Gil de Ferran captured the pole in his LMP1 Acura ARX-02a with a lap of 1:09.443 around the 2.25-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. De Ferran, who just announced he will be retiring at the end of this season, proved fastest despite a severe vibration which made it hard for him to see the track.
"“We had a big vibration and my radio was not working. I was concerned that we had a wheel loose. I had a hard time seeing the braking zones ... it was hard to focus."
De Ferran pitted with ten minutes left in the qualifying session, but the crew couldn’t find the problem. So de Ferran headed back out and set the fastest time of the session at 1:09:499; on the next lap he went even faster.
David Brabham put his Acura ARX-02a second on the grid. Brabham took a last minute flying lap to try to wrest back the pole, but dropped a tire off the track, losing precious fractions of a second.
First in LMP2 and third overall, Luiz Diaz pushed his Acura ARX-01B to a 1:10.464 lap time, just over a second behind the more powerful P1 cars. Diaz faced tough competition from the Dyson Lola-Mazdas and the ex-Dyson Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder, making its debut at Mid-Ohio.
"I’m very happy to be here and get the pole for Acura," said Luis Diaz. "We are expecting a tough race tomorrow but hope to be there in the end and earn some points”
“You can’t get much closer than that,” commented Dyson. “The team’s win at Lime Rock two weeks ago showed that we have the race pace and it is nice to have the speed in qualifying too.”
The Cytosport Porsche qualified sixth overall and third in class a second off the pace. This is a tremendous showing for the Cytosport team, which bought Dyson Racing’s old car just a few months ago and had never raced it ‘til today.
IMSA, the parent body of ALMS, recently allowed the P2 cars to shed 25 kilograms (fifty-five pounds) of weight, to make them more competitive overall. The effect was immediately apparent: the top six cars qualified within 1.8 seconds of the leader. Saturday’s race promises to be very close.
GT2: Even Closer
GT2 was even closer than the prototypes classes, with one second covering the top ten cars.
Jörg Bergmeister put the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR on the pole with a lap of 1:21.022, followed by Jaime Melo in the Risi Ferrari 430 GT, .265 behind.
The traction on the Porsches is the biggest thing,” Jörg Bergmeister said. “Over the little humps, you can feel the car is really hooked up. We are not the fastest on a straight line. But we have good grip in general.”
The brand new GT2 Corvette from Corvette Racing, with Jan Magnussen at the wheel, qualified third, .167 behind Melo. Corvette Racing dominated ALMS’ GT1 class; when the class was dropped, Corvette Racing built a pair of GT2 cars. Mid-Ohio was the cars’ first outing, and they acquitted themselves well, qualifying third and seventh.
| Pos | Car# | Class | Drivers | Best Time | Car |
| 1 | 66 | P1 | de Ferran/Pagenaud | 1:09.443 | Acura ARX 02 |
| 2 | 9 | P1 | Brabham/Sharp | 1:09.512 | Acura ARX 02 |
| 3 | 15 | P2 | Fernandez/Diaz | 1:10.464 | Acura ARX 01 |
| 4 | 16 | P2 | Dyson/Smith | 1:10.498 | Mazda MZR-R |
| 5 | 20 | P2 | Leitzinger/Franchitti | 1:11.042 | Mazda MZR-R |
| 6 | 6 | P2 | Pickett/Graf | 1:11.404 | Porsche RS Spyder |
| 7 | 37 | P1 | Field/Field | 1:12.145 | Lola B06/10 |
| 8 | 19 | P2 | Van der Steur/Pecorari | 1:15.898 | Radical SR9 |
| 9 | 12 | P1 | Burgess/Drissi | 1;16.153 | Porsche 911 |
| 10 | 45 | GT2 | Bergmeister/Long | 1:21.022 | Ferrari 430 |
