Mid-Ohio IMSA: Castroneves leads Acura Team Penske 1-2 in FP3

The one-hour session featured an early red flag when Townsend Bell’s AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F went off the damp track exiting Turn 2 and needed a tow out of the bog. He managed to get his filthy car back to the pits under its own power, but amazingly the same car would cause the second red flag, eight minutes before the end of the session. Frankie Montecalvo fell off the track but restarted without aid and burbled back to the pits.

That left six minutes of opportunity for improvements, and 35 of the 36 cars hit the track but Castroneves’ previous best – set just before the second stoppage – was topped only by teammate Dane Cameron… and then himself. On the track where he and Ricky Taylor earned Acura Team Penske’s first win together last year, Castroneves got down to 1min12.737sec, over eight-tenths clear of Cameron’s best effort, albeit still more than a second slower than his pole time from 2018.

Action Express Racing’s Cadillac DPi-V.Rs were next up, Joao Barbosa ahead of Pipo Derani but both over a second away from P1, while Simon Trummer set fifth fastest for JDC-Miller in another Caddy.

Oliver Jarvis had the faster of the two Mazda RT24-Ps, as Jonathan Bomarito in the #55 car couldn’t find a way to beat the best effort of temporary co-driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, set in the greasier conditions early in the session.

Another last-lap improvement, this time from Briscoe, saw the #67 Ford GT jump to the top of GT Le Mans, ahead of Laurens Vanthoor and Patrick Pilet, while Jesse Krohn’s best in the #25 BMW M8 nudged it ahead of both Corvettes and the second Ford.

Trent Hindman put the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX at the top of GT Daytona, ahead of Richard Heistand in the #14 Lexus RC F, the Lone Star Racing Mercedes AMG GT, and Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6.

Class-by-class qualifying begins at 11.40am local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	27	1'12.737			111.755
2	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	33	1'13.563	0.826	0.826	110.500
3	5	Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	35	1'13.851	1.114	0.288	110.069
4	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	30	1'14.056	1.319	0.205	109.765
5	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	36	1'14.672	1.935	0.616	108.859
6	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	32	1'14.907	2.170	0.235	108.518
7	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	27	1'15.012	2.275	0.105	108.366
8	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	35	1'15.435	2.698	0.423	107.758
9	55	Jonathan Bomarito Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Mazda DPi	33	1'15.698	2.961	0.263	107.384
10	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	34	1'15.996	3.259	0.298	106.963
11	50	Will Owen Kyle Kaiser	DPi	Cadillac DPi	33	1'16.381	3.644	0.385	106.424
12	38	Kyle Masson Cameron Cassels	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	32	1'16.586	3.849	0.205	106.139
13	67	Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	34	1'20.100	7.363	3.514	101.482
14	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	31	1'20.138	7.401	0.038	101.434
15	911	Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	33	1'20.162	7.425	0.024	101.404
16	24	Jesse Krohn John Edwards	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	32	1'20.232	7.495	0.070	101.315
17	52	Matt McMurry Eric Lux	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	34	1'20.365	7.628	0.133	101.148
18	4	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	31	1'20.810	8.073	0.445	100.591
19	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	31	1'20.907	8.170	0.097	100.470
20	25	Tom Blomqvist Connor de Phillippi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	27	1'20.943	8.206	0.036	100.425
21	66	Sébastien Bourdais Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	30	1'21.160	8.423	0.217	100.157
22	86	Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	29	1'21.818	9.081	0.658	99.351
23	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	31	1'21.879	9.142	0.061	99.277
24	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG	31	1'22.467	9.730	0.588	98.570
25	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	31	1'22.483	9.746	0.016	98.550
26	9	Scott Hargrove Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	30	1'22.560	9.823	0.077	98.459
27	33	Ben Keating Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	31	1'22.796	10.059	0.236	98.178
28	48	Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	33	1'22.797	10.060	0.001	98.177
29	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	27	1'22.862	10.125	0.065	98.100
30	76	Paul Holton Matt Plumb	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	29	1'23.335	10.598	0.473	97.543
31	19	Will Hardeman Alex Riberas	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	31	1'23.424	10.687	0.089	97.439
32	73	Patrick Long Marco Seefried	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	27	1'23.597	10.860	0.173	97.237
33	57	Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	32	1'23.657	10.920	0.060	97.167
34	8	Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	31	1'24.133	11.396	0.476	96.618
35	44	John Potter Andy Lally	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	32	1'24.214	11.477	0.081	96.525
36	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	29	1'24.500	11.763	0.286	96.198