Qualifying report
IMSA Sebring
IMSA Sebring: AXR Cadillac, Corvette, Lexus take poles
Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani landed pole position for the Cadillac Grand Prix at Sebring, as Patrick Kelly took LMP2 pole for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Jordan Taylor led a Corvette 1-2 in GTLM, and Frankie Montecalvo led a Lexus 1-2 in GTD.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Jul 18, 2020, 11:03 PM
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Derani lapped the 17-turn 3.74-mile Sebring course in 1min46.733sec to grab pole for the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Juan Pablo Montoya ensured it wasn’t a Cadillac DPi-V.R lockout of Row 1, but his Acura Team Penske ARX-05 fell 0.216sec short of P1, albeit 0.16sec faster than Renger van der Zande in the Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy.
Tristan Nunez was by far the faster of the two Mazda drivers – according to IMSA Radio’s Shea Adam, Jonathan Bomarito discovered a radically different setup for the #55 RT24-P that was definitely not the right way to go – but even the #77 was 0.467sec from top spot.
Sebastien Bourdais and Stephen Simpson were fifth and seventh for JDC-Miller Motorsports, split by Helio Castroneves in the second Acura.
In LMP2, Kelly’s PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport ORECA took top spot by over half a second from Henrik Hedman in the DragonSpeed entry.
Taylor set a new GT Le Mans class record to deliver the second straight pole for the Corvette Racing team, the #3 C8.R lapping Sebring in 1min55.634sec to eclipse his Daytona pole-winning teammate Oliver Gavin by 0.381sec.
Porsche’s Frederic Makowiecki fell less than a tenth short of splitting the ’Vettes but could be satisfied with outpacing teammate Laurens Vanthoor by 0.3sec.
Jesse Krohn was in the faster of the two Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8s, almost three-tenths faster than Bruno Spengler, but almost one second slower than the pole-winning C8.R.
The GT Daytona scrap was very much a two-car battle between the Daytona race dominators, the Lexus RC F GT3s of AIM Vasser Sullivan. And it was Montecalvo in the #12 car who earned his first-ever IMSA pole, edging Aaron Telitz by 0.067sec.
Cooper MacNeil in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 edged Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 by 0.029sec, but was still nearly 0.9sec behind the Lexus pair.
Corey Fergus was fifth fastest in the Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3, beating Gar Robinson’s best effort in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. Seventh-placed Ryan Hardwick’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R was a further 0.35sec behind.
Qualifying results:
Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap 1 31 Felipe Nasr
Pipo Derani
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'46.733 2 6 Dane Cameron
Juan Pablo Montoya
DPi Acura DPi 1'46.949 0.216 3 10 Renger van der Zande
Ryan Briscoe
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'47.110 0.377 4 77 Oliver Jarvis
Tristan Nunez
DPi Mazda DPi 1'47.200 0.467 5 5 Joao Barbosa
Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'47.276 0.543 6 7 Helio Castroneves
Ricky Taylor
DPi Acura DPi 1'47.425 0.692 7 85 Stephen Simpson
Tristan Vautier
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'47.824 1.091 8 55 Jonathan Bomarito
Harry Tincknell
DPi Mazda DPi 1'47.856 1.123 9 52 Patrick Kelly
Spencer Pigot
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'51.526 4.793 10 81 Henrik Hedman
Gustavo Menezes
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'52.085 5.352 11 38 Cameron Cassels
Kyle Masson
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'52.681 5.948 12 8 John Farano
Ryan Dalziel
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'54.938 8.205 13 18 Dwight Merriman
Kyle Tilley
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'55.012 8.279 14 3 Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'55.634 8.901 15 4 Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'56.015 9.282 16 911 Nick Tandy
Frédéric Makowiecki
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'56.079 9.346 17 912 Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'56.398 9.665 18 24 Jesse Krohn
John Edwards
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'56.620 9.887 19 25 Bruno Spengler
Connor de Phillippi
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'56.909 10.176 20 12 Frankie Montecalvo
Townsend Bell
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 2'01.190 14.457 21 14 Jack Hawksworth
Aaron Telitz
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 2'01.257 14.524 22 63 Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 2'02.069 15.336 23 96 Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen
GTD BMW M6 GT3 2'02.098 15.365 24 76 Corey Fergus
Paul Holton
GTD McLaren 720S GT3 2'02.203 15.470 25 74 Gar Robinson
Lawson Aschenbach
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 2'02.371 15.638 26 16 Ryan Hardwick
Patrick Long
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 2'02.729 15.996 27 22 Till Bechtolsheimer
Marc Miller
GTD Acura NSX GT3 2'03.227 16.494 28 30 Rob Ferriol
Spencer Pumpelly
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 2'04.343 17.610 29 44 Andy Lally
John Potter
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 2'04.424 17.691 View full results
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