Qualifying report
IMSA Daytona 24
IMSA Roar: Action Express Cadillac wins qualifying race
Overcoming a grid penalty, Action Express Racing's Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani landed pole for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, beating Mazda by 3.66sec in the wet-dry 100-minute qualifying race.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Jan 25, 2021, 3:31 PM
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With the wet conditions adding around a dozen seconds to the laptimes of the Prototype, Mazda’s Oliver Jarvis retained the lead at the drop of the green but immediately came under pressure from IMSA debutant Kevin Magnussen.
The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac wrested the lead at the end of Lap 1. The pair were pursued by Tristan Vautier in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Caddy, with Nasr not wasting time to move ahead of the Acuras to claim fourth place in the Whelen Engineering #31 AXR Caddy.
At the first restart, Vautier went around the outside of Jarvis at Turn 1 to make it a Cadillac 1-2, while Filipe Albuquerque moved the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 up ahead of Nasr to take fourth and start applying pressure to Jarvis who lost momentum and fell to seventh.
Then the yellow flew again for a GTD shunt, and all the DPi runners pitted for slicks except leader Magnussen. They would rejoin in the order Vautier, Cameron, Ricky Taylor (who had taken over from Albuquerque in the WTR car, Nasr, Jimmie Johnson and Harry Tincknell who was now in the Mazda. However, the RT24-P regained one spot when Cameron stopped his Meyer Shank Racing Acura for a second time.
Following the second restart, Nasr went around the outside of Taylor at the Horseshoe turn, to make it Cadillac 1-2-3, while later around the lap Tincknell would blast past Taylor for fourth. A lap later, Vautier took advantage of being on slicks and Magnussen being on wets on a drying track and the Frenchman moved to the front pursued by Nasr, who took the lead on Lap 20 with 50mins to go. Magnussen would then pit and hand off the Ganassi car to Renger van der Zande.
The Brazilian eased away from Vautier, the gap out to 3.7sec by Lap 28, and the JDC-Miller Cadillac started coming under pressure from Tincknell.
With 34min to go, the final pitstop sequence started, with Nasr handing off to Derani, and Mazda jumping Tincknell ahead of Loic Duval who had taken over the JDC-Miller Cadillac. With 20mins to go, Duval was filling the Mazda’s mirrors until Tincknell seemed to find another level.
Duval, in fact, had to cede third to the Meyer Shank Acura now piloted by Olivier Pla, but Duval moved back ahead as they closed on the Mazda once more as it fell 4.5sec behind leader Derani. However, this three-car battle for second rather dissipated over the final 10mins.
Taylor had a fairly lonely run to fifth at the end, keeping well ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who had taken over the #48 Cadillac from the impressive Johnson and set the fastest lap of the race.
LMP2
At the start, Steven Thomas pushed WIN Autosport’s Oreca to the front ahead of Roberto Lacorte in the Cetilar Racing Dallara and Dennis Andersen’s High Class Racing Oreca, but on the first restart, Thomas fell to third, Andersen fell to fourth, while Lacorte took the lead ahead of DragonSpeed’s #82 driven by Eric Lux.
Following the pitstops Lacorte’s teammate Antonio Fuoco took over and lead the class ahead of Mikkel Jensen in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry, with Gabriel Aubry third in the Tower Motorsports by Starworks Oreca.
Then, with 11mins to go, Aubry had to relinquish third to Ferdinand Habsburg in the High Class car, and a minute later Jensen squeezed past Fuoco to put PR1 Mathiasen in front. Fuoco then pitted the Cetilar Dallara with a mystery problem, handing second to High Class and third to Tower Motorsports.
LMP3
Rasmus Lindh (Performance Tech Motorsports) and Moritz Kranz (Muehlner Motorsports America) led from the start, while Jon Bennett’s CORE autosport machine took advantage of spins for the other three class starters to move into third. The first restart saw Kranz demote Lindh.
Following the first round of stops Joao Barbosa had the Sean Creech Motorsports car in the lead ahead of Muehlner’ car, now steered by Laurents Hoerr. The latter would retake the class lead following Barbosa’s second stop, and that would promote Ryan Norman’s Forty7 Motorsports entry into second and George Kurtz in the CORE car into third.
