Scots duo fired up after Sebring qualiposted in ALMS19 | 03 | 2011

SCOTS DUO Allan McNish and Marino Franchitti will start fourth and seventh respectively for today's Sebring 12-Hours in Florida, the opening round of the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

McNish, the 41-year-old from Dumfries — partnered by Dame Tom Kristensen and Italian Dindo Capello — watched as Kristensen set a personal best time of 1min 48.173secs in the Audi R15TDI, an average speed of 123.136mph around the 3.7 mile, 17-corner track.

“It’s going to be a fast, furious and hot race,” McNish, bidding for his fourth win at Sebring, said. "A daytime temperature of over 80F degrees is forecast. With such a huge grid — there's 53 cars starting the race — there will be lots of traffic so constant overtaking of the slower class cars.

"Tom was delayed with traffic at the last corner. We’ve fine tuned the set-up for the race. We have got a car and a team that has the experience of this event and that will be crucial.”

Franchitti meanwhile, partnered by Frenchman Simon Pagenaud and Aussie David Brabham, looked on as Pagenaud put their Highcroft Racing ARX-01e seventh.

“We have a 12 hour race ahead of us and whether we start right up the front or a couple of rows back it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day," the 30-year-old from Bathgate admitted.

“I think the fact we think we have a good racecar is the most important thing. That is what we have focused on so qualifying was never the big goal – trying to be at the front and the end of 12 hours is."

Peugeot driver Stephane Sarrazin claimed pole position for the race by more than a second. His best time of 1m46.571s at the wheel of the French manufacturer's new 908 HDi turbodiesel LMP1 coupe edged ahead of the Audi R15 Plus driven by Romain Dumas on a 1m47.680s.

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Jim McGill