Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillac leads opening practice
Reigning IMSA Prototype champion Felipe Nasr set a strong pace in the first practice session for this weekend’s 2019 WeatherTech Sports Car Championship finale at Road Atlanta, while Ford led the way in GT Le Mans, and the Turner Motorsport BMW topped GTD.
#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi: Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran, Pipo Derani
Alexander Trienitz
Nasr’s Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R lapped the 2.54-mile course in just 69.093sec to eclipse the two Acura Team Penske ARX-05s of Ricky Taylor and Dane Cameron by 0.642 and 0.880sec respectively.
Colin Braun, on CORE autosport’s final run in Prototypes clocked fourth fastest in the Nissan DPi, and Matthieu Vaxiviere sent the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac around fast enough to beat the two Mazda RT24-Ps.
Richard Westbrook led GT Le Mans in the #67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT ahead of the squad’s final race running the sexy four-year-old machines, but being less than two tenths slower wasn’t enough to bag second for teammate Dirk Muller. Risi Competizione roared back to the series – for the first time since January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona – in fine form, and James Calado bagged second spot for the Texas-based squad.
Nick Tandy (Porsche), John Edwards (BMW) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette) were all within three-tenths of top spot.
The session was red-flagged twice for GT Daytona cars – once when Jack Hawksworth picked up a puncture just after passing pitlane entrance, and elected to stop his AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F on track rather than complete a whole lap with a flailing tire carcass. The second red came late on when Marco Seefried struck a tire wall in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
Both those two cars ended up in the top three times – PMR’s best being set by Bryan Sellers – but it was Bill Auberlen who clinched top spot in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6.
Christopher Mies’ Land Motorsport Audi R8 was fourth ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s best effort in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 and Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.
Second practice begins at 2.50pm local (Eastern) time.
Session results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Eric Curran Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.093 | |
2 | 7 |
Ricky Taylor
Helio Castroneves Graham Rahal |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'09.735 | 0.642 |
3 | 6 |
Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'09.973 | 0.880 |
4 | 54 |
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun Romain Dumas |
DPi | Nissan DPi | 1'10.022 | 0.929 |
5 | 10 |
Renger van der Zande
Jordan Taylor Matthieu Vaxiviere |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.147 | 1.054 |
6 | 77 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez Timo Bernhard |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'10.169 | 1.076 |
7 | 55 |
Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'10.356 | 1.263 |
8 | 85 |
Mikhail Goikhberg
Tristan Vautier Juan Piedrahita |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.774 | 1.681 |
9 | 84 |
Simon Trummer
Stephen Simpson Chris Miller |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'10.928 | 1.835 |
10 | 50 |
Will Owen
Rene Binder Spencer Pigot |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'11.200 | 2.107 |
11 | 52 |
Matt McMurry
Gabriel Aubry Dalton Kellett |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'11.233 | 2.140 |
12 | 38 |
Cameron Cassels
Kyle Masson Andrew Evans |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 | 1'11.381 | 2.288 |
13 | 67 |
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook Scott Dixon |
GTLM | Ford GT | 1'16.810 | 7.717 |
14 | 62 |
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi Daniel Serra |
GTLM | Ferrari 488 GTE | 1'16.902 | 7.809 |
15 | 66 |
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller Sébastien Bourdais |
GTLM | Ford GT | 1'16.982 | 7.889 |
16 | 911 |
Patrick Pilet
Nick Tandy Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'16.992 | 7.899 |
17 | 24 |
Jesse Krohn
John Edwards Philipp Eng |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'17.031 | 7.938 |
18 | 3 |
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller |
GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'17.080 | 7.987 |
19 | 25 |
Tom Blomqvist
Connor de Phillippi Colton Herta |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'17.205 | 8.112 |
20 | 4 |
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner Marcel Fassler |
GTLM | Corvette C7.R | 1'17.361 | 8.268 |
21 | 912 |
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR | 1'17.516 | 8.423 |
22 | 96 |
Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley Dillon Machavern |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'19.306 | 10.213 |
23 | 14 |
Richard Heistand
Jack Hawksworth Parker Chase |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.596 | 10.503 |
24 | 48 |
Bryan Sellers
Corey Lewis Marco Seefried |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.670 | 10.577 |
25 | 29 |
Christopher Mies
Richard Feller Daniel Morad |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'19.727 | 10.634 |
26 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen Felipe Fraga |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.764 | 10.671 |
27 | 63 |
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1'19.776 | 10.683 |
28 | 44 |
John Potter
Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.023 | 10.930 |
29 | 86 |
Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman Justin Marks |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'20.070 | 10.977 |
30 | 47 |
Brandon Gdovic
Don Yount Shinya Michimi |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.198 | 11.105 |
31 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'20.487 | 11.394 |
32 | 9 |
Scott Hargrove
Zacharie Robichon Lars Kern |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.696 | 11.603 |
33 | 57 |
Katherine Legge
Ana Beatriz Christina Nielsen |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'21.412 | 12.319 |
34 | 5 |
Joao Barbosa
Mike Conway Filipe Albuquerque |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'22.468 | 13.375 |
View full results |
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