GT Le Mans
Alexander Sims in his first Corvette outing took the lead from class polesitter Marco Wittmann of BMW soon after the start, while Alessandro Pier Guidi moved the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 into third ahead of the second BMW of Timo Glock, Jordan Taylor’s Corvette and Cooper MacNeil in the WeatherTech Racing Proton Porsche 911 RSR.
After taking over the Ferrari from Pier Guidi, James Calado spun it coming out of the pits and fell to the back of the class. By delaying his second stop, MacNeil’s partner Kevin Estre held the class lead through the middle of the race, stopping only with 17mins remaining.
That left Tandy and Nicky Catsburg running 1-2 in the Corvette C8.Rs up front through to the checkered flag, 12sec apart, but Estre was still third thanks to Augusto Farfus having to make an extra stop in the #24 BMW due to a tire vibration.
GT Daytona
Rolf Ineichen was the early leader in the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan, ahead of Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, but it was bad news for another Lambo team, Madison Snow pitting the Paul Miller Racing machine and staying there.
Zacharie Robichon’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche ran third ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 and Ian James’ Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. On the first restart, Team Hardpoint’s Porsche driven by Christina Nielsen fell off the track and slid across the wet grass into a tire wall, causing a second yellow.
Bill Auberlen carried on Foley’s good work in the Turner BMW to take the lead as the track continued to dry but remained damp off line, and he was leading in the closing stages, albeit under pressure from Laurens Vanthoor who’d taken over the Pfaff Porsche from Robichon.
The BMW eventually finished 4.4sec clear, while Mirko Bortolotti brought the Grasser Lambo into a podium-finishing position ahead of the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F, which had been shared by Oliver Gavin and Aaron Telitz.
Race results:
Cla Class Num Driver Chassis Laps Gap 1 DPi 31 Felipe Nasr
Mike Conway
Pipo Derani
Chase Elliott
Cadillac DPi 51 2 DPi 55 Oliver Jarvis
Harry Tincknell
Jonathan Bomarito
Mazda DPi 51 3.664 3 DPi 5 Tristan Vautier
Loic Duval
Sébastien Bourdais
Cadillac DPi 51 4.627 4 DPi 60 Dane Cameron
Olivier Pla
Juan Pablo Montoya
A.J. Allmendinger
Acura DPi 51 6.995 5 DPi 10 Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque
Alexander Rossi
Helio Castroneves
Acura DPi 51 8.997 6 DPi 48 Jimmie Johnson
Kamui Kobayashi
Simon Pagenaud
Mike Rockenfeller
Cadillac DPi 51 19.985 7 DPi 01 Renger van der Zande
Kevin Magnussen
Scott Dixon
Marcus Ericsson
Cadillac DPi 51 1'14.834 8 LMP2 52 Ben Keating
Mikkel Jensen
Scott Huffaker
Nicolas Lapierre
ORECA LMP2 07 51 1'33.798 9 LMP2 20 Dennis Andersen
Ferdinand Habsburg
Anders Fjordbach
Robert Kubica
ORECA LMP2 07 50 1 Lap 10 LMP2 8 John Farano
Gabriel Aubry
Timothé Buret
Matthieu Vaxiviere
ORECA LMP2 07 50 1 Lap 11 LMP2 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert
Charles Milesi
ORECA LMP2 07 50 1 Lap 12 LMP2 81 Rob Hodes
Garett Grist
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ben Hanley
ORECA LMP2 07 50 1 Lap 13 LMP2 47 Roberto Lacorte
Antonio Fuoco
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara LMP2 50 1 Lap 14 LMP2 18 Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley
Ryan Dalziel
Paul-Loup Chatin
ORECA LMP2 07 49 2 Laps 15 LMP2 51 Cody Ware
Salih Yoluc
Austin Dillon
Mathieu Jaminet
