Rolex 24: CORE Nissan fastest in night practice

Audi DTM racer Duval bettered CORE teammate Colin Braun's long-time benchmark of 1m34.979s in the final three minutes of the 90-minute session, setting a 1m34.786s to consolidate the top spot in the #54 Nissan DPi.

That was 0.119s faster than the time set by Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Acura Team Penske's pair of ARX-05s were third and fourth-fastest, with three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves setting a time 0.340s slower than Duval in the #7 car. Simon Pagenaud was a further 0.029s back in the #6 machine.

Kamui Kobayashi set the quickest time in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac he is sharing with Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship teammate Fernando Alonso, 0.588s off the pace.

Two more Cadillacs were next up, the #31 AXR car of Pipo Derani and the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports entry of Tristan Vautier, followed by the best of the LMP2 runners, the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca-Gibson driven by Ben Hanley.

Mazda Team Joest, which claimed pole for the Rolex 24 earlier in the day, sat out the session entirely as it chose to fit new AER engines to its pair of RT24-Ps.

BMW set the pace in GT Le Mans courtesy of Augusto Farfus in the #25 M8 GTE. The Brazilian, who is standing in for BMW IMSA regular Tom Blomqvist this weekend, set a best time of 1m43.315s.

Patrick Pilet was just 0.002s slower in the quicker of the retro-liveried Porsche 911 RSRs, followed by Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette C7.R and the two Ford GTs of Scott Dixon and Joey Hand.

IMSA veteran Bill Auberlen set the quickest time in GT Le Mans, bettering the pace set in qualifying with a 1m45.165s in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3.

That was enough to beat Spirit of Race Ferrari man Daniel Serra by just over a tenth of a second, while Porsche young driver Matt Campbell put Park Place Motorsports' #73 911 GT3-R third in class.

There was one interruption to the session when the #29 Land Motorsport Audi stopped on track with an apparent engine problem with 32 minutes to run, bringing out the red flags.

Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, Practice 3:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	54	Loic Duval Romain Dumas Jon Bennett Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	35	1'34.786
2	5	Christian Fittipaldi Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	DPi	Cadillac DPi	29	1'34.905	0.119
3	7	Alexander Rossi Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	29	1'35.126	0.340
4	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud Dane Cameron	DPi	Acura DPi	36	1'35.155	0.369
5	10	Fernando Alonso Kamui Kobayashi Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande	DPi	Cadillac DPi	35	1'35.374	0.588
6	31	Pipo Derani Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	DPi	Cadillac DPi	38	1'35.672	0.886
7	85	Rubens Barrichello Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier Devlin DeFrancesco	DPi	Cadillac DPi	36	1'35.996	1.210
8	81	Nicolas Lapierre Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley James Allen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	39	1'36.521	1.735
9	50	Kyle Kaiser Rene Binder Will Owen Agustin Canapino	DPi	Cadillac DPi	30	1'36.591	1.805
10	84	Simon Trummer Juan Piedrahita Chris Miller Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	42	1'36.840	2.054
11	18	Pastor Maldonado Roberto Gonzalez Sebastian Saavedra Ryan Cullen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	40	1'37.086	2.300
12	52	Matt McMurry Mark Kvamme Enzo Guibbert Gabriel Aubry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	40	1'38.295	3.509
13	38	Kris Wright Kyle Masson Cameron Cassels Robert Masson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	23	1'39.326	4.540
14	25	Connor de Phillippi Augusto Farfus Philipp Eng Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	35	1'43.315	8.529
15	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	38	1'43.317	8.531
16	4	Marcel Fassler Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	36	1'43.353	8.567
17	67	Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	39	1'43.402	8.616
18	66	Sébastien Bourdais Joey Hand Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	30	1'43.561	8.775
19	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	33	1'43.583	8.797
20	62	James Calado Davide Rigon Alessandro Pier Guidi Miguel Molina	GTLM	Ferrari 488 GTE	37	1'43.617	8.831
21	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	31	1'43.732	8.946
22	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn Chaz Mostert Alex Zanardi	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	34	1'43.742	8.956
23	96	Bill Auberlen Jens Klingmann Robby Foley Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	38	1'45.165	10.379
24	51	Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda Daniel Serra	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	39	1'45.274	10.488
25	73	Patrick Long Patrick Lindsey Nicholas Boulle Matt Campbell	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	37	1'45.795	11.009
26	13	Andrea Bertolini Victor Franzoni Chico Longo Marcos Gomes	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	33	1'45.795	11.009
27	11	Rolf Ineichen Mirko Bortolotti Rik Breukers Christian Engelhart	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	37	1'45.803	11.017
28	48	Corey Lewis Bryan Sellers Andrea Caldarelli Ryan Hardwick	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	18	1'45.882	11.096
29	88	Ian James Frederic Vervisch Kelvin van der Linde Roman DeAngelis	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	36	1'45.886	11.100
30	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Luca Stolz Felipe Fraga	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	16	1'45.938	11.152
31	14	Austin Cindric Jack Hawksworth Richard Heistand Nick Cassidy	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	38	1'45.962	11.176
32	44	Andy Lally Marco Mapelli Spencer Pumpelly John Potter	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	30	1'45.983	11.197
33	86	A.J. Allmendinger Justin Marks Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	26	1'45.988	11.202
34	57	Simona de Silvestro Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen Ana Figueiredo	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	27	1'46.060	11.274
35	12	Townsend Bell Jeff Segal Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	39	1'46.061	11.275
36	47	Don Yount Milos Pavlovic Steve Dunn Linus Lundqvist	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	37	1'46.125	11.339
37	63	Toni Vilander Dominik Farnbacher Cooper MacNeil Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	32	1'46.157	11.371
38	99	Klaus Bachler Sven Muller Alfred Renauer Juergen Haering Steffen Goerig	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	29	1'46.168	11.382
39	29	Daniel Morad Dries Vanthoor Christopher Mies Richard Feller	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	24	1'46.283	11.497
40	46	Fabio Babini Emanuele Busnelli Taylor Proto Giacomo Altoè	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	39	1'46.296	11.510
41	9	Scott Hargrove Lars Kern Dennis Olsen Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	35	1'46.321	11.535
42	8	Ryan Dalziel Parker Chase Ezequiel Perez Companc Chris Haase	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	34	1'46.411	11.625
43	540	Marco Seefried Tim Pappas Dirk Werner Matteo Cairoli	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	34	1'46.425	11.639
44	19	Markus Winkelhock Andrew Davis Will Hardeman Alex Riberas	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	37	1'46.834	12.048
45	71	Fabian Schiller Dominik Baumann Maximilian Buhk JC Perez	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	12	1'46.882	12.096
46	55	Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla Jonathan Bomarito	DPi	Mazda DPi	0	no time	-
47	77	Oliver Jarvis Timo Bernhard René Rast Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	0	no time	-