IMSA Sebring: AXR Cadillac, Corvette, Lexus take poles
Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani landed pole position for the Cadillac Grand Prix at Sebring, as Patrick Kelly took LMP2 pole for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Jordan Taylor led a Corvette 1-2 in GTLM, and Frankie Montecalvo led a Lexus 1-2 in GTD.
Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
Derani lapped the 17-turn 3.74-mile Sebring course in 1min46.733sec to grab pole for the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Juan Pablo Montoya ensured it wasn’t a Cadillac DPi-V.R lockout of Row 1, but his Acura Team Penske ARX-05 fell 0.216sec short of P1, albeit 0.16sec faster than Renger van der Zande in the Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy.
Tristan Nunez was by far the faster of the two Mazda drivers – according to IMSA Radio’s Shea Adam, Jonathan Bomarito discovered a radically different setup for the #55 RT24-P that was definitely not the right way to go – but even the #77 was 0.467sec from top spot.
Sebastien Bourdais and Stephen Simpson were fifth and seventh for JDC-Miller Motorsports, split by Helio Castroneves in the second Acura.
In LMP2, Kelly’s PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport ORECA took top spot by over half a second from Henrik Hedman in the DragonSpeed entry.
Taylor set a new GT Le Mans class record to deliver the second straight pole for the Corvette Racing team, the #3 C8.R lapping Sebring in 1min55.634sec to eclipse his Daytona pole-winning teammate Oliver Gavin by 0.381sec.
Porsche’s Frederic Makowiecki fell less than a tenth short of splitting the ’Vettes but could be satisfied with outpacing teammate Laurens Vanthoor by 0.3sec.
Jesse Krohn was in the faster of the two Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8s, almost three-tenths faster than Bruno Spengler, but almost one second slower than the pole-winning C8.R.
The GT Daytona scrap was very much a two-car battle between the Daytona race dominators, the Lexus RC F GT3s of AIM Vasser Sullivan. And it was Montecalvo in the #12 car who earned his first-ever IMSA pole, edging Aaron Telitz by 0.067sec.
Cooper MacNeil in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 edged Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 by 0.029sec, but was still nearly 0.9sec behind the Lexus pair.
Corey Fergus was fifth fastest in the Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3, beating Gar Robinson’s best effort in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. Seventh-placed Ryan Hardwick’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was a further 0.35sec behind.
Qualifying results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'46.733 | |
2 | 6 |
Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'46.949 | 0.216 |
3 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande
Ryan Briscoe |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.110 | 0.377 |
4 | 77 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'47.200 | 0.467 |
5 | 5 |
Joao Barbosa
Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.276 | 0.543 |
6 | 7 |
Helio Castroneves
Ricky Taylor |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'47.425 | 0.692 |
7 | 85 |
Stephen Simpson
Tristan Vautier |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'47.824 | 1.091 |
8 | 55 |
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'47.856 | 1.123 |
9 | 52 |
Patrick Kelly
Spencer Pigot |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'51.526 | 4.793 |
10 | 81 |
Henrik Hedman
Gustavo Menezes |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'52.085 | 5.352 |
11 | 38 |
Cameron Cassels
Kyle Masson |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'52.681 | 5.948 |
12 | 8 |
John Farano
Ryan Dalziel |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'54.938 | 8.205 |
13 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'55.012 | 8.279 |
14 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'55.634 | 8.901 |
15 | 4 |
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'56.015 | 9.282 |
16 | 911 |
Nick Tandy
Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'56.079 | 9.346 |
17 | 912 |
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'56.398 | 9.665 |
18 | 24 |
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'56.620 | 9.887 |
19 | 25 |
Bruno Spengler
Connor de Phillippi |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'56.909 | 10.176 |
20 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'01.190 | 14.457 |
21 | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth
Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 2'01.257 | 14.524 |
22 | 63 |
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2'02.069 | 15.336 |
23 | 96 |
Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 2'02.098 | 15.365 |
24 | 76 |
Corey Fergus
Paul Holton |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 2'02.203 | 15.470 |
25 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Lawson Aschenbach |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 2'02.371 | 15.638 |
26 | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick
Patrick Long |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 2'02.729 | 15.996 |
27 | 22 |
Till Bechtolsheimer
Marc Miller |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 2'03.227 | 16.494 |
28 | 30 |
Rob Ferriol
Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 2'04.343 | 17.610 |
29 | 44 |
Andy Lally
John Potter |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 2'04.424 | 17.691 |
View full results |
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