Ligier LMP2 49 2 Laps 16 GTLM 4 Nick Tandy
Alexander Sims
Tommy Milner
Corvette C8.R 49 2 Laps 17 GTLM 3 Jordan Taylor
Nick Catsburg
Antonio Garcia
Corvette C8.R 49 2 Laps 18 GTLM 79 Cooper MacNeil
Kevin Estre
Richard Lietz
Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 49 2 Laps 19 LMP2 82 Eric Lux
Devlin DeFrancesco
Fabian Schiller
Christopher Mies
ORECA LMP2 07 48 3 Laps 20 LMP2 11 Thomas Steven
Tristan Nunez
Thomas Merrill
Matthew Bell
ORECA LMP2 07 48 3 Laps 21 GTLM 62 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Jules Gounon
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE 48 3 Laps 22 GTD 96 Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley
Aidan Read
Colton Herta
BMW M6 GT3 48 3 Laps 23 GTD 9 Zacharie Robichon
Laurens Vanthoor
Lars Kern
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 GT3 R 48 3 Laps 24 GTD 111 Rolf Ineichen
Mirko Bortolotti
Steijn Schothorst
Marco Mapelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 48 3 Laps 25 GTLM 25 Philipp Eng
Timo Glock
Connor de Phillippi
Bruno Spengler
BMW M8 GTE 48 3 Laps 26 GTD 14 Aaron Telitz
Oliver Gavin
Kyle Kirkwood
Jack Hawksworth
Lexus RC F GT3 48 3 Laps 27 LMP3 6 Moritz Kranz
Hoerr Laurents
Duqueine M30-D08 48 3 Laps 28 GTD 57 Russell Ward
Philip Ellis
Indy Dontje
Maro Engel
Mercedes-AMG GT3 48 3 Laps 29 GTD 19 Mikhail Goikhberg
Franck Perera
Albert Costa
Tim Zimmermann
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 48 3 Laps 30 GTD 23 Ian James
Roman De Angelis
Darren Turner
Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 47 4 Laps 31 LMP3 7 Mark Kvamme
Ryan Norman
Gabby Chaves
Charles Finelli
Duqueine M30-D08 47 4 Laps 32 GTLM 24 Augusto Farfus
Marco Wittmann
John Edwards
Jesse Krohn
BMW M8 GTE 47 4 Laps 33 LMP3 54 Jon Bennett
George Kurtz
Colin Braun
Matt McMurry
Ligier JS P320 47 4 Laps 34 GTD 63 Ed Jones
Bret Curtis
Ryan Briscoe
Marcos Gomes
Ferrari 488 GT3 47 4 Laps 35 GTD 16 Ryan Hardwick
Patrick Long
Jan Heylen
Klaus Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 47 4 Laps 36 GTD 12 Robert Megennis
Zach Veach
Townsend Bell
Frankie Montecalvo
Lexus RC F GT3 46 5 Laps 37 GTD 75 Kenny Habul
Raffaele Marciello
Mikael Grenier
Luca Stolz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 46 5 Laps 38 GTD 44 John Potter
Andy Lally
Spencer Pumpelly
Mario Farnbacher
Acura NSX GT3 45 6 Laps 39 GTD 97 Maxwell Root
Charles Eastwood
Ben Keating
Richard Westbrook
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 45 6 Laps 40 GTD 88 Rob Ferriol
Earl Bamber
Katherine Legge
Christina Nielsen
Porsche 911 GT3 R 45 6 Laps 41 GTD 28 Daniel Morad
Michael de Quesada
Billy Johnson
Maxi Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3 45 6 Laps 42 GTD 21 Mann Simon
Nicklas Nielsen
Daniel Serra
Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GT3 44 7 Laps 43 LMP3 33 Lance Willsey
Joao Barbosa
Wayne Boyd
Yann Clairay
Ligier JS P320 30 21 Laps 44 GTD 42 Alan Metni
Andrew Davis
J.R. Hildebrand
Don Yount
Audi R8 LMS GT3 18 33 Laps 45 LMP3 38 Rasmus Lindh
Cameron Cassels
LLarena Mateo
Ori Ayrton
Ligier JS P320 13 38 Laps 46 LMP3 91 Cox Jim
Murry Dylan
Austin McCusker
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ligier JS P320 8 43 Laps 47 GTD 1 Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow
Corey Lewis
Andrea Caldarelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 2 49 Laps 48 LMP3 74 Gar Robinson
Spencer Pigot
Scott Andrews
Oliver Askew
Ligier JS P320 0 49 GTD 64 Ted Giovanis
Owen Trinkler
Hugh Plumb
Matt Plumb
Porsche 911 GT3 R 0 View full results
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