The Porsche 911 RSR, with which Patrick Pilet (France) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain) recently claimed three straight victories, takes up the ninth and penultimate round of the United SportsCar Championship in Austin from pole position on Saturday. At the qualifying session on the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of the Americas, Patrick Pilet scored the fifth pole position of the season for Porsche in the GTLM class of the most important US sports car series. His 470 hp 911 RSR, which is based on the seventh generation of the iconic 911 sports car, is campaigned by Porsche North America. The Frenchman, who also contests the Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Austin on Saturday, currently leads the driver’s classification in the GTLM class. Porsche also leads the fight for the manufacturer and team championships, not least thanks to clinching four wins this season at Watkins Glen, Mosport, Road America and Virginia.
With soaring temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, Le Mans overall winner Earl Bamber (New Zealand) secured the third grid spot for the race on the the Grand Prix course on the outskirts of the Texas capital. His teammate is Jörg Bergmeister (Germany). At the wheel of the 911 RSR fielded by the Falken Tire customer team, Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (USA), the winners from Watkins Glen, posted the fifth fastest qualifying time.
Qualifying quotes Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Head of Porsche Motorsport: “That was a great start to the race weekend – exactly as we had envisaged. Patrick implemented our strategy perfectly. Like Earl, he contests both series this weekend, so it’s a particularly big transition for him. But he fulfilled his task in this qualifying brilliantly.”Patrick Pilet (Porsche 911 RSR #911): “To be honest I hadn’t expected to set pole. The track was really slippery and I always got the feeling I was losing time in each corner. That was somewhat frustrating because it felt so slow. I attempted a second lap and clocked almost exactly the same time. So I thought there’s no point, it makes more sense to save the tyres for the race. So you can imagine how surprised I was to have posted pole position.”Earl Bamber (Porsche 911 RSR #912): “First and third – that’s a good qualifying result for Porsche. First and second would have been better, but unfortunately I didn’t get a really clear run. We’ll work on our 911 RSR during the night so that we have a perfectly prepared car for tomorrow’s race. Then it should be possible for Porsche North America’s two 911 RSR to finish on the podium.”
The race takes off on Saturday at 11.35 hrs local time (18.35 hrs CEST) and runs over 2:40 hours. It will be broadcast live on the Internet under www.imsa.com.
Qualifying result GTLM class 1. Pilet/Tandy (F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, 2:04.396 minutes 2. Auberlen/Werner (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 0.094 seconds 3. Bamber/Bergmeister (NZ/D), Porsche 911 RSR, + 0.229 4. Magnussen/Garcia (DK/E), Chevrolet Corvette, + 0.255 5. Henzler/Sellers (D/USA), Porsche 911 RSR, + 0.417 6. Edwards/Luhr (USA/D), BMW Z4 GTE, + 0.572 7. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, + 0.894 8. Kaffer/Fisichella (D/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, + 1.600
GTD class 1. Haase/von Moltke (D/USA), Audi R8 LMS, 2:11.097 minutes 2. Keating/Bleekemolen (USA/NL), Dodge Viper SRT, + 0.561 seconds 3. Sweedler/Bell (USA/USA), Ferrari 458 Italia, + 0.632 4. Nielsen/Wittmer (DK/CAN), Aston Martin Vantage, + 0.664 5. Lindsey/Pumpelly (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT America, + 1.116 6. Potter/Pumpelly (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT America, + 1.381
