American Le Mans Series, round 1 in Sebring, USA
*#90 Rahal Letterman BMW failed post-qualification technical inspection and will start from the back of the grid, moving the No. 45 up to the pole.
Gallery after the jump
The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR racers take up the 12 hour race in Sebring from good starting positions. During qualifying for the long distance classic in Florida, which kicks off the 2010 American Le Mans season on Saturday, Porsche works driver Joerg Bergmeister posted the second quickest time. The title defender shares driving duties in the 911 GT3 RSR fielded by Flying Lizard Motorsports with his factory pilot teammates Patrick Long (USA) and Marc Lieb (Germany). ‘My lap was very good, but I couldn’t have done any more today,’ he said. ‘Second place on the grid for a twelve hour race is an excellent starting position.’
Wolf Henzler (Germany) made a great start with his new team Falken Tire on the airfield circuit in the heart of the sunshine state. As third fastest in Friday’s qualifying the Porsche works driver exceeded all expectations. Henzler is joined in the cockpit of his 911 by factory driver Patrick Pilet (France) as well as Bryan Sellers (USA). ‘I’m over the moon. No one in our new team expected such a great result,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to get our expectations for the race up too high. It’ll be very hard to hold on to this position over the distance. But we’re certainly going to give it our best shot.’
In the LMP2 Prototype class, Klaus Graf (Germany) achieved the second quickest time with the Porsche RS Spyder run by the American customer team Cytosport. His teammates are Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Greg Pickett (USA).
The Sebring 12 Hours, where Porsche is the most successful manufacturer with 18 overall and 63 class victories by now, takes off on Saturday at 10.30 hours local time (15.30 hrs CET).
Result Qualifying GT2 class
1. Dirk Müller (D), BMW E92 M3, 2:00.782 minutes
2. Jörg Bergmeister (D), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, + 0.368 seconds
3. Wolf Henzler (D), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, + 0.419
4. Jaime Melo (BR), Ferrari 430 GT, + 0.454
5. Jan Magnussen (DK), Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, + 0.576
6. Oliver Gavin (GB), Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, + 0.846″
