Watkins Glen United SportsCar: Alex Brundle puts OAK Morgan on pole

The LMP2 cars had been expected to have the edge on the Daytona Prototypes at this track, with their lighter weight paying dividends around the fast- and medium-speed corners.

Brundle lapped in 1m37.902s, and managed three laps under the 1m38s barrier, which his rivals could not breach.

"I'd done so little running in practice the pressure was off in a way," said Brundle, who only managed five laps in practice on Friday.

"The laps just came together, although I did have a little struggle with the rear end, and had one big moment at Turn 6.

"But I think the battle will be completely and utterly different in the race. Far be it from me to say the opposition were sandbagging..."

Fittipaldi will start alongside him in the Action Express Corvette DP, with Michael Valiante third in the Spirit of Daytona 'Vette.

Scott Pruett was fourth in the Ganassi Riley-Ford, ahead of the second LMP2 of Scott Sharp (ESM HPD) in fifth.

GTLM was also topped by a Briton new to Watkins Glen. Andy Priaulx grabbed the pole for BMW. He outpaced Chevrolet's Jan Magnussen by three tenths of a second for his first USC class pole, with team-mate Dirk Muller third.

In the other classes, Colin Braun will start from PC pole ahead after outpacing Tom Kimber-Smith, and Leh Keen topped GTD in his Porsche.

Leading qualifying times:

Pos  Cl    Drivers                       Team/Car                    Time/b>
 1.  P     Yacaman/Brundle/Tung          OAK Morgan-Nissan           1m37.902s
 2.  P     Barbosa/Fittipaldi/Frisselle  Action Express Corvette DP  1m38.560s
 3.  P     Westbrook/Valiante            SDR Corvette                1m38.692s
 4.  P     Pruett/Rojas/Karam            Ganassi Riley-Ford          1m38.738s
 5.  P     Sharp/Dalziel                 Extreme Speed HPD           1m39.005s
 6.  P     Taylor/Taylor/Angelelli       Taylor Corvette             1m39.055s
 7.  P     Brown/van Overbeek/Lazzaro    Extreme Speed HPD           1m39.143s
 8.  P     Frisselle/Frisselle/Fogarty   Action Express Corvette DP  1m39.454s
 9.  P     Pew/Negri                     Shank Riley-Ford            1m40.128s
10.  P     Chaves/Legge                  DeltaWing                   1m40.538s
Other class poles:
11.  PC    Bennett/Braun/Gue             CORE FLM                    1m40.562s
13.  GTLM  Auberlen/Priaulx              RLL BMW                     1m44.084s
16.  GTD   MacNeil/Keen/Frommenwiler     Alex Job Porsche            1m48.831s