It was Fittipaldi’s fulltime teammate Joao Barbosa who first threatened the 1min50sec mark, falling just 0.033sec short on his third lap, with Jonathan Bomarito’s #55 Mazda DPi-RT24P going second quick but then pulling in with a gearbox issue. Then Barbosa set a stunning 1min49.456sec, fastest lap of the weekend so far, with Marino Franchitti moving the #70 Mazda up into P2, albeit 1.1sec off top spot.

Brendon Hartley’s efforts in the #22 ESM Nissan-Ligier earned him P2 just 0.32sec behind Barbosa with his ninth lap, and Eric Curran in the #31 AXR Cadillac did a highly commendable job to get within half a second of Barbosa.

Then Porsche’s World Endurance champion Neel Jani shoved the Rebellion Oreca into top spot…. but his position barely lasted a minute, as Fittipaldi took over the #5 AXR Caddy to grab a 1min49.211sec lap.

Pipo Derani nailed a 1min49.5 to go fourth, a couple of tenths quicker than ESM teammate Hartley and then jumped up to third behind Jani with a 49.4. Derani had just set the fastest first sector of the weekend when the checkered flag flew and so he pitted, ultimate potential unrealized. Hartley’s best was still good enough for fifth, while the P6 and P7 cars – Renger Van der Zande’s Visit Florida Racing Riley Multimatic and Misha Goikhberg’s JDC-Miller Oreca – were also within a second of Fittipaldi’s best.

In GT Le Mans, the Porsche vs. Ford battle continued, and at the halfway point of the session, Dirk Werner sat at the top of the times in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR with a 1min56.931sec, chased by the three Ford GTs of Dirk Muller, Ryan Briscoe and Stefan Mucke.

However, Muller then moved to the top and then this two-marque fight was interrupted by a great lap from Nicky Catsburg in the #24 RLL BMW M6 which put him second fastest, a couple of tenths off Muller’s top spot. Kevin Estre grabbed third in the #912 Porsche to eclipse teammate Werner by just a tenth of a second, with Briscoe and Mucke completing the top six.

Tommy Milner and Giancarlo Fisichella, in the #4 Corvette C7.R and the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 respectively, were seventh and eighth, 0.7sec off the class leaders.

Michael Christensen’s Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R proved the Audis are beatable in the GT Daytona class, finishing the session a tenth-and-a-half ahead of Andrew Davis in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports R8 LMS, and two-tenths clear of Connor De Phillippi in the Land-Motorsport R8.

But as in GTLM, BMW showed pace, with Jens Klingmann taking fourth in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6, as Mirko Bortolotti’s #11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan was fifth, half a second off Christensen’s best. Two Mercedes AMG GT3s were next up – Mario Farnbacher in the #33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG entry and Tristan Vautier in the SunEnergy1 Racing car.

The Michael Shank Racing-run Acura NSXs were in the wars, however. The session was halted less than 10mins in when Mark Kvamme’s #20 PC car collided with Ozz Negri’s #86 Acura which sustained too much suspension damage to continue the session. Then, toward the end of the session, the #93 NSX was seen trailing damage down pitroad not long after Katherine Legge had been setting encouraging times, within a second of GTD top spot.

In Prototype Challenge, Gustavo Yacaman was again top for BAR1 Motorsports, a full second ahead of Pato O’Ward in the Performance Tech machine and 1.7sec up on Sean Rayhall’s best for Starworks.

Qualifying begins with GTD at 1pm ET.

