ALMS:Werner takes pole for Petit Le Mans

[Plex]

Marco Werner was one of several drivers to shatter the Road Atlanta lap record as he took pole position for Petit Le Mans.

Audi are hoping that the long race will play into their hands more than most of the shorter events have this year, but they will still come under pressure from the LMP2 cars, as Romain Dumas put his Porsche alongside the Audi on the front row.

"For us it is very important to win another race overall," said Werner, who will share with Emanuele Pirro. "It would be very big and very nice to break Porsche's string, and long races I hope are the right direction for us."

Dumas was happy with the speed of the Penske-run Porsche though, and he believes that there is more to come from the car.

"I am glad we are nearly on the pace of Audi," he said. "I pushed really hard but lost some time because I was too slow through one of the corners."

The second row of the grid mirrors the first, as the second Audi R10 of Allan McNish and Dindo Capello lines up just ahead of the second Penske Porsche, while the third row of the grid is occupied by two Acuras.

Corvette Racing suffered a shock defeat in GT1 qualifying, as Andrea Bertolini gave Maserati its first pole position in the ALMS. Despite his impressive pace though, the Italian is adamant that the Lista Doran team are only focused on finishing the race.

Jaime Melo took the GT2 pole for Risi Competizione, as less than half a second covered the top five cars in the class.

Autosport