Rolex 24: Vautier takes pole for qualifying race

DPi

Vautier lapped the 3.56-mile course in 1min34.034sec, which eclipsed van der Zande in the similar #01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing by less than 0.1sec. The Dutchman was trying to respond when he went off at Turn 5 and went into the tires.

That brought out the red flag with under five minutes to go and so the session ended. Van der Zande lost his best laps and will start seventh.

Filipe Albuquerque will thus share the front row with Vautier, 0.122sec off the Caddy’s time in his Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05.

In third will be Alex Lynn in the second Ganassi Cadillac, alongside Tristan Nunez in Action Express Racing’s Whelen Engineering-backed entry.

AXR’s part-time car, the Ally Racing #48, was piloted very impressively to fifth by NASCAR legend and IndyCar sophomore Jimmie Johnson, less than 1sec off the ultimate pace and well ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura.

LMP2

Ben Keating and Steven Thomas, although 0.637sec apart, locked out the LMP2 front row for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, with Dennis Andersen claiming third for High Class Racing.

The two G-Drive by APR cars of Francois Heriau and John Falb were next up, ahead of Fritz van Eerd in the Racing Team Nederland car and John Farano of Tower Motorsports.

LMP3

IMSA debutant Cameron Shields claimed pole in class for Muehlner Motorsports, the #26 Duqueine lapping in 1min42.182sec, which was 0.286sec quicker than Niko Pino in the Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier.

Jarett Andretti was third fastest, 1.6sec off the ultimate pace, but 0.016sec quicker than Ayrton Ori in the second Muehlner car. Jon Bennett was fifth in the CORE autosport Ligier ahead of Lance Willsey.

GTD Pro and GTD

Alex Imperatori took pole for KCMG on the squad’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut as times tumbled on a damp but drying track, his Porsche 911 GT3 R beating Porsche works driver Mathieu Jaminet in the Pfaff Porsche by just 0.063sec.

Andrea Caldarelli in TR3 Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan was third fastest in class, fifth of the GTs overall, ahead of Ross Gunn’s Aston Martin Vantage from the Heart of Racing team.

Davide Rigon will start fifth in class in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488, just ahead of Vasser Sullivan Racing’s new boy in the Lexus RC F, Ben Barnicoat, and Maro Engel in the Proton Competition Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The sister Proton Mercedes piloted by Austin Cindric had a wayward moment that saw him damage his car against the GTD Carbahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini of Robert Megennis.

Fastest of the GTD non-Pro runners was the Sun Energy Mercedes of Kenny Habul, who did a remarkable job to be third fastest overall of the 29 GT cars that completed at least one flyer. He was less than two-tenths off Imperatori’s Lambo, and 0.151sec ahead of Russell Ward in the Winward Racing Mercedes.

John Miller got the McLaren 720S of Crucial Motorsports into third, while Michael de Quesada was fourth in the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes.

Fifth in class was Roberto Lacorte’s Ferrari 488 run by Cetilar Racing, with Frankie Montecalvo showing well as usual with the second VSR Lexus, ahead of the two GTD Pro Corvettes.

That isn’t the end of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship action, as there will be a two-hour evening practice starting at 7.00pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval Ben Keating	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.034
2	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi Will Stevens	DPi	Acura DPi	1'34.156	0.122
3	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Marcus Ericsson Kevin Magnussen	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.259	0.225
4	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.440	0.406
5	48	Jimmie Johnson Kamui Kobayashi Mike Rockenfeller Jose Maria Lopez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'34.941	0.907
6	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	1'35.407	1.373
7	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.296	3.262
8	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'37.933	3.899
9	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer Nico Mueller	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.175	4.141
10	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Alex Palou	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'38.593	4.559
11	68	François Heriau Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones René Rast	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.876	4.842
12	69	John Falb James Allen Luca Ghiotto Tijmen van	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.929	4.895
13	81	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Patricio O'Ward Colton Herta	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'38.987	4.953
14	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Murry Dylan Rinus van Kalmthout	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'40.044	6.010
15	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Pinto Ferdinand Habsburg	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'40.091	6.057
16	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'40.668	6.634
17	26	Nolan Siegel Cameron Shields Charles Crews Ugo De	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'42.182	8.148
18	38	Dan Goldburg Hikaru Abe Garett Grist Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'42.468	8.434
19	36	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Rasmus Lindh Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'43.783	9.749
20	6	Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ori Ayrton Joel Miller	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'43.799	9.765
21	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz Nic Jönsson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'44.783	10.749
22	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Seb Priaulx Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'46.053	12.019
23	22	Jim McGuire Guy Smith Philip Hanson Will Owen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'46.112	12.078
24	2	Laurens Vanthoor Patrick Pilet Dennis Olsen Alexandre Imperatori	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'46.136	12.102
25	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'46.199	12.165
26	75	Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Raffaele Marciello Fabian Schiller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'46.313	12.279
27	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Mikael Grenier Lucas Auer	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'46.464	12.430
28	13	Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern Matthew Bell	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'46.545	12.511
29	63	Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Rolf Ineichen	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'46.577	12.543
30	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'46.683	12.649
31	59	Lance Bergstein Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'46.800	12.766
32	62	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'46.805	12.771
33	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	1'46.833	12.799
34	97	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Maro Engel Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'47.017	12.983
35	28	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Linus Lundqvist Maximillian Goetz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'47.075	13.041
36	24	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'47.198	13.164
37	7	Mark Kvamme Austin McCusker Trenton Estep Antoine Doquin	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'47.220	13.186
38	79	Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Matteo Cairoli Alessio Picariello	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'47.226	13.192
39	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'47.271	13.237
40	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	1'47.625	13.591
41	4	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Marco Sorensen	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'47.661	13.627
42	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'47.894	13.860
43	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	1'47.930	13.896
44	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Jonathan Adam	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'48.014	13.980
45	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	1'48.082	14.048
46	21	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Nicklas Nielsen Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'48.125	14.091
47	71	Franck Perera LLarena Mateo Paul Maximilian Mikhail Goikhberg	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'48.586	14.552
48	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen Richard Lietz	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'49.747	15.713
49	42	Don Yount Benja Hites Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'51.790	17.756
50	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Sandy Mitchell Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'54.042	20.008
51	32	Mike Skeen Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer Scott Andrews	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'54.796	20.762
52	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Charlie Eastwood Nicki Thiim	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'54.870	20.836
53	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'55.147	21.113
54	19	Bill Sweedler John Megrue Giacomo Altoè Jeff Segal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'58.809	24.775
55	15	Dirk Muller Patrick Assenheimer Austin Cindric	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3
56	27	Roman De Angelis Ian James Darren Turner Tom Gamble	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3
57	34	Kyle Washington James Sofronas Jeroen Bleekemolen Klaus Bachler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R
58	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R
59	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3
60	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo Michael Cooper	LMP3	Ligier JS P320
61	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R
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