Porsche on overall Mid-Ohio pole

Maassen and Luhr, however, were promoted to pole after their teammates Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard were disqualified, as their No. 7 Porsche was found to be underweight in post-race inspection.

Bernhard set a lap of 1:12.378 while Maassen's lap was 1:12.815.

"It's unfortunate that there is only one Porsche in the front," Maassen said. "We are not very happy. The one nice thing is there is one Porsche there, and the second one will be back up front."

The Porsches dominated the weekend so far, setting the fastest time in all three prior practice sessions, and the Penske cars are now favourite to win tomorrow' race.

Lining up second on the grid - and fastest in the P1 class - is the Audi R8 of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.

"Our thoughts, as always, have been toward driving fast for the race, not just qualifying," McNish said. "Session to session, we were getting quicker because of the new surface. Getting [second] overall took a lot of work. It was the best we'll get out of the car.

"If you look at the lap times, with the traction control and weight of the LMP2 car, [The Porsches] stand a fighting chance of winning overall.

"They are able to take more out of the tires in the early laps. We'll run our race and run it flat out, but the pace of the Penske-Porsche is going to be faster than us."

Tomas Enge and Darren Turner took the GT1 pole position for Aston Martin Racing, beating the Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta by a mere 0.023.

"(The goal) was to go as fast as possible and get a clean lap," Enge said. "We know our main competitors are going to be tough. We are quite lucky.

"I put everything into that lap. I saw that I was catching some traffic and knew it was going to be difficult to find any more speed. Luckily, it happened. It was a very close battle.

"This is the kind of track that suits our car a little more. This is more up-and-down, more flowing, slow corners and fast corners.

"I think that's why we are faster here. We are very close to each other. It will be very difficult to overtake someone.

"I think that will be the key to the race more than pit stops. But I think we are on the same level as they are. We just need to prove it."

Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister took pole in the GT2 class for Petersen Motorsports with a class record-breaking lap of 1:22.638 in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. This was Long's second career GT2 pole.

"With the track being new, we had a setup we needed to re-establish," said Long. "It hasn't been easy. The Ferrari somehow found a second between practice and made things difficult for us."

Pos Cl  Drovers              Make                 Time
 1. P2  Maassen/Luhr         Porsche RS Spyder    1:12.815
 2. P1  Capello/McNish       Audi R8              1:12.975 +  0.160
 3. P1  Weaver/Leitzinger    Lola B06/10 AER      1:13.091 +  0.276
 4. P2  Halliday/Field       Lola B05/40 AER      1:14.225 +  1.410
 5. P1  Dyson/Smith          Lola B06/10 AER      1:14.678 +  1.863
 6. P1  McMurry/Lewis        Lola EX257 AER       1:16.034 +  3.219
 7. P2  Bach/Cosmo           Courage C65 Mazda    1:18.630 +  5.815
 8. GT1 Turner/Enge          Aston Martin DBR9    1:18.857 +  6.042
 9. GT1 Beretta/Gavin        Corvette C6.R        1:18.880 +  6.065
10. GT1 Lamy/Sarrazin        Aston Martin DBR9    1:19.041 +  6.226
11. GT1 Fellows/OConnell     Corvette C6.R        1:19.044 +  6.229
12. P2  Devlin/Van der Steur Lola B2K/40 AER      1:19.941 +  7.126
13. GT2 Bergmeister/Long     Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  1:22.638 +  9.823
14. GT2 Melo/Salo            Ferrari 430 GT       1:22.686 +  9.871
15. GT2 van Overbeek/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  1:22.709 +  9.894
16. GT2 Maxwell/Brabham      Panoz Esperante GTLM 1:23.123 + 10.308
17. GT2 Milner/Jeannette     Panoz Esperante GTLM 1:23.283 + 10.468
18. GT2 Law/Neiman           Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  1:23.491 + 10.676
19. GT2 Rockenfeller/Graf    Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  1:24.164 + 11.349
20. GT2 Auberlen/Hand        BMW E46 M3           1:25.570 + 12.755
21. GT2 Marks/Sellers        BMW E46 M3           1:25.649 + 12.834
22. P2  Dumas/Bernhard       Porsche RS Spyder    1:12.378 -  0.437