ALMS: BMW prototypes will start from 5th and 7th positions
13 May 2000
Final Qualifying Saturday Round 3, American Le Mans Series 13th May 2000, Silverstone, Great Britain Munich/Silverstone. German Jorg Muller was quickest at the wheel of a BMW V12 LMR in the final qualifying session for the third round of the American Le Mans Series, held at Silverstone on Saturday night, from 6 pm till 9 pm. Muller, who shares the open-top sports car with Finn JJ Lehto, lapped the 3.187 mile (5.141 km) circuit in 1 minute 38.059 seconds and secured fifth position on the grid. Lehto, who leads the championship by one point ahead of Muller, will be the start driver when the flag drops for the 500 kilometre race. The event will be broadcast live on Eurosport, from 7 pm (UK time). Team mates Bill Auberlen (USA) and Jean-Marc Gounon (F) are seventh on the grid. Auberlen set their qualifying time of 1 minute 38.697 seconds on Friday, during the first qualifying session and will be the start driver. Like most of the others, Gounon did not manage to improve the lap time set the day before. At Silverstone the team struggled to find a good set up for the two BMW V12 LMR sports cars, which won the previous round in Charlotte. Boris Said (USA), who shares a new BMW M3 of BMW Team PTG with Hans-Joachim Stuck and Johannes van Overbeek (USA), secured seventh position of the GT class for the new coupe. Said lapped in 1 minute 55.15 seconds. BMW Motorsport Team Manager Charly Lamm: "With a lot of fine tuning we achieved a little improvement, because we were not satisfied with the earlier sessions. But we have not found the real reason for our problems with the balance of the cars. That is the lesson we have to learn after the race in Silverstone." Jorg Muller #42: "We worked hard this morning and again tried really everything to improve the set-up of the car. But I have to say we are still not happy with the balance - similar to the race in Sebring. At the season's opener, the cars also were behaving aggressively and it was challenging to keep them under control." JJ Lehto #42: "As we still have not achieved the balance we would like to have, Jorg made the most of it. He did a very good lap. Anyway, we are facing a three hour race and we are going to concentrate on that now." Bill Auberlen #43: "Of course I was hoping for a better grid position but maybe that comes close to hoping for a miracle. I will drive the start and then hand over to Jean-Marc." Jean-Marc Gounon #43: "I was expecting more from a new set of tyres, but I did not feel really the grip I would have needed. But I think our set-up for the race should be alright now. I will do my best."