Aleshin takes surprise pole at rain-soaked Rolex 24

GP2 star and IndyCar racer Mikhail Aleshin wound up fastest of the Prototype class cars in qualifying for the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which saw the top seven overall quickest times set by GTLM cars in dryer conditions.

Aleshin took his SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 to a best lap of 2:05.793, outpacing the Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2 Honda of Pipo Derani by 0.511 seconds.

It marked the first pole for the Paolo Catone-designed LMP2 car, which is making its U.S. debut this weekend. Aleshin will share driving duties with Nic Minassian, Maurizio Mediani and Kirill Ladygin in the around-the-clock Florida endurance classic.

Derani will line up alongside the SMP entry in second, thanks to a 2:06.304 lap time that put the young Brazilian 12th on the overall time sheets.

Per IMSA rules, the starting grid will see the P and Prototype Challenge class entries grouped ahead of the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona cars, despite the overall times.

Conditions during both the P and PC class sessions deteriorated compared with the GT sessions held earlier in the afternoon.

The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier Honda of Ozz Negri will start third in the P class, just ahead of Ricky Taylor, who managed to be the best of the Daytona Prototype entries with his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette.

Former F1 driver and two-time Le Mans winner Alex Wurz, in his Rolex 24 debut, completed the top-five in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford DP.

Mowlem goes back-to-back in PC

Johnny Mowlem, meanwhile, stormed to his second consecutive Rolex 24 class pole in PC, with a time actually a hair quicker than Aleshin’s P class-winning pole.

Mowlem reeled off a best time of 2:05.708 in his No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09, outpacing the No. 85 JDC Miller Motorsports entry of Stephen Simpson by 1.705 seconds. 

The two BAR1 entries were in the top-three, with Ryan Eversley qualifying the No. 26 car in third, just three-tenths slower than Simpson.

Class pole-sitter Mowlem will share driving duties this weekend with Tomy Drissi, Brendan Gaughan, Marc Drumwright and Ricardo Vera.

Two of the pre-qualifying favorites elected to keep their cars parked in the treacherous conditions. As a result, both defending race winners PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and 2015 class champions CORE autosport will start from the rear of the eight-car PC class field.

Porsche sweeps GT poles

In what essentially morphed into a one-lap shootout in the GT Le Mans class, the pair of Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSRs swept the GTLM front row courtesy of fliers from Nick Tandy and Fred Makowiecki.

Tandy set a 2:01.408 in the No. 911 car with Makowiecki posting a 2:02.364 in the No. 912 car. Tandy will share the polesitting car with Patrick Pilet and Kevin Estre for this race.

John Edwards put the No. 100 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM third on the grid on its U.S. debut, ahead of the Scuderia Corsa and Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTEs.

However, the GTLM session sustained a 14-minute red flag due to a rare accident by Gianmaria Bruni in the third of the new Ferraris, the No. 72 SMP Racing entry. Bruni hydroplaned off course entering Turn 1, and the 488 lost its rear wing and sustained damage to its left rear quarter panel.

The red flag meant the session was extended for several additional minutes to meet the 10-minute minimum green flag time.

While the top seven in class produced times clear of the GT Daytona field, the best of the debuting Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs will line up ninth in class.

Siedler earns maiden GTD pole

In what was a less wet GTD session, Norbert Siedler took pole in one of the new Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.

Siedler, who will share the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche with Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Matt McMurry, laid down a best time of 2:05.798.

Marc Basseng took a Lamborghini Huracán GT3, in the car’s U.S. race debut, to second on the grid in the No. 28 Konrad Motorsport entry at 2:06.357.

Leh Keen was third in the No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche at 2:06.357 and Damien Faulkner fourth in the No. 93 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R at 2:07.392.

Sven Müller, the Porsche Junior, sent the Frikadelli Racing Porsche to fifth fastest time.

Richie Stanaway was the quicker of the two Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 drivers in seventh, while Andy Lally was top among the three Audi R8 LMS entries that ventured onto the track.

Neither the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi nor the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini completed laps in qualifying. Stevenson’s team was working on the Audi and Change was still fixing the left front of the car after Spencer Pumpelly’s accident in first practice.

Night practice, the third practice session, is set to go green at 6:30 p.m. ET and local time. CLICK HERE to see complete qualifying results in order from fastest time to slowest.

Sportscar365