Audi and Peugeot have been in the United States for some days, since both programmed a private test here at Road Atlanta on Sunday and Monday. The two teams have consequently had plenty of time to adapt the 908 and the R18 to the niceties of the Georgian track, even though Monday’s run was troubled by a rain storm.

As a result, the front-running drivers notably profited from today’s two-hour session to acclimatise themselves with the sort of heavy traffic they can expect to face during Saturday’s race. “We spent the time weaving a way through mobile cones,” observed Audi’s Romain Dumas who has never seen anything quite like this since his first visit to this circuit in 2003.

For the record, the afternoon’s timesheet was topped by the N°1 Audi/Michelin of Bernhard/Dumas/Fässler which recorded a time of 1m9.550s. The next three places were filled by the N°8 Peugeot, the N°2 Audi and the N°7 Peugeot, although the four diesel prototypes were covered by less than half a second.

The order in the GT class was just as tight, with five cars of four different makes lapping within less than three-tenths of each other (first: Ferrari 062, Melo/Vilander/Matos).

One star who didn’t get a drive was Peugeot’s Simon Pagenaud whose arrival in the USA was delayed until today by an immigration issue which also prevented him from taking part in Peugeot’s earlier test. Ironically, the Frenchman profited from a similar problem encountered by Swiss lady driver Simona De Silvestro which enabled him to contest the Sonoma IndyCar Grand Prix at the end of August!

Audi, free practice session 1, Petit Le Mans 2011, Peugeot