Sebring 12 Hours: Castroneves leads opening practice

Lapping the legendary 17-turn 3.74-mile airport course in 1min49.360sec, the #7 Acura ARX-05 edged Sebastien Bourdais’ JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R by just 0.035sec to earn top spot.

This pair were over 0.4sec clear of the field, but the competitive picture was blurred by a nine-minute-long red flag period caused by the need to recover the spun Performance Tech Motorsports LMP2 car of Patrick Byrne, leaving just five minutes on a crowded track for 31 cars to set a time.

Ex-IndyCar driver Matheus Leist made it two JDC-Miller Cadillacs in the top three, as he eclipsed the best time set by Ryan Briscoe in Wayne Taylor Racing’s similar Caddy. Briscoe and Renger van der Zande, who are again partnered this weekend by six-time and reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, lie just two points behind Castroneves/Ricky Taylor in the IMSA DPi championship fight.

Felipe Nasr’s Action Express Racing Cadillac was fifth ahead of the two Mazda RT24-Ps of Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis, while outgoing DPi champ Dane Cameron was eighth in the second Acura.

In LMP2, Simon Trummer’s PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry led Matt Bell’s Inter Europol car by one second.

The two Porsche 911 RSRs, in their final IMSA outing for the forseeable future, headed up GT Le Mans class, Fred Makowiecki 0.374sec faster than Laurens Vanthoor, who was a mere 0.021sec ahead of Connor De Phillippi’s BMW M8. The two Corvettes of Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor were 0.9 and 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, but this is likely unrepresentative.

The AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC Fs were first and third in the hands of Jack Hawksworth and Townsend Bell, split by the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Pat Long.

Andrew Davis produced his customary fine job to slot the Audi R8 of Hardpoint Racing into fourth, a mere 0.02sec faster than Lawson Aschenbach’s Riley Motorsports Mercedes-Benz and 0.035sec ahead of Roman De Angelis in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

The second session begins at 2.35pm local (Eastern) time.

Session results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Class	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	mph
1	7	Hélio Castroneves  Ricky Taylor  Alexander Rossi	DPi	Acura DPi	23	1'49.360		123.116
2	5	Sebastien Bourdais  Tristan Vautier  Loïc Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	20	1'49.395	0.035	123.077
3	85	Matheus Leist  Stephen Simpson  Scott Andrews	DPi	Cadillac DPi	25	1'49.828	0.468	122.592
4	10	Renger van der Zande  Ryan Briscoe  Scott Dixon	DPi	Cadillac DPi	18	1'49.934	0.574	122.473
5	31	Felipe Nasr  Pipo Derani  Gabby Chaves	DPi	Cadillac DPi	23	1'49.957	0.597	122.448
6	55	Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell  Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Mazda DPi	20	1'50.090	0.730	122.300
7	77	Oliver Jarvis  Tristan Nunez  Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	18	1'50.126	0.766	122.260
8	6	Juan Pablo Montoya  Dane Cameron  Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	20	1'50.337	0.977	122.026
9	52	Patrick Kelly  Simon Trummer  Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	23	1'52.040	2.680	120.171
10	51	Jakub Smiechowski  Naveen Rao  Matthew Bell	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	20	1'53.026	3.666	119.123
11	8	John Farano  Mikkel Jensen  David Heinemeier Hansson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	22	1'53.189	3.829	118.951
12	38	Don Yount  Patrick Byrne  Guy Cosmo	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	17	1'55.217	5.857	116.858
13	911	Nick Tandy  Frédéric Makowiecki  Earl Bamber	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	20	1'58.717	9.357	113.413
14	912	Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor  Neel Jani	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	22	1'59.091	9.731	113.056
15	25	Bruno Spengler  Connor de Phillippi  Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	13	1'59.112	9.752	113.036
16	4	Oliver Gavin  Tommy Milner  Marcel Fässler	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	22	1'59.617	10.257	112.559
17	3	Antonio Garcia  Jordan Taylor  Nicky Catsburg	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	16	1'59.941	10.581	112.255
18	24	Jesse Krohn  John Edwards  Augusto Farfus	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	21	2'00.429	11.069	111.800
19	14	Jack Hawksworth  Aaron Telitz  Kyle Kirkwood	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	18	2'02.961	13.601	109.498
20	16	Ryan Hardwick  Patrick Long  Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	19	2'03.288	13.928	109.208
21	12	Frankie Montecalvo  Townsend Bell  Michael de Quesada	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	20	2'03.382	14.022	109.125
22	30	Rob Ferriol  Andrew Davis  Pierre Kaffer	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	21	2'03.418	14.058	109.093
23	74	Gar Robinson  Lawson Aschenbach  Marc Miller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	19	2'03.438	14.078	109.075
24	23	Ian James  Roman De Angelis  Darren Turner	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	19	2'03.473	14.113	109.044
25	44	Andy Lally  John Potter  Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	19	2'03.611	14.251	108.922
26	63	Cooper MacNeil  Alessandro Balzan  Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	19	2'03.651	14.291	108.887
27	11	Richard Heistand  Steijn Schothorst  Franck Perera	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	19	2'03.730	14.370	108.818
28	86	Mario Farnbacher  Matthew McMurry  Shinya Michimi	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	20	2'03.748	14.388	108.802
29	48	Bryan Sellers  Madison Snow  Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	18	2'03.949	14.589	108.625
30	57	Trent Hindman  Mikhail Goikhberg  Joey Hand	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	20	2'04.069	14.709	108.520
31	96	Nick Yelloly  Robby Foley  Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	16	2'05.159	15.799	107.575