The battle between Audi and Peugeot officially kicked off yesterday with Romain Dumas taking the top spot for Audi.

The Frenchman has been a busy boy in the American Le Mans Series paddock – driving three different cars in three different races.

He filled in for Muscle Milk Team Aston Martin at Baltimore, drove the revolutionary Porsche GT Hybrid at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and yesterday stopped the clocks at 1:09.550 for Audi to top the timesheet in the two-hour practice session.

“The car is still quite good,” Dumas said. “We tried a couple of different settings but it is tough to get feedback. It is very difficult to make a judgment with so many cars on the track. The race will be extremely challenging. The traffic will make you take a lot more risks now than in previous years.”

Peugeot’s Franck Montagny was second quickest at 1:09.641 (131.302 mph) in the Peugeot 908 that he will share with Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz. The second Audi of Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish was third at 1:09.875 (130.862 mph); Kristensen set the time.

Former Indy Lights champion and Peugeot reserve driver Jean-Karl Vernay was fastest in LMP2 for Signatech Nissan, while Gunnar Jeannette topped the timesheet for CORE autosport in the LMPC class.

The GT battle was won by Risi Competizione and Jaime Melo who was fastest ahead of Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin.

Three practice sessions will be run today at Road Atlanta with the first at 10:00am this morning.