Peugeot dominates first practice
Peugeot took a one-two in Thursday morning practice as the 2009 Petit Le Mans weekend got underway at Road Atlanta
Stephane Sarrazin's early 1m08.138s run in the car he shares with Franck Montagny proved unbeatable, and for much of the hour that time put the French duo well over a second clear of the field.
The sister #07 car of Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian eventually recovered to second - having caused a long red flag halt when it stopped on track on only its fourth lap and had to be recovered to the pits.
Scott Dixon won a very close battle with the two Audis to put the De Ferran Acura in third place, a second behind Sarrazin's time but within a tenth of Lamy and Minassian.
Audi changed the #1 car's chassis overnight as a precaution following Lucas Luhr's off-course excursion in yesterday's test. The German was fourth this morning ahead of team-mate Dindo Capello.
ORECA's Romain Dumas shrugged off an early spin to take sixth ahead of the LMP1 championship leading Highcroft Acura.
Guy Smith topped LMP2 for Dyson ahead of the Fernandez Acura. The second Dyson Lola-Mazda sat out the session following an engine issue yesterday.
BMW remained in control of GT2, with Dirk Muller topping the class by half a second - the same margin that covered the next seven cars.
The session passed with relatively little incident, but did come to an end a few seconds early so that the Eco Radical could be towed back after stopping on the circuit.
Pos Drivers Cl Car Time 1. Sarrazin/Montagny P1 Peugeot 1m08.138s 2. Minassian/Lamy P1 Peugeot 1m09.042s 3. De Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon P1 Acura 1m09.235s 4. Luhr/Werner P1 Audi 1m09.290s 5. Capello/McNish P1 Audi 1m09.351s 6. Panis/Lapierre/Dumas P1 ORECA 1m10.319s 7. Brabham/Sharp/Franchitti P1 Acura 1m10.380s 8. Field/Field P1 Lola 1m10.403s 9. Dyson/Smith P2 Lola-Mazda 1m11.609s 10. Fernandez/Diaz P2 Acura 1m11.974s 11. Pickett/Graf/Maassen P2 Porsche 1m12.669s 12. Drayson/Cocker/Bell P1 Lola 1m12.799s 13. Burgess/McMurry/Willman P1 Lola 1m13.542s 14. Muller/Milner/Muller GT2 BMW 1m20.975s 15. Bergmeister/Long/Lieb GT2 Porsche 1m21.498s 16. Melo/Kaffer/Salo GT2 Ferrari 1m21.595s 17. Hand/Auberlen/Priaulx GT2 BMW 1m21.610s 18. Magnussen/O'Connell/Garcia GT2 Corvette 1m21.645s 19. Farnbacher/James GT2 Panoz 1m21.713s 20. Sutherland/Drissi/Bell GT2 Riley Corvette 1m21.864s 21. Henzler/Werner GT2 Porsche 1m21.933s 22. Murry/Robertson/Robertson GT2 Doran Ford 1m22.422s 23. Beretta/Gavin/Fassler GT2 Corvette 1m22.698s 24. Sellers/Cicero GT2 Porsche 1m22.834s 25. Feinberg/Hall GT2 Dodge 1m22.844s 26. Law/van Overbeek/Neiman GT2 Porsche 1m23.049s 27. Noda/Balbiani/von Moltke P1 Radical 1m25.541s
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