Rolex 24: Castroneves’ late flyer puts MSR top in second Roar session

GTP

On his fifth lap, Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing beat the fastest lap that Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura, driven by Colin Braun, set in the morning session. A 1min35.580sec around the 3.56-mile course put him some 1.6sec ahead of his nearest opposition, which came from the #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-LMDh and the two BMW M Hybrid V8s.

Albuquerque then raised the bar to 1min35.320sec, and Earl Bamber’s Cadillac was 0.7sec adrift, but still ahead of teammate Scott Dixon in the #01 sister car.

Both of the CGR Cadillacs were displaced by Blomqvist once the MSR team had overcome issues with a pitlane speedlimiter that wouldn’t release, and he moved up into second behind the Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Autosport team to complete an Acura 1-2.

This was spoiled by Dixon getting into second place, 0.265sec from top spot, but Simon Pagenaud trimmed the MSR Acura’s deficit down to less than half a tenth before pitting.

His teammate in IMSA and IndyCar, Helio Castroneves, did rather better than that, and moved to the top of the times with a 1min35.210sec with under three minutes to go and backed this up with a 1min35.310sec.

Thus Castroneves led an Acura 1-2 by 0.110sec, he and Albuquerque sharing the three fastest sector times.

That left Dixon’s best Cadillac time some 0.375sec adrift in third, although the six-time IndyCar champion was a similar distance ahead of the fastest of the Porsche Penske 963s, Michael Christensen’s #7 entry.

Bamber was barely half a tenth slower in the second Ganassi Cadillac, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde’s best effort in the quicker BMW, while Marco Wittmann was a further half a second adrift.

The second Porsche 963, shared by Mathieu Jaminet, Dane Cameron and Nick Tandy, turned only nine laps with technical issues that Cameron didn’t wish to share with IMSA Radio, but their late appearance on track was still enough time for Tandy and Jaminet to push the Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken down to the bottom. 

LMP2

Matthieu Vaxiviere was the first driver in class to bust below the 100sec barrier, setting a 1min39.835sec on his fifth lap in the AF Corse machine, but then Ben Keating in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry went almost half a second quicker.

It took only until his third lap for Mikkel Jensen’s TDS Racing car to trim 0.64sec from that to go fastest, and his 1min38.730sec stood firm as the top time in class for the remainder of the session.

Vaxiviere trimmed a few hundredths from his best to take second, but was still 0.6sec from Jensen, with Keating third. Christian Rasmussen was the fastest of Era Motorsport’s drivers to nab fourth ahead of Scott McLaughlin who again impressed in the Tower Motorsports entry.

LMP3

Felipe Fraga in the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier which ran only three laps in the first session was the first car to hit the track in the second, and he produced a 1min43.389. However, Gabby Chaves in the Andretti Autosport Ligier eclipsed that with a 1min42.926, and that was the fastest lap for the LMP3 machines.

Former Rolex 24 winner Joao Barbosa left it until the last minute to move the Sean Creech Motorsports car into second, 0.45sec adrift, mere hundredths ahead of Fraga’s former benchmark. The impressive Yu Kanamaru of FastMD Racing was fourth in the fastest of the Duqueine cars.

#75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes AMG GT3: Fabian Schiller, Axcil Jefferies (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

GTD Pro and GTD

Fabian Schiller moved to the top of the table early on, producing a 1min47.020sec in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3, less than a tenth faster than Parker Thompson’s Lexus RC F run by Vasser Sullivan Racing.

Nicki Thiim in the Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage and Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes were third and fourth at this stage, this quartet all swifter than the fastest GTD Pro cars – the second Lexus driven by Jack Hawksworth and the Heart of Racing Aston piloted by Alex Riberas.

When Ben Barnicoat took over the #14 GTD Pro Lexus, it moved up to shade its sister car by half a tenth, albeit 0.02sec off the SunEnergy1 car.

Luis Perez Companc moved AF Corse’s new Ferrari 296 GT3 into fifth in GTD ahead of Maxi Goetz’s Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes, while Mirko Bortolotti’s Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan was third of the GTD Pro runners.

