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David Malsher-Lopez

Rolex 24: Castroneves’ late flyer puts MSR top in second Roar session

GTP

On his fifth lap, Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing beat the fastest lap that Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura, driven by Colin Braun, set in the morning session. A 1min35.580sec around the 3.56-mile course put him some 1.6sec ahead of his nearest opposition, which came from the #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-LMDh and the two BMW M Hybrid V8s.

Albuquerque then raised the bar to 1min35.320sec, and Earl Bamber’s Cadillac was 0.7sec adrift, but still ahead of teammate Scott Dixon in the #01 sister car.

Both of the CGR Cadillacs were displaced by Blomqvist once the MSR team had overcome issues with a pitlane speedlimiter that wouldn’t release, and he moved up into second behind the Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Autosport team to complete an Acura 1-2.

This was spoiled by Dixon getting into second place, 0.265sec from top spot, but Simon Pagenaud trimmed the MSR Acura’s deficit down to less than half a tenth before pitting.

His teammate in IMSA and IndyCar, Helio Castroneves, did rather better than that, and moved to the top of the times with a 1min35.210sec with under three minutes to go and backed this up with a 1min35.310sec.

Thus Castroneves led an Acura 1-2 by 0.110sec, he and Albuquerque sharing the three fastest sector times.

That left Dixon’s best Cadillac time some 0.375sec adrift in third, although the six-time IndyCar champion was a similar distance ahead of the fastest of the Porsche Penske 963s, Michael Christensen’s #7 entry.

Bamber was barely half a tenth slower in the second Ganassi Cadillac, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde’s best effort in the quicker BMW, while Marco Wittmann was a further half a second adrift.

The second Porsche 963, shared by Mathieu Jaminet, Dane Cameron and Nick Tandy, turned only nine laps with technical issues that Cameron didn’t wish to share with IMSA Radio, but their late appearance on track was still enough time for Tandy and Jaminet to push the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken down to the bottom. 

LMP2

Matthieu Vaxiviere was the first driver in class to bust below the 100sec barrier, setting a 1min39.835sec on his fifth lap in the AF Corse machine, but then Ben Keating in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry went almost half a second quicker.

It took only until his third lap for Mikkel Jensen’s TDS Racing car to trim 0.64sec from that to go fastest, and his 1min38.730sec stood firm as the top time in class for the remainder of the session.

Vaxiviere trimmed a few hundredths from his best to take second, but was still 0.6sec from Jensen, with Keating third. Christian Rasmussen was the fastest of Era Motorsport’s drivers to nab fourth ahead of Scott McLaughlin who again impressed in the Tower Motorsports entry.

LMP3

Felipe Fraga in the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier which ran only three laps in the first session was the first car to hit the track in the second, and he produced a 1min43.389. However, Gabby Chaves in the Andretti Autosport Ligier eclipsed that with a 1min42.926, and that was the fastest lap for the LMP3 machines.

Former Rolex 24 winner Joao Barbosa left it until the last minute to move the Sean Creech Motorsports car into second, 0.45sec adrift, mere hundredths ahead of Fraga’s former benchmark. The impressive Yu Kanamaru of FastMD Racing was fourth in the fastest of the Duqueine cars.

#75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes AMG GT3: Fabian Schiller, Axcil Jefferies (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

GTD Pro and GTD

Fabian Schiller moved to the top of the table early on, producing a 1min47.020sec in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3, less than a tenth faster than Parker Thompson’s Lexus RC F run by Vasser Sullivan Racing.

Nicki Thiim in the Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes were third and fourth at this stage, this quartet all swifter than the fastest GTD Pro cars – the second Lexus driven by Jack Hawksworth and the Heart of Racing Aston piloted by Alex Riberas.

When Ben Barnicoat took over the #14 GTD Pro Lexus, it moved up to shade its sister car by half a tenth, albeit 0.02sec off the SunEnergy1 car.

