Petit Le Mans IMSA: AXR’s Nasr edges Mazda to pole by 0.015sec
Championship challenger Felipe Nasr claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, putting the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac on top by just 0.015sec ahead of Mazda’s Harry Tincknell.
The duel was as close as it looked, with Nasr setting top time in Sector 2, Tincknell in Sector 3, but it’s the Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R that Nasr will share with Pipo Derani and Mike Conway tomorrow that ultimately prevailed.
Third went to the JDC Miller Motorsports car driven by Sebastien Bourdais, impressively only 0.15sec behind this pair and ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s similar Caddy.
Dane Cameron set a 68.920sec lap before pitting the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura early, while Kamui Kobayashi was forced to do the same in the second AXR Cadillac after a huge trip through the Turn 2 grass. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac will start last in class.
Ben Keating survived a spin at Turn 3 to lead the LMP2 contenders in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports to take pole in the class, 0.35sec ahead of Steven Thomas in the WIN Autosport car, with Dwight Merriman a further half-second adrift.
LMP3’s session commenced with two near-immediate spins, Josh Skelton spinning the #83 WIN Autosport car at Turn 3 and then limping back to the pits with an askew left-rear wheel, and then Max Hanratty spinning on pit exit in the FastMD Racing car. However, the latter was able to rejoin the fray.
At the sharp end of the field, it quickly became clear it was a two-horse race, with Niklas Kruetten of United Autosports battling against Rasmus Lindh of Performance Tech Motorsports. In the end it was Kruetten who won the battle, by only 0.086sec, Lindh’s cause not helped by an aerobatic off at Turn 2 during one of his flyers.
Jarett Andretti was 1.46sec off the ultimate pace in third in the Andretti Autosport entry, but a quarter-second ahead of the Riley Motosports cars of Jim Cox and Gar Robinson.
GT Le Mans saw a session of stark contrasts for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8s on their IMSA swansong, with Jesse Krohn setting an impressive 1min15.226sec – half a second clear of his nearest opponent – and teammate Connor De Phillippi going off, collecting an advertising hoarding and air-dam full of turf, forcing him to park up.
Matt Campbell in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR was second fastest, beating Frederic Makowiecki in the one-off stablemate WTR 911, and the quarter-second gap between them was big enough for them to be split by a last-second effort from Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R.
In GT Daytona, the Silver/Bronze session that sets the grid positions for the class saw a gripping battle between Porsche, Lexus, BMW, Lamborghini and Audi. In the end it was Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Madison Snow which emerged on top, a mere 0.001sec ahead of Benja Hites in the NTE Sport Audi R8.
The Chilean driver, in turn, was only 0.022sec ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 in its final race, with Aaron Telitz a further 0.013sec down in the top Lexus RC F of Vasser Sullivan.
Telitz’s teammate Frankie Montecalvo grabbed fifth ahead of Russell Ward in the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Wright Motorsports did a great job to rebuild the #16 Porsche 911 GT3 R damaged in a clash with an LMP2 car yesterday, so Trent Hindman was able to prevail in the Porsche battle, a few hundredths ahead of Pfaff Motorsports’ Zacharie Robichon.
Once the pros took over, Jack Hawksworth pushed the #14 Lexus RC F into P1 ahead of Bryan Sellers in the PMR Lambo, with Bill Auberlen third in the Turner M6 and Zach Veach fourth in the second Lexus.
There will be a warm-up at 9.15am local (Eastern) time tomorrow morning, while the 10-hour race commences at 12.10pm.
Qualifying results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 | |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.678 | |
2 | 55 | |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'08.693 | 0.015 |
3 | 5 | |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.848 | 0.170 |
4 | 01 | |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.879 | 0.201 |
5 | 60 | |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'08.920 | 0.242 |
6 | 48 | |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.165 | 0.487 |
7 | 10 | |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'09.328 | 0.650 |
8 | 52 | |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.229 | 3.551 |
9 | 18 | |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'13.070 | 4.392 |
10 | 8 | |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'14.289 | 5.611 |
11 | 22 | |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'14.814 | 6.136 |
12 | 24 | |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'15.226 | 6.548 |
13 | 2 | Andrew Meyrick |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.664 | 6.986 |
14 | 79 | |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'15.738 | 7.060 |
15 | 38 | Dan Goldburg Malthe Jakobsen |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.750 | 7.072 |
16 | 3 | |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'15.930 | 7.252 |
17 | 97 | |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'16.004 | 7.326 |
18 | 4 | |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'16.051 | 7.373 |
19 | 36 | Josh Burdon |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.122 | 8.444 |
20 | 91 | |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.403 | 8.725 |
21 | 74 | |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.535 | 8.857 |
22 | 7 | Stefan Rzadzinski |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'17.793 | 9.115 |
23 | 40 | Todd Archer |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'18.112 | 9.434 |
24 | 30 | |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'19.071 | 10.393 |
25 | 1 | |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.272 | 10.594 |
26 | 42 | Benja Hites |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'19.273 | 10.595 |
27 | 96 | |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'19.295 | 10.617 |
28 | 14 | |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.308 | 10.630 |
29 | 12 | |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.456 | 10.778 |
30 | 57 | |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.661 | 10.983 |
31 | 16 | |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'19.722 | 11.044 |
32 | 9 | |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'19.791 | 11.113 |
33 | 70 | |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'19.800 | 11.122 |
34 | 28 | |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.846 | 11.168 |
35 | 19 | |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.068 | 11.390 |
36 | 88 | |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.079 | 11.401 |
37 | 32 | |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'20.353 | 11.675 |
38 | 23 | |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'20.554 | 11.876 |
39 | 25 | |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'21.299 | 12.621 |
40 | 44 | |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'21.317 | 12.639 |
41 | 11 | |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.583 | 3.905 |
42 | 54 | |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | ||
43 | 83 | Josh Skelton |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | ||
View full results |
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