Kristensen Grabs Mid-Ohio ALMS Pole
Qualifying Friday
Round 6, American Le Mans Series
24 August 2001, Lexington, Ohio
BMW Motorsport second and fourth in Mid-Ohio qualifying
Munich/Lexington. BMW Motorsport will start second and fourth in the
GT class for Sunday's round six of the American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio
Sports Car Course. JJ Lehto (FIN) posted a time of one minute 24.459
seconds on the 2.25-mile road course in the No. 42 BMW M3 GTR. He
held the class pole position until the last few minutes of the qualifying
session, when his time was bettered by Porsche driver Sascha Maassen (D).
Lehto and Jörg Müller (D) will start second on the GT grid.
Fredrik Ekblom (S) and Dirk Müller (D) will start fourth in class after
Ekblom qualified the No. 43 GTR in 1:24.756.
BMW Team PTG drivers Hans-J.
Stuck (D) and Boris Said (USA) will start third in the No. 6 BMW M3 GTR
(1:24.507), and Peter Cunningham (USA), substituting for Bill Auberlen
(USA) and Niclas Jönsson (S) will start sixth in the No. 6 GTR
(1:25.124).
BMW Motorsport team manager Charly Lamm: "The GT qualifying
today was really a thriller: It was perfect for us until four
minutes from the end when Sascha Maassen took pole position by
eight-thousandths of a second. But second and fourth are good
qualifying results. Apart from qualifying, we are really
enthusiastic about being at Mid-Ohio and visiting this track for the first
time. It's very challenging and demanding, so we are happy to be so
competitive."
JJ Lehto #42: "It's nice to see that Porsche is back in
business. They were very fast. It's surprising that they are
not always fast on some circuits, but here they are very competitive.
I was pushing a few little things, but I'm sure they didn't have a perfect
lap, either. Everyone was so limited with time on the track, so it
shows everybody has prepared well for this race."
Jörg Müller #42: "The three cars leading the championship are
in the first three positions, so that's good for the series. I'm
happy and looking forward to the race."
Fredrik Ekblom #43: "The track was very slippery this afternoon
compared to this morning and it took me by a bit of a surprise. It
was not a really perfect lap, but it was decent and we'll take it for what
it is. It's very close, just a couple of tenths [of a second], so
we're going to fight tomorrow. We'll do some work overnight, but in
general we have a good car for the race."
Dirk Müller #43: "It's surprising to see the track was a lot
slower than this morning. I don't know what to say - it's the first
time since we've been in America that we're not on the pole. Fredrik
did a very good job, we worked really hard and we were really prepared for
it, so maybe it was a bit of bad luck. But we've won races from the
fourth position before, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow."
BMW Press: Guido Stalmann, tel +49 (0) 89 382 23401, fax +49 (0) 89
382 27563, e-mail: Guido.Stalmann@bmw.de