LE MANS, France -- Audi will be on pole for this weekend's Le Mans 24-hour endurance classic after setting the quickest time in qualifying practice on Thursday.

The heavily favored Audis will occupy the first three positions on the grid at the Circuit de La Sarthe for the 70th running of the race, which starts at 1400 GMT on Saturday.

Audi's second car, in which former Formula One driver Johnny Herbert will share driving duties with Italians Rinaldo Capello and Christian Pescatori, qualified first in 3:29.905. Capello and Pescatori were second last year for Audi.

Dane Tom Kristensen, who along with Italian Emanuele Pirro and German Frank Biela will be going for a record third-straight victory for a driver line-up, finished second clocking three minutes 30.219 seconds.

The third Audi was third in a time of 3:30.801.

The best of the rest honors went to the Oerca Dallar-Judd team with a time of 3:31.828, while the Dutch Dome-Judd of 1988 Le Mans winner Jan Lammers, which set a time of 3:32.734 rounded out the top-five places.

The lightweight British challenge of the MG once again proved that, certainly in terms of speed, it could hold its own with the larger cars.

The number 27 MG, which will be driven by former F1 driver Mark Blundell, Julian Bailey and Kevin McGarrity, was faster than all but five of the competitors in the top 900 class in a time of 3:33.254.

The other British challenge of the Bentley team of Andy Wallace, Butch Leitzinger and Eric van de Poule had a disappointing qualifying, clocking 3.35.056 for 11th position on the grid.

But they will not be too downhearted as they started ninth last year only to finish up on the podium in third place at the end of the race.

With the prospect of a whole day's racing ahead, grid positions are not as important at Le Mans as they are in other races.

Most teams will have been concentrating on getting their car's set up correctly for the grueling race in which reliability is vital.