Luis Perez Companc moved AF Corse’s new Ferrari 296 GT3 into fifth in GTD ahead of Maxi Goetz’s Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes, while Mirko Bortolotti’s Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan was third of the GTD Pro runners.

Practice 3 runs for 90mins on Saturday, starting 11.15am local (Eastern) time.

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Laps Time Gap
1 60 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Colin Braun
Brazil Helio Castroneves
France Simon Pagenaud
GTP Acura ARX-06 35 1'35.210  
2 10 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
GTP Acura ARX-06 37 1'35.320 0.110
3 01 France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
New Zealand Scott Dixon
GTP Cadillac V-LMDh 33 1'35.585 0.375
4 7 Australia Matt Campbell
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Denmark Michael Christensen
GTP Porsche 963 35 1'35.974 0.764
5 02 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
GTP Cadillac V-LMDh 41 1'36.013 0.803
6 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
United Kingdom Nick Yelloly
South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde
United States Colton Herta
GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 50 1'36.032 0.822
7 24 Austria Philipp Eng
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Germany Marco Wittmann
United States Colton Herta
GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 43 1'36.547 1.337
8 6 France Mathieu Jaminet
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
United States Dane Cameron
GTP Porsche 963 9 1'36.754 1.544
9 31 Brazil Pipo Derani
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
United Kingdom Jack Aitken
GTP Cadillac V-LMDh 31 1'37.128 1.918
10 11 Thomas Steven
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Scott Huffaker
Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 47 1'38.730 3.520
11 88 France François Perrodo
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Julien Canal
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 43 1'39.341 4.131
12 52 United States Ben Keating
France Paul-Loup Chatin
Alex Quinn
France Nicolas Lapierre
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 45 1'39.372 4.162
13 18 Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Christian Rasmussen
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 43 1'39.559 4.349
14 8 Canada John Farano
New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Josef Newgarden
Kyffin Simpson
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 41 1'40.105 4.895
15 04 United States George Kurtz
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
United States Matt McMurry
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 49 1'40.140 4.930
16 35 France François Heriau
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
United States Josh Pierson
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 49 1'40.450 5.240
17 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Italy Raffaele Marciello
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 46 1'40.635 5.425
18 51 United States Eric Lux
Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
United States Austin Cindric
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 43 1'40.809 5.599
19 55 United States Fred Poordad
Italy Francesco Pizzi
Australia James Allen
Giammaria Bruni
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 39 1'41.744 6.534
20 36 United States Jarett Andretti
Colombia Gabby Chaves
United States Dakota Dickerson
Sweden Rasmus Lindh
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 36 1'42.926 7.716
21 33 United States Lance Willsey
Portugal Joao Barbosa
Nicolas Pino
Danny Soufi
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 37 1'43.375 8.165
22 74 United States Gar Robinson
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Netherlands Glenn van Berlo
Josh Burdon
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 41 1'43.389 8.179
23 87 Japan Yu Kanamaru
Canada James Vance
Canada Antonio Serravalle
United States Nicholas Boulle
LMP3 Duqueine D08 35 1'43.820 8.610
24 17 Canada Anthony Mantella
United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
Nico Varrone
United States Thomas Merrill
LMP3 Duqueine D08 40 1'44.290 9.080
25 13 Canada Orey Fidani
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
Germany Lars Kern
Germany Moritz Kranz
LMP3 Duqueine D08 45 1'44.600 9.390
26 85 United States Till Bechtolsheimer
Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
United States Luca Mars
United States Mason Filippi
LMP3 Duqueine D08 43 1'44.882 9.672
27 38 John DeAngelis
Christopher Allen
Australia Cameron Shields
Connor Bloum
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 29 1'45.468 10.258
28 43 Sebastian Alvarez
Singapore Danial Frost
Alex Vogel
Guilherme de
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 34 1'46.152 10.942
29 75 Germany Fabian Schiller
Zimbabwe Axcil Jefferies
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 32 1'47.020 11.810
