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Highcroft Acura take pole in Detroit

Highcroft driver David Brabham beat De Ferran Motorsports' Simon Pagenaud to pole position for the Detroit round of the American Le Mans Series - just hours after it was announced that the two teams would spearhead Acura's graduation to the LMP1 class next year

Brabham took his second outright pole of the year by 0.177 seconds, having edged ahead of Pagenaud by 0.085 seconds in the middle of the session and then improved his time further with his final lap.

The result was particularly significant on a day when Highcroft's LMP2 title rivals Penske Porsche could only manage sixth on the grid, after class championship leader Timo Bernhard missed the first part of qualifying with a misfire. His teammate Pat Long will line up one place further back.

Dyson Porsche's Guy Smith interrupted what would have been an all-Acura top four by qualifying a superb third, ahead of Adrian Fernandez (Fernandez Racing) and Franck Montagny (Andretti Green Racing).

As expected, the LMP1 Audis struggled to match the LMP2 cars in qualifying trim on this tight circuit. The Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr R10 TDi will start on LMP1 class pole, but was only eighth fastest overall.

The combination of the twisty track and slightly slippery conditions following a pre-session rain shower allowed the GT2 leaders to get amongst the top GT1 cars. Jan Magnussen eventually emerged fastest in his GT1 Corvette, but three GT2 cars will separate him and co-driver Johnny O'Connell from teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta on the grid.

The GT2 battle was extremely close-fought, with class pole changing hands countless times before Wolf Henzler put the Flying Lizard Porsche on top by just 0.037 seconds from Risi Ferrari's Jaime Melo. Dirk Muller took third in the Tafel Ferrari having also briefly held provisional pole.

Pos  Cl   Qualifying Driver  Car                   Time
 1.  P2   David Brabham      Acura ARX-01b         1:13.483 
 2.  P2   Simon Pagenaud     Acura ARX-01B         1:13.660  + 0.177
 3.  P2   Guy Smith          Porsche RS Spyder     1:14.209  + 0.726
 4.  P2   Adrian Fernandez   Acura ARX-01b         1:14.380  + 0.897
 5.  P2   Franck Montagny    Acura ARX-01b         1:14.446  + 0.963
 6.  P2   Timo Bernhard      Porsche RS Spyder     1:14.598  + 1.115
 7.  P2   Patrick Long       Porsche RS Spyder     1:15.476  + 1.993
 8.  P1   Marco Werner       Audi R10 TDI          1:15.879  + 2.396
 9.  P1   Marcel Fassler     Audi R10 TDI          1:15.923  + 2.440
10.  P2   Marino Franchitti  Porsche RS Spyder     1:16.554  + 3.071
11.  P2   Ben Devlin         Mazda Lola B07-46     1:16.742  + 3.259
12.  P1   Clint Field        Lola B06/10 AER       1:23.307  + 9.824
13.  GT1  Jan Magnussen      Corvette C6.R         1:24.477  + 10.994
14.  GT2  Wolf Henzler       Porsche 911 GT3 RSR   1:24.941  + 11.458
15.  GT2  Jaime Melo         Ferrari 430 GT        1:24.978  + 11.495
16.  GT2  Dirk Mueller       Ferrari 430 GT        1:25.270  + 11.787
17.  GT1  Oliver Gavin       Corvette C6.R         1:25.501  + 12.018
18.  GT2  Patrick Pilet      Porsche 911 GT3 RSR   1:25.770  + 12.287
19.  GT2  Robert Bell        Ferrari 430 GT        1:26.627  + 13.144
20.  GT1  Terry Borcheller   Aston Martin DBR9     1:26.676  + 13.193
21.  GT2  Tom Milner         Panoz Esperante       1:27.232  + 13.749
22.  GT2  Martin Ragginger   Porsche 911 GT3 RSR   1:27.444  + 13.961
23.  GT2  Jonny Cocker       Aston Martin Vantage  1:27.961  + 14.478
24.  GT2  Marc Basseng       Porsche 911 GT3 RSR   1:28.075  + 14.592
25.  GT2  Anthony Lazzaro    Doran Ford GT-R       1:29.391  + 15.908
26.  GT2  Jim Tafel          Ferrari 430 GT        1:30.694  + 17.211
27.  GT2  David Murry        Doran Ford GT-R       1:31.013  + 17.530

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