Laguna Seca IMSA: Van der Zande leads FP3, Porsche 1-2 in GTLM

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	Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	1'16.605
2	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	1'16.686	0.081
3	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	1'16.750	0.145
4	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	1'16.898	0.293
5	55	Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	P	Mazda DPi	1'16.936	0.331
6	2	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel	P	Nissan DPi	1'17.028	0.423
7	22	Pipo Derani Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	1'17.189	0.584
8	5	Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	1'17.345	0.740
9	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	1'17.585	0.980
10	31	Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	1'17.603	0.998
11	85	Simon Trummer Robert Alon	P	ORECA LMP2	1'17.627	1.022
12	52	Gustavo Yacaman Sebastian Saavedra	P	ORECA LMP2	1'17.637	1.032
13	99	Mikhail Goikhberg Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	1'18.100	1.495
14	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'22.839	6.234
15	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'23.151	6.546
16	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'23.193	6.588
17	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'23.283	6.678
18	25	Connor de Phillippi Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'23.322	6.717
19	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'23.558	6.953
20	66	Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'23.631	7.026
21	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'24.192	7.587
22	58	Patrick Long Christina Nielsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'24.619	8.014
23	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'24.718	8.113
24	86	Alvaro Parente Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'24.739	8.134
25	48	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'24.884	8.279
26	14	Kyle Marcelli Dominik Baumann	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'24.946	8.341
27	63	Cooper MacNeil Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'25.236	8.631
28	96	Bill Auberlen  Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'25.287	8.682
29	44	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'25.452	8.847
30	93	Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'25.481	8.876
31	73	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'25.882	9.277
32	64	Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo	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	David Heinemeier Hansson Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'26.447	9.842