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