American Le Mans Series

Petit Le Mans – Qualifying Report

Nicolas Minassian gave Team Peugeot Total the pole position for tomorrow’s Petit Le Mans. The French Peugeot driver was quickest in the LMP1 qualifying, beating his teammate and the two Audi R15 TDI racecars. Highlight of the day however was the GT2 qualifying session in which Robertson Racing took a surprising pole position.

As usual the GT2 cars were first out on the track for their qualifying session. And as we’ve witnessed so often this season it was a battle between the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT2 of Jaime Melo and the Flying Lizards Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Pat Long.

But soon the first signs of this session not being a usual one were showing. Tom Sutherland in the LG Motorsports Corvette, the Riley car, completed two consecutive fast laps and put the #28 car in first place. Melo meanwhile suffered a puncture that ended his chance of taking pole.

At the halfway point the LG Corvette was still fastest, with the BMW M3 GTR of Müller (#92) and the Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R of David Murry closing in. Müller was the first driver to break the 1:21 barrier, but his time was soon improved by Murry in the #40 car.

Still it was far from over. Olivier Beretta in the works Corvette GT2 #4 was also hunting for pole position and shortly after Murry had taken provisional pole the Monegasque driver put his car in front.

And while everyone expected another run for the pole by either a BMW or the Lizards car it was the LG Motorsports Corvette of Sutherland that posted an even faster lap. Sutherland’s time of 1:20.877 moved him into first. But even that wasn’t all of it yet. Behind Sutherland it was David Murry who did his best in the Ford GT-R and in his final flying lap he posted a 1:20.819. Murry then returned to the pit where his pit crew counted down the minutes. With the clock ticking towards 0:00 and the only BMW left out on the track coming into the pit everyone realized that Robertson Racing had done it…pole position for the GT2 class at Petit Le Mans!

After the exciting GT qualifying it was time for the LMP cars to complete their session. With four diesels in the field and Peugeot being quickest throughout the week it seemed unlikely that there would not be a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP on the pole.

Franck Montagny was the first to set a fast lap and then posted a 1:07.391 in his second flying lap. Teammate Nicolas Minassian responded with two flying laps that were even quicker. Minassian’s fastest time was a 1:06.937…and that was all the Peugeots did.

The two Audi R15 TDI cars never came close; the #2 of Rinaldo Capello over 1.2 seconds behind Minassian and the #1 some hundredths of a second further behind.

Simon Pagenaud did whatever he could to beat at least one diesel car but despite running on fumes on his final lap – the team telling Pagenaud that he could run out of fuel – the pace of the diesels was still too fast for the Acura ARX-02a. Nicolas Lapierre in the Team Oreca Matmut AIM Oreca 01 was the second fastest driver in a non-diesel car.

In the LMP2 class it was Marino Franchitti in the #20 Dyson Racing Lola Mazda who took pole position. The Scot set a fastest lap time of 1:10.152. Second fastest in the session was the Klaus Graf driven Team Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder, some 1.3 seconds behind the #20. The Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01B was third fastest.

Both Radicals did not take part in qualifying, nor did the Dyson Racing #16 and the Patron Highcroft Racing Acura, which was being rebuilt around a new tub in the working paddock.