Detroit IMSA: Bamber puts Ganassi Cadillac on top in FP1

Bamber in fact led most of the session until Ricky Taylor caused a surprise three minutes from the checkered flag, when he set fastest time in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 by going fastest in the first two sectors. He had earlier survived a trip into the Turn 3 runoff.

But just a minute later, Bamber produced a lap that, although a tad slower in sectors 1 and 2, was close enough in time that his superior third sector saw him inch back ahead by 0.146sec.

The Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Oliver Jarvis was 0.55sec off WTR’s similar car, but that was still good enough for third place. It would likely not have been had Pipo Derani been in the Action Express Racing Cadillac when the track was in its best condition, but the Brazilian gave up the majority of his seat time to his new teammate Olivier Pla. The 40-year-old Frenchman has replaced Tristan Nunez in the line-up and needed to adapt to the AXR Caddy and also the bumpy 2.35-mile 14-turn track on Belle Isle. Pla’s best effort was 0.9sec from top spot but good enough to see him ahead of the second Ganassi Cadillac and the JDC Miller Motorsports’ Cadillac.

Mike Skeen was fastest in the only other class competing this weekend, GTD, and his Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 lapped the track in 1min30.759sec, mere hundredths ahead of Aaron Telitz’s best effort in the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F.

Aidan Read was an impressive third in Rick Ware Racing’s Acura NSX, ahead of Roman De Angelis in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Jan Heylen’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Second practice begins at 12.05pm local (Eastern) time, with qualifying at 5.30pm.

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	DPi	Cadillac DPi	45	1'20.178
2	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	DPi	Acura DPi	42	1'20.324	0.146
3	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	DPi	Acura DPi	44	1'20.874	0.696
4	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	50	1'21.069	0.891
5	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	DPi	Cadillac DPi	38	1'21.203	1.025
6	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook	DPi	Cadillac DPi	50	1'21.500	1.322
7	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	36	1'30.759	10.581
8	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	45	1'30.783	10.605
9	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	31	1'30.865	10.687
10	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	43	1'30.974	10.796
11	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	47	1'31.009	10.831
12	Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	45	1'31.054	10.876
13	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	44	1'31.100	10.922
14	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	40	1'31.273	11.095
15	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	37	1'31.415	11.237
16	Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	46	1'31.474	11.296
View full results