Biela excluded from Texas ALMS pole

That means that the Audi R8 the German shares with Emanuele Pirro will start the race from the back of the grid and that his team mate Dindo Capello moves on to the pole position.

The original pole time was struck out when the number two Audi's diffuser was found to be in excess of the permitted height. No measurements have been released.

Audi motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang said: "These are the rules and we have to accept them, even though it would not have made any difference to Frank's lap time. We measured the car this morning and it was okay. We haven't changed anything, but we learnt that in future we must measure the car immediately before qualifying."

Pirro believes that he and Biela can still win the ALMS opener. "It will make it harder," he said, "but anything can happen in these races. It's not nice to be disqualified, but everyone knows that we weren't cheating. This was just a mistake."