Petit Le Mans IMSA: AXR’s Nasr edges Mazda to pole by 0.015sec
Championship challenger Felipe Nasr claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, putting the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac on top by just 0.015sec ahead of Mazda’s Harry Tincknell.
Watch: IMSA: AXR’s Nasr edges Mazda to pole by 0.015sec
The duel was as close as it looked, with Nasr setting top time in Sector 2, Tincknell in Sector 3, but it’s the Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R that Nasr will share with Pipo Derani and Mike Conway tomorrow that ultimately prevailed.
Third went to the JDC Miller Motorsports car driven by Sebastien Bourdais, impressively only 0.15sec behind this pair and ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s similar Caddy.
Dane Cameron set a 68.920sec lap before pitting the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura early, while Kamui Kobayashi was forced to do the same in the second AXR Cadillac after a huge trip through the Turn 2 grass. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac will start last in class.
Ben Keating survived a spin at Turn 3 to lead the LMP2 contenders in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports to take pole in the class, 0.35sec ahead of Steven Thomas in the WIN Autosport car, with Dwight Merriman a further half-second adrift.
LMP3’s session commenced with two near-immediate spins, Josh Skelton spinning the #83 WIN Autosport car at Turn 3 and then limping back to the pits with an askew left-rear wheel, and then Max Hanratty spinning on pit exit in the FastMD Racing car. However, the latter was able to rejoin the fray.
At the sharp end of the field, it quickly became clear it was a two-horse race, with Niklas Kruetten of United Autosports battling against Rasmus Lindh of Performance Tech Motorsports. In the end it was Kruetten who won the battle, by only 0.086sec, Lindh’s cause not helped by an aerobatic off at Turn 2 during one of his flyers.
Jarett Andretti was 1.46sec off the ultimate pace in third in the Andretti Autosport entry, but a quarter-second ahead of the Riley Motosports cars of Jim Cox and Gar Robinson.
GT Le Mans saw a session of stark contrasts for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8s on their IMSA swansong, with Jesse Krohn setting an impressive 1min15.226sec – half a second clear of his nearest opponent – and teammate Connor De Phillippi going off, collecting an advertising hoarding and air-dam full of turf, forcing him to park up.
Matt Campbell in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR was second fastest, beating Frederic Makowiecki in the one-off stablemate WTR 911, and the quarter-second gap between them was big enough for them to be split by a last-second effort from Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette C8.R.
In GT Daytona, the Silver/Bronze session that sets the grid positions for the class saw a gripping battle between Porsche, Lexus, BMW, Lamborghini and Audi. In the end it was Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Madison Snow which emerged on top, a mere 0.001sec ahead of Benja Hites in the NTE Sport Audi R8.
The Chilean driver, in turn, was only 0.022sec ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 in its final race, with Aaron Telitz a further 0.013sec down in the top Lexus RC F of Vasser Sullivan.
Telitz’s teammate Frankie Montecalvo grabbed fifth ahead of Russell Ward in the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Wright Motorsports did a great job to rebuild the #16 Porsche 911 GT3 R damaged in a clash with an LMP2 car yesterday, so Trent Hindman was able to prevail in the Porsche battle, a few hundredths ahead of Pfaff Motorsports’ Zacharie Robichon.
Once the pros took over, Jack Hawksworth pushed the #14 Lexus RC F into P1 ahead of Bryan Sellers in the PMR Lambo, with Bill Auberlen third in the Turner M6 and Zach Veach fourth in the second Lexus.
There will be a warm-up at 9.15am local (Eastern) time tomorrow morning, while the 10-hour race commences at 12.10pm.
