Practice report

Petit Le Mans: ESM 1-2 in Thursday night practice

In the final seconds of Thursday's evening Petit Le Mans practice session from Road Atlanta, Norman Nato eclipsed teammate Pipo Derani as ESM claimed the top two spots on the timesheets.

As the 90-minute session closed out, Nato put the No. 2 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan DPi at the top of the charts with time of 1:11.457 on his 54th lap, just 0.090 seconds clear of Derani in the No. 22 machine.

The French driver is also making his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut this weekend at Road Atlanta.

Ricky Taylor in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 clocked in third, two tenths adrift of the fast time. Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi and Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Team Joest Mazda rounded out the top five.

In GT Le Mans, Corvette Racing claimed the top two positions on the timesheets with the No. 4 Corvette C7.R of Tommy Milner first at a 1:17.847, one tenth clear of teammate Antonio Garcia in the sister No. 3 car.

Ryan Briscoe in the No. 67 Ford GT for Chip Ganassi Racing was third.

The fastest time in GT Daytona went to the P1 Motorsports No. 71 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with 23-year-old Felipe Fraga at the wheel, putting up a fast lap of 1:20.452.

Daniel Morad was second in the No. 29 Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 and 3GT Racing's Kyle Marcelli in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 ended up third.

The session went nearly accident-free with no significant incidents to report.

Third practice results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	2	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel Norman Nato	P	Nissan DPi	55	1'11.457			127.965
2	22	Timo Bernhard Pipo Derani Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	53	1'11.547	0.090	0.090	127.804
3	7	Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	64	1'11.663	0.206	0.116	127.597
4	5	Christian Fittipaldi Filipe Albuquerque Tristan Vautier	P	Cadillac DPi	49	1'11.708	0.251	0.045	127.517
5	55	Spencer Pigot Jonathan Bomarito Marino Franchitti	P	Mazda DPi	54	1'11.711	0.254	0.003	127.512
6	77	Lucas di Grassi Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	44	1'12.053	0.596	0.342	126.907
7	52	Jose Gutierrez Sebastian Saavedra Will Owen	P	ORECA LMP2	53	1'12.109	0.652	0.056	126.808
8	10	Jordan Taylor Ryan Hunter-Reay Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	53	1'12.115	0.658	0.006	126.797
9	6	Juan Pablo Simon Pagenaud Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	55	1'12.166	0.709	0.051	126.708
10	54	Romain Dumas Jon Bennett Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	34	1'12.350	0.893	0.184	126.386
11	31	Eric Curran Gabby Chaves Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	39	1'12.543	1.086	0.193	126.049
12	85	Simon Trummer Robert Alon Devlin DeFrancesco	P	ORECA LMP2	59	1'12.656	1.199	0.113	125.853
13	99	Mikhail Goikhberg Chris Miller Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	40	1'12.951	1.494	0.295	125.344
14	38	James French Nicholas Boulle Kyle Masson	P	ORECA LMP2	24	1'14.137	2.680	1.186	123.339
15	4	Marcel Fassler Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	55	1'17.847	6.390	3.710	117.461
16	3	Jan Magnussen Marcel Fassler Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	54	1'17.944	6.487	0.097	117.315
17	67	Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	49	1'18.128	6.671	0.184	117.039
18	25	Bill Auberlen Connor de Phillippi Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	41	1'18.186	6.729	0.058	116.952
19	66	Sébastien Bourdais Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	44	1'18.232	6.775	0.046	116.883
20	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	64	1'18.359	6.902	0.127	116.694
21	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn Chaz Mostert	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	56	1'18.546	7.089	0.187	116.416
22	62	Toni Vilander Andrea Bertolini Miguel Molina	GTLM	Ferrari 488 GTE	53	1'18.670	7.213	0.124	116.232
23	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	52	1'18.699	7.242	0.029	116.190
24	71	Maximilian Buhk JC Perez Felipe Fraga	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	44	1'20.452	8.995	1.753	113.658
25	29	Daniel Morad Christopher Mies Sheldon Van	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	60	1'20.558	9.101	0.106	113.508
26	14	Kyle Marcelli Dominik Baumann Philipp Frommenwiler	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	43	1'20.654	9.197	0.096	113.373
27	63	Daniel Serra Cooper MacNeil Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	34	1'20.745	9.288	0.091	113.245
28	73	Wolf Henzler Tim Pappas Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	43	1'20.751	9.294	0.006	113.237
29	96	Don Yount Markus Palttala Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	47	1'20.826	9.369	0.075	113.132
30	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Luca Stolz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	25	1'21.099	9.642	0.273	112.751
31	58	Patrick Long Christina Nielsen Robert Renauer	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	54	1'21.195	9.738	0.096	112.618
32	86	Alvaro Parente Katherine Legge Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	50	1'21.214	9.757	0.019	112.591
33	44	Andy Lally Andrew Davis John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	46	1'21.316	9.859	0.102	112.450
34	15	David Heinemeier Hansson Jack Hawksworth Sean Rayhall	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	55	1'21.337	9.880	0.021	112.421
35	93	Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	44	1'21.401	9.944	0.064	112.333
36	64	Matteo Cressoni Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	40	1'21.581	10.124	0.180	112.085
37	48	Corey Lewis Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	50	1'21.711	10.254	0.130	111.907