Petit Le Mans IMSA: Vautier leads FP3 but rain halts action
Tristan Vautier put JDC Miller Motorsports on top of the times in third practice for Petit Le Mans, before heavy rain sent everyone to the pits long before the 1hr40min session was over.
Vautier, who with co-drivers Loic Duval and Sebastien Bourdais won this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring, clocked a 70.796sec lap around Road Atlanta, 0.026sec faster than fellow Cadillac DPi-V.R runners Chip Ganassi Racing, whose best time came courtesy of Kevin Magnussen.
Six tenths behind was this afternoon’s pacesetter Harry Tincknell of Mazda, the RT24-P turning more laps than any other Prototype, and winding up just ahead of the two title contenders, Filipe Albuquerque of Wayne Taylor Racing Acura and Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing Cadillac.
Mikkel Jensen led LMP2 for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, seven tenths faster than Ryan Dalziel in the Era Motorsports entry, while LMP3 was topped by Rasmus Lindh of Performance Tech Motorsports and Colin Braun of CORE autosport.
The two WeatherTech Racing Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSRs of Frederic Makowiecki and Mathieu Jaminet were a quarter second apart but topped the GT Le Mans category, with Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng third and fourth in the BMW M8s.
Jack Hawksworth topped GT Daytona for Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus, with Benja Hites second in the NTE Sport Audi R8 ahead of Andy Lally piloting the Acura NSX of Magnus with Archangel.
The Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R did not appear on track, following the damage it received after being squeezed off course by an LMP2 car in FP2.
Tomorrow’s qualifying session will begin at 3.45pm local (Eastern) time.
| Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |  Tristan Vautier Loic Duval Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 26 | 1'10.796 | |
| 2 | 01 |  Renger van der Zande  Kevin Magnussen  Scott Dixon |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 26 | 1'10.822 | 0.026 |
| 3 | 55 |  Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell  Jonathan Bomarito |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 32 | 1'11.427 | 0.631 |
| 4 | 10 | Ricky Taylor  Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi |
DPi | Acura DPi | 28 | 1'11.472 | 0.676 |
| 5 | 31 |  Felipe Nasr Mike Conway Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 26 | 1'11.526 | 0.730 |
| 6 | 52 | Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 30 | 1'11.589 | 0.793 |
| 7 | 60 | Dane Cameron Helio Castroneves  Juan Pablo Montoya |
DPi | Acura DPi | 25 | 1'11.647 | 0.851 |
| 8 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson  Kamui Kobayashi Simon Pagenaud |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 29 | 1'11.671 | 0.875 |
| 9 | 18 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 24 | 1'12.323 | 1.527 |
| 10 | 8 |  John Farano Gabriel Aubry James French |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 23 | 1'13.486 | 2.690 |
| 11 | 22 | Jim McGuire Wayne Boyd Guy Smith |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 29 | 1'13.514 | 2.718 |
| 12 | 11 | Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez Thomas Merrill |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 22 | 1'14.791 | 3.995 |
| 13 | 38 | Dan Goldburg  Rasmus Lindh Malthe Jakobsen |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 20 | 1'16.605 | 5.809 |
| 14 | 54 | Jon Bennett George Kurtz Colin Braun |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 23 | 1'16.781 | 5.985 |
| 15 | 91 | Jim Cox Dylan Murry Jeroen Bleekemolen |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 28 | 1'16.969 | 6.173 |
| 16 | 97 | Kevin Estre Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 20 | 1'17.253 | 6.457 |
| 17 | 30 | Ari Balogh Garett Grist Spencer Pigot |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 23 | 1'17.420 | 6.624 |
| 18 | 79 | Cooper MacNeil Mathieu Jaminet  Matt Campbell |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 25 | 1'17.508 | 6.712 |
| 19 | 24 | John Edwards  Jesse Krohn Augusto Farfus |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 21 | 1'17.554 | 6.758 |
| 20 | 74 | Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Scott Andrews |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 17 | 1'17.656 | 6.860 |
| 21 | 25 | Connor de Phillippi  Philipp Eng Bruno Spengler |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 31 | 1'17.767 | 6.971 |
| 22 | 2 |  Niklas Krütten Tom Gamble Andrew Meyrick |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 28 | 1'18.161 | 7.365 |
| 23 | 3 |  Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 31 | 1'18.170 | 7.374 |
| 24 | 4 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 25 | 1'18.216 | 7.420 |
| 25 | 83 | Matthew Bell Naveen Rao Josh Skelton |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 26 | 1'18.337 | 7.541 |
| 26 | 7 |  Rodrigo Pflucker Mark Kvamme Stefan Rzadzinski |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 29 | 1'19.569 | 8.773 |
| 27 | 14 | Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth Kyle Kirkwood |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 26 | 1'20.342 | 9.546 |
| 28 | 42 | Don Yount Jaden Conwright Benja Hites |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 24 | 1'20.362 | 9.566 |
| 29 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 23 | 1'20.401 | 9.605 |
| 30 | 36 | Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Oliver Askew |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 21 | 1'20.596 | 9.800 |
| 31 | 9 | Zacharie Robichon  Laurens Vanthoor Lars Kern |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 21 | 1'20.599 | 9.803 |
| 32 | 19 | Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera  Michele Beretta |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 26 | 1'20.608 | 9.812 |
| 33 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Aidan Read |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 18 | 1'20.826 | 10.030 |
| 34 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach Robert Megennis |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 31 | 1'20.844 | 10.048 |
| 35 | 1 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 25 | 1'20.884 | 10.088 |
| 36 | 70 | Brendan Iribe  Frederik Schandorff Ben Barnicoat |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 27 | 1'21.266 | 10.470 |
| 37 | 23 | Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn Ian James |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 22 | 1'21.315 | 10.519 |
| 38 | 57 | Russell Ward Philip Ellis Maro Engel |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 27 | 1'21.437 | 10.641 |
| 39 | 32 | Mike Skeen Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 23 | 1'21.617 | 10.821 |
| 40 | 88 | Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Andrew Davis |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 25 | 1'22.366 | 11.570 |
| 41 | 40 | Todd Archer James Vance Max Hanratty |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 12 | 1'24.655 | 13.859 |
| 42 | 28 | Daniel Morad Michael de Quesada Daniel Juncadella |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 8 | 1'43.053 | 32.257 |
| 43 | 16 | Trent Hindman Patrick Long Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 0 | 0.000 | |
| View full results | |||||||
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