Bowmanville - August 26, 2007
ALMS début on the Detroit “street” circuit
As the best cars of the LM P1 category, the two Audi R10 TDI sportscars
start the tenth round of the American Le Mans Series in Detroit (US state
of Michigan) from the fourth row of the grid. Allan McNish (Scotland)
secured the class pole position in the "king class” of the sports
prototypes with a mere 0.050 seconds gap in front of his team mate
Marco Werner (Germany).
Both Audi diesel sportscars on the fourth row of the grid
For all four Audi "works” drivers, the "downtown” track located on a
parkland island in the Detroit River is new territory – the "Belle Isle Detroit
Grand Prix” being a new addition to the ALMS calendar. After St.
Petersburg, Long Beach and Houston, it is the fourth and final street
circuit for the Audi R10 TDI this season.
Narrow “Belle Isle” track will make overtaking difficult
For the Audi team, it is a "home” race as well, because the main Audi of
America office is just 30 miles away in Auburn Hills. In two practice
sessions on Friday, the Audi drivers had the opportunity to learn the track,
but on the bumpy and twisty circuit within sight of the city of Detroit, they
could not match the speed of the lighter cars of the LM P2 category.
The race at Detroit starts Saturday at 3:15 p.m. local time (21:15 p.m. in
Germany) with a distance of 2:45 hours.
Quotes after qualifying
Allan McNish (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"It will be difficult for Audi to achieve outright success in the race with both
R10 TDI sportscars starting from the fourth row. This tight, slow ‘street’
circuit does not suit our diesel engined Audi which was designed for
tracks like Le Mans, featuring long straights and fast corners. Marco and I
got the best out of our car in qualifying. There was nothing more to come
from either of us – we’re a mere 0.050secs apart.”
Dindo Capello (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"Detroit is definitely an LM P2 race track with only two of these cars behind
us on the grid. Allan could have done no more in qualifying. Both Audi are
around two seconds slower than the pole-position time and that is a big
gap. We can only hope that we are closer to the LM P2 cars in the race
and that we can also achieve another LM P1 class victory for our
championship aspirations.”
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"Qualifying was disappointing as we are two seconds behind the fastest
car. The track is very difficult because it has a lot of bumps and our R10
TDI does not like this aspect at all. We drive with a high risk, many drivers
made mistakes. I spun in qualifying and some drivers have already
touched the walls. The race will be hard as overtaking on this narrow
track will be particularly difficult.”
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"It’s nice to be in Detroit in the home of Audi America. Unfortunately the
circuit is not ideal for our Audi and it is very difficult to match the pace of
the lighter LM P2 class cars. But I think both of the Audis did the best job
they could and minimized the gap in qualifying as much as possible.”
Dave Maraj (Team Director Audi Sport North America)
"Allan and Marco tried very hard, as did the entire Audi team, in attempting
to reduce the gap to the lighter LM P2 cars in practice and ultimately
qualifying but there is a limit to how much you can close up to those cars
and we reached it. We’ve tried everything, but our cars could not go any
faster – they just don’t suit this track. Normally the lap times between us
and LM P2 cars close a little in the race and we must hope that this
occurs again. Coping with traffic and keeping out of trouble will also play
a significant part of the race.”
The starting grid at Detroit
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