Mid-Ohio: Biela, Pirro claim victory
Mistakes by the Joest Audi team in the American Le Mans Series race at Mid-Ohio nearly won the race for Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, and nearly lost the race for Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro. In the end, however, the mistakes cancelled each other out and Pirro, in the number one Audi R8, took the flag first as team-mate Kristensen coasted to a stop on the front straight, out of fuel.
The first mistake came as Kristensen didn't bring the car in for its second pit stop when a full-course caution ended sooner than expected. That left the No. 2 car in the lead, but needing to run an hour and 34 minutes on a single load of fuel. At the same time, as the caution ended, Pirro let Panoz driver Jan Magnussen slip by, dropping to third. Pirro had led from the drop of the green to that point.
Another caution, with 36 minutes left in the two-hour-and-45-minute race, caused when Randy Pobst and Lucas Luhr collided while battling for the GT lead, let the cars bunch up. Kristensen still didn't pit, the team gambling on being able to make it to the end. With the cars bunched up, Pirro was able to get back by Magnussen, although the Panoz suffered some damage in the process.
Pirro then proceeded to pursue Kristensen, getting within a few seconds of the lead Audi, but Kristensen was able to hold him off until the car spluttered in Mid-Ohio's Thunder Valley on the final lap. Pirro got by and Kristensen coasted across the finish line, just before Magnussen, who was teamed with David Brabham.
Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro Audi R8 LMP 900 111 laps
Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen Audi R8 LMP 900 +6.248sec
Jan Magnussen/David Brabham Panoz LMP-1 LMP 900 +24.955
Bryan Herta/Bill Auberlen Panoz LMP-1 LMP 900 +40.230
Weaver/Dyson/Leitzinger Riley & Scott MkIIIA-Lincoln LMP 900 109
Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GTS 106
Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GTS 105
Milka Duno/Scott Maxwell Panoz LMP07-Mugen LMP 900 104
Joel Field/Mark Neuhaus Lola B2K40-Judd LMP 900 103
Johnny Herbert/Stefan Johansson Audi R8 LMP 900 102
Share Or Save This Story
Ogier: Portugal WRC loss “hard to accept” after late puncture
BTCC Brands Hatch: Ingram takes first win of 2026 in race three
"It's only going to get better" - How Audi is responding to rocky start to F1 2026
BTCC Brands Hatch: Taylor-Smith takes shock win aboard Toyota in race two
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments