Sebring: Biela inherits pole

Biela inherits Sebring pole after Bentley tech infraction.

SEBRING, Fla. (AP) -- Johnny Herbert had apparently led a Bentley sweep of the front row in Thursday's qualifying for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, but Frank Biela's Audi inherited the pole position after the qualifying times of both Bentleys were disallowed due to technical infractions.

Herbert, the former Formula One winner from England, drove a Bentley Speed 8 to a lap of 123.210 mph on the 3.7-mile, 17-turn circuit for what would have been his first career pole in the American Le Mans Series. However, his lap and the lap of apparent outside polesitter Rinaldo Capello were disallowed after officials found that the rear diffusers of the cars did not conform to height rules.

That gave the pole for Saturday's 12-hour sports car endurance race to Biela, who had posted the third-fastest time in an Audi R8. Biela became the polesitter for the Sebring event for the third time in four years.

James Weaver of England won the pole for the LMP 675 class for smaller Prototypes with a lap of 121.798 in Lola-MG, placing the car fifth overall on the grid.

Oliver Gavin of England, who has been on the GTS class-winning team in the past two runnings of Sebring, won the GTS pole in a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R with a track record lap of 111.910.

Timo Bernhard of Germany won his first career ALMS pole in the GT class with a lap 105.695 of in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

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