Rolex 24: Rast tops opening practice for Mazda
The Joest Mazda team claimed the top spot in first free practice for this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
Reigning DTM champion Rene Rast went fastest in the best of the Mazda RT24-P DPi contenders right at the end of the opening 60-minute session for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opener.
The German ended up on a 1m37.428s, which put him just seven thousandths up on Tristan Vautier in the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Cadillacs filled out the next two positions with times within a tenth of Rast's mark.
Jordan Taylor took third in the Wayne Taylor Racing entry on a 1m37.452s and Filipe Albuquerque ended up fourth on a 1m37.519s in the fastest of the Action Express cars.
The performance of the Mazda, which struggled at the Roar Before the 24 test at Daytona earlier in the month, follows a series of rules tweaks in the Prototype class.
The RT24-P has been given a 15kg weight break and an 300rpm increase in revs in a Balance of Performance change.
Cadillac, which dominated at the Roar, has had its twin engine air-restrictors cut in diameter by 0.6mm.
Alex Brundle was just over a tenth off the top spot in the best of the Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca-Gibsons on a 1m37.530s.
Two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Romain Dumas took sixth in the CORE autosport Oreca.
The best of the Penske Acura ARX-05s ended up 10th in the hands of Graham Rahal on a 1m38.084s.
Sportscar debutant Fernando Alonso did not drive in the session after teammate Phil Hanson had a minor off in their United Autosports Ligier-Gibson JS P217s.
Hanson, who was fifth fastest at the time, went off at Turn 5, the car sustaining minor front-end damage.
Joey Hand led the way for Ford in the GTLM class.
The American posted a 1m44.062s in his Ganassi Ford GT, which put him nearly half a second up on second-placed Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.
Laurens Vanthoor was just three hundredths behind in third position at the wheel of the fastest of the CORE-run factory Porsche 911 RSRs.
Miguel Molina took top spot in the GTD division in his Risi Ferrari 488 GT3 with a best time of 1m47.223s.
First practice results (top 10):
Pos. | No. | Drivers | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 77 | Oliver Jarvis René Rast Tristan Nunez |
Mazda DPi | 1'37.428 | |
2 | 90 | Matt McMurry Tristan Vautier Eddie Cheever III |
Cadillac DPi | 1'37.435 | 0.007 |
3 | 10 | Jordan Taylor Ryan Hunter-Reay Renger van der Zande |
Cadillac DPi | 1'37.452 | 0.024 |
4 | 5 | Christian Fittipaldi Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa |
Cadillac DPi | 1'37.519 | 0.091 |
5 | 78 | Ho-Pin Tung Antonio Felix da Costa Alex Brundle Ferdinand Habsburg |
ORECA LMP2 | 1'37.530 | 0.102 |
6 | 54 | Loic Duval Romain Dumas Jon Bennett Colin Braun |
ORECA LMP2 | 1'37.563 | 0.135 |
7 | 37 | Robin Frijns Daniel Juncadella Felix Rosenqvist Lance Stroll |
ORECA LMP2 | 1'37.766 | 0.338 |
8 | 31 | Mike Conway Eric Curran Felipe Nasr Stuart Middleton |
Cadillac DPi | 1'37.844 | 0.416 |
9 | 38 | Joel Miller James French Kyle Masson Pato O'Ward |
ORECA LMP2 | 1'37.866 | 0.438 |
10 | 7 | Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal Ricky Taylor |
Acura DPi | 1'38.084 | 0.656 |
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