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Practice report

VIR IMSA: Vanthoor tops first practice for Porsche

Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor set the pace in the opening practice session for the GT-only round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Virginia International Raceway.

#912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR, GTLM: Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor

#912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR, GTLM: Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor

Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images

The session was run in hot and dry conditions, but rain is predicted for this afternoon’s session.

The #912 Porsche had a grassy off in Vanthoor’s hands after a handful of laps. After a pitstop to clean it up he lapped in 1m41.529s, which he soon lowered to 1m41.296s to top the times.

“My first run felt pretty good, but obviously we still have a lot more homework to do,” said Vanthoor.

Nick Tandy made it a Porsche 1-2 in the sister #911 car, while the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs of Ryan Briscoe and Dirk Muller were third and fourth respectively, ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs of Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin.

The BMW M8s of John Edwards and Connor de Phillippi rounded out the GTLM runners.

In GT Daytona, the order was much more dynamic and top spot changed hands a number of times.

Jeroen Bleekemolen set the fastest time in his Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG-GT3, a tenth clear of Patrick Long’s Park Place Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R.

There was trouble for the points-leading #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3, which failed to join the session at the green light due to a technical issue. Once remedied, Mario Farnbacher lapped only ninth-fastest.

Session results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'41.296  
2 911 France Patrick Pilet
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'41.435 0.139
3 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
GTLM Ford GT 1'41.478 0.182
4 66 United States Joey Hand
Germany Dirk Muller
GTLM Ford GT 1'41.626 0.330
5 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Spain Antonio Garcia
GTLM Corvette C7.R 1'41.662 0.366
6 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
GTLM Corvette C7.R 1'41.878 0.582
7 24 Finland Jesse Krohn
United States John Edwards
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'42.232 0.936
8 25 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Connor de Phillippi
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'43.019 1.723
9 33 United States Ben Keating
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'44.336 3.040
10 73 United States Patrick Lindsey
United States Patrick Long
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'44.677 3.381
11 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'44.733 3.437
12 14 United States Richard Heistand
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'44.778 3.482
13 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
Finland Toni Vilander
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'44.835 3.539
14 48 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Corey Lewis
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'44.961 3.665
15 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'45.123 3.827
16 76 United States Paul Holton
United States Matt Plumb
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 1'45.280 3.984
17 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Trent Hindman
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'45.305 4.009
18 74 United States Gar Robinson
United States Lawson Aschenbach
GTD Mercedes-AMG 1'45.370 4.074
19 57 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
United Kingdom Alice Powell
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'45.486 4.190
20 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Townsend Bell
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'45.741 4.445
21 9 Canada Scott Hargrove
Canada Zacharie Robichon
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'45.789 4.493

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