30 14 United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
United Kingdom Mike Conway
GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 41 1'47.040 11.830
31 12 United States Aaron Telitz
United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Kyle Kirkwood
Parker Thompson
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 44 1'47.096 11.886
32 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
Denmark Nicki Thiim
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 40 1'47.166 11.956
33 57 United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Netherlands Indy Dontje
Austria Lucas Auer
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 40 1'47.335 12.125
34 23 United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
David Pittard
GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 33 1'47.561 12.351
35 21 Mann Simon
Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Francesco Castellacci
GTD Ferrari 296 GT3 38 1'47.575 12.365
36 32 United States Mike Skeen
Canada Mikael Grenier
United States Kenton Koch
Maximillian Goetz
GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 41 1'47.575 12.365
37 70 Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
Germany Marvin Kirchhofer
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 40 1'47.609 12.399
38 93 Ashton Harrison
Danny Formal
Canada Kyle Marcelli
Australia Ryan Briscoe
GTD Acura NSX GT3 31 1'47.676 12.466
39 63 Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
South Africa Jordan Lee Pepper
France Romain Grosjean
GTD PRO Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 40 1'47.735 12.525
40 79 United States Cooper MacNeil
Spain Daniel Juncadella
France Jules Gounon
Germany Maro Engel
GTD PRO Mercedes AMG GT3 40 1'47.768 12.558
41 27 Canada Roman De Angelis
Denmark Marco Sorensen
United Kingdom Ian James
United Kingdom Darren Turner
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 38 1'47.794 12.584
42 023 Onofrio Triarsi
Charles Scardina
Italy Alessio Rovera
Italy Andrea Bertolini
GTD Ferrari 296 GT3 33 1'47.847 12.637
43 62 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Brazil Daniel Serra
Italy Davide Rigon
GTD PRO Ferrari 296 GT3 22 1'47.921 12.711
44 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
United States Tommy Milner
GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 36 1'48.006 12.796
45 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Italy Alessandro Balzan
GTD Ferrari 296 GT3 34 1'48.112 12.902
46 64 United States Ted Giovanis
United States Hugh Plumb
United States Matt Plumb
United States Owen Trinkler
GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 25 1'48.115 12.905
47 66 Sheena Monk
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 41 1'48.135 12.925
48 78 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
Italy Loris Spinelli
Chile Benjamin Hites
Italy Marco Mapelli
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 38 1'48.322 13.112
49 42 United States Don Yount
United States Jaden Conwright
Kerong Li
Italy Alessio Deledda
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 42 1'48.381 13.171
50 83 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Doriane Pin
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 39 1'48.578 13.368
51 96 United States Patrick Gallagher
United States Robby Foley
Michael Dinan
Germany Jens Klingmann
GTD BMW M4 GT3 34 1'48.695 13.485
52 19 Italy Raffaele Giammaria
Frank Perera
Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 39 1'48.811 13.601
53 9 Austria Klaus Bachler
France Patrick Pilet
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 34 1'48.881 13.671
54 1 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
United States Corey Lewis
Belgium Maxime Martin
GTD BMW M4 GT3 40 1'49.028 13.818
55 95 United States Bill Auberlen
Chandler Hull
Canada Bruno Spengler
United States John Edwards
GTD PRO BMW M4 GT3 43 1'49.405 14.195
56 77 United States Alan Brynjolfsson
United States Trent Hindman
Max Root
France Kevin Estre
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 37 1'49.453 14.243
57 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
Belgium Jan Heylen
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Norway Dennis Olsen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 36 1'49.599 14.389
58 92 David Brule
United States Alec Udell
United States Andrew Davis
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 34 1'49.701 14.491
59 91 Alan Metni
Netherlands Kay van Berlo
Australia Jaxon Evans
France Julien Andlauer
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 40 1'49.762 14.552
60 80 PJ Hyett
Seb Priaulx
United States Gunnar Jeannette
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 25 1'49.790 14.580
61 53 United States Mark Kvamme
United States Trenton Estep
Denmark Jan Magnussen
United States Jason Hart
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 43 1'49.990 14.780

 

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