Mid-Ohio, July 19th 2008
Marco Werner has set a new track record for LM P1 sports cars in an
exciting qualifying for the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series
at Mid-Ohio (US state of Ohio). On Friday, the German beat the previous
record by over a second.
On a track that traditionally favours the lighter LM P2 sports cars, Werner
showed a strong performance. Several times, the German set the best
time, before he dropped to fifth position in the final stages of the
20-minute qualifying session. Werner missed pole position by only 0.388
seconds and the front row by just 164 thousandths of a second.
The second Audi R10 TDI will start the race on Saturday from seventh
position of the grid. Dindo Capello was able to go on the track only after
ten minutes after being held in the pits by the race director – a late and
not uncontroversial penalty following a collision with a GT1 car last
weekend at Lime Rock.
The Audi drivers are confident for the race on Saturday. However, the two
Audi R10 TDI prototypes have to start at Mid-Ohio for a last time with a
nine-litre smaller fuel tank compared to the LM P2 sports cars. From the
next race at Road America, this handicap will be reduced to five litres.
The race at Mid-Ohio will begin at 2:10 p.m. local time (8:10 p.m. in
Germany) and runs over a distance of 2 hours 45 minutes.
Quotes after the qualifying at Mid-Ohio
Lucas Luhr (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"I am very positive because we are very close to the LM P2 cars and only
about three tenths away from pole. This has been quite different in the
past, especially on such tracks. We know that we tend to be much better
in the race than in qualifying. That gives us all confidence. Now we need
to fine-tune our set-up, then we should be well prepared for the race.”
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"I gave everything. It was fun and went well. I went quicker from lap to lap
as the tyres got better. The decision to swap the tyres from left to right in
the middle of the session was also right. We made another step. I’m
satisfied with my time, but not so much with fifth position. Nevertheless, it
looks good for the race. The first five cars are close together. In the race
we are usually running closer to the qualifying pace than the others.”
Dindo Capello (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"Having had only ten minutes for qualifying was a little bit too short,
especially as it takes a lot of time here to get the tyres to work. When I
saw 1m 08.9s I said: The trend is good. But then I had to back off twice
because of a Dyson-Porsche. At the end there was just not enough time
left. The car was much better than in the last session before the
qualifying. This makes me confident for the race.”
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"It was another very competitive qualifying as it has been the case in the
last races. We are not able to beat the light cars on a single lap. But this
time we are not very far away which is quite promising. Our car is 95
percent good. We’ll try some more things in the warm-up and then we’ll
have some hard work to come in the race.”
Dave Maraj (Team Director Audi Sport North America)
"It was a good qualifying effort. We are very close to the pole. But we have
our job to do tomorrow because due to our smaller fuel tank our strategy
must be good.”
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