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Allan McNish claimed pole position for the Bahrain 6 Hours round of the FIA World Endurance Championship by less than a tenth of a second from Audi team-mate Marcel Fassler.

McNish set his pole time on his second flying lap at the wheel of his Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

His time of 1m45.814s compared with Fassler's 1m45.888s.

The Toyota TS030 HYBRID that ended Audi's domination of the WEC at Interlagos earlier this month finished a further four tenths back in Nicolas Lapierre's hands.

McNish, who together with Tom Kristensen is racing the hybrid Audi for the first time since the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, said: "It was good to give something back to the mechanics who have had the big job of converting our car to hybrid specification. The car has been fast and reliable from the first moment.

"I wouldn't read too much into the four-tenth gap to the Toyota; I'm sure we are going to see something different in the race."

Fastest privateer prototype was the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota B16/60 in the hands of Neel Jani. The Swiss ended up nearly eight tenths quicker than Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a.

Stephane Sarrazin claimed his second consecutive LMP2 pole for the Starworks HPD squad. The Frenchman was half a second quicker than John Martin in the ADR-Delta ORECA-Nissan 03.

Stefan Mucke followed up on Aston Martin Racing team-mate Darren Turner's Interlagos pole in GTE Pro. The German's mark was fractions faster than Richard Lietz managed in the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.

Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Kristensen/McNish Audi 1m45.814s 2. P1 Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer Audi 1m45.888s 3. P1 Wurz/Lapierre Toyota 1m46.254s 4. P1 Prost/Jani Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m47.638s 5. P1 Leventis/Watts/Kane Strakka HPD 1m48.446s 6. P1 Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck JRM HPD 1m48.784s 7. P2 Potolicchio/Kimber-Smith/Sarrazin Starworks HPD 1m51.798s 8. P2 Martin/Graves ADR Delta ORECA-Nissan 1m52.285s 9. P2 Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m52.368s 10. P2 Baguette/Kraihamer/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m52.609s 11. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m52.624s 12. P2 Liuzzi/Rossiter/Weeda Lotus Lola-Lotus 1m52.696s 13. P2 Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov Signatech ORECA-Nissan 1m53.328s 14. P2 Holzer/Moro Lotus Lola-Lotus 1m53.733s 15. P2 Mailleux/Lombard/Tresson Signatech ORECA-Nissan 1m53.793s 16. P2 Giroix/Ihara/Deletraz Gulf Lola-Nissan 1m55.465s 17. P2 Zugel/Gonzalez/Julian Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m58.603s 18. GTE P Mucke/Turner Aston Martin 2m00.234s 19. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Felbermayr Porsche 2m00.532s 20. GTE P Fisichella/Vilander AF Ferrari 2m01.522s 21. GTE P Bertolini/Beretta AF Ferrari 2m01.861s 22. GTE A Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers AF-Waltrip Ferrari 2m02.812s 23. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 2m03.253s 24. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Felbermayr Porsche 2m03.686s 25. GTE A Belloc/Bourret/Gibon Larbre Corvette 2m04.934s 26. GTE A Camathias/Simonsen/Daniels JWA Porsche 2m05.572s 27. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo Krohn Ferrari 2m06.806s 28. P1 Belicchi/Primat Rebellion Lola-Toyota -