Qualifying: Audis restore status quo

In third place was Jan Magnussen's Panoz, a second and a half ahead of Andy Wallace in fourth in the Champion Audi R8.

"I wasn't very confident at first," said Capello, "because this is a high-speed circuit and it takes some practice to do well here. I didn't really drive the car much in practice."

Fifth place went to Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver in the second outing this season for the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott MkIII C. The new restrictor rules for privateers have given Dyson's Lincoln engine a sizeable horsepower boost and the new car may provide a few surprises in Sunday's race.

Didier de Radigues took his second consecutive LMP675 class pole in Dick Barbour Racing's Reynard-Judd, two and a half seconds quicker than Claudia Huertgen in the KnightHawk Lola-Nissan. Last year de Radigues broke a vertebra here when the steering failed on his Rafanelli Lola-Judd.

"I was scared after my crash last year," he said. "But I've had a lot of crashes in my career and you get over them. I have a very good new team mate in Bruno Lambert. He was setting quick times straight away."

Lambert, GT class winner here last year in the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R, will be partnering de Radigues for the remainder of the season.

A clutch problem robbed local hero Ron Fellows from shooting for GTS pole in the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. He will have to start from the back of the grid. Meanwhile, Terry Borcheller put the Saleen S7-R first, just under two tenths of a second faster than Andy Pilgrim in the second 'Vette.

"I knew this was an important event for Ron and I feel bad that he didn't get the chance to try for pole," said Borcheller. "I didn't really get a good lap because I encountered two BMWs that were warming their tyres and I don't think they saw me. If Ron's car had been working I think he'd have pulled it off."

BMW's fleet of V8-engined M3 GTRs occupy the top three positions in GT, with the BMW Motorsport-run pair narrowly edging out the US PTG team. JJ Lehto finished the session just three hundredths of a second ahead of team mate Dirk Muller. Hans Stuck was six tenths back.

PTG's Bill Auberlen and Niclas Jonsson had to sit out the session after the Auberlen suffered severe concussion in an accident during the morning practice session. Cadillac's Max Angelelli barged him out of the way at Turn 9 and the Californian hit the tyre barrier hard. Angelelli was reprimanded by the Stewards and Auberlen has been advised to miss the next three races.

"Bill is OK," said PTG boss Tom Milner. "But from the team's point of view we've lost a good driver. I think Angelelli should be banned for three races."

Auberlen will be replaced by Joe Foster, chief instructor of the Panoz Racing
School.

Best of the Porsches were Alex Job Racing's pair of McKenna 911 GT3-RSs driven by Randy Pobst and Lucas Luhr.


Capello/Kristensen Audi R8 1m08.222s
Biela/Pirro Audi R8 1m08.408s
Magnussen/Brabham Panoz Roadster S 1m09.671s
Herbert/Wallace Champion Audi R8 1m09.729s
Weaver/Leitzinger Dyson Riley & Scott MkIII C-Lincoln 1m09.842s
Taylor/Angelelli Cadillac Northstar LMP 1m09.969s
Collard/Tinseau Cadillac Northstar LMP 1m10.254s
Graf/Lagorce Panoz Roadster S 1m10.727s
de Radigues/Lambert Dick Barbour Racing Reynard-Judd 1m13.501s
Huertgen/Knight KnightHawk Lola-Nissan 1m16.094s


The GT and LMP675 pole-sitters have had their qualifying times disallowed after scrutineering. BMW Motorsport's M3 GTR and Dick Barbour Racing's Reynard-Judd will have to start from the back of the grid, as will the Dyson Riley & Scott MkIII C. The BMW's ride height was marginally too low and the Reynard's rear diffuser was "not in conformity", as was the Riley & Scott's rear wing.