Jan Magnussen and Jörg Bergmeister captured pole positions Thursday for the 24 Hours of Le Mans as teams and drivers from the American Le Mans Series asserted themselves well in qualifying for the world’s greatest motor race. At the head of the field, Stephane Sarrazin’s late flying lap of 3:22.888 (150.266 mph) gave himself and Peugeot three straight overall pole positions over Audi in the battle of the two diesel powers.
Sarrazin was 0.762 seconds ahead of three-time American Le Mans Series LMP1 champion Allan McNish in the new Audi R15 TDI. McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen debuted the new diesel prototype with a victory at the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. In a warm-up for Le Mans, Audi beat Peugeot by just over 20 seconds.
Magnussen won his second straight Le Mans GT1 pole position with a time of 3:54.230 (130.159 mph) in the last race in class for Corvette Racing. The final hurrah for the Corvette C6.R is off to a rousing start with a 1-2 start at Le Mans. Magnussen was 0.472 seconds better than Olivier Beretta in the second Corvette Racing entry.
Magnussen will team with Johnny O’Connell and Antonio Garcia, the trio already victorious together this year at Sebring.
Corvette has won five times in class at Le Mans since 2001 against the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin and Saleen. One of the most successful GT1 teams in endurance racing, it will transition to GT2 starting in August at the Mid-Ohio round of the American Le Mans Series.
“So far so good!” said Magnussen. “The Corvette C6.R goes really well and responds well to changes. I set my qualifying time on soft tires with a couple of laps on them already, which shows how good the car is. In the second part of the qualifying session Antonio did a long run to see how the tires would behave over a distance. With the new rules on tire changes, we’ll have to double-stint them to avoid losing too much time in the pits. Tonight we learned how hard we can push them.”
Beretta will team with Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler in the sister car. Beretta and Gavin were Le Mans class winners together from 2004-2006.
Bergmeister’s time of 4:03.202 (125.357 mph) in the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was the first pole for the team in five Le Mans appearances. The German Porsche factory driver was only 0.03 seconds ahead of the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb, who also drives for Flying Lizard in American Le Mans Series endurance races.
It’s a week of firsts for the Flying Lizards. Thursday didn’t just mark the first pole for the team but also for Bergmeister, a past class winner in the race. It also is the first Le Mans appearance for Darren Law.
“It was a really great lap by Jörg,” said Seth Neiman, who rounds out the driving trio. “You have to time it properly and Jörg did a great job. He had it right on the limit. As we worked our way through the practice, we didn’t think it was possible. We were having some trouble with the setup but the guys kept working. But Jörg proved that a near-impossible-to-drive car can still be fast in his hands.”
Lieb is teaming with Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler, both of whom drive for Farnbacher Loles Racing in the American Le Mans Series; Henzler shared last year’s GT2 championship with Bergmeister.
Third in class was Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo at 4:04.056 (124.919 mph) in the Ferrari F430 GT that he will share with Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo. The trio won in class at Sebring, and Risi is the defending class champion at Le Mans.
“I was hoping to get out a bit earlier in the second session (the car was slightly delayed by the completion of some scheduled pre-race mechanical preparation) to get some daylight and I think I could have been a little bit faster then,” Melo said. “In the dark you cannot see your lines as well so you are a bit more conservative. I’m happy as third is not bad and the important thing is that the car is really well balanced; we will be able to keep a good lap time which gives me a lot of confidence for the race.”
Staying in GT2, American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long qualified the IMSA Performance Porsche sixth in class at 4:04.648 (124.617 mph). A two-time winner at Le Mans, Long will team with Patrick Pilet and Raymond Narac.
Drayson Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT2 qualified ninth in class at 4:06.482 (123.690 mph). Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker and Marino Franchitti are driving the car in the team’s first appearance at Le Mans. The Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari, featuring Panoz Team PTG’s Dominik Farnbacher was next, and the second Risi Ferrari of Tracy Krohn, Eric van de Poele and Nic Jonsson was 13th at 4:08.758 (122.557 mph.
Among the prototype ranks, two Acura stars will start from near the front of the grid Saturday. De Ferran Motorsports’ Simon Pagenaud is part of the Pescarolo Sport lineup in a Peugeot 908 that will start fourth; he will team with Jean-Christophe Boullion and Benoit Treluyer. Patrón Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham - driving a factory Peugeot with Alex Wurtz and Marc Gene - will start fifth.
In LMP2, the RML Mazda-powered Lola coupe featuring Dyson Racing’s Chris Dyson and teammates Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton, qualified fourth in class. It was a spot ahead of the Quifel-ASM Team’s Ginetta-Zytek 09S of Guy Smith, Dyson’s teammate in the American Le Mans Series, along with Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral.
