St. Peterburg - April 4, 2008
After a stunning lap in qualifying, the Audi R10 TDI will head into the
race at St Petersburg (US state of Florida) from pole position. In
Friday’s qualifying session on the street circuit, Marco Werner
achieved a lap 0.753s ahead of his closest opponent. Thus the Audi
R10 TDI has scored its second consecutive pole position in as many
American Le Mans Series races this season.
In his third lap, German driver Marco Werner set a stunning lap time of
1m 02.825s. This was one second quicker than any other car in any
previous practice session, and 0.753s clear of Frenchman Romain
Dumas in his LM P2 Porsche RS Spyder on second spot in qualifying.
Thus, the Audi R10 TDI #2 achieved pole position at St Petersburg for the
first time, beating Allan McNish’s 2007 LM P1 best time (1m 03.415s) by
a margin of 0.6 seconds. In doing so, the Audi R10 TDI also achieved a
new LM P1 track record for the 1.8 mile circuit in downtown St Petersburg.
In the 25-month racing history of the Audi R10 TDI, this was the tenth
overall pole position.
While Marco Werner’s lap time has been acclaimed as an extraordinary
and unexpected performance on this temporary track that is not perfectly
suited to the strengths of the TDI powered prototype, Frank Biela’s ninth
best lap time of 1m 04.577s was the result of several aspects that need
to be taken into account. In the searing heat with ambient temperatures of
31 degrees Celsius and track temperatures of 46 degrees, the team of
the Audi R10 TDI #1 went for a harder tyre compound with regard to the
1h55 race on Saturday. In addition, it was Frank Biela’s first encounter
with this street track.
An accident of an opponent and red flags in the dying minutes of the
previous free practice prevented him from trying a different set-up in
preparation of qualifying.
The all-German duo Marco Werner/Lucas Luhr will line up first on the grid
on Saturday at 01:25 pm local time (19:05 pm in Germany), with the sister
car of the Italian-German combination Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela will
start from fifth row.
Quotes after the qualifying at St Petersburg
Lucas Luhr (Audi R10 TDI #2): "First of all, I am really happy for the team
and also for Audi. It is a very important pole position for us after the
unlucky situation at Sebring. Marco did a fantastic job. Congratulations, I
tip my hat. He really did an awesome lap. I am really happy as we have
the best starting position for what will hopefully be a successful race.”
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2): "That was a really good qualifying
session! I pushed hard and I am proud for Champion Racing and Audi to
be on pole position. Thanks to the whole team for their work. I like this
circuit – to be quick on this circuit, you have to like it. I found a really good
peak in the tyres’ performance. Thanks a lot to Michelin. When I went for
another quick lap, there was a drop of the tyres’ performance. The car
started sliding and I spun in turn eight.”
Frank Biela (Audi R10 TDI #1): "I’m definitely not satisfied. It is the first
time that I’m here and it was not so easy to adapt to everything. Plus, we
had a little lack of grip in slow corners. We have to find out why this was
the case and to sort it out by tomorrow on race day.”
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #1): "First of all, Marco produced an
incredible lap. This is very very good for the team and for Audi. It’s a
fantastic day. Regarding our car, we went for a different tyre choice and for
a harder compound which I think is a better choice for the race. But this is
not all. We’ve got something to find out to have a good performance for
tomorrow.”
Dave Maraj (Director Audi Sport Team North America): "I’m extremely
surprised that we are on pole position and that we have achieved a time
like that. I think that Marco did an extremely good job, the engineers and
the team did also a great job getting the car to work well. I’m really very
happy. Now, we’ve got to reach a good result tomorrow.”
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