"This is one of the great road courses in America. It is very challenging - up and down and around. It's tricky from the changes in surfaces. There are still some patches where the grip is different. To get the hang of it is really tricky."
de Ferran's lengthy history at Mid-Ohio has yet to yield a victory, with his consecutive poles for Team Penske's CART operation both leading to second-place finishes. Coincidentally, one of his closest challengers for Friday's pole was Penske's Timo Bernhard, who turned a lap of 1min 08.238secs for third on the grid. Bernhard and co-driver Romain Dumas have won for the last two years at Mid-Ohio.
"Never discount Team Penske - that is something everyone should know," de Ferran warned, "I know they will be tremendous competition tomorrow. By no means will it be a foregone conclusion. It will be a battle."
Marco Werner took his second LMP1 pole in three events with a 1min 08.357secs lap - another class record - in the Audi R10 TDI that he will drive with Lucas Luhr. Werner, who lines up fifth overall, won the class last season with Emanuele Pirro and admitted that he had surprised himself with his qualifying time.
"This is something I didn't think we could do," he revealed, "I knew a 1min 08.5secs was really difficult for this weekend, so to do an 8.3 was fantastic. You needed a long time for the tyres to come up to grip, and the Michelins really came in. It was a lot more sticky than the practice before and a little bit difficult with our weight. If you change directions with understeer and then get some good grip, you end up with oversteer. So it was a challenge."
Werner and Luhr lead the P1 championship, but last won a race overall at Long Beach in April. They have won four straight class rounds however, and hold a solid lead in the championship. Werner reckons they also have an advantage over the rest of the field when it comes to race pace.
"We are always close to our qualifying times, closer than the other cars," he said, "If we stay out of trouble and out of traffic, it should be a really good race for us."
