ALMS: Audi on St Petersburg pole

[Plex]

Audi's Marco Werner claimed a surprise pole position for the St Petersburg round of the American Le Mans Series.

The German, who will share the No. 2 R10 TDi with Lucas Luhr, needed only three laps to take outright pole with a time of 1:02.825.

Werner's flying lap improved by three seconds over his practice times - Audi having trailed the LMP2 cars prior to qualifying - and also beat the existing lap record.

The other stars of qualifying were the Penske Porsche team, as Romain Dumas put the Sebring-winning No.7 machine on LMP2 pole and the outside of the overall front row despite the car being heavily damaged in a practice crash.

Dumas hit the wall avoiding a spinning GT2 Porsche in the free practice session that immediately preceded qualifying. But Penske were able to replace the right-rear corner while the GT cars qualified, allowing Dumas to take part in the prototype session and claim class pole.

David Brabham (Highcroft Acura) took third, 0.129 seconds behind Dumas, ahead of Sascha Maassen in the second Penske Porsche, and Marino Franchitti's Dyson Porsche.

Returnee Frank Biela could only manage ninth overall in the second Audi, 1.7 seconds slower than teammate Werner.

Olivier Beretta beat his Corvette teammate Johnny O'Connell by half a second in the GT1 class battle, while in GT2 a mighty effort by Wolf Henzler saw the Flying Lizard Porsche driver end Risi Ferrari's run of poles.

Risi driver Jaime Melo was 0.118 seconds slower in second, ahead of the Farnbacher Loles Porsche.

Autosport