The Brazilian and the American kept trimming tenths from each other’s best laps, with Castroneves finally putting the matter beyond dispute with his 11^th lap – a 1min11.834sec.

Although the Acuras left their rivals gasping, the gap closed substantially from the morning session when they were 1sec adrift. Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito put the Mazda RT24-Ps into third and fourth with best laps 0.5 and 0.76sec off top spot.

Renger van der Zande was fastest of the Cadillacs, putting the Wayne Taylor Racing entry fifth, 0.35ahead of Joao Barbosa in the Action Express Racing Cadillac #5.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Gustavo Yacaman led a quartet of Global P2 cars, all of which outperformed the ESM Nissans and Eric Curran’s #31 AXR Cadillac.

GT Le Mans saw a fabulous scrap between the two RLL BMW M8s of John Edwards and Alexander Sims and the two Porsche 911 RSRs of Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. It was eventually resolved in Edwards’ favor ahead of Tandy, the pair separated by 0.066sec, with Sims only 0.013sec further back!

Bamber was fourth, one-tenth ahead of Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C7.R, ahead of the Ford GTs of Dirk Muller and Ryan Briscoe, the latter of whom had a quick spin. Tommy Milner was eighth in the #4 Corvette.

In GT Daytona, Jack Hawksworth led teammate Kyle Marcelli in a hugely impressive 1-2 for the 3GT Lexus RC Fs. They were only 0.053sec apart yet over half a second better than Madison Snow’s third placed Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

The Michael Shank Racing Acura NSXs of Katherine Legge and Justin Marks were separated by the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 of Dillon Machavern.

Christina Nielsen will roll off seventh in class in the Wright Motorsports Porsche ahead of Cooper MacNeil driving the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488.

IMSA Mid-Ohio, qualifying

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	P	Acura DPi	11	1'11.837			113.156
2	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Dane Cameron	P	Acura DPi	9	1'11.984	0.147	0.147	112.925
3	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	12	1'12.339	0.502	0.355	112.371
4	55	Spencer Pigot Jonathan Bomarito	P	Mazda DPi	12	1'12.596	0.759	0.257	111.973
5	10	Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande	P	Cadillac DPi	12	1'12.600	0.763	0.004	111.967
6	5	Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	12	1'12.943	1.106	0.343	111.440
7	52	Gustavo Yacaman Sebastian Saavedra	P	Ligier LMP2	12	1'12.982	1.145	0.039	111.381
8	99	Mikhail Goikhberg Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA LMP2	12	1'13.035	1.198	0.053	111.300
9	85	Simon Trummer Robert Alon	P	ORECA LMP2	12	1'13.156	1.319	0.121	111.116
10	38	James French Kyle Masson	P	ORECA LMP2	11	1'13.365	1.528	0.209	110.799
11	22	Pipo Derani Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	12	1'13.532	1.695	0.167	110.548
12	31	Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	P	Cadillac DPi	12	1'13.583	1.746	0.051	110.471
13	2	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel	P	Nissan DPi	12	1'14.347	2.510	0.764	109.336
14	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	P	ORECA LMP2	12	1'14.351	2.514	0.004	109.330
15	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	6	1'17.853	6.016	3.502	104.412
16	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	11	1'17.919	6.082	0.066	104.324
17	25	Connor de Phillippi Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	9	1'17.932	6.095	0.013	104.306
18	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	11	1'18.021	6.184	0.089	104.187
19	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	12	1'18.114	6.277	0.093	104.063
20	66	Joey Hand Dirk Müller	GTLM	Ford GT	11	1'18.207	6.370	0.093	103.940
21	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	10	1'18.333	6.496	0.126	103.772
22	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	10	1'18.452	6.615	0.119	103.615
23	15	David Heinemeier Hansson Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	8	1'19.317	7.480	0.865	102.485
24	14	Kyle Marcelli Dominik Baumann	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	8	1'19.370	7.533	0.053	102.417
25	48	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	10	1'19.882	8.045	0.512	101.760
26	86	Alvaro Parente Katherine Legge	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	11	1'19.933	8.096	0.051	101.695
27	96	Bill Auberlen Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	10	1'20.339	8.502	0.406	101.181
28	93	Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	12	1'20.477	8.640	0.138	101.008
29	58	Patrick Long Christina Nielsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	9	1'20.748	8.911	0.271	100.669
30	63	Cooper MacNeil Alessandro Balzan	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	12	1'20.846	9.009	0.098	100.547
31	16	Wolf Henzler Michael Schein	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	11	1'21.043	9.206	0.197	100.302
32	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	11	1'21.244	9.407	0.201	100.054
33	44	Andy Lally John Potter	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	12	1'21.379	9.542	0.135	99.888
34	75	Kenny Habul Maro Engel	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3