Daytona 24H: IndyCar ace O’Ward tops damp FP1 ahead of main race

The Mexican 21-year-old turned a 1m49.251sap of the 3.56-mile course and then promptly spun, but he had done enough to ensure an LMP2 car was on top by 0.016 seconds.

The DragonSpeed car managed 33 laps in the 90-minute session, some 1.5s ahead of next fastest LMP2 runner Nico Muller in the High Class Racing machine, with Frits Van Eerd third for Racing Team Nederland ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin.

In the DPi class, Earl Bamber’s 1m49.267s lap in the #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R gave him a similar margin as O’Ward over the nearest opposition, Filipe Albuquerque in the 2021 Daytona 24-winning Acura ARX-05 of Wayne Taylor Racing.

Next up was Oliver Jarvis of Meyer Shank Racing, the #60 Acura being the only DPi car to do more than a dozen laps in the session, as teams expect the damp conditions at the moment to be unrepresentative of how Daytona will be this weekend.

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Forecasts suggest instead that it will be extremely cold, with temperatures hovering around freezing point.

Only four LMP3 cars completed laps in FP1, with Matt Bell topping the times in AWA’s Duqueine ahead of Muehlner Motorsports’ similar car in the hands of Cameron Shields.

Mathieu Jaminet led GTD Pro by a country mile in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, 1.7s and 1.9s faster than Dirk Muller and Daniel Juncadella in the two Proton-run Mercedes AMG GT3 entries.

Jaminet was fastest in GT Pro in #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

Laurens Vanthoor was fourth in KCMG’s Porsche, with reigning IMSA  GTLM champ Antonio Garcia fifth in the Corvette C8.R and James Calado sixth in Risi Competizione’s Ferrari 488.

GTD was led by Luca Stolz in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes, and his time put him second in the 33-car GT field overall, as well as half a second faster than Jordan Pepper’s best effort in the Inception McLaren 720S.

Maxi Goetz was third fastest despite spinning the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes, while Katherine Legge slotted the Hardpoint Porsche into fourth.

FP1 classification:

Cla	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Patricio O'Ward Colton Herta	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	33	1'49.251
2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Marcus Ericsson Kevin Magnussen	DPi	Cadillac DPi	6	1'49.267	0.016
3	Ricky Taylor Joao Barbosa Alexander Rossi Will Stevens	DPi	Acura DPi	9	1'50.781	1.530
4	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer Nico Mueller	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	31	1'50.789	1.538
5	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves Simon Pagenaud	DPi	Acura DPi	16	1'51.246	1.995
6	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Murry Dylan Rinus van Kalmthout	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	28	1'51.478	2.227
7	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	27	1'51.765	2.514
8	John Falb James Allen Luca Ghiotto Tijmen van	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	42	1'51.829	2.578
9	François Heriau Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones René Rast	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	26	1'52.383	3.132
10	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Pinto Ferdinand Habsburg	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	20	1'52.949	3.698
11	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon Alex Palou	DPi	Cadillac DPi	5	1'52.989	3.738
12	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	8	1'53.324	4.073
13	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson Jose Maria Lopez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	11	1'53.650	4.399
14	Jim McGuire Guy Smith Philip Hanson Will Owen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	7	1'54.036	4.785
15	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	30	1'56.784	7.533
16	Kenny Habul Luca Stolz Raffaele Marciello Fabian Schiller	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	11	1'58.419	9.168
17	Dirk Muller Patrick Assenheimer Austin Cindric	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	10	1'58.510	9.259
18	Cooper MacNeil Daniel Juncadella Maro Engel Jules Gounon	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	21	1'58.658	9.407
19	Laurens Vanthoor Patrick Pilet Dennis Olsen Alexandre Imperatori	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	19	1'58.936	9.685
20	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	39	1'58.964	9.713
21	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Linus Lundqvist Maximillian Goetz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	36	1'59.001	9.750
22	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson Nicholas Boulle	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	36	1'59.115	9.864
23	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	35	1'59.173	9.922
24	Franck Perera LLarena Mateo Paul Maximilian Mikhail Goikhberg	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	30	1'59.195	9.944
25	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Charles Eastwood Nicki Thiim	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	10	1'59.215	9.964
26	Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern Matthew Bell	LMP3	Duqueine D08	15	1'59.223	9.972
27	Nolan Siegel Cameron Shields Charles Crews Ugo De	LMP3	Duqueine D08	32	1'59.224	9.973
28	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	19	1'59.656	10.405
29	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus Jesse Krohn	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	23	1'59.682	10.431
30	Bill Sweedler John Megrue Giacomo Altoè Jeff Segal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	6	1'59.767	10.516
31	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Marco Sorensen	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	31	1'59.945	10.694
32	Mann Simon Luis Perez Companc Nicklas Nielsen Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	33	1'59.963	10.712
33	Don Yount Benja Hites Jaden Conwright Markus Palttala	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	39	2'00.067	10.816
34	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	37	2'00.123	10.872
35	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	11	2'00.431	11.180
36	Mike Skeen Guy Cosmo Stevan McAleer Scott Andrews	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	27	2'00.589	11.338
37	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan Jens Klingmann	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	34	2'00.663	11.412
38	Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ori Ayrton Joel Miller	LMP3	Duqueine D08	22	2'00.800	11.549
39	Lance Bergstein Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	15	2'00.960	11.709
40	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Jonathan Adam	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	27	2'01.223	11.972
41	Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti Rolf Ineichen	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	9	2'01.246	11.995
42	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Sandy Mitchell Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	18	2'01.376	12.125
43	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo Michael Cooper	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	8	2'01.865	12.614
44	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	24	2'01.906	12.655
45	Kyle Washington James Sofronas Jeroen Bleekemolen Klaus Bachler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	7	2'04.673	15.422
46	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand Townsend Bell	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	3	2'09.973	20.722
47	Ted Giovanis Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb Owen Trinkler	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	12	2'11.813	22.562
48	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval Ben Keating	DPi	Cadillac DPi	0	0.000
49	Mark Kvamme Austin McCusker Trenton Estep Antoine Doquin	LMP3	Duqueine D08	0	0.000
50	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	0	0.000
51	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	0	0.000
52	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen Richard Lietz	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	14	0.000
53	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	0	0.000
54	Roman De Angelis Ian James Darren Turner Tom Gamble	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	0	0.000
55	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Seb Priaulx Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	0	0.000
56	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Rasmus Lindh Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	0	0.000
57	Dan Goldburg Hikaru Abe Garett Grist Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	0	0.000
58	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	0	0.000
59	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz Nic Jönsson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	2	0.000
60	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Mikael Grenier Lucas Auer	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	0	0.000
61	Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Matteo Cairoli Alessio Picariello	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	9	0.000