Audi tops ALMS warm-up times in St. Pete

Allan McNish and Audi turned in the fastest lap of Saturday morning’s 25-minute warm-up for the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg as the American Le Mans Series prepares for its first street race of the season. The LMP1 pole-sitter turned in a time of 1:04.729 in the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI he will share with Rinaldo Capello.

The warm-up served as a preview for what will be a fantastic clash this afternoon between Audi, Porsche and Acura. Andretti Green Racing’s Bryan Herta was second overall and first in LMP2 at 1:04.985 in his Acura ARX, the same car that was runner-up overall and the class winner at Sebring two weeks ago. Third overall and second in P2 was today’s overall pole-starting Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard of Penske Racing.

The top six cars were within a second of each other including two Audis, a Porsche and three Acuras.

Jan Magnussen won the battle of the Corvettes in GT1. The Dane’s time of 1:09.995 put him ahead of the sister Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta.

In GT2, Wolf Henzler from Tafel Racing put Porsche out front on his last lap with a time of 1:13.001. He knocked Risi Competizione’s Mika Salo and his Ferrari F430 GT from the top spot by 0.587 seconds. Porsches held four of the top five spots with Flying Lizard’s Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek was third in class at 1:13.709.

Pos Car Class Drivers Team Car Time
1. 1 P1 R.Capello, A.McNish Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDI 1:04.729
2. 26 P2 B.Herta, M.Franchitti Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01a 1:04.985
3. 7 P2 R.Dumas, T.Bernhard Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder 1:05.209
4. 2 P1 E.Pirro, M.Werner Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDI 1:05.210
5. 9 P2 D.Brabham, S.Johansson, D.Dayton Highcroft Racing Acura Acura ARX-01a 1:05.643
6. 15 P2 A.Fernandez, L.Diaz Fernandez Racing Acura Lola BO6 1:05.709
7. 6 P2 S.Maassen, R.Briscoe Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder 1:05.748
8. 16 P2 B.Leitzinger, A.Wallace Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder 1:05.990
9. 20 P2 C.Dyson, G.Smith Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder 1:07.367
10. 8 P2 J.Bach, B.Devlin, R.Matos B-K Motorsports Mazda Lola B07-40 1:08.870
11. 3 GT1 J.O'Connell, J.Magnussen Corvette Racing Corvette C6-R 1:09.995
12. 4 GT1 O.Gavin, O.Beretta Corvette Racing Corvette C6-R 1:10.268
13. 37 P1 J.Field, D.Dayton, R.Berry Intersport Racing Creation CA06H Judd 1:10.753
14. 71 GT2 W.Henzler, R.Liddell Tafel Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:13.001
15. 62 GT2 M.Salo, J.Melo Risi Competizione Ferrari 430GT 1:13.588
16. 45 GT2 J.Van Overbeek, J.Bergmeister Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:13.709
17. 18 GT2 R.Kelleners, T.Milner Rahal Letterman Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:13.880
18. 44 GT2 L.Pechnik, D.Law Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:14.264
19. 21 GT2 B.Auberlen, J.Hand Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante 1:14.308
20. 31 GT2 T.Bergmeister, T.Enge Petersen/White Lighting Ferrari 430GT 1:14.410
21. 22 GT2 S.Maxell, R.Smith, B.Sellers Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante 1:14.544
22. 73 GT2 J.Tafel, D.Farnbacher Tafel Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:16.994
23. 12 P1 M.Lewis, C.McMurry, B.Willman Autocon Motorsports Lola EX257 AER 1:16.998
24. 54 GT2 T.Pappas, T.Borcheller, M.Basseng Team Trans Sport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1:17.316