Qualifying: Biela grabs pole for Audi

Frank Biela captured his third pole of the season for the team with the car he shares with Emanuele Pirro, beating the other works Audi of Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the final minute with a lap of 1m03.287s around the tight 1.7-mile temporary circuit, laid out around the parking lots of RFK Stadium.

Capello ended up just 0.015sec behind in the second Audi, while Jan Magnussen and David Brabham will line up third in their Panoz. Herbert ended up a disappointed fourth in the Champion Audi, which had a minor off in the closing moments of the session. Also sampling the Washington concrete was the Cadilac Northstar LMP of Max Angelelli and Christophe Tinseau, who nevertheless held on for fifth.

In the GTS class, the Corvette team reclaimed supremacy after trailing the Saleen S7R in practice. Team leader Ron Fellows took his fifth class pole of the year in his Corvette, which he will share with Johnny O'Connell, while team-mates Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins will start second ahead of Terry Borcheller's Saleen.

Alex Job Racing's Porsche GT3-RS leads the way in the GT category, with Sascha Maassen taking fast-lap honours in the car he shares with Lucas Luhr. Team-mates Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister will start second in GT, ahead of a similar Porsche driven by Kevin Buckler of the Racer's Group.