Sebring 12 Hours: Pla puts Mazda on top in FP2
Olivier Pla sent Mazda Team Joest to the top of the times in second practice for the Sebring 12 Hours, just before running out of fuel, ahead of Saturday’s second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
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 |
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