Highcroft Acura take Laguna pole

A 1:10.103 lap moved Brabham onto provisional pole just before Jon Field caused a mid-session red flag by getting the Intersport Lola stuck in the sand trap on the edge of Turn 1.

Few managed to improve their times when the session resumed, so Brabham was able to hang on to the top spot.

Fernandez Racing's Luis Diaz then completed an all-Acura front row by leaping to second in the closing moments of qualifying. The Mexican pushed class champions Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas (Penske Porsche) down to third on the grid, and kept Acura's hopes of beating Porsche to the LMP2 manufacturers' championship alive - although Acura still need to take a one-two-three in class in tomorrow's race.

All four Acuras will start in the top five, with the de Ferran and Andretti Green cars qualifying ahead of the other two Penske Porsches.

As has been the case at most of the tighter tracks this season, the LMP1 Audis could not match the LMP2 cars in qualifying trim, and the two R10 TDis will share row five on the overall grid.

The new bio-diesel fuelled Eco Racing Radical failed to take part in the qualifying session following an oil leak in practice, leaving Hideki Noda and Andrew Prendeville to start at the back of the 34-car field.

Dirk Werner claimed GT2 pole for Farnbacher Loles Porsche by setting what proved to be an unbeatable new qualifying record time early on. Champions Jorg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler (Flying Lizard Porsche) eventually moved into second in class.

Tafel driver Dominik Farnbacher was the top Ferrari runner in third, as Risi's Mika Salo only managed fifth behind Flying Lizard's Patrick Pilet after a trip off the road at the Corkscrew.

In GT1, Jan Magnussen also set a new qualifying record as he beat Corvette teammate Oliver Gavin to the top spot in class.

Pos  Cl    Qualifying driver   Car                     Time
 1.  LMP2  David Brabham       Acura ARX-01b           1:10.103
 2.  LMP2  Luis Diaz           Acura ARX-01b           1:10.202
 3.  LMP2  Timo Bernhard       Porsche RS Spyder       1:10.351
 4.  LMP2  Gil de Ferran       Acura ARX-01B           1:10.451
 5.  LMP2  Tony Kanaan         Acura ARX-01b           1:10.567
 6.  LMP2  Sascha Maassen      Porsche RS Spyder       1:10.586
 7.  LMP2  Ryan Briscoe        Porsche RS Spyder       1:10.606
 8.  LMP2  Guy Smith           Porsche RS Spyder       1:11.010
 9.  LMP1  Emanuele Pirro      Audi R10 TDI            1:11.264
10.  LMP1  Lucas Luhr          Audi R10 TDI            1:11.825
11.  LMP2  Butch Leitzinger    Porsche RS Spyder       1:12.089
12.  LMP1  Johnny Mowlem       Ginetta-Zytek 07S       1:12.819
13.  LMP2  Ben Devlin          Mazda Lola B07-46       1:13.321
14.  LMP1  Jon Field           Lola B06/10 AER         1:13.379
15.  LMP1  Stephen Simpson     Creation CA07 Aim       1:13.481
16.  LMP1  Chris McMurry       Creation CA07-002 Judd  1:14.549
17.  GT1   Jan Magnussen       Corvette C6.R           1:19.291
18.  GT1   Oliver Gavin        Corvette C6.R           1:19.790
19.  GT2   Dirk Werner         Porsche 911 GT3 RSR     1:22.060
20.  GT2   Jorg Bergmeister    Porsche 911 GT3 RSR     1:22.380
21.  GT2   Dominik Farnbacher  Ferrari 430 GT          1:22.701
22.  GT2   Patrick Pilet       Porsche 911 GT3 RSR     1:22.869
23.  GT2   Mika Salo           Ferrari 430 GT          1:22.962
24.  GT2   Pierre Kaffer       Ferrari 430 GT          1:23.243
25.  GT2   Nic Jonsson         Ferrari 430 GT          1:23.928
26.  GT2   Joey Hand           Panoz Esperante         1:24.084
27.  GT2   Nicky Pastorelli    Porsche 911 GT3 RSR     1:24.111
28.  GT2   Jonny Cocker        Aston Martin Vantage    1:24.626
29.  GT2   Anthony Lazzaro     Doran Ford GT-R         1:24.711
30.  GT2   David Murry         Doran Ford GT-R         1:24.727
31.  GT2   Pierre Ehret        Ferrari 430 GT          1:24.970
32.  GT2   Chris Hall          Dodge Viper Comp Coupe  1:26.124
33.  GT2   Seth Neiman         Porsche 911 GT3 RSR     1:26.704
34.  LMP1  Hideki Noda         Radical SR10 AER