Petit Le Mans 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
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