Audis quickest in ALMS warm-up

Audi Sport North America’s two Audi R10 TDIs held the top two spots in Saturday morning’s warm-up for the Tequila Patr¢n American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. Marco Werner, winner of the most recent round on the streets of St. Petersburg with Lucas Luhr, went quickest in the 15-minute session at 1:15.331 (94.049 mph).

Werner was followed by Emanuele Pirro in the diesel prototype he will share with Frank Biela. The Italian turned in a time of 1:15.581 (93.738 mph).

The cold track temperature – 61 degrees – kept times down as did a short red flag period when Gerardo Bonilla’s B-K Motorsports Lola-Mazda MZR-R went off at Turn 6 after being hit from behind by Scott Sharp in the Patr¢n Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b.

Adrian Fernandez went quickest in LMP2 and was third overall in the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura. His time of 1:15.757 (93.520 mph) in the car he will share with Luis Diaz was less than 0.1 seconds ahead of Timo Bernhard in the pole-sitting No. 7 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder that he is sharing with Romain Dumas.

Just as it did in Friday’s qualifying, Flying Lizard Motorsports sat first and second in GT2. Johannes van Overbeek put the pole-sitting No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR out front at 1:21.581 (86.672 mph). He will split time with fast qualifier Patrick Pilet.

Next was Jörg Bergmeister in the No. 45 Lizard Porsche with a lap of 1:21.743 (86.672 mph) in the car he will share with Wolf Henzler. The first of the Ferrari F430 GTs was third in class with Dominik Farnbacher in the Tafel Racing entry at 1:22.082 (86.314 mph). Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller won in class at St. Petersburg two weeks ago.