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Who can stop Audi at Laguna Seca?

Audi's surge towards the top of the ALMS points standings finally reached the summit two weeks ago when Allan McNish took the lead in the championship for the first time this year with a win at Road Atlanta's Petit Le Mans showpiece

The Scot heads to round 10 at Laguna Seca this weekend on 210 points, eight ahead of his Audi co-driver Rinaldo Capello. The Audis have steam-rollered their way to five consecutive wins with teutonic-style efficiency and there is little to suggest that either the consistent BMWs or persistent Panoz cars will be able to stop the Ingolstadt machines in California this weekend.

"It's good to be leading the drivers' championship," said McNish, "but with 25 points on offer to the winner of the next two races, the standings can have a totally different look about them come the end of the month.

"I love Laguna, especially the corkscrew. It's an extermely fast, steep, downhill section - ride over a curb and unbalance the car and you're in big, big trouble."

The impressively consistent run of Jorg Muller and JJ Lehto's BMW V12 LMR finally came to an end in Atlanta following a late spin that demoted the pair to fifth place in the Petit Le Mans race. Such has been the pace of the Audis in recent rounds that it has been more a case of when McNish and co will catch the BMWs, rather than if.

The Panoz of David Brabham and Jan Magnussen has looked like a contender all season and while taking the championship is now unlikely, the pace of the Roadster S will still put the lead Panoz pairing towards the sharp end around the spectacular 2.238-mile Laguna track. Magnussen and Brabham head to Monterrey as the best of the rest behind the Audis and BMWs in seventh and eighth place in the standings, followed by the second Panoz duo of Hiroki Katoh and Johnny O'Connell in ninth and 10th respectively.

The battle in the GTS class continues to be Dodge versus Chevrolet, with the latter taking the upper hand in recent races. The Chevrolet Corvettes have won two of the last three rounds, with victories in Atlanta and Texas, and although the 'Vettes are well below the Dodges and the Porsches in the standings, the Vipers will be looking to reassert their authority this weekend.

Oliver Beretta and Karl Wendlinger are the clear leaders of the class in their Oreca-run Dodge Viper and while only two points separate the pair (with Beretta on 229 points and Wendlinger on 227), there is a 31-point gap to third-placed Oreca team mate Tommy Archer.

The GT class has also taken a recent twist and the battle for the lead has now closed right up. The contest remains exclusively between the Dick Barbour Racing Porsches: Dirk Muller still finds himself at the top of the standings, but Sacha Maassen in the rival DBR 911 GT3-R is only five points behind. After taking the class win in Atlanta, Maassen and team mate Lucas Luhr will head to Laguna Seca as the in-form favourites.

The race starts at 2030 (BST) and Autosport.com will bring you all the action and news as it happens.

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