Practice 3 runs for 90mins on Saturday, starting 11.15am local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	GTP	Acura ARX-06	35	1'35.210
2	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Louis Deletraz Brendon Hartley	GTP	Acura ARX-06	37	1'35.320	0.110
3	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Scott Dixon	GTP	Cadillac V-LMDh	33	1'35.585	0.375
4	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr Michael Christensen	GTP	Porsche 963	35	1'35.974	0.764
5	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	GTP	Cadillac V-LMDh	41	1'36.013	0.803
6	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde Colton Herta	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	50	1'36.032	0.822
7	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann Colton Herta	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	43	1'36.547	1.337
8	6	Mathieu Jaminet Nick Tandy Dane Cameron	GTP	Porsche 963	9	1'36.754	1.544
9	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	GTP	Cadillac V-LMDh	31	1'37.128	1.918
10	11	Thomas Steven Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Rinus van Kalmthout	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	47	1'38.730	3.520
11	88	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Nicklas Nielsen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	43	1'39.341	4.131
12	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn Nicolas Lapierre	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	45	1'39.372	4.162
13	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen Oliver Jarvis	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	43	1'39.559	4.349
14	8	John Farano Scott McLaughlin Josef Newgarden Kyffin Simpson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	41	1'40.105	4.895
15	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Matt McMurry Esteban Gutierrez	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	49	1'40.140	4.930
16	35	François Heriau Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson Job Van Uitert	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	49	1'40.450	5.240
17	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach Raffaele Marciello	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	46	1'40.635	5.425
18	51	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Austin Cindric Pietro Fittipaldi	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	43	1'40.809	5.599
19	55	Fred Poordad Francesco Pizzi James Allen Giammaria Bruni	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'41.744	6.534
20	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Dakota Dickerson Rasmus Lindh	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	36	1'42.926	7.716
21	33	Lance Willsey Joao Barbosa Nicolas Pino Danny Soufi	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	37	1'43.375	8.165
22	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Glenn van Berlo Josh Burdon	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	41	1'43.389	8.179
23	87	Yu Kanamaru James Vance Antonio Serravalle Nicholas Boulle	LMP3	Duqueine D08	35	1'43.820	8.610
24	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nico Varrone Thomas Merrill	LMP3	Duqueine D08	40	1'44.290	9.080
25	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern Moritz Kranz	LMP3	Duqueine D08	45	1'44.600	9.390
26	85	Till Bechtolsheimer Tijmen van der Helm Luca Mars Mason Filippi	LMP3	Duqueine D08	43	1'44.882	9.672
27	38	John DeAngelis Christopher Allen Cameron Shields Connor Bloum	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	29	1'45.468	10.258
28	43	Sebastian Alvarez Danial Frost Alex Vogel Guilherme de	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	34	1'46.152	10.942
29	75	Fabian Schiller Axcil Jefferies	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	32	1'47.020	11.810
30	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Mike Conway	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	41	1'47.040	11.830
31	12	Aaron Telitz Frankie Montecalvo Kyle Kirkwood Parker Thompson	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	44	1'47.096	11.886
32	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Nicki Thiim	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	40	1'47.166	11.956
33	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje Lucas Auer	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	40	1'47.335	12.125
34	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas David Pittard	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	33	1'47.561	12.351
35	21	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Miguel Molina Francesco Castellacci	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	38	1'47.575	12.365
36	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier Kenton Koch Maximillian Goetz	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	41	1'47.575	12.365
37	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Marvin Kirchhofer	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	40	1'47.609	12.399
38	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli Ryan Briscoe	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	31	1'47.676	12.466
39	63	Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Jordan Lee Pepper Romain Grosjean	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	40	1'47.735	12.525
40	79	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	40	1'47.768	12.558
41	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen Ian James Darren Turner	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	38	1'47.794	12.584
42	023	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera Andrea Bertolini	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	33	1'47.847	12.637
43	62	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 296 GT3	22	1'47.921	12.711
44	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	36	1'48.006	12.796
45	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessandro Balzan	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	34	1'48.112	12.902
46	64	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	25	1'48.115	12.905
47	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	41	1'48.135	12.925
48	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Benjamin Hites Marco Mapelli	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	38	1'48.322	13.112
49	42	Don Yount Jaden Conwright Kerong Li Alessio Deledda	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	42	1'48.381	13.171
50	83	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Doriane Pin	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	39	1'48.578	13.368
51	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	34	1'48.695	13.485
52	19	Raffaele Giammaria Frank Perera Claudio Schiavoni Rolf Ineichen	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	39	1'48.811	13.601
53	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	34	1'48.881	13.671
54	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis Maxime Martin	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	40	1'49.028	13.818
55	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull Bruno Spengler John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	43	1'49.405	14.195
56	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Max Root Kevin Estre	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	37	1'49.453	14.243
57	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon Dennis Olsen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	36	1'49.599	14.389
58	92	David Brule Alec Udell Andrew Davis Jeroen Bleekemolen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	34	1'49.701	14.491
59	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans Julien Andlauer	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	40	1'49.762	14.552
60	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette Harry Tincknell	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	25	1'49.790	14.580
61	53	Mark Kvamme Trenton Estep Jan Magnussen Jason Hart	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	43	1'49.990	14.780
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