Bernhard puts Penske Porsche on pole in Long Beach

Timo Bernhard in his No. 7 Penske Porsche

Bob Heathcote/AutoRacing1

Timo Bernhard gave Penske Racing its first pole position at the Long Beach street circuit Friday as the German Porsche factory driver took the point for Saturday’s Tequila Patr¢n American Le Mans Series at Long Beach with a record-setting run in Penske’s No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder.

Bernhard set a time of 1:11.330 (99.324 mph), good enough for a 0.094-second gap over Luis Diaz in Lowe’s Fernandez Racing’s Acura ARX-01b. Bernhard, who will team with Romain Dumas, also broke Dario Franchitti’s track record, a 1:11.838 set last season in Andretti Green Racing’s Acura.

The first five cars on the grid are LMP2 cars, which are feasting on the tight and twisty 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit. The top six cars were within 0.566 seconds.

Last year’s Long Beach race saw Bernhard and Dumas win the first of six overall Series races. The duo scored eight LMP2 victories on their way to the class championship. They already are 2-for-2 this year with an overall win at the 12 Hours of Sebring and a class triumph at St. Petersburg.

David Brabham qualified third overall in the Patr¢n Highcroft Racing Acura at 1:11.448 (99.160 mph). He will drive with Scott Sharp.

Lucas Luhr scored the pole position in LMP1 but will start sixth overall in the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI he will share with Marco Werner. Luhr’s time of 1:11.75 (98.722 mph) also was under last year’s qualifying record, a 1:12.713 set by Audi’s Dindo Capello.

Luhr and Werner won overall at the last Series street round at St. Petersburg.

Emanuele Pirro was 0.131 seconds behind Luhr in the other Audi R10 TDI. He will drive with Frank Biela. Third in P1 was Jon Field in Intersport Racing’s Lola B06/10-AER at 1:14.580 (94.996 mph).

Jan Magnussen captured his first GT1 pole of the season in Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Corvette C6.R, a lap of 1:17.059 (91.940 mph) that was 1.086 seconds under last year’s qualifying time from Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 sister car. Magnussen will team with Johnny O’Connell as the pairing enters the weekend tied for the class championship lead with Beretta and Oliver Gavin.

Magnussen and O’Connell won the season’s first race at Sebring and finished second two weeks ago at St. Petersburg.

Gavin qualified the No. 4 car second at 1:17.465 (91.458 mph). Saturday’s race will be the second race that both the factory Corvettes will compete with cellulosic E85.

In GT2, Patrick Pilet scored a pole position in his first qualifying effort in the American Le Mans Series, putting Flying Lizard Motorsports’ No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR on the point in class. The French Porsche factory driver posted a time of 1:19.705 (88.888 mph) and broke Mika Salo’s record from last year by 1.211 seconds.

Flying Lizard qualified first and second on the GT2 grid with Jörg Bergmeister 0.406 seconds behind his teammate in the No. 45 Porsche. A pair of Ferrari F430 GTs were next with Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller qualifying third at 1:20.306 (88.108 mph).

Starting Lineup