No.2 Audi penalised after qualifying

The Audi pair have been put back to ninth on the grid due to the penalty, which was awarded for corner cutting.

Two new chicanes have been added to the Lime Rock track this year in a bid to slow the short but fast 1.5 mile circuit amid concerns over the American Le Mans Series cars' rising speeds. But the kerbing at the new sections broke up during qualifying, allowing drivers to straight-line the corners.

Luhr was adjudged to have missed the chicane on his fastest lap, but felt the officials had unfairly singled him out. He believes that few drivers were actually following the correct course.

"In my point of view this is no real race track right now," said Luhr. "And I'm very upset about the punishment.

"I would like to see the TV pictures. If I was really the only one to drive through the chicane like this, then the punishment is okay. But I don't believe this was the case."

His co-driver Werner was similarly outraged by the penalty.

"The problem on this track is the new chicanes and the kerbs," said Werner. "It's all about cutting: If they don't see you doing this you are in front.

"This is not the competition we like to have. This is lottery. We knew that this would not really be our track, but we could have had a much better starting position."

The No.2 Audi's penalty means that the Penske Porsches now share row two of the grid behind the Highcroft and de Ferran Acuras, and that the No.1 Audi of Emanuele Pirro and Dindo Capello moves up to LMP1 pole in eighth overall, one place ahead of Luhr and Werner.