Entering the Detroit weekend, the pair have won seven times in eight rounds and haven't lost since St Petersburg at the end of March. Magnussen's last pole position was another street race - Long Beach in mid-April - as he and O'Connell started their current six-race class win streak.
"We're still not as fast we were last year," Magnussen continued, "and we're not as fast as we should be. Because of the very few laps we've done, we're forced to use the set-up from last year but, then, the car was great, so we hope it is just as good last year."
Flying Lizard Motorsports' Wolf Henzler took his first GT2 pole position since winning the Utah Grand Prix in May, his lap of 1min 24.941secs in the silver-and-red Porsche 911 GT3 RSR outpacing Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo by a mere 0.037secs.
"I didn't drive a lot here last year," said Henzler, who drove a Tafel Racing Porsche in 2007, "We had an accident in the first practice, and again in the race, so I didn't have much experience. Then it rained this morning and this afternoon, so I didn't get much experience in the dry. However, the team found the right set-up and that was good enough for pole position."
Despite the slim gap, it wasn't the closest battle between Henzler and Melo this season, as the German's pole time at Utah was exactly the same as Melo's, but the Porsche was awarded the top spot because Henzler posted his time first.
Along with countryman Jörg Bergmeister, the German has won three times in class this season and holds a ten-point championship lead over Tafel Racing's Dirk Muller and Dominik Farnbacher. Muller qualified third in class in the Tafel
Ferrari F430 GT.
"It's good to be ahead, and it shows that it is good competition between us and the Ferrari teams," Henzler said, "It's good when you lead the championship and you start first on a track like this, as it's not easy to overtake here. Hopefully, it will be like this tomorrow."
