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Australia
Qualifying report

Mid-Ohio IMSA: Jarvis takes pole in thrilling qualifying

Mazda’s Oliver Jarvis took pole position for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship round at Mid-Ohio, even though his car broke down on the final lap of a thrilling qualifying session, as Ford’s supersub Sebastien Bourdais snatched GTLM pole.

#77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi, DPi: Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez

#77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi, DPi: Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez

Art Fleischmann

Prototype qualifying got off to a bizarre start as Penske’s Helio Castroneves ran into the back of Pipo Derani’s #31 Action Express Cadillac on the out lap in his #7 Acura. Both cars continued, although Castroneves suffered frontal damage. Derani was undeterred, and pressed on to set the pace with 1m12.314s, with Castroneves getting to within 0.053s of him.

Jarvis jumped to the top with a lap of 1m12.073s in the #77 Mazda, but Dane Cameron quickly eclipsed that in the #6 Penske Acura with 1m11.655s. Derani got to within 0.066s of that to take second. Cameron then hit Eric Lux’s LMP2 Oreca, just as Jarvis reclaimed pole with 1m11.006s, but the Acura driver recovered to retake the top spot with 1m10.806s.

Jarvis jumped back to P1 with 1m10.796s, as Cameron ploughed off at Turn 1, and then improved to 1m10.705s – significant as this improvement kept Castroneves behind, as the Brazilian managed a 1m10.727s.

Jarvis was forced to slow on his final lap, which caused Castroneves to have a huge moment as he avoided him, and Castroneves' last lap wasn’t an improvement as a result.

“I was on a good lap, pushing hard, I knew it was close, and the engine literally just died on me two corners from the end,” said Jarvis. “It’s been a tough weekend so far, so to put it on pole was a big one for us.”

Castroneves will start second, ahead of teammate Cameron. Derani was top Caddy in fourth, ahead of Joao Barbosa in the second AXR car, with Ryan Hunter-Reay sixth in the second Mazda.

Supersub Bourdais stars in GTLM

#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, GTLM: Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook

#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, GTLM: Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

There was an epic battle for pole in the GT Le Mans class, as the track got faster right until the closing moments. Jan Magnussen set the early pace at 1m21.942 for Corvette Racing, but he was quickly eclipsed by BMW’s Connor de Phillippi. The second BMW of Jesse Krohn briefly grabbed P1 before Magnussen wrested it back.

Bourdais – subbing for the virus-ridden Joey Hand – jumped to top spot with 1m20.179s in his #66 Ford GT, then lowered that to 1m19.648s.

Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor leapt to the top in #912, before Bourdais grabbed it back with 90s remaining with 1m19.425s. Vanthoor took it back, only for Bourdais to best him again with a 1m19.124s, 0.275s quicker than the lead Porsche.

“It feels great,” said Bourdais. “It’s tricky conditions, so really happy we came out on top. Tomorrow it’s going to be sunny, so the whole tire situation will be different.”

Krohn qualified third, ahead of Chevy’s Tom Milner – making it all four marques in the top top four places. Ryan Briscoe will start fifth in Ford #67, ahead of de Phillippi, Magnussen and Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche.

Lexus on top in GTD

#12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, GTD: Frank Montecalvo, Townsend Bell

#12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, GTD: Frank Montecalvo, Townsend Bell

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

In GTD, a damp track was sufficiently dry for all runners to take slick tires, but moist patches made life tricky. Ben Keating spun the #33 Mercedes at the exit of the Keyhole, before Marco Seefried looped the #73 Park Place Porsche at the same place after suffering a tank slapper, which led to a red flag to allow him to be recovered from the boggy run-off.

Zacharie Robichon was the star of the show before the stoppage, outpacing the field by over 2s in the #9 Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911. Times then tumbled, with the AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus duo of Richard Heistand and Frankie Montecalvo leaping to the top at the resumption.

Robichon split them, just 0.008s shy of the top time, but wasn’t allowed to complete his final flier due to a procedural penalty. But Heistand would not have been denied anyway, as he lowered the pole time to 1m24.281s ahead of Robichon.

“It’s a great car and I was really happy with the lap,” said Heistand. “With the track drying we just had to switch the tires on. We have a really quick car here, especially in the quick stuff.”

Keating pulled out a last-gasp flier, to grab third from Montecalvo. McLaren joined the GTD ranks for the first time, with the Compass Racing machine of Matt Plumb qualifying a solid eighth of the 15 cars.

Cla Num Driver Chassis Time Gap
1 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Tristan Nunez
Mazda DPi 1'10.705
2 7 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Ricky Taylor
Acura DPi 1'10.727 0.022
3 6 United States Dane Cameron
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
Acura DPi 1'10.806 0.101
4 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
Brazil Pipo Derani
Cadillac DPi 1'11.721 1.016
5 5 Portugal Joao Barbosa
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Cadillac DPi 1'12.320 1.615
6 55 United States Jonathan Bomarito
United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
Mazda DPi 1'12.326 1.621
7 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United States Jordan Taylor
Cadillac DPi 1'12.525 1.820
8 84 Switzerland Simon Trummer
South Africa Stephen Simpson
Cadillac DPi 1'12.595 1.890
9 50 Will Owen
United States Kyle Kaiser
Cadillac DPi 1'13.394 2.689
10 85 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Tristan Vautier
Cadillac DPi 1'13.570 2.865
11 38 United States Kyle Masson
Canada Cameron Cassels
ORECA LMP2 1'14.877 4.172
12 54 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
Nissan DPi 1'17.321 6.616
13 66 France Sébastien Bourdais
Germany Dirk Muller
Ford GT 1'19.124 8.419
14 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 RSR 1'19.399 8.694
15 24 Finland Jesse Krohn
United States John Edwards
BMW M8 GTE 1'19.623 8.918
16 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Corvette C7.R 1'19.721 9.016
17 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Ford GT 1'19.724 9.019
18 25 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Connor de Phillippi
BMW M8 GTE 1'19.893 9.188
19 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Spain Antonio Garcia
Corvette C7.R 1'19.919 9.214
20 911 France Patrick Pilet
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Porsche 911 RSR 1'20.026 9.321
21 52 United States Matt McMurry
Eric Lux
ORECA LMP2 1'21.752 11.047
22 14 Richard Heistand
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
Lexus RC F GT3 1'24.281 13.576
23 33 United States Ben Keating
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'26.109 15.404
24 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Townsend Bell
Lexus RC F GT3 1'26.451 15.746
25 19 United States Will Hardeman
Spain Alex Riberas
Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'26.951 16.246
26 9 Canada Scott Hargrove
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'27.113 16.408
27 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
BMW M6 GT3 1'27.152 16.447
28 48 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Ryan Hardwick
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'27.300 16.595
29 76 Paul Holton
Matt Plumb
McLaren 720S GT3 1'27.657 16.952
30 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Trent Hindman
Acura NSX GT3 1'27.725 17.020
31 8 United States Parker Chase
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'27.753 17.048
32 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GT3 1'29.777 19.072
33 74 United States Gar Robinson
United States Lawson Aschenbach
Mercedes-AMG 1'30.778 20.073
34 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'31.124 20.419
35 57 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Denmark Christina Nielsen
Acura NSX GT3 1'31.851 21.146
36 73 United States Patrick Long
Germany Marco Seefried
Porsche 911 GT3 R

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Edition

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