Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillacs continue their rebound in FP3

While Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya need only finish in the top eight in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans to earn the title, Pipo Derani – new to the AXR squad this year – ensured the team topped two of today’s sessions at the 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Derani sent the #31 Whelen Engineering-backed Cadillac DPi-V.R around in 69.455sec to eclipse teammate Filipe Albuquerque by approximately 0.2sec.

Helio Castroneves grabbed third Acura in the car he will share with Ricky Taylor and Graham Rahal this weekend. Teammate Montoya set the fastest time in the #6 ARX-05 but it was good enough for only ninth.

Tristan Vautier again put JDC-Miller in the spotlight by clocking fourth in the #85 Cadillac ahead of Oliver Jarvis’ #77 Mazda and the Colin Braun-steered CORE autosport-run Nissan DPi.

Returning after its big shunt is the Juncos Racing team, for whom Spencer Pigot was 10th-fastest.

In GT Le Mans, the Ford GTs were again fast and finished 1-3, split by Tom Blomqvist’s best effort in the BMW M8 GTE and chased hard by Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette C7.R.

IMSA Radio reported that Daniel Serra’s reduced number of laps in the Ferrari 488 GTE of the returning Risi Competizione squad was due to a drivetrain issue that saw the car – not seen in IMSA since the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January – taken back behind the wall for much of the session.

For the second time in three sessions, Bill Auberlen sent Turner Motorsports’ trusty BMW M6 GT3 to the top of the GT Daytona times, albeit less than a tenth of a second quicker than Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Mercedes AMG-GT3 run by Riley Motorsport, and Spencer Pumpelly’s Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Fourth practice begins at 11.15am local (Eastern) time on Friday, with qualifying commencing at 3.55pm.

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	31	Felipe Nasr Eric Curran Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.455
2	5	Joao Barbosa Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.653	0.198
3	7	Ricky Taylor Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal	DPi	Acura DPi	1'09.728	0.273
4	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier Juan Piedrahita	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.935	0.480
5	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez Timo Bernhard	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'09.941	0.486
6	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun Romain Dumas	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'09.992	0.537
7	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor Matthieu Vaxiviere	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'09.998	0.543
8	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'10.253	0.798
9	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	1'10.294	0.839
10	50	Will Owen Rene Binder Spencer Pigot	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.555	1.100
11	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson Chris Miller	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'10.813	1.358
12	52	Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry Dalton Kellett	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'11.689	2.234
13	38	Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson Andrew Evans	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'11.731	2.276
14	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais	GTLM	Ford GT	1'16.552	7.097
15	25	Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'16.789	7.334
16	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon	GTLM	Ford GT	1'16.808	7.353
17	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'16.869	7.414
18	62	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra	GTLM	Ferrari 488 GTE	1'16.936	7.481
19	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'17.113	7.658
20	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards Philipp Eng	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'17.123	7.668
21	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'17.151	7.696
22	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'17.165	7.710
23	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'19.311	9.856
24	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'19.375	9.920
25	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'19.408	9.953
26	48	Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis Marco Seefried	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'19.732	10.277
27	29	Christopher Mies Richard Feller Daniel Morad	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'19.856	10.401
28	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'19.897	10.442
29	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth Parker Chase	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'20.065	10.610
30	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.081	10.626
31	9	Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'20.319	10.864
32	57	Katherine Legge Ana Beatriz Christina Nielsen	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'20.530	11.075
33	47	Brandon Gdovic Don Yount Shinya Michimi	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'20.804	11.349
34	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'20.865	11.410
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