ALMS: Mosport

[Plex]

Brabham claims pole at Mosport

David Brabham fended off Simon Pagenaud to put Highcroft Acura on pole for the Mosport Park round of the American Le Mans Series.

Buoyed by having ended the De Ferran team's winning streak at Elkhart Lake a fortnight ago, Brabham was dominant for much of prototype qualifying, leading the way by a second after his initial run and remaining on top thereafter.

Pagenaud gradually gained ground, and might have snatched pole away but for a violent ride over a kerb near the end of qualifying. The Frenchman had closed to within 0.074 seconds of Brabham, but had to settle for second.

"I don't think we ever showed what we could really do in practice, so we weren't too worried about that, but we knew it would be close in qualifying," said Brabham. "We were so, so close, and it just shows what a great race we're going to have."

The Dyson Lola-Mazdas took a commanding one-two in LMP2, although they will be split by the LMP1 Intersport Lola on the grid. Marino Franchitti claimed a second straight class pole in third overall, while the championship leading Fernandez Acura only managed third in class and sixth in the outright list.

Rahal Letterman BMW repeated the dominant GT2 form it had shown at Elkhart Lake, with Dirk Muller beating team-mate Joey Hand to class pole by 0.129s.

"It's a perfect result for BMW again," said Muller. "It didn't look so good yesterday [in practice] but we really went deep into the car, worked hard and it gave us a really good car. It's been perfect."

The two works Corvettes will line up behind the BMWs, as the usual Porsche and Ferrari front-runners all ran into problems. Wolf Henzler was third in qualifying for Farnbacher Loles Porsche, but will have to start at the back. He was due to be demoted under series rules as his team-mate Dirk Werner missed today's sessions to race in the Montreal Grand-Am event, and then had his times disallowed for a rear wing infringement anyway.

Although the championship-leading Flying Lizard Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister only managed fifth on the class grid, it is in far better shape than its title rival Risi Ferrari, which sat out the session after a heavy practice crash for Jaime Melo.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time
1. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX 02a 1m05.323s
2. P1 de Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX 02a 1m05.397s
3. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Lola B09 86 Mazda 1m06.379s
4. P1 Field/Field Lola B06/10 1m06.764s
5. P2 Dyson/Smith Lola B09 86 Mazda 1m06.853s
6. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01B 1m06.944s
7. P1 Burgess/McMurry Lola B06/10 1m10.613s
8. P2 van der Steur/Pecorari Radical SR9 1m11.391s
9. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW E92 M3 1m17.528s
10. GT2 Hand/Auberlen BMW E92 M3 1m17.657s
11. GT2 Beretta/Gavin Corvette C6.R 1m17.959s
12. GT2 Magnussen/O'Connell Corvette C6.R 1m18.309s
13. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 RSR 1m18.361s
14. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante 1m18.778s
15. GT2 Murry/Robertson/Robertson Doran Ford GT-R 1m19.208s
16. GT2 Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper 1m19.746s
17. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430
18. GT2 Law/van Overbeek Porsche 911 RSR 1m19.475s
19. GT2 Henzler/Werner Porsche 911 RSR

AutoSport

[Plex]

Highcroft takes dominant Mosport win

Highcroft Acura's David Brabham and Scott Sharp extended their American Le Mans Series LMP1 lead with an ultimately comfortable win over an ailing De Ferran Acura at Mosport Park.

Sharp was unable to hold on to his pole advantage at the start as Gil de Ferran and Intersport's Jon Field pushed him back to third.

Plucky privateer Field then attacked de Ferran, twice nosing into the lead during a frenetic opening stint. But his giantkilling run was shortlived, as a problem at the front of the car brought Field into the pits after just eight laps.

De Ferran was left with a comfortable lead over Sharp, who had his hands full fending off Marino Franchitti's LMP2 Dyson Lola-Mazda.

The flying Franchitti overtook Sharp to run second overall - which became a shock race lead after half an hour when de Ferran made the first of a string of pitstops to attend to low gearbox oil. Radio failure led to confusion in the stop, with de Ferran initially trying to get out of the car before being discouraged by his crew, and then going off the road on his out-lap.

De Ferran's problems also accounted for Franchitti, as the Scot's windscreen was covered in oil from the Acura as it went off ahead, forcing Franchitti to back off and then pit earlier than planned.

That left Sharp and Brabham free to take a comfortable victory, with de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud nursing their car home for second, two laps adrift.

Third and LMP2 victory ultimately went to Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz, allowing the Fernandez Acura duo to clinch the class title - despite Dyson having been quicker for most of the weekend.

The Chris Dyson/Guy Smith car had a heavy crash just before the one-hour mark, but Franchitti and team-mate Butch Leitzinger fought back to challenge Fernandez, getting ahead when the Mexican was penalised for pitlane speeding.

He recovered and closed back onto Leitzinger's tail, picking up the lead when the Lola-Mazda expired in a cloud of smoke with less than 15 minutes to go.

Corvette claimed its first GT2 win, with Jan Magnussen fending off a huge challenge from Risi Ferrari's Pierre Kaffer to clinch victory for himself and team-mate Johnny O'Connell.

The two Corvettes had hit the front early on, while Risi's Jaime Melo and Kaffer charged into contention following the Saturday crash that had left the Ferrari at the back of the grid.

Risi got ahead at the first pitstops, only to fall back behind both Corvettes when getting out of the way of a prototype shortly afterwards.

Kaffer repassed Magnussen for second, then retook the lead when Olivier Beretta had a quick trip off the road.

But it was Magnussen who emerged in front following the final pit visits, determinedly resisting all Kaffer's passing attempts as he rejoined just ahead on cold tyres. The battle raged throughout the closing stages, with Magnussen clinching the win by just 0.3s.

Beretta and Oliver Gavin completed a great day for Corvette with third, just ahead of the Farnbacher Loles Porsche.

Having dominated class qualifying, Rahal Letterman BMW's race fell apart early. Unfounded puncture fears prompted the #92 entry to pit prematurely, and it later retired with engine problems, while the #90 car was delayed by contact with the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche.

Autosport