Timo Bernhard in his No. 7 Penske Porsche

Bob Heathcote/AutoRacing1

Timo Bernhard gave Penske Racing its first pole position at the Long Beach street circuit Friday as the German Porsche factory driver took the point for Saturday’s Tequila Patr¢n American Le Mans Series at Long Beach with a record-setting run in Penske’s No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder.

Bernhard set a time of 1:11.330 (99.324 mph), good enough for a 0.094-second gap over Luis Diaz in Lowe’s Fernandez Racing’s Acura ARX-01b. Bernhard, who will team with Romain Dumas, also broke Dario Franchitti’s track record, a 1:11.838 set last season in Andretti Green Racing’s Acura.

The first five cars on the grid are LMP2 cars, which are feasting on the tight and twisty 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit. The top six cars were within 0.566 seconds.

Last year’s Long Beach race saw Bernhard and Dumas win the first of six overall Series races. The duo scored eight LMP2 victories on their way to the class championship. They already are 2-for-2 this year with an overall win at the 12 Hours of Sebring and a class triumph at St. Petersburg.

David Brabham qualified third overall in the Patr¢n Highcroft Racing Acura at 1:11.448 (99.160 mph). He will drive with Scott Sharp.

Lucas Luhr scored the pole position in LMP1 but will start sixth overall in the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI he will share with Marco Werner. Luhr’s time of 1:11.75 (98.722 mph) also was under last year’s qualifying record, a 1:12.713 set by Audi’s Dindo Capello.

Luhr and Werner won overall at the last Series street round at St. Petersburg.

Emanuele Pirro was 0.131 seconds behind Luhr in the other Audi R10 TDI. He will drive with Frank Biela. Third in P1 was Jon Field in Intersport Racing’s Lola B06/10-AER at 1:14.580 (94.996 mph).

Jan Magnussen captured his first GT1 pole of the season in Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Corvette C6.R, a lap of 1:17.059 (91.940 mph) that was 1.086 seconds under last year’s qualifying time from Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 sister car. Magnussen will team with Johnny O’Connell as the pairing enters the weekend tied for the class championship lead with Beretta and Oliver Gavin.

Magnussen and O’Connell won the season’s first race at Sebring and finished second two weeks ago at St. Petersburg.

Gavin qualified the No. 4 car second at 1:17.465 (91.458 mph). Saturday’s race will be the second race that both the factory Corvettes will compete with cellulosic E85.

In GT2, Patrick Pilet scored a pole position in his first qualifying effort in the American Le Mans Series, putting Flying Lizard Motorsports’ No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR on the point in class. The French Porsche factory driver posted a time of 1:19.705 (88.888 mph) and broke Mika Salo’s record from last year by 1.211 seconds.

Flying Lizard qualified first and second on the GT2 grid with Jörg Bergmeister 0.406 seconds behind his teammate in the No. 45 Porsche. A pair of Ferrari F430 GTs were next with Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller qualifying third at 1:20.306 (88.108 mph).

Starting Lineup

Pos	Car	Cls	CP	Driver	Gap	Intv	Time	Car Make/Model	Team	Tires
1	7	P2	1	Timo Bernhard	0.000	0.000	1:11.330	Porsche RS Spyder	Penske Racing	Michelin
2	15	P2	2	Luis Diaz	0.094	0.094	1:11.424	Acura ARX-01B	Lowe`s Fernandez Racing	Michelin
3	9	P2	3	David Brabham	0.118	0.024	1:11.448	Acura ARX-01B	Patron Highcroft Racing	Michelin
4	6	P2	4	Patrick Long	0.253	0.135	1:11.583	Porsche RS Spyder	Penske Racing	Michelin
5	26	P2	5	Christian Fittipaldi	0.367	0.114	1:11.697	Acura ARX-01B	Andretti Green Racing	Michelin
6	2	P1	1	Lucas Luhr	0.435	0.068	1:11.765	Audi R10	Audi Sport North America	Michelin
7	1	P1	2	Emanuele Pirro	0.566	0.131	1:11.896	Audi R10	Audi Sport North America	Michelin
8	16	P2	6	Guy Smith	1.098	0.532	1:12.428	Porsche RS Spyder	Dyson Racing Team	Michelin
9	20	P2	7	Butch Leitzinger	1.720	0.622	1:13.050	Porsche RS Spyder	Dyson Racing Team	Michelin
10	8	P2	8	Ben Devlin	2.880	1.160	1:14.210	Lola B07/46 Mazda	B-K Motorsports	Yokohama
11	37	P1	3	Jon Field	3.250	0.370	1:14.580	Lola B06/10 AER	Intersport Racing	Dunlop
12	3	GT1	1	Jan Magnussen	5.729	2.479	1:17.059	Chevrolet Corvette LS7	Corvette Racing	Michelin
13	4	GT1	2	Oliver Gavin	6.135	0.406	1:17.465	Chevrolet Corvette LS7	Corvette Racing	Michelin
14	12	P1	4	Michael Lewis	7.994	1.859	1:19.324	Creation CA07-002 Judd	Autocon Motorsports	Dunlop
15	46	GT2	1	Patrick Pilet	8.375	0.381	1:19.705	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Michelin
16	45	GT2	2	Jörg Bergmeister	8.807	0.432	1:20.137	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Michelin
17	62	GT2	3	Mika Salo	8.976	0.169	1:20.306	Ferrari F430 GT	Risi Competizione	Michelin
18	71	GT2	4	Dirk Mueller	9.080	0.104	1:20.410	Ferrari F430 GT	Tafel Racing	Michelin
19	87	GT2	5	Marc Basseng	9.458	0.378	1:20.788	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Farnbacher Loles	Michelin
20	61	GT2	6	Patrick Friesacher	9.727	0.269	1:21.057	Ferrari F430 GT	Risi Competizione	Michelin
21	48	GT2	7	Johnny Mowlem	10.066	0.339	1:21.396	Ferrari F430 GT	Corsa Motorsports	Dunlop
22	44	GT2	8	Seth Neiman	10.422	0.356	1:21.752	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	Flying Lizard Motorsports 44	Michelin
23	21	GT2	9	Tom Milner	10.899	0.477	1:22.229	Panoz Esperante GTLM	Panoz Team PTG	Yokohama
24	5	GT2	10	Craig Stanton	11.673	0.774	1:23.003	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	VICI Racing	--
25	40	GT2	11	David Murry	12.539	0.866	1:23.869	Doran Ford GT-R	Robertson Racing	Dunlop
26	007	GT2	12	Jonny Cocker	13.269	0.730	1:24.599	Aston Martin Vantage GT2	Drayson-Barwell	Dunlop
27	28	GT2	13	Lou Gigliotti	13.746	0.477	1:25.076	Chevrolet Corvette C6	LG Motorsports	Kumho
28	11	GT2	14	Chris Hall	13.814	0.068	1:25.144	Dodge Viper Competition Co	Primetime Race Group	Michelin