McNish takes provisional pole at a damp Las Vegas
Allan McNish claimed provisional pole position for Sunday's 11th round of the American Le Mans Series at the Las Vegas "roval".
The Audi driver went to the top of the timesheets right at the end of a rain-affected first qualifying session at the Nevada circuit, which includes parts of the NASCAR oval and section of infield road course.
ALMS points leader McNish, who set his time on grooved intermediate tyres, explained that light rain turned first qualifying into a lottery. "The times were very much dependent on where it was raining," said the 30-year-old Scot. "You had no idea of how wet it was going to be in any given corner."
Jan Magnussen followed McNish across the line to claim second place in the prototype times. The factory Panoz driver ended up six tenths of a second slower than the pole winner, who was eight seconds outside the lap record.
Third fastest was Frank Biela in the second of the two Joest-run Audi R8s. The intermittent rain during prototype qualifying meant that Ron Fellows' pole-winning GTS time was good enough for fourth place overall on the provisional grid. The Chevrolet Corvette driver outpaced the best of the Dodge Vipers driven by Olivier Beretta to claim what could become his fifth class pole of the season.
Beretta's time was good enough for sixth fastest in session, four tenths behind Johnny O'Connell in the second of the two Panoz Roadsters. Mimmo Schiattarella was a further half a second behind in seventh place aboard his prototype Lola-Judd.
Lucas Luhr claimed provisional pole in the GT division in his Dick Barbour Racing Porsche. The German outpaced team mate and fellow countryman Sascha Maassen by just under five tenths of a second.
Final qualifying takes place on Saturday evening, 22:25BST.
1 Allan McNish (Audi R8) 1m12.888s
2 Jan Magnussen (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 1m13.477
3 Frank Biela (Audi R8) 1m13.710s
4 Ron Fellows (Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, GTS) 1m14.864s
5 Johnny O'Connell (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 1m14.909s
6 Olivier Beretta (Dodge Viper GTS-R) 1m15.230s
GT Lucas Luhr (Porsche 911 GT3-R) 1m13.389s
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