Practice report
IMSA Road Atlanta
Petit Le Mans: Cadillacs dominate opening practice
Filipe Albuquerque and Felipe Nasr gave Action Express Racing a 1-2 in first practice at Road Atlanta, with Jordan Taylor third in Wayne Taylor Racing’s similar Cadillac DPi-V.R.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Oct 11, 2018, 11:05 PM
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Albuquerque set a fastest time of 1min11.878sec to beat Nasr by 0.274sec, with Taylor less than half a tenth behind, as preparations began for the 10-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale.
Ricky Taylor slotted the faster of the Acura Team Penske ARX-05s into fourth, but enduro co-driver Graham Rahal ground to a halt on track reporting loss of drive and bringing the one-hour session to a slightly early end.
The session's other red flag was caused when the #99 JDC Miller Motorsports Oreca stopped on course.
Oliver Jarvis was within half a second of the top time in the Mazda RT24-P, with Colin Braun sixth in the CORE autosport Oreca, just ahead of the two ESM Nissans.
In GT Le Mans, Dirk Muller and Ryan Briscoe delivered a 1-2 for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ford GTs ahead of championship favorite Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C7.R and Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR.
GT Daytona was led by Christopher Mies in the Land Motorsport Audi R8, with Jack Hawksworth clocking second fastest time for Lexus.
Markus Palttala (Turner Motorsports BMW M6), Jeroen Bleekemolen (Mercedes AMG GT), Patrick Long (Wright Motorsports Porsche 911), Bryan Sellers (Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini) and Daniel Serra (Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488) ensured seven different manufacturers filled the top seven places.
Second practice begins at 3.15pm local (Eastern) time.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship FP1
Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 5 
Christian Fittipaldi
Filipe Albuquerque
Tristan Vautier P Cadillac DPi 32 1'11.878 127.216 2 31 
Eric Curran
Gabby Chaves
Felipe Nasr P Cadillac DPi 13 1'12.152 0.274 0.274 126.732 3 10 
Jordan Taylor
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Renger van der Zande P Cadillac DPi 28 1'12.197 0.319 0.045 126.653 4 7 
Helio Castroneves
Graham Rahal
Ricky Taylor P Acura DPi 25 1'12.330 0.452 0.133 126.421 5 77 Lucas di Grassi
Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez P Mazda DPi 32 1'12.366 0.488 0.036 126.358 6 54 
Romain Dumas
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun P ORECA LMP2 35 1'12.426 0.548 0.060 126.253 7 22 
Timo Bernhard
Pipo Derani
Johannes van Overbeek P Nissan DPi 35 1'12.477 0.599 0.051 126.164 8 2 
Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel
Norman Nato P Nissan DPi 32 1'12.572 0.694 0.095 125.999 9 6 Juan Pablo
Simon Pagenaud
Dane Cameron P Acura DPi 23 1'12.816 0.938 0.244 125.577 10 85 
Simon Trummer
Robert Alon
Devlin DeFrancesco P ORECA LMP2 29 1'13.082 1.204 0.266 125.120 11 99 
Mikhail Goikhberg
Chris Miller
Stephen Simpson P ORECA LMP2 33 1'13.229 1.351 0.147 124.869 12 52 Jose Gutierrez
Sebastian Saavedra
Will Owen P ORECA LMP2 34 1'13.328 1.450 0.099 124.700 13 55 Spencer Pigot
Jonathan Bomarito
Marino Franchitti P Mazda DPi 34 1'13.377 1.499 0.049 124.617 14 38 
James French
Nicholas Boulle
Kyle Masson P ORECA LMP2 23 1'13.772 1.894 0.395 123.949 15 66 
Sébastien Bourdais
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller GTLM Ford GT 25 1'18.343 6.465 4.571 116.718 16 67 
Ryan Briscoe
Scott Dixon
Richard Westbrook GTLM Ford GT 18 1'18.381 6.503 0.038 116.661 17 3 
Jan Magnussen
Marcel Fassler
Antonio Garcia GTLM Corvette C7.R 28 1'18.595 6.717 0.214 116.343 18 912 
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
Mathieu Jaminet GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 31 1'18.843 6.965 0.248 115.977 19 4 
Marcel Fassler
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner GTLM Corvette C7.R 30 1'18.870 6.992 0.027 115.938 20 911 Nick Tandy
Patrick Pilet
Frédéric Makowiecki GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 27 1'18.960 7.082 0.090 115.805 21 24 John Edwards
Jesse Krohn
Chaz Mostert GTLM BMW M8 GTE 26 1'19.270 7.392 0.310 115.353 22 25 Bill Auberlen
Connor de Phillippi
Alexander Sims GTLM BMW M8 GTE 28 1'19.277 7.399 0.007 115.342 23 62 
Toni Vilander
Andrea Bertolini
Miguel Molina GTLM Ferrari 488 GTE 31 1'19.580 7.702 0.303 114.903 24 29 
Daniel Morad
Christopher Mies
Sheldon Van GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 32 1'20.283 8.405 0.703 113.897 25 15 
David Heinemeier Hansson
Jack Hawksworth
Sean Rayhall GTD Lexus RC F GT3 17 1'20.659 8.781 0.376 113.366 26 96 Don Yount
Markus Palttala
Dillon Machavern GTD BMW M6 GT3 32 1'20.805 8.927 0.146 113.161 27 33 
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ben Keating
Luca Stolz GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 30 1'20.820 8.942 0.015 113.140 28 58 Patrick Long
Christina Nielsen
Robert Renauer GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 31 1'20.837 8.959 0.017 113.117 29 48 Corey Lewis
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 32 1'20.853 8.975 0.016 113.094 30 63 Daniel Serra
Cooper MacNeil
Gunnar Jeannette GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 31 1'20.891 9.013 0.038 113.041 31 44 Andy Lally
Andrew Davis
John Potter GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 29 1'20.971 9.093 0.080 112.929 32 93 Justin Marks
Lawson Aschenbach
Mario Farnbacher GTD Acura NSX GT3 27 1'21.268 9.390 0.297 112.517 33 86 
Alvaro Parente
Katherine Legge
Trent Hindman GTD Acura NSX GT3 28 1'21.298 9.420 0.030 112.475 34 14 
Kyle Marcelli
Dominik Baumann
Philipp Frommenwiler GTD Lexus RC F GT3 24 1'21.392 9.514 0.094 112.345 35 73 
Wolf Henzler
Tim Pappas
Spencer Pumpelly GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 30 1'21.397 9.519 0.005 112.338 36 64 
Matteo Cressoni
Townsend Bell
Frankie Montecalvo GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 33 1'21.562 9.684 0.165 112.111 37 71 Maximilian Buhk
JC Perez
Felipe Fraga GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 13 1'24.367 12.489 2.805 108.384
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