Sebring 12H: Cadillac locks out front row, Porsche crashes

GTP

A 20-minute session for eight class entrants on a 3.74-mile racecourse meant the teams could space themselves well on track. Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Autosport’s Ricky Taylor delivered a 1m46.100 to go half a second clear of fellow Acura ARX-06 runner, Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing entry. They both pitted for fresh rubber and while in the pits, they were split by Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, who then went faster still, delivering a 1m45.836s to spring to the top.

Sebastien Bourdais of Chip Ganassi Racing made it a Cadillac 1-2, just 0.087s away, and before anyone could effectively respond, Matt Campbell buried his #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 in the Turn 1 tire wall after brushing the inside wall.

Thus the V-Series.R not only scored its first pole, Cadillac locked out the front row. They had also run the whole session on just one set of tires, ensuring they have one more fresh set to use in tomorrow’s race than the Acuras.

Taylor’s effort on his first set ensures he’ll start third, alongside Mathieu Jaminet’s #6 Porsche, while Rolex 24 pole-winner Blomqvist will line up fifth.

Augusto Farfus was 0.9sec from the top spot in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, 0.15sec faster than the sister car of Connor De Phillippi.

LMP2

To no one’s surprise, the TDS Racing cars looked strong from their very first flyers, Francois Heriau leading Steven Thomas, but inevitably Ben Keating of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports wasn’t going to let that lie, and put himself firmly in the mix.

So too did George Kurtz of Crowdstrike Racing by APR, but Heriau delivered a 1m51.900s to lift himself 0.416s clear of his nearest challenger… temporarily. Then Keating punched in a 1m51.780s to move to the top.

Thomas had a strong first sector on his final efforts but couldn’t displace team-mate Heriau for second, but was over three-tenths clear of Kurtz.

LMP3

Gar Robinson has looked strong all weekend in the Riley Motorsports Ligier, and he went top until displaced by Glenn van Berlo of Andretti Autosport, who was some 1.4sec clear of the field. Remarkably, van Berlo actually extended that advantage by the end of the session, pulling 1.659s on nearest challenger Tonis Kasemets of Ave Motorsports.

Dan Goldburg of JDC Miller MotorSports was fastest Duqueine pilot, edging Robinson by mere hundredths to claim third on the grid.

GTD Pro / GTD

Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Lexus RC F and Daniel Serra in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 were the first drivers under the two minute barrier, but they were swiftly joined by Antonio Garcia in the Corvette C8.R, Alex Ribeiras in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

Hawksworth improved to 1m59.582s, just 0.053s ahead of Daniel Juncadella in the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, but then they were both eclipsed – by over a quarter-second – by Garcia’s 1m59.315s.

Just as the excitement was building, with four minutes to go, the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R spun hard into the tire wall on the outside of Turn 1. Thankfully its occupant Klaus Bachler was able to emerge unaided, but the repairs needed for the tire wall meant the session was over.

Thus Garcia will lead the GTD Pro cars to the green with Hawksworth alongside, and Juncadella in third. Riberas and Serra were fourth and fifth in class.

In GTD, Kyle Marcelli scored his first ever pole in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, lapping his Racers Edge with WTR Acura NSX in 1m59.714s, just 0.12s ahead of the Rolex 24 pole-winning Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 of Philip Ellis. The similar Benz of Mikael Grenier (Team Korthoff) was third just ahead of Aaron Telitz in the #12 Lexus.

Reflecting the Balance of Performance revisions since Daytona, Jan Heylen’s Wright Motorsports Porsche was fifth fastest, 0.308sec off the class lead, and one-tenth ahead of Alessio Rovera in Triarsi Competizione’s Ferrari 296.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	6	1'45.836
2	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Scott Dixon	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	5	1'45.923	0.087
3	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Louis Deletraz	GTP	Acura ARX-06	7	1'46.100	0.264
4	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet Dane Cameron	GTP	Porsche 963	6	1'46.426	0.590
5	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun Helio Castroneves	GTP	Acura ARX-06	7	1'46.603	0.767
6	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	6	1'46.756	0.920
7	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr Michael Christensen	GTP	Porsche 963	6	1'46.851	1.015
8	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	8	1'46.908	1.072
9	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	9	1'51.780	5.944
10	35	François Heriau Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	8	1'51.900	6.064
11	11	Steven Thomas Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	9	1'52.169	6.333
12	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Nolan Siegel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	8	1'52.486	6.650
13	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	7	1'53.350	7.514
14	8	John Farano Scott McLaughlin Kyffin Simpson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	8	1'53.579	7.743
15	51	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Pietro Fittipaldi	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	9	1'53.673	7.837
16	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	8	1'53.963	8.127
17	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Glenn van	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	7	1'55.215	9.379
18	4	Seth Lucas Tonis Kasemets Trenton Estep	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	9	1'56.874	11.038
19	85	Till Bechtolsheimer Tijmen van der Helm Daniel Goldburg	LMP3	Duqueine D08	7	1'56.984	11.148
20	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Josh Burdon	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	8	1'57.012	11.176
21	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Dakota Dickerson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	9	1'58.092	12.256
22	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nico Varrone	LMP3	Duqueine D08	8	1'58.164	12.328
23	38	Christopher Allen Robert Mau Tristan Nunez	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	9	1'58.724	12.888
24	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	9	1'59.160	13.324
25	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	6	1'59.315	13.479
26	33	Lance Willsey Joao Barbosa Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	9	1'59.458	13.622
27	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	6	1'59.582	13.746
28	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	4	1'59.635	13.799
29	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	6	1'59.714	13.878
30	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	5	1'59.834	13.998
31	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas David Pittard	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	5	1'59.925	14.089
32	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon Gabriel Casagrande	GTD PRO	Ferrari 296 GT3	5	1'59.939	14.103
33	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Parker Thompson	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	6	1'59.944	14.108
34	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5	2'00.022	14.186
35	023	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	5	2'00.124	14.288
36	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	5	2'00.229	14.393
37	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	5	2'00.504	14.668
38	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Benjamin Hites	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	6	2'00.639	14.803
39	63	Frank Perera Jordan Lee Pepper Romain Grosjean	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	6	2'00.763	14.927
40	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	5	2'01.395	15.559
41	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	5	2'01.451	15.615
42	21	Simon Mann Miguel Molina Francesco Castellacci	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	5	2'01.588	15.752
43	83	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	6	2'01.652	15.816
44	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	5	2'01.652	15.816
45	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5	2'01.927	16.091
46	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	5	2'02.115	16.279
47	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Maxwell Root	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5	2'02.612	16.776
48	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5	2'02.678	16.842
49	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	5	2'03.342	17.506
50	92	David Brule Alec Udell Julien Andlauer	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5	2'04.555	18.719
51	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	3
52	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier Kenton Koch	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	5
53	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	5
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