Oct 18, 2008
Emanuele Pirro has captured the LM P1 pole position at Laguna Seca (U.S. state of California) in his last race with the Audi R10 TDI. On Friday, the Italian won the qualifying battle against his team-mate Lucas Luhr.
Team Audi Sport North America’s two Audi R10 TDI prototypes will line-up on the fifth row of the starting grid for the finale of the American Le Mans Series. In unexpected hot conditions, the LM P1 cars had no chance to match the qualifying pace of the lighter LM P2 prototypes. With gaps of 1.1 and 1.7 seconds respectively, Pirro and Luhr qualified ninth and tenth.
Pirro was on a quicker lap when the qualifying session had to be stopped because of a car stuck in the gravel. Luhr was complaining about an understeering car on the slippery track and did not find a clear lap.
Audi had captured the titles in the LM P1 class of the American Le Mans Series already prior the finale. The Audi R10 TDI is undefeated at Laguna Seca so far.
The race starts on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. local time (11:45 p.m. in Germany) and runs over a distance of four hours into the darkness.
Starting driver in the number 1 Audi R10 TDI will be Christijan Albers from the Netherlands who will be competing in his first ever sportscar race at Laguna Seca. Lucas Luhr will be the start driver in the sister car.
The starting grid at Laguna Seca
1 Brabham/Sharp (Acura/Honda) 1m 10.103s
2 Fernandez/Diaz (Acura/Honda) 1m 10.202s
3 Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche) 1m 10.351s
4 de Ferran/Pagenaud (Acura/Honda) 1m 30.451s
5 Montagny/Kanaan (Acura/Honda) 1m 10.567s
6 Maassen/Long (Porsche) 1m 10.586s
7 Castroneves/Briscoe (Porsche) 1m 10.606s
8 Smith/Dyson (Porsche) 1m 11.010s
9 Albers/Pirro (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 11.264s (1st in LM P1)
10 Luhr/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) 1m 11.825s (2nd in LM P1)
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