In qualifying, air temperature of 34 degrees centigrade and 42 degrees on the tarmac gave the Audi drivers a foretaste of the 6-hour race on Saturday. “The race will make extreme demands on the drivers and cars,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “Following three free practice sessions and qualifying, our drivers agree that it’s very challenging to precisely set up the car so that we’re able to drive consistently fast for six hours. And exactly that’s our aim in the race.”
Chris Reinke, Head of LMP at Audi Sport, emphasizes the progress the team has made during the course of two practice days: “After we unfortunately lost a lot of practice time on Thursday, the two Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars delivered a flawless performance in the third free practice and in qualifying. Our whole team thoroughly prepared for the race and the same goes for the drivers. We’re ready.”
Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis in car number ‘8’ achieved a lap time of 1m 47.538s. André Lotterer in car number ‘7’ set the best time of all Audi drivers (1m 47.007s) and, together with teammate Benoît Tréluyer, achieved a classified time of 1m 47.898s. The race on the 5.513-kilometer Circuit of the Americas will start on Saturday at 17.00, local time. Just two and a half hours later, the drivers will be experiencing the sunset and the fans can look forward to a fascinating night race.
In Germany, the race will be broadcast live on Eurosport on September 20 from 00.00 to 6.15. A summary will follow from 9.30 to 10.30.
Qualifying results
1 Dumas/Jani/Lieb (Porsche) 1m 46.211s
2 Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (Porsche) 1m 46.375s
3 di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 1m 47.538s
4 Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 1m 47.898s
5 Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima (Toyota) 1m 48.990s
6 Conway/Sarrazin/Wurz (Toyota) 1m 49.176s
7 Beche/Heidfeld/Prost (Rebellion) 1m 53.950s
8 Abt/Imperatori/Kraihamer (Rebellion) 1m 54.506s
9 Kaffer/Trummer (CLM-AER) 1m 55.794s
10 Bradley/Howson/Lapierre (Oreca-Nissan) 1m 56.834s
