Sebring 12 Hours: Pla puts Mazda on top in FP2

Pla lapped the 3.74-mile course in 1min46.834sec at the wheel of the #55 RT24-P to beat the best time of this morning’s pacesetter, the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, which was this time piloted by Pipo Derani.

The Frenchman stopping out on track caused the second of two red flags during the session.

Jordan Taylor’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R was a mere 0.002sec slower than Derani in third, but 0.338sec clear of Helio Castroneves in the faster of Acura Team Penske’s ARX-05s.

Oliver Jarvis ensured both Mazdas were in the top five as he eclipsed Joao Barbosa in AXR’s second Caddy and Juan Pablo Montoya in the second Acura.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Matt McMurry survived a spin that didn’t halt the session to go quickest of the two LMP2 Orecas.

Nick Tandy ensured Porsche top spot in GT Le Mans again with a best of 1min56.991sec, around 0.2sec quicker than the Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais and 0.4sec ahead of the second Ford of Ryan Briscoe.

The BMW M8 of Philipp Eng was half a second off the ace but that was enough to grab fourth ahead of Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette C7.R and the second 911 RSR of Earl Bamber.

That BMW promise extended into GT Daytona with the Turner Motorsports M6 of Bill Auberlen setting the pace, a full 0.33sec ahead of Mirko Bortolotti in the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

Scott Hargrove wound the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R up to third ahead of the faster of the two Lexus RC Fs, that of new AIM Vasser-Sullivan driver, Philipp Frommenwiler.

Justin Marks set the best Acura NSX time to clock fifth ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Riley Mercedes AMG GT, and Toni Vilander’s Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488. Thus six different manufacturers featured in the top six times.

The first red flag, which arrived just five minutes after the session started, was a result of Don Yount shunting the Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan, which he’s sharing this weekend with Brandon Gdovic and late signing Lawson Aschenbach.

Third practice, a 90min session, begins at 7.45pm Eastern (local) time.

Practice times:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	55	Harry Tincknell   Olivier Pla   Jonathan Bomarito	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'46.834
2	31	Pipo Derani   Eric Curran   Felipe Nasr	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'47.649	0.815
3	10	Jordan Taylor   Renger van der Zande   Matthieu Vaxiviere	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'47.651	0.817
4	7	Alexander Rossi   Helio Castroneves   Ricky Taylor	DPi	Acura DPi	1'47.989	1.155
5	77	Oliver Jarvis   Timo Bernhard   Tristan Nunez	DPi	Mazda DPi	1'48.285	1.451
6	5	Brendon Hartley   Filipe Albuquerque   Joao Barbosa	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'48.652	1.818
7	6	Juan Pablo Montoya   Simon Pagenaud   Dane Cameron	DPi	Acura DPi	1'48.688	1.854
8	54	Romain Dumas   Jon Bennett   Colin Braun	DPi	Nissan DPi	1'48.963	2.129
9	85	Juan Piedrahita   Mikhail Goikhberg   Tristan Vautier	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'48.985	2.151
10	50	Rene Binder  Will Owen  Agustin Canapino	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'49.466	2.632
11	84	Simon Trummer   Chris Miller   Stephen Simpson	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'50.018	3.184
12	52	Matt McMurry   Anders Fjordbach   Gabriel Aubry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'52.149	5.315
13	38	Kyle Masson   Cameron Cassels  Andrew Evans	LMP2	ORECA LMP2	1'55.708	8.874
14	911	Nick Tandy   Patrick Pilet   Frédéric Makowiecki	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'56.991	10.157
15	66	Sébastien Bourdais   Joey Hand   Dirk Muller	GTLM	Ford GT	1'57.201	10.367
16	67	Ryan Briscoe   Scott Dixon   Richard Westbrook	GTLM	Ford GT	1'57.406	10.572
17	24	John Edwards   Jesse Krohn   Philipp Eng	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'57.507	10.673
18	3	Jan Magnussen   Antonio Garcia   Mike Rockenfeller	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'57.647	10.813
19	912	Earl Bamber   Laurens Vanthoor   Mathieu Jaminet	GTLM	Porsche 911 RSR	1'57.656	10.822
20	25	Connor de Phillippi   Tom Blomqvist   Colton Herta	GTLM	BMW M8 GTE	1'58.127	11.293
21	4	Marcel Fassler   Oliver Gavin   Tommy Milner	GTLM	Corvette C7.R	1'58.446	11.612
22	96	Bill Auberlen   Robby Foley   Dillon Machavern	GTD	BMW M6 GT3	2'00.583	13.749
23	11	Rolf Ineichen   Mirko Bortolotti   Rik Breukers	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'00.913	14.079
24	9	Scott Hargrove  Lars Kern   Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'01.292	14.458
25	14	Jack Hawksworth   Philipp Frommenwiler  Richard Heistand	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'01.574	14.740
26	86	Justin Marks   Mario Farnbacher   Trent Hindman	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'01.581	14.747
27	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen   Ben Keating  Felipe Fraga	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'01.583	14.749
28	63	Toni Vilander   Cooper MacNeil  Jeff Westphal	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'01.740	14.906
29	57	Katherine Legge   Christina Nielsen   Ana Beatriz	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'01.785	14.951
30	12	Townsend Bell   Frankie Montecalvo   Aaron Telitz	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'01.851	15.017
31	73	Patrick Long   Patrick Lindsey   Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'01.987	15.153
32	8	Ryan Dalziel   Parker Chase   Ezequiel Perez Companc	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'02.122	15.288
33	44	Andy Lally   Spencer Pumpelly   John Potter	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'02.312	15.478
34	48	Corey Lewis   Bryan Sellers   Ryan Hardwick	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'02.326	15.492
35	29	Daniel Morad   Christopher Mies   Richard Feller	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'02.490	15.656
36	71	Fabian Schiller   Maximilian Buhk  JC Perez	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'02.927	16.093
37	19	Andrew Davis   Will Hardeman   Alex Riberas	GTD	Audi R8 LMS GT3	2'03.339	16.505
38	47	Brandon Gdovic   Lawson Aschenbach   Don Yount	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'06.894	20.060