Detroit IMSA: Derani, Legge lead opening practice

Derani, who took pole here last year driving the Nissan DPi for the now-defunct ESM Racing team, eclipsed that time by some 1.7sec as the Michelins made their mark on the 2.35-mile 14-turn course.

The Brazilian set a 1min20.583sec in the #31 Cadillac DPi-V.R to better the best effort of Helio Castroneves in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 by a quarter-second.

Filipe Albuquerque in the second AXR Cadillac, the #5 car, was third ahead of the second Acura of Dane Cameron.

Jordan Taylor was fifth-fastest in the WTR Cadillac, one second off the ultimate pace, with Colin Braun sixth in the CORE autosport-run Nissan DPi.

Tristan Vautier and Simon Trummer were seventh and eighth in the JDC Miller Motorsports Cadillacs, but the squad had a torrid 90-minute session.

Trummer struck the wall causing the first red flag, while Vautier’s teammate Misha Goikhberg also caused a red when he went into the tires – an incident that also involved Matt Plumb in Compass Racing’s beautiful McLaren 720S.

Neither of the Mazda Team Joest RT24-Ps set a time at all during the session.

Legge’s top time in the MSR Acura NSX GT3 was a quarter-second ahead of last year’s GT Daytona polesitter, Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Zachary Robichon’s best effort in the Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was a mere 0.037sec slower and 0.36sec clear of Richard Heistand in the #14 AIM Vasser-Sullivan Lexus RC F.

Session results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	31	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'20.583
2	7	Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	1'20.835	0.252
3	5	Joao Barbosa Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'21.446	0.863
4	6	Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya	DPi	Acura DPi	1'21.484	0.901
5	10	Renger van der Zande Jordan Taylor	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'21.633	1.050
6	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'21.746	1.163
7	85	Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'22.017	1.434
8	84	Simon Trummer Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'22.029	1.446
9	50	Will Owen Victor Franzoni	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'23.562	2.979
10	57	Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'30.304	9.721
11	48	Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'30.547	9.964
12	73	Patrick Long Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'30.584	10.001
13	14	Richard Heistand Jack Hawksworth	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'30.947	10.364
14	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	1'30.949	10.366
15	86	Trent Hindman Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	1'30.981	10.398
16	44	John Potter Andy Lally	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'31.310	10.727
17	8	Parker Chase Ryan Dalziel	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1'31.368	10.785
18	63	Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'31.545	10.962
19	76	Paul Holton Matt Plumb	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'31.757	11.174
20	12	Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'31.786	11.203
21	74	Gar Robinson Lawson Aschenbach	GTD	Mercedes-AMG	1'31.897	11.314
22	55	Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	DPi	Mazda DPi
23	77	Oliver Jarvis Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi
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