Qualifying results:
Cla | Num | Driver | Class | Chassis | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 31 |
Felipe Nasr
Mike Conway Pipo Derani |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.678 | |
2 | 55 |
Oliver Jarvis
Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito |
DPi | Mazda DPi | 1'08.693 | 0.015 |
3 | 5 |
Tristan Vautier
Loic Duval Sébastien Bourdais |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.848 | 0.170 |
4 | 01 |
Renger van der Zande
Kevin Magnussen Scott Dixon |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'08.879 | 0.201 |
5 | 60 |
Dane Cameron
Helio Castroneves Juan Pablo Montoya |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'08.920 | 0.242 |
6 | 48 |
Jimmie Johnson
Kamui Kobayashi Simon Pagenaud |
DPi | Cadillac DPi | 1'09.165 | 0.487 |
7 | 10 |
Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi |
DPi | Acura DPi | 1'09.328 | 0.650 |
8 | 52 |
Ben Keating
Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.229 | 3.551 |
9 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'13.070 | 4.392 |
10 | 8 |
John Farano
Gabriel Aubry James French |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'14.289 | 5.611 |
11 | 22 |
Jim McGuire
Wayne Boyd Guy Smith |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'14.814 | 6.136 |
12 | 24 |
John Edwards
Jesse Krohn Augusto Farfus |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'15.226 | 6.548 |
13 | 2 |
Niklas Krütten
Tom Gamble Andrew Meyrick |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.664 | 6.986 |
14 | 79 |
Cooper MacNeil
Mathieu Jaminet Matt Campbell |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'15.738 | 7.060 |
15 | 38 |
Dan Goldburg
Rasmus Lindh Malthe Jakobsen |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'15.750 | 7.072 |
16 | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'15.930 | 7.252 |
17 | 97 |
Kevin Estre
Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki |
GTLM | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | 1'16.004 | 7.326 |
18 | 4 |
Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
GTLM | Corvette C8.R | 1'16.051 | 7.373 |
19 | 36 |
Jarett Andretti
Josh Burdon Oliver Askew |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.122 | 8.444 |
20 | 91 |
Jim Cox
Dylan Murry Jeroen Bleekemolen |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.403 | 8.725 |
21 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Felipe Fraga Scott Andrews |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'17.535 | 8.857 |
22 | 7 |
Rodrigo Pflucker
Mark Kvamme Stefan Rzadzinski |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'17.793 | 9.115 |
23 | 40 |
Todd Archer
James Vance Max Hanratty |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | 1'18.112 | 9.434 |
24 | 30 |
Ari Balogh
Garett Grist Spencer Pigot |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | 1'19.071 | 10.393 |
25 | 1 |
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow Corey Lewis |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'19.272 | 10.594 |
26 | 42 |
Don Yount
Jaden Conwright Benja Hites |
GTD | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 1'19.273 | 10.595 |
27 | 96 |
Bill Auberlen
Robby Foley Aidan Read |
GTD | BMW M6 GT3 | 1'19.295 | 10.617 |
28 | 14 |
Aaron Telitz
Jack Hawksworth Kyle Kirkwood |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.308 | 10.630 |
29 | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Zach Veach Robert Megennis |
GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 1'19.456 | 10.778 |
30 | 57 |
Russell Ward
Philip Ellis Maro Engel |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.661 | 10.983 |
31 | 16 |
Trent Hindman
Patrick Long Jan Heylen |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'19.722 | 11.044 |
32 | 9 |
Zacharie Robichon
Laurens Vanthoor Lars Kern |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'19.791 | 11.113 |
33 | 70 |
Brendan Iribe
Frederik Schandorff Ben Barnicoat |
GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1'19.800 | 11.122 |
34 | 28 |
Daniel Morad
Michael de Quesada Daniel Juncadella |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'19.846 | 11.168 |
35 | 19 |
Mikhail Goikhberg
Franck Perera Michele Beretta |
GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 1'20.068 | 11.390 |
36 | 88 |
Rob Ferriol
Katherine Legge Andrew Davis |
GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'20.079 | 11.401 |
37 | 32 |
Mike Skeen
Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer |
GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 1'20.353 | 11.675 |
38 | 23 |
Roman De Angelis
Ross Gunn Ian James |
GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 1'20.554 | 11.876 |
39 | 25 |
Connor de Phillippi
Philipp Eng Bruno Spengler |
GTLM | BMW M8 GTE | 1'21.299 | 12.621 |
40 | 44 |
John Potter
Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 1'21.317 | 12.639 |
41 | 11 |
Thomas Steven
Tristan Nunez Thomas Merrill |
LMP2 | ORECA LMP2 07 | 1'12.583 | 3.905 |
42 | 54 |
Jon Bennett
George Kurtz Colin Braun |
LMP3 | Ligier JS P320 | ||
43 | 83 |
Matthew Bell
Naveen Rao Josh Skelton |
LMP3 | Duqueine D08 | ||
View full results |
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