Sebring 12 Hours: Van der Zande’s WTR Cadillac fastest in FP2

As WTR prepares to battle for not only race honors but also the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday, van der Zande led a Cadillac 1-2-3, just 0.167sec ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in the JDC Miller Motorsports car, but 0.6sec faster than defending race-winner Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing machine.

Oliver Jarvis was fastest of the turbocharged DPi cars, 0.86sec slower in the #77 Mazda RT24-P, ahead of Alexander Rossi’s best effort in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 he’ll be sharing with championship leaders Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor.

The second Acura, in the hands of another IndyCar star Simon Pagenaud, was fast enough to beat Jonathan Bomarito’s Mazda and the second JDC-Miller Caddy of Matheus Leist.

Despite the Starworks entry causing a red flag when it ground to a halt on track, Mikkel Jensen was able to lap in 1min51.667sec to turn fastest LMP2 time of the session, a quarter second faster than Simon Trummer in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry.

The two Porsche 911 RSRs of Laurens Vanthoor and Fred Makowiecki were 0.2sec apart but a further quarter second faster than their closest GT Le Mans opposition. That took the form of Jordan Taylor’s title-winning #3 Corvette C8.R, with Jesse Krohn and Colton Herta fourth and fifth in the BMW M8s ahead of Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette.

Steijn Schothorst led a Lamborghini Huracan 1-2 in GT Daytona, the Dutchman setting a 2min02.352sec in the Grasser Racing Team entry to shade Bryan Sellers’ best effort in the Paul Miller Racing machine by just 0.098sec.

No less impressive was Jan Heylen’s best effort in the Porsche 911 GT3R of Wright Motorsports which was just a further 0.126sec in arrears, ahead of Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo in the two AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC Fs.

Title hopeful Mario Farnbacher in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX edged Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6 for P6.

The 90min evening session begins at 6.15pm local (Eastern) time.

Session results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Class	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	mph
1	10	Renger van der Zande  Ryan Briscoe  Scott Dixon	DPi	Cadillac DPi	23	1'47.478		125.272
2	5	Sebastien Bourdais  Tristan Vautier  Loïc Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	25	1'47.645	0.167	125.078
3	31	Felipe Nasr  Pipo Derani  Gabby Chaves	DPi	Cadillac DPi	27	1'48.241	0.763	124.389
4	77	Oliver Jarvis  Tristan Nunez  Olivier Pla	DPi	Mazda DPi	24	1'48.335	0.857	124.281
5	7	Hélio Castroneves  Ricky Taylor  Alexander Rossi	DPi	Acura DPi	21	1'48.458	0.980	124.140
6	6	Juan Pablo Montoya  Dane Cameron  Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	23	1'48.857	1.379	123.685
7	55	Jonathan Bomarito  Harry Tincknell  Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Mazda DPi	24	1'49.055	1.577	123.461
8	85	Matheus Leist  Stephen Simpson  Scott Andrews	DPi	Cadillac DPi	25	1'49.178	1.700	123.322
9	8	John Farano  Mikkel Jensen  David Heinemeier Hansson	(LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	19	1'51.667	4.189	120.573
10	52	Patrick Kelly  Simon Trummer  Scott Huffaker	(LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	22	1'51.931	4.453	120.288
11	51	Jakub Smiechowski  Naveen Rao  Matthew Bell	(LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	29	1'52.951	5.473	119.202
12	38	Don Yount  Patrick Byrne  Guy Cosmo	(LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	26	1'56.253	8.775	115.816
13	912	Earl Bamber  Laurens Vanthoor  Neel Jani	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	26	1'57.975	10.497	114.126
14	911	Nick Tandy  Frédéric Makowiecki  Earl Bamber	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	23	1'58.172	10.694	113.936
15	3	Antonio Garcia  Jordan Taylor  Nicky Catsburg	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	27	1'58.444	10.966	113.674
16	24	Jesse Krohn  John Edwards  Augusto Farfus	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	22	1'58.606	11.128	113.519
17	25	Bruno Spengler  Connor de Phillippi  Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	25	1'59.143	11.665	113.007
18	4	Oliver Gavin  Tommy Milner  Marcel Fässler	GTLM	Corvette C8.R	24	1'59.544	12.066	112.628
19	11	Richard Heistand  Steijn Schothorst  Franck Perera	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	26	2'02.352	14.874	110.043
20	48	Bryan Sellers  Madison Snow  Corey Lewis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	21	2'02.450	14.972	109.955
21	16	Ryan Hardwick  Patrick Long  Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	25	2'02.478	15.000	109.930
22	14	Jack Hawksworth  Aaron Telitz  Kyle Kirkwood	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	23	2'02.591	15.113	109.829
23	12	Frankie Montecalvo  Townsend Bell  Michael de Quesada	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	26	2'02.957	15.479	109.502
24	86	Mario Farnbacher  Matthew McMurry  Shinya Michimi	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	22	2'03.065	15.587	109.406
25	96	Nick Yelloly  Robby Foley  Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	24	2'03.235	15.757	109.255
26	23	Ian James  Roman De Angelis  Darren Turner	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	22	2'03.284	15.806	109.211
27	74	Gar Robinson  Lawson Aschenbach  Marc Miller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	24	2'03.321	15.843	109.178
28	63	Cooper MacNeil  Alessandro Balzan  Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	22	2'03.374	15.896	109.132
29	44	Andy Lally  John Potter  Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	22	2'03.666	16.188	108.874
30	57	Trent Hindman  Mikhail Goikhberg  Joey Hand	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	24	2'03.811	16.333	108.746
31	30	Rob Ferriol  Andrew Davis  Pierre Kaffer	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	24	2'04.536	17.058	108.11