From the racetrack Audi motorsport news

Oct 4, 2008

Team Audi Sport North America’s two Audi R10 TDI prototypes will go into Saturday’s "Petit Le Mans" race at Road Atlanta (U.S. state of Georgia) from second and third positions on the starting grid. In a more than thrilling qualifying session, Allan McNish lost the battle for pole position by just 0.085 seconds.

Right from the start of the 25-minute session the Le Mans winner was setting the pace. From the first lap the number 1 Audi R10 TDI was topping the timing screens. McNish improved his lap-time to 1m 06.327s on his fourth flying lap, beating the track record from last year by 2.579 seconds.
 
Peugeot driver Stéphane Sarrazin needed 16 laps to reach McNish’s best time. Five minutes from the end of the qualifying session he narrowly demoted the Scotsman to second on the grid with his last flying lap.
 
Marco Werner, who had captured the pole positon last year at Road Atlanta, needed longer to bring temperature into the front tyres than McNish. He then ran into traffic. Despite that, the German was able to leave all LM P2 cars behind and get the third position on the grid for Audi.
 
The 11th annual running of the 1,000-mile or maximum 10-hour long "Petit Le Mans" race will start on Saturday at 11:15 a.m. local time (5:15 p.m. in Germany). Audi is undefeated and has the chance of a ninth consecutive outright "Petit Le Mans" victory on Saturday. Allan McNish will compete together with Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro. Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner will tackle the endurance race without a third driver.
 
The starting grid at Road Atlanta
1 Klien/Minassian/Sarrazin (Peugeot) 1m 06.242s (1st in LM P1)
2 Capello/McNish/Pirro (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 06.327s (2nd in LM P1)
3 Luhr/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 06.818s (3rd in LM P1)
4 Castroneves/Briscoe (Porsche) 1m 07.061s
5 Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche) 1m 07.149s
6 Maassen/Long/Collard (Porsche) 1m 07.401s
7 Montagny/Kanaan/Andretti (Acura/Honda) 1m 07.486s
8 de Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon (Acura/Honda) 1m 07.656s
9 Watts/Pla (Zytek) 1m 07.660s (4th in LM P1)
10 Field/Field/Berry (Lola-AER) 1m 07.784s (5th in LM P1)