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IMSA Road America: Acura fastest from BMW in first practice

Acura’s Filipe Albuquerque topped the opening practice session for this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road America.

Albuquerque beat BMW’s Connor De Phillippi and Sebastien Bourdais (Cadillac Racing) in preparation for Sunday’s 2h40m race around the four-mile track that’s the self-proclaimed ‘America’s National Park of Speed’ and features a 47-car entry.

The premier class GTP hybrids were back after taking a break at Mosport last month.

Dane Cameron set the benchmark at 1m53.538s in the points-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 he shares with Felipe Nasr, 0.015s ahead of the sister No. 6 car of Mathieu Jaminet.

Times tumbled after 10 minutes, as Louis Deletraz (No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06), Bourdais (Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) and Albuquerque (No.10 WTR Acura) all took turns in P1. Albuquerque’s 1m52.555s was then eclipsed by Deletraz’s 1m52.451s.

BMW joined the chat after 20 minutes, with De Phillippi lapping in 1m51.500s, to take top spot in the No. 25 M Hybrid V8, eight tenths clear of Jesse Krohn in the sister No. 24 car. Both BMW and Acura have tested recently at Road America, while in Balance of Performance news, the BMW has gained 1 kW of power and the Acura ARX-06 is 5kg heavier.

Deletraz split the BMWs with a 1m51.902s, but this was still four tenths shy of De Phillippi, while Ricky Taylor took fourth in the No. 10 Acura with 1m52.104s.

Bourdais suffered an off at Turn 5 and continued, which was mirrored by Jack Aitken later in the session in the No. 31 Action Express Caddy. It didn’t seem to hamper Bourdais, who later jumped up to second place, 0.166s off De Phillippi.

The session was red flagged with 35m remaining for debris to be recovered from Turn 14.

The factory Porsches had fallen back to the bottom of the top 10 until Nasr went third fastest inside the final 10 minutes in the No. 7.

But with less than four minutes left on the clock, Albuquerque rocketed to P1 with 1m51.089s, four tenths clear of the opposition. He just beat a second red flag as Danny Formal put his WTR with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan in the gravel at the final corner.

United Autosports quickest in LMP2

Paul di Resta set a storming pace at 1m53.486s in the opening moments of the session in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca that proved unbeatable across the 90-minute session.

Tom Dillmann was over half a second off that pace with 1m53.093s for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, ahead of Ben Hanley in third United’s No. 2 car from Mikkel Jensen’s TDS car.

Mosport pole-winner PJ Hyett (AO Racing) clashed with Seth Lucas’s No. 20 MDK by High Class Racing entry at Turn 1, which resulted in Hyett being penalized with a drive-through penalty.

McLaren fastest in GTD Pro

In GTD, Laurin Heinrich set the early pace in the points-leading AO Porsche 911 at 2m05.687s but was toppled minutes later by Antonio Garcia (No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R) and Mike Rockenfeller (No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang).

But towards the end of the session it was Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff who vaulted its McLaren 720S to the head of the times, leading all the Pro class cars as well as his fellow pro-ams.

Garcia led the Pro class from Rockenfeller and Nicky Catsburg in the sister No. 4 Corvette.

   
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Cla Drivers # Chassis Laps Time Interval km/h
1 United States R. Taylor Portugal F. Albuquerque Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 10 Acura ARX-06 34

1'51.089

  131.181
2 United States C. de Phillippi United Kingdom N. Yelloly BMW M Team RLL 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 33

+0.411

1'51.500

0.411 130.698
3 Netherlands R. van der Zande France S. Bourdais Cadillac Racing 01 Cadillac V-Series.R 31

+0.577

1'51.666

0.166 130.503
4 United States D. Cameron Brazil F. Nasr Porsche Penske Motorsport 7 Porsche 963 31

+0.751

1'51.840

0.174 130.300
5 United States J. Taylor Switzerland L. Deletraz Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 40 Acura ARX-06 32

+0.813

1'51.902

0.062 130.228
6 Italy G. Bruni Netherlands B. Viscaal Proton Competition 5 Porsche 963 34

+0.950

1'52.039

0.137 130.069
7 Finland J. Krohn Austria P. Eng BMW M Team RLL 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 33

+1.252

1'52.341

0.302 129.719
8 Brazil P. Derani United Kingdom J. Aitken Whelen Cadillac Racing 31 Cadillac V-Series.R 38

+1.347

1'52.436

0.095 129.610
9 United Kingdom N. Tandy France M. Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsport 6 Porsche 963 33

+1.858

1'52.947

0.511 129.023
10 Netherlands T. van der Helm United Kingdom R. Westbrook JDC/Miller Motorsports 85 Porsche 963 30

+2.310

1'53.399

0.452 128.509
11 D. Goldburg United Kingdom P. di Resta United Autosports USA 22 ORECA 07 30

+2.397

1'53.486

0.087 128.411
12 United States N. Boulle France T. Dillmann Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports 52 ORECA 07 30

+3.004

1'54.093

0.607 127.727
13 United States B. Keating United Kingdom B. Hanley United Autosports USA 2 ORECA 07 32

