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 |  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 |
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About this article
| Series | IMSA |
| Event | Laguna Seca |
| Drivers | Renger van der Zande |
| Teams | DragonSpeed |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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