Long Beach IMSA: Brilliant Bourdais takes record-breaking pole
Sebastien Bourdais led teammate Alex Lynn in a Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac 1-2 after delivering a lap that was around 1.9sec faster than the DPi lap record.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
At the start of the session, Tom Blomqvist went straight on at Turn 1 in his efforts to get the Acura ARX-05 of Meyer Shank Racing onto the front row, and Filipe Albuquerque slid along the wall exiting Turn 5 as he tried extracting the max from the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. They were both making great efforts, but were on the back foot as everyone was shooting at Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing Cadillac, whose top effort, a 1min10.001sec, was a new DPi qualifying record for the 1.968-mile track.
That record lasted for only minutes however, as the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs were on the prowl. Sure enough, Sebastien Bourdais – who won the Grand Prix of Long Beach three times in his open-wheel career – delivered a sensational 69.472sec to eclipse Derani’s time by over half a second. In the #02 Ganassi entry, IMSA rookie Alex Lynn was also seriously impressive in his first weekend at Long Beach, eventually finishing up 0.361sec behind Bourdais.
That last-gasp effort from Lynn deposed Blomqvist who nonetheless can be proud to have broken up the all-Cadillac party with a car whose characteristics don’t suit the nature of Long Beach layout and track surface.
Derani will roll off fourth ahead of Vautier and Albuquerque
Jordan Taylor delivered the fastest time in a thrilling GT qualifying session, the sole Corvette C8.R clocking a 1min18.048sec lap on its final tour of the 1.968-mile circuit. That was enough to leave him 0.067sec clear of Connor De Phillippi in the ‘works’ Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M4 and 0.125sec faster than the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mathieu Jaminet.
Ross Gunn, FP1 pacesetter for Heart of Racing, slotted into fourth in the Aston Martin Vantage, just ahead of the fastest GTD cars – a pair of BMW M4s. Madison Snow of Paul Miller Racing edged Robby Foley of Turner Motorsports by just over a tenth of a second.
Next up was the fastest of the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC Fs, Jack Hawksworth’s GTD Pro entry, while Mike Skeen was third fastest GTD, seventh overall in GT, in the quickest Mercedes AMG GT3, the Team Korthoff Motorsports car.
Cla | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Renger van der Zande
Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 6 | 1'09.472 | |
2 |
Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 7 | 1'09.833 | 0.361 |
3 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tom Blomqvist |
DPi | Acura DPi | 10 | 1'09.939 | 0.467 |
4 |
Pipo Derani
Tristan Nunez |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 5 | 1'10.001 | 0.529 |
5 |
Tristan Vautier
Richard Westbrook |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 11 | 1'10.376 | 0.904 |
6 |
Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque |
DPi | Acura DPi | 8 | 1'10.576 | 1.104 |
7 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor |
GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 12 | 1'18.048 | 8.576 |
8 |
Connor de Phillippi
John Edwards |
GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 6 | 1'18.115 | 8.643 |
9 |
Matt Campbell
Mathieu Jaminet |
GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 7 | 1'18.173 | 8.701 |
10 |
Ross Gunn
Alex Riberas |
GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 8 | 1'18.437 | 8.965 |
11 |
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 10 | 1'18.487 | 9.015 |
12 |
Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen |
GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 9 | 1'18.599 | 9.127 |
13 |
Jack Hawksworth
Ben Barnicoat |
GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 11 | 1'18.627 | 9.155 |
14 |
Mike Skeen
Stevan McAleer |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 10 | 1'18.918 | 9.446 |
15 |
Jon Miller
Paul Holton |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 11 | 1'18.932 | 9.460 |
16 |
Russell Ward
Philip Ellis |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 8 | 1'18.973 | 9.501 |
17 |
Mario Farnbacher
Marc Miller |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 11 | 1'19.146 | 9.674 |
18 |
Roman De Angelis
Maxime Martin |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 10 | 1'19.181 | 9.709 |
19 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 12 | 1'19.181 | 9.709 |
20 |
Ryan Eversley
Aidan Read |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 12 | 1'19.366 | 9.894 |
21 |
Brendan Iribe
Frederik Schandorff |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 9 | 1'19.385 | 9.913 |
22 |
Robert Megennis
Jeff Westphal |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 9 | 1'19.742 | 10.270 |
23 |
Cooper MacNeil
Raffaele Marciello |
GTD PRO | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 12 | 1'19.743 | 10.271 |
24 |
Ryan Hardwick
Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 12 | 1'20.072 | 10.600 |
25 |
Rob Ferriol
Katherine Legge |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 10 | 1'21.079 | 11.607 |
26 |
Kyle Washington
James Sofronas |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 11 | 1'23.938 | 14.466 |
View full results |
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