Pos	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Christian Fittipaldi    Filipe Albuquerque    Joao Barbosa	P	Cadillac DPi	24	1'49.211
2	Nick Heidfeld    Sébastien Buemi    Neel Jani	P	ORECA	24	1'49.329	0.118
3	Pipo Derani    Scott Sharp    Ryan Dalziel	P	Nissan DPi	20	1'49.405	0.194
4	Mike Conway    Dane Cameron    Eric Curran	P	Cadillac DPi	23	1'49.547	0.336
5	Bruno Senna    Brendon Hartley    Ed Brown    Johannes van Overbeek	P	Nissan DPi	24	1'49.774	0.563
6	René Rast    Marc Goossens    Renger van der Zande	P	Multimatic/Riley	24	1'50.137	0.926
7	Mikhail Goikhberg    Chris Miller    Stephen Simpson	P	ORECA	24	1'50.154	0.943
8	Jordan Taylor    Ricky Taylor    Alex Lynn	P	Cadillac DPi	8	1'50.399	1.188
9	Tom Kimber-Smith    Jose Gutierrez    Mike Guasch	P	Ligier	23	1'50.601	1.390
10	Tom Long    Joel Miller    Marino Franchitti	P	Mazda DPi	20	1'50.622	1.411
11	Spencer Pigot    Jonathan Bomarito    Tristan Nunez	P	Mazda DPi	20	1'50.872	1.661
12	Gustavo Yacaman    Colin Thompson    Marc Drumwright    Chapman Ducote	PC	ORECA FLM09	22	1'53.340	4.129
13	James French    Kyle Masson    Patricio O'Ward	PC	ORECA FLM09	23	1'54.366	5.155
14	Sean Rayhall    Garett Grist    Max Hanratty    James Dayson	PC	ORECA FLM09	23	1'55.189	5.978
15	Sébastien Bourdais    Joey Hand    Dirk Müller	GTLM	Ford GT	21	1'56.556	7.345
16	John Edwards    Nicky Catsburg    Martin Tomczyk	GTLM	BMW M6 GTLM	20	1'56.782	7.571
17	Richard Lietz    Kevin Estre    Laurens Vanthoor	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	22	1'56.825	7.614
18	Patrick Pilet    Frédéric Makowiecki    Dirk Werner	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	22	1'56.931	7.720
19	Ryan Briscoe    Scott Dixon    Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	21	1'57.038	7.827
20	Stefan Mücke    Olivier Pla    Billy Johnson	GTLM	Ford GT	23	1'57.155	7.944
21	Marcel Fassler    Oliver Gavin    Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	23	1'57.262	8.051
22	Giancarlo Fisichella    James Calado    Toni Vilander	GTLM	Ferrari 488 GTE	21	1'57.283	8.072
23	Jan Magnussen    Antonio Garcia    Mike Rockenfeller	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	22	1'57.666	8.455
24	Bill Auberlen    Kuno Wittmer    Alexander Sims	GTLM	BMW M6 GTLM	21	1'57.960	8.749
25	Michael Christensen    Daniel Morad    Spencer Pumpelly    Michael de Quesada	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	23	2'00.491	11.280
26	Lawson Aschenbach    Andrew Davis    Matt Bell	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	24	2'00.646	11.435
27	Connor de Phillippi    Jules Gounon    Christopher Mies	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	22	2'00.689	11.478
28	Justin Marks    Jens Klingmann    Jesse Krohn	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	20	2'00.912	11.701
29	Richard Antinucci    Rolf Ineichen    Mirko Bortolotti    Christian Engelhart	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	22	2'00.996	11.785
30	Jeroen Bleekemolen    Ben Keating    Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	19	2'01.074	11.863
31	Boris Said    Kenny Habul    Tristan Vautier	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	15	2'01.159	11.948
32	Matteo Cressoni    Christina Nielsen    Alessandro Balzan	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	23	2'01.267	12.056
33	Andy Lally    Katherine Legge    Mark Wilkins	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	15	2'01.360	12.149
34	Dion von Moltke    Bryan Sellers    Madison Snow	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	21	2'01.396	12.185
35	Cooper MacNeil    Gunnar Jeannette    Shane van Gisbergen	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	19	2'01.397	12.186
36	Jörg Bergmeister    Patrick Lindsey    Matt McMurry	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	17	2'01.440	12.229
37	Paolo Ruberti    Lawrence DeGeorge    Cedric Sbirrazzuoli	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	23	2'01.479	12.268
38	Austin Cindric    Jack Hawksworth    Robert Alon	GTD	Lexus RCF GT3	19	2'01.496	12.285
39	Townsend Bell    Frankie Montecalvo    Bill Sweedler	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	21	2'01.571	12.360
40	Scott Pruett    Ian James    Sage Karam	GTD	Lexus RCF GT3	18	2'01.585	12.374
41	Brett Sandberg    Corey Lewis    Jeroen Mul	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	23	2'01.600	12.389
42	Niclas Jönsson    Jon Bennett    Colin Braun	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	18	2'01.822	12.611
43	Emmanuel Collard    Fabio Babini    Emanuele Busnelli    Michele Beretta	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	23	2'02.142	12.931
44	Brandon Gdovic    Anthony Massari    Emmanuel Anassis	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	22	2'03.789	14.578
45	Don Yount    Buddy Rice    Daniel Burkett	PC	ORECA FLM09	2	2'06.797	17.586
46	Jeff Segal    Oswaldo Negri Jr.    Tom Dyer	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2	2'07.744	18.533