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Audi tops Petit Le Mans test day

Audi struck the first blow on the official test day for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, with Allan McNish and Dindo Capello's #2 R15 TDI setting the pace by 0.169 seconds over Stephane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny's #08 Peugeot 908

All three of the major LMP1 manufacturers had a car in the top three - Gil de Ferran, Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon taking third in the De Ferran Acura, 0.8s off the pace.

The session took place in dry and sunny conditions after the heavy rain that had affected the private tests in the preceding days.

McNish, who set the benchmark 1m08.308s lap, was pleased to be back at a competitive event as Audi's limited racing programme has meant he spent most of the year testing.

"It was nice to be in a session with other cars," he said. "The R15 TDI was pretty good. It's still not ideal with the circuit being so green after all the rain this past weekend. But we're somewhere in the ballpark.

"The configuration of the car is very much the same as Le Mans, and that wasn't much different from Sebring. But there is continual room for improvement."

Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy put the second Peugeot fourth, with the #1 Audi of Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner fifth having lost running following a trip off the road by Luhr. Highcroft Acura completed the top six.

The Butch Leitzinger, Ben Devlin and Marino Franchitti Dyson Lola-Mazda was the fastest LMP2 car, although class champion Fernandez Racing did not participate in the session.

The two Rahal Letterman BMWs topped the competitive GT2 field, ahead of the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche, the #3 Corvette and the Risi Ferrari.

Pos  Drivers                          Cl   Car             Time
 1.  Capello/McNish                   P1   Audi            1m08.308s
 2.  Sarrazin/Montagny                P1   Peugeot         1m08.477s
 3.  de Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon         P1   Acura           1m09.137s
 4.  Minassian/Lamy                   P1   Peugeot         1m09.234s
 5.  Luhr/Werner                      P1   Audi            1m09.821s
 6.  Brabham/Sharp/D.Franchitti       P1   Acura           1m10.127s
 7.  Panis/Lapierre/Dumas             P1   ORECA           1m10.309s
 8.  Field/Field                      P1   Lola            1m10.620s
 9.  Leitzinger/Franchitti/Devlin     P2   Lola-Mazda      1m11.624s
10.  Drayson/Cocker/Bell              P1   Lola            1m12.216s
11.  Pickett/Graf/Maassen             P2   Porsche         1m12.549s
12.  Dyson/Smith                      P2   Lola-Mazda      1m12.685s
13.  Burgess/McMurry/Willman          P1   Lola            1m14.013s
14.  Van der Steur/Pecorari/Pecorari  P2   Radical         1m16.220s
15.  Hand/Auberlen/Priaulx            GT2  BMW             1m21.574s
16.  Muller/Milner/Muller             GT2  BMW             1m21.798s
17.  Bergmeister/Long/Lieb            GT2  Porsche         1m21.838s
18.  Magnussen/O'Connell/Garcia       GT2  Corvette        1m22.056s
19.  Melo/Kaffer/Salo                 GT2  Ferrari         1m22.275s
20.  Law/van Overbeek/Neiman          GT2  Porsche         1m22.302s
21.  Sutherland/Drissi/Bell           GT2  Riley Corvette  1m22.774s
22.  Farnbacher/James                 GT2  Panoz           1m23.128s
23.  Beretta/Gavin/Fassler            GT2  Corvette        1m23.146s
24.  Noda/Balbiani/von Moltke         P1   Radical         1m23.530s
25.  Sellers/Cicero                   GT2  Porsche         1m24.060s
26.  Feinberg/Hall                    GT2  Dodge           1m24.143s
27.  Murry/Robertson/Robertson        GT2  Doran Ford      1m26.207s

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