Panoz Motor Sports - Laguna Seca ALMS Qualifying
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA, CALIFORNIA
QUALIFYING - Saturday, 8th September 2001
The two Panoz LMP-1 Roadsters today qualified within five hundredths of a second of each other - the closest they have been in time all season. The #50 car, driven by Dane Jan Magnussen, will start tomorrow's race from 4th place on the grid, closely followed by his team-mate Franck Lagorce in #51.
Magnussen had topped the practice session earlier in the afternoon but was headed in qualifying by the ever-competitive Audis. He commented: "We did a very similar time to earlier and I didn't have any problems on the track - it's just that everyone else gained a bit more than we did. I had no problems with the car so feel positive about the race. We've had good results before when we have started from the second row so we'll have to see what happens tomorrow."
Magnussen will start the race tomorrow and share the driving of #50 with his driving partner, Australian David Brabham.
Frenchman Franck Lagorce had not enjoyed such trouble free practice sessions earlier in the day but set up changes made before qualifying resulted in a run of solid laps. He said afterwards: "I am happy but also a bit frustrated to have been so close - just a few tenths between 4 cars. The car is much better than this morning and we have fixed our brake problem now. I am pleased to be closer to Jan than previously, and today proved that we can do consistent, good lap times in the race."
After completing his stints, Lagorce will be handing the car over to his team-mate Klaus Graf of Germany.
Qualifying results:
1 1 Capello/Kristensen Audi R8 1m 15.238
2 18 Johansson/LeMarie Audi R8 1m 15.953
3 2 Biela/Pirro Audi R8 1m 16.029
4 50 Magnussen/Brabham Panoz LMP-1 1m 16.104
5 51 Graf/Lagorce Panoz LMP-1 1m 16.156
6 38 Herbert/Wallace Audi R8 1m 16.463
7 8 Taylor/Angelelli Cadillac LMP01 1m 17.479
8 7 Collard/Tinseau Cadillac LMP01 1m 17.843
For further information contact Fiona Miller at Panoz Motor Sports on 678 300 4652 or email to fiona@panozmotorsports.com. Consult our website for further team information and photographs www.panozmotorsports.com