IMSA Sebring: AXR Cadillac, Corvette, Lexus take poles

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
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