The hybrid-diesel Audi of FIA World Endurance Championship leader Allan McNish starts the sixth round of the series at Fuji in Japan tomorrow (SUN) from fourth place.

Dumfries-born McNish and co-driver Loïc Duval (F) set a combined average fastest time of 1minute 27.426secs around the 2.84-mile track today (SAT).

Today’s 25mins qualifying session held in dry and cool conditions required two drivers from each car to set a minimum of two “flying” laps each with actual positions on the 29-car grid decided by the combined average of each driver’s fastest two laps.

“The top-four cars’ times are all very close so I’m expecting a tight race,” confirmed McNish. “We made some changes to our R18 for qualifying that did not work perfectly and so consequently both Loïc and I struggled to get the Audi’s power down. But we will work on the set-up overnight to make it a more consistent car for the race.

“I had two ‘scruffy’ laps and then I unfortunately hit traffic in terms of the ‘sister’ Audi on my final lap which was frustrating.

“Loïc was bumped off the track early in Friday morning’s opening practice which lost us valuable set-up time so we’ve have been playing catch-up ever since.”

The Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F), starts from pole-position having set a combined average time 0.848secs faster than the McNish Audi.

This year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race winners McNish, Duval and Tom Kristensen (Den) aim for their fourth WEC race win of the season and aim to extend a 32-points advantage.