Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Practice report

Rolex 24: Montoya’s Acura tops wet opening practice

The #6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 of defending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion Juan Pablo Montoya topped a wet-but-drying first practice for the 58th Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.

#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud

#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud

LAT Photo USA for IMSA

The Colombian turned a best time of 1min49.917sec, which survived a last-gasp challenge from Olivier Pla’s #77 Mazda RT24-P which fell 0.039sec short with its final lap.

The JDC-Miller MotorSports entries of Tristan Vautier and Sebastien Bourdais were third and fourth, and fastest of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, ahead of Ricky Taylor in the second Acura.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac was sixth thanks to Ryan Briscoe, while 2012 IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was the fastest driver in the #55 Mazda.

Nicolas Lapierre’s Tower Motorsport by Starworks Oreca led LMP2 ahead of the DragonSpeed entry piloted by Ben Hanley.

GT Le Mans saw the revised Porsche 911 RSR-19s come to the fore, courtesy of Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy, while 0.9sec back Antonio Garcia was third in the mid-engined #3 Corvette C8.R which makes its race debut this weekend.

However the sister Corvette caused one of two red flags when it ground to a halt on track while in Marcel Fassler’s hands, thus Tommy Milner didn’t get a chance to set a representative time as the track dried.

Mirko Bortolotti’s WRT Speedstar Audi Sport R8 topped GT Daytona ahead of Patrick Pilet’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, Albert Costa in the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo and Supercars ace Shane van Gisbergen in the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.

Sven Muller set fifth fastest time for Black Swan Racing, but one of his co-drivers, Trenton Estep suffered a major shunt, the torn-up 911 bringing out the session’s second red flag with around 20mins to go.

The team faces an uphill task to get the car back in respectable shape in time for FP2 which begins at 12.45pm local (Eastern) time, while qualifying is set for 4.15 and FP3 for 7.15.

 

Session results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 6 United States Dane Cameron
France Simon Pagenaud
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
DPi Acura DPi 1'49.917
2 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Tristan Nunez
France Olivier Pla
DPi Mazda DPi 1'49.956 0.039
3 85 Colombia Juan Piedrahita
Brazil Matheus Leist
United States Chris Miller
France Tristan Vautier
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'50.316 0.399
4 5 France Sébastien Bourdais
France Loic Duval
Portugal Joao Barbosa
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'51.054 1.137
5 7 United States Ricky Taylor
Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Alexander Rossi
DPi Acura DPi 1'51.226 1.309
6 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Australia Ryan Briscoe
New Zealand Scott Dixon
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'51.504 1.587
7 55 United States Jonathan Bomarito
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
DPi Mazda DPi 1'51.778 1.861
8 8 United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Canada John Farano
France Nicolas Lapierre
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'52.193 2.276
9 81 United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Sweden Henrik Hedman
United States Colin Braun
United Kingdom Harrison Newey
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'53.555 3.638
10 52 United States Ben Keating
Switzerland Simon Trummer
United States Nicholas Boulle
France Gabriel Aubry
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'55.852 5.935
11 912 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
New Zealand Earl Bamber
France Mathieu Jaminet
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'57.031 7.114
12 911 Australia Matt Campbell
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Frédéric Makowiecki
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 1'57.351 7.434
13 38 Canada Cameron Cassels
Robert Masson
United States Kyle Masson
United States Don Yount
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'57.956 8.039
14 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'57.991 8.074
15 88 Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Canada Daniel Morad
Belgium Dries Vanthoor
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'58.763 8.846
16 9 Norway Dennis Olsen
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Germany Lars Kern
France Patrick Pilet
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'58.774 8.857
17 11 United States Richard Heistand
Netherlands Steijn Schothorst
France Franck Perera
Spain Albert Costa
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'58.843 8.926
18 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
United States Aaron Telitz
United States Townsend Bell
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'59.181 9.264
19 54 United States Tim Pappas
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Germany Sven Muller
United States Trenton Estep
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'59.268 9.351
20 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Switzerland Marcel Fassler
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'59.666 9.749
21 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
Austria Philipp Eng
Canada Bruno Spengler
United States Colton Herta
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'59.715 9.798
22 19 Denmark Christina Nielsen
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Colombia Tatiana Calderon
Switzerland Rahel Frey
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'59.821 9.904
23 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
Italy Marco Mapelli
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'59.872 9.955
24 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
United States Patrick Long
United States Anthony Imperato
Austria Klaus Bachler
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'59.985 10.068
25 74 United States Lawson Aschenbach
United States Ben Keating
United States Gar Robinson
Brazil Felipe Fraga
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 2'00.052 10.135
26 24 United States John Edwards
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Australia Chaz Mostert
Finland Jesse Krohn
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 2'00.081 10.164
27 98 Portugal Pedro Lamy
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Austria Mathias Lauda
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2'00.124 10.207
28 14 United States Parker Chase
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Michael de Quesada
United States Kyle Busch
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 2'01.151 11.234
29 62 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Brazil Daniel Serra
Italy Davide Rigon
GTLM Ferrari 488 GTE 2'01.575 11.658
30 18 United States Kyle Tilley
Dwight Merriman
United States Ryan Lewis
France Nicolas Minassian
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 2'01.611 11.694
31 96 United States Robby Foley
Germany Jens Klingmann
United States Bill Auberlen
United States Dillon Machavern
GTD BMW M6 GT3 2'02.641 12.724
32 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Matt McMurry
Japan Shinya Michimi
France Jules Gounon
GTD Acura NSX GT3 2'03.119 13.202
33 47 United States Brandon Gdovic
Eric Lux
United States Mark Kvamme
Jonathan Hoggard
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 2'09.944 20.027
34 23 United Kingdom Ian James
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Canada Roman De Angelis
Spain Alex Riberas
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3
35 31 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Brazil Pipo Derani
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Brazil Felipe Nasr
DPi Cadillac DPi
36 48 United States Madison Snow
United States Bryan Sellers
United States Corey Lewis
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3
37 57 Portugal Alvaro Parente
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
United States Trent Hindman
United States A.J. Allmendinger
GTD Acura NSX GT3
38 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
Finland Toni Vilander
United States Jeff Westphal
Italy Alessandro Balzan
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Calderon "shocked" by first taste of sportscars
Next article Rolex 24: Taylor’s Acura leads Mazdas in FP2

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA