Jul 19, 2008
Marco Werner has set a new track record for LM P1 sports cars in an exciting qualifying for the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio (US state of Ohio). On Friday, the German beat the previous record by over a second.
On a track that traditionally favours the lighter LM P2 sports cars, Werner showed a strong performance. Several times, the German set the best time, before he dropped to fifth position in the final stages of the 20-minute qualifying session. Werner missed pole position by only 0.388 seconds and the front row by just 164 thousandths of a second.
The second Audi R10 TDI will start the race on Saturday from seventh position of the grid. Dindo Capello was able to go on the track only after ten minutes after being held in the pits by the race director – a late and not uncontroversial penalty following a collision with a GT1 car last weekend at Lime Rock.
The Audi drivers are confident for the race on Saturday. However, the two Audi R10 TDI prototypes have to start at Mid-Ohio for a last time with a nine-litre smaller fuel tank compared to the LM P2 sports cars. From the next race at Road America, this handicap will be reduced to five litres.
The race at Mid-Ohio will begin at 2:10 p.m. local time (8:10 p.m. in Germany) and runs over a distance of 2 hours 45 minutes.
The starting grid at Mid-Ohio
1 de Ferran/Pagenaud (Acura/Honda) 1m 07.969s
2 Brabham/Sharp (Acura/Honda) 1m 08.193s
3 Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche) 1m 08.238s
4 Matos/Montagny (Acura/Honda) 1m 08.320s
5 Luhr/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 08.357s (1st in LM P1)
6 Fernandez/Diaz (Acura/Honda) 1m 08.507s
7 Capello/Pirro (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 08.960s (2nd in LM P1)
8 Maassen/Long (Porsche) 1m 09.614s
9 Smith/Dyson (Porsche) 1m 09.912s
10 Franchitti/Leitzinger (Porsche) 1m 10.029s
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