Bernhard beats de Ferran to pole
Penske Porsche's Timo Bernhard prevented Gil de Ferran from taking a remarkable pole position on his return to motorsport in the American Le Mans Series qualifying session at Miller Motorsports Park
De Ferran - whose de Ferran Motorsport Acura is making its debut at the Salt Lake City circuit this weekend - had been fastest in testing and practice, and held provisional pole for most of today's qualifying session.
But on his final lap Bernhard beat de Ferran's benchmark by 0.139 seconds, the Penske driver lapping in 1:31.050.
De Ferran went off the road as he tried to respond, but will still start from the outside of the front row for his first race since the 2003 IndyCar Series finale.
"That's what qualifying's all about - no holding back," said de Ferran. "We were on a good lap until I spun. Nature is such that I would have been happier with P1, but P2 is a great reward for all the guys here and everyone's efforts to dates. Congratulations to Timo for beating me."
LMP2 cars dominated the leading positions, with Luis Diaz (Fernandez Acura) and David Brabham (Highcroft Acura) grabbing the row two places late in the session, and Bernhard's Penske teammate Pat Long completing the top five.
Audi's Marco Werner was the fastest LMP1 driver in sixth, while his teammate Frank Biela took eighth behind Dyson Porsche driver Butch Leitzinger, and just of Christian Fittipaldi in the Andretti-Green Acura and Leitzinger's teammate Guy Smith.
Wolf Henzler earned GT2 pole for Flying Lizard Porsche despite Risi Ferrari's Jaime Melo equalling his time in a thrillingly close end to the GT session.
Melo had to dig very deep to get on terms with Henzler, having been pushed down to fourth as Porsche teams initially dominated the class battle. But on his final lap, Melo leapt up the order with a 1:47.135 - exactly equal to Henzler's provisional pole time. As the German had set his lap first, he will start on pole.
Henzler's teammate Patrick Pilet was third in class, ahead of the Farnbacher Loles Porsche of Marc Basseng, and Dominik Farnbacher's Tafel Ferrari.
Olivier Beretta beat teammate Johnny O'Connell by 0.175 seconds in the all-Corvette GT1 contest.
Pos Cl Qualifying driver Car Time 1. P2 Timo Bernhard Porsche RS Spyder 1:31.050 2. P2 Gil de Ferran Acura ARX-01B 1:31.189 + 0.139 3. P2 Luis Diaz Acura ARX-01b 1:31.342 + 0.292 4. P2 David Brabham Acura ARX-01b 1:31.352 + 0.302 5. P2 Patrick Long Porsche RS Spyder 1:31.462 + 0.412 6. P1 Marco Werner Audi R10 TDI 1:31.590 + 0.540 7. P2 Butch Leitzinger Porsche RS Spyder 1:31.683 + 0.633 8. P1 Frank Biela Audi R10 TDI 1:31.797 + 0.747 9. P2 Christian Fittipaldi Acura ARX-01b 1:31.903 + 0.853 10. P2 Guy Smith Porsche RS Spyder 1:32.356 + 1.306 11. P1 Jon Field Lola B06/10 AER 1:34.870 + 3.820 12. P2 Ben Devlin Mazda Lola B07-46 1:35.241 + 4.191 13. GT1 Olivier Beretta Corvette C6.R 1:43.869 + 12.819 14. GT1 Johnny O'Connell Corvette C6.R 1:44.044 + 12.994 15. GT2 Wolf Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:47.135 + 16.085 16. GT2 Jaime Melo Ferrari 430 GT 1:47.135 + 16.085 17. GT2 Patrick Pilet Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:47.252 + 16.202 18. GT2 Marc Basseng Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:47.338 + 16.288 19. GT2 Dominik Farnbacher Ferrari 430 GT 1:47.958 + 16.908 20. GT2 Harrison Brix Ferrari 430 GT 1:48.330 + 17.280 21. GT2 Gunnar Jeannette Ferrari 430 GT 1:48.399 + 17.349 22. GT2 Tommy Milner Panoz Esperante 1:49.039 + 17.989 23. GT2 Eric Curran Riley Corvette C6 1:49.057 + 18.007 24. GT2 Alex Figge Ferrari 430 GT 1:49.928 + 18.878 25. GT2 David Murry Doran Ford GT Mk.VII 1:50.433 + 19.383 26. GT2 Nicky Pastorelli Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:50.893 + 19.843 27. GT2 Jonny Cocker Aston Martin Vantage 1:51.743 + 20.693 28. GT2 Seth Neiman Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:52.054 + 21.004
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