American Le Mans Series

Sebring 12 Hours - Qualifying Report

De Ferran Motorsports will be on pole position for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Fresh From Florida. Scott Dixon in the Acura ARX-02a set the fastest lap time in today’s qualifying session. The expected battle between Audi and Peugeot was fought out on the track, but on a last lap attempt the Acura team beat them all.

At 2.45 pm it was time for the GT1 and GT2 cars to get their qualifying session underway. The two Corvettes were the first ones out, closely followed by the two Flying Lizard Porsches. On its first lap out the #92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team BMW E92 M3 came to a halt in Turn 1, briefly bringing out the yellow flag on the finish straight, it returned to the pit lane on the same lap.

Jan Magnussen was the quickest of the two Corvettes on their first flying lap, but a lap later Oliver Gavin had already posted a faster lap time (1:57.882). Four laps completed the Corvettes returned to the pit. Meanwhile in GT2 Dirk Werner in the #87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche set the fastest time (2:03.051), with Bergmeister and Bruni chasing the German.

The Primetime Race Group Dodge Viper came onto pit lane with steam coming from the engine compartment, but it soon returned to the track. 18 minutes into the session David Murry surprised anyone by putting the Robertson Racing Ford GT in fifth place. Mika Salo improved his time moments later, but was still half a second away from the top three, his team mate Tracy Krohn in the #61 Ferrari spun his car, throwing away any chance of improving his grid position

Towards the end of the GT session provisional pole sitter Dirk Werner suddenly slowed on the track and cruised back to the pit lane with an unknown problem. With two minutes remaining in the session most cars were in the pit lane and it became clear that nobody would improve the times set by Gavin and Henzler.

Next up were the LMP cars. The two Acura ARX-02a cars and both Dyson Racing Mazda’s were out as soon as they could, while both the Peugeot and Audi team waited in the pit lane. Scott Dixon was the first to post a flying lap, setting a 1:49.370, but David Brabham improved it only one lap later (1:49.335).
On his fourth lap Dixon posted a much quicker time, more towards the times shown in practice, when he set a 1:46.553. The LMP2 Acura had also joined the track and on its first flying lap it was two second quicker than the Dyson Lola, 1:49.686.

With fifteen minutes remaining the #1 Audi with Mike Rockenfeller onboard went out and as he passed the line after completing his first flying lap his time was good enough to secure provisional pole. It didn’t last long as Dixon almost instantly improved the fastest time to 1:45.570. Tom Kristensen aborted his second flying lap after being held up by one of the Dyson cars.

Eleven minutes remained when the #08 Peugeot went out on its hunt for pole position. Mike Rockenfeller did continue and improved his time again. The 1:45.551 was good enough for provisional pole again. Christian Klien spun the #07 Peugeot at Turn 3, just when Bourdais set the second fastest time of the session, 0.008s behind the Audi!
On his next lap Bourdais went into the pit, leaving the track open for other attempts by Dixon and Klien.

With 3,5 minutes remaining the gap between the top three was still only 0.019s. But then Christian Klien blasted through and set a lap time of 1:45.462. Unfortunately for the Austrian, Tom Kristensen was also out on the track and right behind him. Klien’s time had hardly been shown on the time screens when the Dane put his Audi on provisional pole 1:45.360. Next time by Klien came in to the pit, while Kristensen continued.

But it was far from over as with just under a minute to go Scott Dixon was on a flyer. A lap time of 1:45.278 was enough to take provisional pole and when Tom Kristensen came into the pit box and the checkered flag was shown it was clear that the de Ferran Motorsports team had clinched pole position for Saturday’s race!

1 - #66 de Ferran Motorsports - Acura ARX-02a - 1:45.278
2 - #2 Audi Sport North America - Audi R15 TDI - 1:45.360
3 - #07 Team Peugeot Total - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP - 1:45.462
4 - #1 Audi Sport Team Joest - Audi R15 TDI - 1:45.551
5 - #08 Team Peugeot Total - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP - 1:45.559
6 - #9 Patrón Highcroft Racing - Acura ARX-02a - 1:46.504
7 - #15 Lowe’s Fernandez Racing - Acura ARX-01b - 1:49.686
8 - #16 Dyson Racing Team - Lola B09/86 - 1:51.534
9 - #12 Autocon Motorsports - Lola B06/10 - 1:51.598
10 - #20 Dyson Racing Team - Lola B09/86 - 1:51.840
11 - #4 Corvette Racing - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R - 1:57.882
12 - #3 Corvette Racing - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R - 1:58.203
13 - #87 Farnbacher Loles Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 2:03.051
14 - #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 2:03.433
15 - #95 Advanced Engineering Pecom Racing Team - Ferrari F430 GT2 - 2:03.487
16 - #62 Risi Competizione - Ferrari F430 GT2 - 2:03.829
17 - #40 Robertson Racing - Doran Ford GT - 2:04.333
18 - #21 Panoz Team PTG - Panoz Esperante - 2:04.437
19 - #90 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team - BMW E92 M3 - 2:04.566
20 - #11 Primetime Race Group - Dodge Viper GT2 - 2:05.619
21 - #007 Drayson Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT2 - 2:05.692
22 - #18 VICI Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 2:05.805
23 - #28 LG Motorsports - Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 - 2:06.678
24 - #61 Risi Competizione - Ferrari F430 GT2 - 2:08.386
25 - #44 Flying Lizard Motorsports - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - 2:10.912
26 - #18 VICI Racing - Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - -:–.—
27 - #37 Intersport Racing - Lola B06/10 - -:–.—
28 - #92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team - BMW E92 M3 - -:–.—