Priaulx crashes

THE good news is Andy Priaulx's BMW M3 GT will start this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours third in class.

However, the bad news is the Guernsey driver's hopes of pole were dashed in the first of yesterday's two qualifying sessions after his car went off the track on a large patch of gravel and hit the tyre barrier very hard.

Disaster struck as Priaulx was about to start his first flying lap and attempt to hold on to provisional pole in the LM GTE Pro class.

The track in the very quick Ford chicane was strewn with gravel and there were no warning flags. The number 56 car went straight into the barriers as it lost all adhesion on the slippery surface.

Following the accident Priaulx's first thoughts were with his team, who suddenly found they had a big job to get the car ready for the race, which starts at 3pm (CET) tomorrow.

'The only lucky thing is when the accident happened we were still 42 hours from the start of the race. It had almost all been going too easily for us up to that point, but that's motor racing,' he said.