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Porsche 911 RSR - Porsche North America

Qualifying

Porsche 911 RSR - Porsche North America
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, round 10 in Austin/USA, Qualifying
Austin: Both 911 RSR on the second grid row

Stuttgart. A strong qualifying performance for the Porsche 911 RSR on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin: The reigning IMSA GT champion Patrick Pilet (France) planted the 470 hp winning racer from Weissach on the third grid spot in the GTLM class. With his teammate Nick Tandy (Great Britain) he tackles round ten of the IMSA SportsCar Championship on Saturday from the second GT grid row. Fourth place on the Grand Prix course in the capital of Texas was claimed by his compatriot Frédéric Makowiecki, who shares the cockpit of the second Porsche North America works-entry 911 RSR with Earl Bamber (New Zealand).

In the GTD class, the former Porsche Junior Alex Riberas (Spain) clinched his fourth pole position of the season. With the 500 hp Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Seattle/Alex Job Racing, he has already netted pole position at the races in Laguna Seca, Bowmanville and Elkhart Lake. The second driver for the American customer squad is Mario Farnbacher (Germany). The third grid spot in qualifying is occupied by Patrick Lindsey (USA), the teammate of Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) in Park Place Motorsports’ 911 GT3 R.

The Circuit of the Americas hosts an unforgettable Porsche Festival this weekend. Aside from the IMSA SportsCar Championship, fans are treated to the WEC Sports Car World Endurance Championship, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge as well as the SportsCar Challenge. Spectators can enjoy five races with around 45 Porsche racing vehicles including the 911 RSR, 911 GT3 R, 911 GT3 Cup, Cayman GT4 Clubsport as well as 919 Hybrid models.

Qualifying quotes
Marco Ujhasi, Overall Project Manager GT Works Motorsports: “That’s a pretty solid qualifying effort. The difficulty today in such extremely hot temperatures was to get all the parameters aligned, namely, the correct suspension setup and the perfect air pressure for the tyre temperature. We managed very well. It’s a good starting position for this race. It’s going to be very hot again tomorrow hence the cards will be reshuffled over the distance. We’re feeling very confident.”
Patrick Pilet (911 RSR #911): “A second row starting position is very good. The key to success in the race will be how well we perform over the entire distance, because with this circuit and the extreme temperature, the tyres will come under immense stresses.
Frédéric Makowiecki (911 RSR #912): “We’ve worked out a good setup for the race. Unfortunately I made a mistake very early on in the qualifying which resulted in a flat spot. Had this not happened I think I could have been even faster.”
Alex Riberas (911 GT3 R #23): “The Circuit of the Americas is perfect for our Porsche 911 GT3 R. The combination of really fast corners, changes of direction and slow corners simply suits us. We tackled this qualifying determined to take pole and we did it. Now we want to win tomorrow’s race.”

Qualifying result
GTLM class
1. Briscoe/Westbrook (AUS/GB), Ford GT, 2:04.188 minutes
2. Fisichella/Vilander (I/SF), Ferrari 488 GTE, + 0.506 seconds
3. Pilet/Tandy (F/GB), Porsche 911 RSR, + 0.686
4. Bamber/Makowiecki (NZ/F), Porsche 911 RSR, + 0.814
5. Hand/Müller (USA/D), Ford GT, + 0.896
6. Gavin/Milner /GB/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, + 1.002
7. Auberlen/Werner (USA/D), BMW M6, + 1.042
8. Garcia/Magnussen (E/DK), Chevrolet Corvette, + 1.273
9. Edwards/Luhr (USA/D), BMW M6, + 1.549

GTD class
1. Riberas/Farnbacher (E/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R, 2:08.568 minutes
2. Aschenbach/Bell (USA/USA), Audi R8, + 0.376 seconds
3. Bergmeister/Lindsey (D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R, + 0.441
4. Liddell/Davis (GB/USA), Audi R8, + 1.176
5. Balzan/Nielsen (I/DK), Ferrari 488, + 1.188
6. Snow/Sellers (USA/USA), Lamborghini GT3, + 1.273

The 2.40-hour race in Austin starts on Saturday, 17 September at 11:35 hrs local time (18:35 hrs CEST) and is broadcast live outside the USA on www.imsa.com.



All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.