Penske Racing's Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will start third overall and third in the LMP2 class in Saturday's Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio, round six of the American Le Mans.
Bernhard, who qualified the #7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder, was engaged in a three-way fight for the pole, but ultimately was edged out by the Acura's of Gil de Ferran and David Brabham.
Despite missing out though, he believes they have a good car for Saturday's race: "To be less than three-tenths of a second off the pole is a good position for us, and the car feels good. Romain and I have won this race two years in a row, and we both feel that we can get the most from the Porsche RS Spyder at this track," Bernhard confirmed.
The sister Penske Porsche of Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen will start eighth overall and sixth in the LMP2 class, with the Dyson Porsche's of Guy Smith and Chris Dyson in P9 in the #16 entry and Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger in P10 in the #20 car.
In the GT2 class for production-based sports cars meanwhile, Porsche was also in contention for the top spot. Dirk Werner, sharing the #87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Richard Westbrook, held the provisional pole for most of the 20-minute qualifying session, but lost out in the last two minutes to the
Ferrari of Jaime Melo and Mika Salo.
Werner was disappointed not to gain his second straight pole, but he is confident the crew have the car set up well for Saturday's 2 hour 45 minute race.
"The Farnbacher Loles Porsche was very fast during qualifying, but the window to turn a fast lap during the short 20-minute session is only a lap or two, and I lost a tenth or two from traffic in both fast laps," he noted. "You can't win the pole every week, and we started first at Lime Rock last Saturday, but we think the car is set up well for the race.
"There are many more opportunities for the prototypes to pass the GT cars here, so we should have less yellow flags than last week, and we are shooting for another podium finish."
