No.1 Audi awarded Sebring pole
Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen will start the Sebring 12 Hours from pole position thanks to their best practice time after qualifying was declared null and void
The prototype session had to be red-flagged after just seven minutes when Ben Devlin had a heavy accident in the BK Motorsports Lola-Mazda.
There was insufficient time to clear the debris and restart qualifying, so under American Le Mans Series rules as less than 10 minutes of qualifying had taken place the grid was instead set by combined practice times.
Peugeot's Stephane Sarrazin had just knocked McNish off provisional pole when the session was stopped, but the positions were reversed on the official grid once practice times had been adopted.
Despite being moved up to pole position, McNish was frustrated that the full session had not been possible.
"We were hoping to see qualifying. We didn't really get a fair opportunity to see what the cars could do," McNish said.
"That would be the first time any of us could see the improvements in the Peugeot and new Acura."
Sarrazin and teammates Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy will start second for Peugeot, ahead of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner in the No.2 Audi.
The Penske Porsches and all three Acuras had looked set to start at the back of the grid having failed to set a time before Devlin's crash. But the switch to practice times offered them a reprieve, with the Penske cars moving up to the top of the LMP2 field in fourth and fifth overall.
Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard will start from the class pole, while Dyson Racing lose their LMP2 one-two and drop to fourth and sixth in class, behind the Fernandez Acura and split by the Andretti-Green entry.
Devlin had been third in LMP2 and seventh overall when he had his dramatic accident, which ended with the severely damaged Lola-Mazda perched atop the Turn 1 tyre barrier. The British driver escaped injury in the crash and has dropped to 14th on the grid.
The loss of qualifying did not affect the class poles in GT1 or GT2. Jan Magnussen beat Corvette teammate Oliver Gavin to the GT1 top spot in both practice and qualifying, while Jaime Melo's Risi Ferrari remained the car to beat in GT2.
Provisional grid positions:
Pos Drivers Car Time 1. Capello/McNish/Kristensen Audi R10 TDI 1:43.195 2. Minassian/Sarrazin/Lamy Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 1:44.271 3. Luhr/Werner/Rockenfeller Audi R10 TDI 1:45.090 4. Dumas/Bernhard/Collard Porsche RS Spyder 1:45.220 5. Maassen/Long/Briscoe Porsche RS Spyder 1:45.999 6. Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b 1:46.356 7. Leitzinger/Franchitti/Lally Porsche RS Spyder 1:46.348 8. Herta/Fittipaldi/Andretti Acura ARX-01b 1:46.665 9. Field/Dayton/Berry Lola B06/10 AER 1:47.358 10. Dyson/Smith Porsche RS Spyder 1:47.567 11. Brabham/Sharp/Johansson Acura ARX-01b 1:47.819 12. Lienhard/Theys/Lammers Porsche RS Spyder 1:48.522 13. Barazi/Vergers/Ravier Zytek 07S 1:49.820 14. Bonilla/Devlin/Matos Mazda Lola B07-46 1:49.966 15. McMurry/Willman/Burgess Creation CA06H Judd 1:53.851 16. O'Connell/Magnussen/Fellows Corvette C6.R 1:56.269 17. Gavin/Beretta/Papis Corvette C6.R 1:56.547 18. Borcheller/Ducote/Garcia Aston Martin DBR9 2:00.730 19. Salo/Melo/Bruni Ferrari 430 GT 2:01.184 20. Farnbacher/Muller/Bell Ferrari 430 GT 2:01.800 21. Bergmeister/Henzler/Lieb Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:01.831 22. Tafel/Simonsen/Ehret Ferrari 430 GT 2:02.227 23. Van Overbeek/Pilet/Lietz Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:02.238 24. Werner/Basseng/Miller Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:03.147 25. Gigliotti/Peterson/Goossens Riley Corvette C6 2:03.630 26. Alzen/Swartzbaugh/Stanton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:03.861 27. Hand/Milner/Sutherland Panoz Esperante 2:03.931 28. Neiman/Law/Davison Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 2:04.081 29. Drayson/Cocker/Sugden Aston Martin DBRS9 2:04.938 30. Krohn/Jonsson/van de Poele Ferrari 430 GT 2:05.619 31. Jeannette/Mowlem/Kelleners Ferrari 430 GT 2.05.666 32. Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper Comp Coupe 2:07.358 33. Konopka/Casadei Porsche 911 GT3 RS 2:14.059 34. Robertson/Robertson/Murry Doran Ford GT Mk.VII 2:06.527* * Failed to achieve minimum number of laps
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