Laguna Seca IMSA: Van der Zande leads FP3, Porsche 1-2 in GTLM
Renger van der Zande drove the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to the top of the times at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, as Nick Tandy and Patrick Long put Porsche on top in the two GT classes.

There were two red flags during the one-hour session ahead of qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s penultimate round, the first being caused by Townsend Bell, who suffered a mechanical issue in his Scuderia Ferrari 488 and had to stop on course between Turns 5 and 6 .
The second came soon after, when Juan Pablo Montoya spun his #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 off track, and rejoined right in front of the sister #7 Acura. That gave his fellow Indy 500-winning teammate Helio Castroneves an alarming moment of avoidance, and Scott Sharp also dropped his ESM Nissan into the sand at the same point.
Van der Zande lapped the 2.238-mile course in 1min16.605sec, while the Oliver Jarvis/Tristan Nunez Mazda RT24-P was second – a mere 0.081sec behind.
Castroneves wound up third, ahead of the fastest LMP2 car, the CORE autosport Oreca of Colin Braun and the second Mazda of Jonathan Bomarito.
Tandy led Earl Bamber in a Porsche 911 RSR 1-2 in GT Le Mans, although the latter was mere hundredths quicker than Jesse Krohn’s #24 BMW M8, and only a tenth up on Richard Westbrook in the faster of the two Ford GTs.
Long’s Wright Motorsports 911 led the GT Daytona class ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Riley Mercedes AMG GT, and Katherine Legge in Michael Shank Racing’s Acura NSX, although less than 0.15sec covered this trio.
Qualifying begins at 12.45pm local (Pacific) time.
FP3 results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | P | Cadillac DPi | 1'16.605 | ||
2 | 77 | P | Mazda DPi | 1'16.686 | 0.081 | |
3 | 7 | P | Acura DPi | 1'16.750 | 0.145 | |
4 | 54 | P | ORECA LMP2 | 1'16.898 | 0.293 | |
5 | 55 | P | Mazda DPi | 1'16.936 | 0.331 | |
6 | 2 | P | Nissan DPi | 1'17.028 | 0.423 | |
7 | 22 | P | Nissan DPi | 1'17.189 | 0.584 | |
8 | 5 | P | Cadillac DPi | 1'17.345 | 0.740 | |
9 | 6 | P | Acura DPi | 1'17.585 | 0.980 | |
10 | 31 | P | Cadillac DPi | 1'17.603 | 0.998 | |
11 | 85 | P | ORECA LMP2 | 1'17.627 | 1.022 | |
12 | 52 | P | ORECA LMP2 | 1'17.637 | 1.032 | |
13 | 99 | P | ORECA LMP2 | 1'18.100 | 1.495 | |
14 | 911 | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'22.839 | 6.234 | |
15 | 912 | GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'23.151 | 6.546 | |
16 | 24 | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'23.193 | 6.588 | |
17 | 67 | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'23.283 | 6.678 | |
18 | 25 | GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'23.322 | 6.717 | |
19 | 4 | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'23.558 | 6.953 | |
20 | 66 | GTLM | Ford GT | 1'23.631 | 7.026 | |
21 | 3 | GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'24.192 | 7.587 | |
22 | 58 | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'24.619 | 8.014 | |
23 | 33 | GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'24.718 | 8.113 | |
24 | 86 | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'24.739 | 8.134 | |
25 | 48 | GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'24.884 | 8.279 | |
26 | 14 | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'24.946 | 8.341 | |
27 | 63 | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'25.236 | 8.631 | |
28 | 96 | GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'25.287 | 8.682 | |
29 | 44 | GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'25.452 | 8.847 | |
30 | 93 | GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'25.481 | 8.876 | |
31 | 73 | GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'25.882 | 9.277 | |
32 | 64 | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'25.922 | 9.317 | |
33 | 51 | Francesco Piovanetti Ozz Negri | GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'26.048 | 9.443 |
34 | 15 | GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'26.447 | 9.842 |

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About this article
Series | IMSA |
Event | Laguna Seca |
Drivers | Renger van der Zande |
Teams | DragonSpeed |
Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
Laguna Seca IMSA: Van der Zande leads FP3, Porsche 1-2 in GTLM
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