VIR IMSA: Vanthoor beats Tandy in all-Porsche FP3 duel
Laurens Vanthoor was fastest in the final practice session for this weekend's GT-only round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Virginia International Raceway.
After overnight thunderstorms, the track was wet for the start of this hour-long third practice session of the weekend on Saturday morning. Proving how tricky conditions were, the Corvette of Jan Magnussen went off at Turn 15 on his out lap.
Nick Tandy set the pace by over a second early on in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, before returning to the pits with the front end of his car coated in grass. Vanthoor then bested him by three tenths on 2m00.631s before the rain intensified once again.
Tandy went out for more runs, but failed to improve on any of them and suffered a couple more grassy offs, as did Vanthoor.
Joey Hand was third quickest in the first of the Ganassi-run Ford GTs, six tenths off the pace but almost a second clear of Connor de Phillippi’s RLL-run BMW M8 GTE. Magnussen recovered to set the fifth-fastest time, ahead of the BMW of John Edwards, who went off at Turn 4.
Oliver Gavin was seventh in the second Chevy, with Ryan Briscoe rounding out of GTLM class, having suffered an off at Turn 14.
#33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, GTD: Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen
Photo by: Scott R LePage / LAT Images
In GT Daytona, Jeroen Bleekemolen was one of the few to improve in the closing stages of the session in his #33 Riley Motorsports-run Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Andy Lally had set the pace for the majority of the session in his #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 – bouncing back from a troubled Friday which ended prematurely when he went off at the final corner. After teammate John Potter took over today, he had an off of his own at the same turn.
Richard Heistand was third fastest in class in his AIM-Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.
Sunday’s weather forecast predicts a mainly dry event.
Session results:
| Cla | Num | Driver | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 912 |  Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2'00.631 | |
| 2 | 911 |  Patrick Pilet  Nick Tandy |
Porsche 911 RSR | 2'00.938 | 0.307 |
| 3 | 66 |  Joey Hand  Dirk Muller |
Ford GT | 2'01.262 | 0.631 |
| 4 | 25 | Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi |
BMW M8 GTE | 2'02.258 | 1.627 |
| 5 | 3 |  Jan Magnussen  Antonio Garcia |
Corvette C7.R | 2'02.468 | 1.837 |
| 6 | 24 |  Jesse Krohn John Edwards |
BMW M8 GTE | 2'02.619 | 1.988 |
| 7 | 4 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner |
Corvette C7.R | 2'02.660 | 2.029 |
| 8 | 67 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook |
Ford GT | 2'03.197 | 2.566 |
| 9 | 33 | Ben Keating  Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'03.544 | 2.913 |
| 10 | 44 | John Potter Andy Lally |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'03.784 | 3.153 |
| 11 | 14 | Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth |
Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'04.732 | 4.101 |
| 12 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'04.968 | 4.337 |
| 13 | 48 | Bryan Sellers Corey Lewis |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'05.057 | 4.426 |
| 14 | 96 | Bill Auberlen Robby Foley |
BMW M6 GT3 | 2'05.584 | 4.953 |
| 15 | 9 |  Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'06.235 | 5.604 |
| 16 | 12 | Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell |
Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'06.251 | 5.620 |
| 17 | 76 | Paul Holton Matt Plumb |
McLaren 720S GT3 | 2'06.583 | 5.952 |
| 18 | 57 | Katherine Legge Alice Powell |
Acura NSX GT3 | 2'07.241 | 6.610 |
| 19 | 86 | Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman |
Acura NSX GT3 | 2'08.005 | 7.374 |
| 20 | 74 | Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach |
Mercedes-AMG | 2'09.481 | 8.850 |
| View full results | |||||
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