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Australia
Practice report

VIR IMSA: Milner tops third practice for Corvette

Corvette’s Tommy Milner led the third GT-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday morning, as BMW entered contention ahead of qualifying.

#4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM - Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner

#4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM - Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner

Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

#4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM - Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner
#25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8, GTLM - Alexander Sims, Connor de Phillippi, #66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, GTLM - Dirk Muller, Joey Hand
#4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM - Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner
#4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM - Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner
#25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8, GTLM - Alexander Sims, Connor de Phillippi
#25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8, GTLM - Alexander Sims, Connor de Phillippi
#14 3GT Racing Lexus RCF GT3, GTD - Dominik Baumann, Kyle Marcelli, #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTLM - John Edwards, Jesse Krohn
#14 3GT Racing Lexus RCF GT3, GTD - Dominik Baumann, Kyle Marcelli
#33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, GTD - Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating
#33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, GTD - Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating
#33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3, GTD - Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating

Milner set the quickest time of 1m41.205s early in the session, while Connor de Phillippi left it late to jump to second in the #25 BMW M8 on 1m41.448s – a quarter of a second slower. The BMWs had regularly been the slowest of the GTLM field until now.

“I think we’re in a good position, making a step every session, and we’ve made the car a lot more driveable,” said de Phillippi. “We focused on balance today, and so far so good.”

Pacesetter Milner was three tenths clear of the third-placed Earl Bamber in Porsche #912 and four tenths ahead of Patrick Pilet in the #911 sister car.

Fifth placed Ryan Briscoe was the fastest of the Fords on 1m41.705s. The sister car didn’t fare well, causing a red flag with 15 minutes to go when Dirk Muller went off towards the end of the lap, inflicting superficial rear-end damage against the tyrewall. The car was only seventh fastest with Joey Hand at the wheel, and behind Antonio Garcia in the second Corvette.

Kyle Marcelli led the GT Daytona field in his Lexus, two tenths clear of Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Mercedes. Madison Snow was third in the freshly-engined Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

One cloud literally on the horizon is a rain storm that is expected to hit around the time of qualifying this afternoon.

Pos Num Driver Class Car Laps Time Gap
1 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
GTLM Corvette C7.R 27 1'41.205  
2 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 23 1'41.448 0.243
3 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 26 1'41.512 0.307
4 911 United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Patrick Pilet
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 24 1'41.595 0.390
5 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
GTLM Ford GT 28 1'41.705 0.500
6 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Spain Antonio Garcia
GTLM Corvette C7.R 24 1'41.772 0.567
7 66 United States Joey Hand
Germany Dirk Muller
GTLM Ford GT 18 1'41.805 0.600
8 24 United States John Edwards
Finland Jesse Krohn
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 19 1'41.814 0.609
9 14 Canada Kyle Marcelli
Austria Dominik Baumann
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 22 1'43.905 2.700
10 33 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
United States Ben Keating
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 23 1'44.142 2.937
11 48 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 25 1'44.143 2.938
12 58 United States Patrick Long
Denmark Christina Nielsen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 25 1'44.182 2.977
13 86 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Germany Mario Farnbacher
GTD Acura NSX GT3 24 1'44.279 3.074
14 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
GTD BMW M6 GT3 15 1'44.308 3.103
15 44 United States Andy Lally
United States John Potter
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 26 1'44.435 3.230
16 93 United States Justin Marks
United States Lawson Aschenbach
GTD Acura NSX GT3 23 1'44.446 3.241
17 15 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 27 1'44.521 3.316
18 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
United States Gunnar Jeannette
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 26 1'45.153 3.948

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