+3.088

1'54.177

0.084 127.633
14 United States S. Thomas Denmark M. Jensen TDS Racing 11 ORECA 07 37

+3.113

1'54.202

0.025 127.605
15
S. Wiltshire
United Kingdom R. Dalziel Era Motorsport
18 ORECA 07 31

+3.280

1'54.369

0.167 127.419
16
G. Kraut
Australia S. Andrews JDC/Miller Motorsports
79 ORECA 07 31

+3.549

1'54.638

0.269 127.120
17 United States P. Hyett France P. Chatin AO Racing 99 ORECA 07 31

+3.628

1'54.717

0.079 127.033
18 United States G. Robinson Brazil F. Fraga Riley 74 ORECA 07 30

+3.836

1'54.925

0.208 126.803
19 Canada J. Farano Ireland C. Eastwood Tower Motorsports 8 ORECA 07 14

+5.882

1'56.971

2.046 124.585
20 Portugal J. Barbosa T. Kasemets Sean Creech Motorsport 33 Ligier JS P217 25

+7.083

1'58.172

1.201 123.319
21 Denmark D. Andersen
S. Lucas MDK by High Class Racing
20 ORECA 07 34

+7.198

1'58.287

0.115 123.199
22 Argentina L. Perez Companc Denmark N. Nielsen Richard Mille AF Corse 88 ORECA 07 21

+8.514

1'59.603

1.316 121.843
23 United States B. Iribe Switzerland F. Schandorff Inception Racing 70 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 31

+14.153

2'05.242

5.639 116.357
24 Spain A. Garcia United Kingdom A. Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 30

+14.280

2'05.369

0.127 116.239
25 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Germany M. Rockenfeller Ford Multimatic Motorsports 64 Ford Mustang GT3 30

+14.499

2'05.588

0.219 116.037
26 United States T. Milner Netherlands N. Catsburg Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 29

+14.587

2'05.676

0.088 115.955
27 Germany L. Heinrich France J. Andlauer AO Racing 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 29

+14.598

2'05.687

0.011 115.945
28 United States B. Sellers United States M. Snow Paul Miller Racing 1 BMW M4 GT3 30

+14.629

2'05.718

0.031 115.917
29 Brazil D. Serra Italy G. Altoè Conquest Racing 35 Ferrari 296 GT3 30

+14.660

2'05.749

0.031 115.888
30 United Kingdom J. Hawksworth United Kingdom B. Barnicoat Vasser Sullivan 14 Lexus RC F GT3 26

+14.660

2'05.749

0.000 115.888
31 Canada M. Goikhberg Italy L. Spinelli Forte Racing 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 29

+14.782

2'05.871

0.122 115.776
32 United States R. Foley United States P. Gallagher Turner Motorsport 96 BMW M4 GT3 29

+14.866

2'05.955

0.084 115.698
33 Canada R. De Angelis Canada Z. Robichon Heart Of Racing Team 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 23

+14.999

2'06.088

0.133 115.576
34 Canada M. Grenier United States K. Koch Korthoff/Preston Motorsports 32 Mercedes AMG GT3 29

+15.039

2'06.128

0.040 115.540
35 United Kingdom R. Gunn Spain A. Riberas Heart Of Racing Team 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 31

+15.133

2'06.222

0.094 115.454
36 Germany M. Kirchhofer United Kingdom O. Jarvis Pfaff Motorsports 9 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 31

+15.148

2'06.237

0.015 115.440
37
M. Franco
A. Costa Conquest Racing
34 Ferrari 296 GT3 31

+15.157

2'06.246

0.009 115.432
38
S. Monk
United Kingdom S. McAleer Gradient Racing
66 Acura NSX GT3 32

+15.195

2'06.284

0.038 115.397
39 United Kingdom S. Mitchell Costa Rica D. Formal Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 26

+15.205

2'06.294

0.010 115.388
40 United States F. Montecalvo Canada P. Thompson Vasser Sullivan 12 Lexus RC F GT3 25

+15.292

2'06.381

0.087 115.308
41 United States R. Ward Switzerland P. Ellis Winward Racing 57 Mercedes AMG GT3 34

+15.325

2'06.414

0.033 115.278
42 O. Triarsi Italy A. Rovera Triarsi Competizione 023 Ferrari 296 GT3 7

+15.484

2'06.573

0.159 115.134
43 United States J. Hand Germany D. Muller Ford Multimatic Motorsports 65 Ford Mustang GT3 23

+15.497

2'06.586

0.013 115.122
44
A. Adelson
E. Skeer Wright Motorsports
120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 34

+15.621

2'06.710

0.124 115.009
45
G. Levorato
United States C. Lewis Proton Competition
55 Ford Mustang GT3 32

+15.660

2'06.749

0.039 114.974
46 Canada O. Fidani United Kingdom M. Bell AWA 13 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD 28

+15.724

2'06.813

0.064 114.916
47
K. Li
Denmark A. Fjordbach MDK Motorsports
86 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 32

+15.988

2'07.077

0.264 114.677
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