second in last year’s corresponding six-hour race and Britain’s former double Le Mans 24 Hour race winner aims to bring the ILMC to a close in style.

The McNish/Kristensen Audi is joined by a “sister” R18 TDI of Marcel Fässler (Switzerland) and Timo Bernhard (Germany). Fässler qualified fourth fastest (1:22.538s) today – Anthony Davidson (Peugeot) having captured pole-position 1:21.769s) – a mere two-tenth’s of a second quicker than Kristensen.

A “warm-up” (0100-0120) precedes the race scheduled to start at 0400 UK time tomorrow.

Source : Allan McNish