McNish leads Audi front row
Allan McNish put Audi back on top in qualifying for the Elkhart Lake round of the American Le Mans Series
The Scot earned the R10 TDi's first overall pole since the season-opener at Sebring in March.
He will lead an all-Audi front row, beating teammate Marco Werner by just under four tenths of a second.
McNish said he was not surprised that Audi had returned to form at the sweeping four mile Road America circuit, after the team had struggled to match the nimble LMP2 cars in recent rounds.
"The circuit is obviously bigger and faster than normal compared to what we have had previously," he said.
"We knew we would be more competitive, and there have been some developments with our car. When we talk about changing the car, we're not talking about a lot. But little details do add up.
"We think about the whole race weekend as a unit and we've explored it deeper than we ever have before.
"From a team perspective, it is very important to have this pole position. Everyone is standing a bit taller than they were before and they are more confident and upbeat."
The Penske Porsches will share row two, with top LMP2 qualifier Romain Dumas just over a second slower than McNish. The Highcroft and Andretti-Green Acuras complete the top six.
Doran Racing's Maserati gave the factory Corvettes some welcome competition in GT1, but the GM team still took another one-two in qualifying. Jan Magnussen outpaced teammate Olivier Beretta by 0.086 seconds, with the Maserati nine tenths adrift.
In GT2, Risi's Jaime Melo led a one-two-three for the Ferrari 430.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Allan McNish Audi R10 TDI 1:47.665 2. Marco Werner Audi R10 TDI 1:48.036 + 0.371 3. Romain Dumas Porsche RS Spyder 1:48.833 + 1.168 4. Ryan Briscoe Porsche RS Spyder 1:49.117 + 1.452 5. David Brabham Acura ARX-01a 1:49.767 + 2.102 6. Marino Franchitti Acura ARX-01a 1:50.100 + 2.435 7. Guy Smith Porsche RS Spyder 1:50.311 + 2.646 8. Luis Diaz Acura Lola BO6 1:51.265 + 3.600 9. Andy Wallace Porsche RS Spyder 1:51.289 + 3.624 10. Jamie Bach Mazda Lola B07-40 1:52.877 + 5.212 11. Jon Field Creation CA06H Judd 1:53.544 + 5.879 12. Greg Pickett AER Lola B06-10 1:55.249 + 7.584 13. Michael Lewis Lola EX257 AER 1:55.707 + 8.042 14. Jan Magnussen Corvette C6-R 2:00.973 + 13.308 15. Olivier Beretta Corvette C6-R 2:01.059 + 13.394 16. Didier Theys Maserati MC 12 2:01.978 + 14.313 17. Jaime Melo Ferrari 430 GT 2:07.191 + 19.526 18. Dirk Mueller Ferrari 430 GT 2:07.609 + 19.944 19. Gianmaria Bruni Ferrari 430 GT 2:07.858 + 20.193 20. Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:08.162 + 20.497 21. Tom Milner Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:08.630 + 20.965 22. Joey Hand Panoz Esperante 2:09.055 + 21.390 23. Robin Liddell Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:09.629 + 21.964 24. Dominik Farnbacher Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:09.740 + 22.075
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