Long Beach
Audi R10 TDI in third and fourth row at Long Beach
Saturday 19 April 2008 - 21h26
The Audi R10 TDI was able to improve its lap time in qualifying for the third round of the American Le Mans Series by a remarkable margin over last year’s result. On the bumpy temporary Long Beach (California) track the diesel-powered sportscar achieved a lap time that was nearly a whole second quicker than in 2007. By comparison, the leading LM P2 car on pole position was only 0.5s quicker than last year. As the lap times between the two LM P classes have been much closer than before, the first seven cars were covered by just 0.566s with Audi starting from sixth and seventh positions on the grid.
 
http://www.audi-motorsport.info
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Lucas Luhr who qualified the #2 Audi R10 TDI constantly improved his lap times on the 1.968 mile track in downtown Long Beach in the 25-minute qualifying session. Initially, the German Audi works driver was fighting for a top position on the grid in a fierce battle with the LM P2 cars. After 15 minutes, Luhr had set his personal best time of 1m 11.765s when a red flag interrupted the session for three minutes.

In the remaining seven minutes, he again went out but was unable to improve his lap time once more. In spite of being just 0.435s slower that the fastest LM P2 cars, Luhr’s leading LM P1 lap time was only good enough for sixth position overall on the grid.

In a strong team effort, Emanuele Pirro qualified the #1 Audi R10 TDI just 0.131s behind the sister car. The Italian made a leap forward in the first fifteen minutes and set his lap time of 1m 11.896s before the red flag came out. Pirro will line up seventh on the grid and second in the LM P1 class. He was upbeat after qualifying as he expects the Audi R10 TDI car’s race pace to be more competitive than its qualifying speed.

The official website: www.americanlemans.com
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