Sebring 12H: Albuquerque tops first practice in WTR-Andretti Acura

GTP

Electrical issues delayed the WTR-Andretti car from strutting its stuff on track, so that Albuquerque had just 14 laps to get the job done, but his eighth lap was a 1min48.303sec around the legendary 3.74-mile track. That was enough for him to shade Renger van der Zande’s top time in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R by 0.133sec, and the Action Express Racing Caddy of Jack Aitken by a further tenth.

Connor De Phillippi was just 0.432sec away from top time in the #25 BMW M Hybrid, but his co-driver Sheldon van der Linde shunted the car in the closing minutes, bringing the session to a halt under a red flag. Augusto Farfus in the sister BMW was fifth, but 0.6sec behind.

The #6 Porsche 963 of Porsche Penske Motorsport ran 29 laps, but was 1.1sec down on Albuquerque’s benchmark.

Having been delayed in hitting the track by an electronics problem, the Meyer Shank Racing Acura then ground to a halt with less than 20mins of the session left, before occupant Tom Blomqvist had set a truly representative time. That brought out the second red flag of the session.

When the session restarted with 10mins to go, Matt Campbell went off on cold tires at Turn 3 after just one lap in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, then limping back to the pits, for a new rear end, but unable to set a true flyer due to the final red flag for the crashed BMW.

LMP2

Christian Rasmussen of Era Motorsport topped the class, just over two-tenths of a second faster than Giedo van der Garde of TDS Racing, with George Kurtz of Crowdstrike Racing by APR in third, mere hundredths behind. Scott Huffaker was a further tenth back in the second TDS machine with Paul-Loup Chatin fifth for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.

LMP3

Up until the final five minutes, the smallest prototypes were led by Felipe Fraga in the Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320, but Dakota Dickerson of Jr III Racing nipped ahead by half a tenth to claim top spot. Gabby Chaves of Andretti Autosport was a further half second in arrears, but ahead of the fastest Duqueine-mounted driver, Nico Varrone (AWA).

GTD Pro / GTD

After IMSA’s Balance of Performance left the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs lame during the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, they appear to be back in the hunt here at Sebring. Trent Hindman wheeled the #77 Wright Motorsports Porsche to top time in the GT3 cars, ahead of Jack Hawksworth who led the GTD Pro runners in the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F.

Kyle Marcelli’s Racers Edge Motorsport with WTR Acura NSX was third ahead of a second Lexus, the GTD entry piloted by Parker Thompson, while Mikael Grenier was fifth in the Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.

Second practice begins at 3.50pm local (Eastern) time, with third practice commencing at 7.45pm.

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Louis Deletraz	GTP	Acura ARX-06	14	1'48.303
2	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Scott Dixon	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	28	1'48.436	0.133
3	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims Jack Aitken	GTP	Cadillac V-Series.R	33	1'48.534	0.231
4	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly Sheldon Van Der Linde	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	23	1'48.735	0.432
5	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann	GTP	BMW M Hybrid V8	24	1'49.353	1.050
6	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet Dane Cameron	GTP	Porsche 963	29	1'49.437	1.134
7	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun Helio Castroneves	GTP	Acura ARX-06	7	1'50.893	2.590
8	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	37	1'50.926	2.623
9	35	François Heriau Giedo van der Garde Josh Pierson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	39	1'51.140	2.837
10	04	George Kurtz Ben Hanley Nolan Siegel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	37	1'51.166	2.863
11	11	Steven Thomas Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	37	1'51.275	2.972
12	52	Ben Keating Paul-Loup Chatin Alex Quinn	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	35	1'51.310	3.007
13	20	Dennis Andersen Ed Jones Anders Fjordbach	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	35	1'51.458	3.155
14	8	John Farano Scott McLaughlin Kyffin Simpson	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	32	1'51.708	3.405
15	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr Michael Christensen	GTP	Porsche 963	5	1'51.892	3.589
16	51	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Pietro Fittipaldi	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	25	1'52.843	4.540
17	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Dakota Dickerson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	36	1'56.349	8.046
18	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Josh Burdon	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	32	1'56.417	8.114
19	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Glenn van	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	20	1'56.982	8.679
20	17	Anthony Mantella Wayne Boyd Nico Varrone	LMP3	Duqueine D08	31	1'57.098	8.795
21	85	Till Bechtolsheimer Tijmen van der Helm Daniel Goldburg	LMP3	Duqueine D08	26	1'57.186	8.883
22	4	Seth Lucas Tonis Kasemets Trenton Estep	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	32	1'57.229	8.926
23	33	Lance Willsey Joao Barbosa Nicolas Pino	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	29	1'57.333	9.030
24	38	Christopher Allen Robert Mau Tristan Nunez	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	28	1'59.063	10.760
25	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	32	1'59.362	11.059
26	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman Maxwell Root	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	29	2'01.092	12.789
27	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	26	2'01.156	12.853
28	93	Ashton Harrison Danny Formal Kyle Marcelli	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	30	2'01.194	12.891
29	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Parker Thompson	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	29	2'01.350	13.047
30	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier Kenton Koch	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	19	2'01.378	13.075
31	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon Gabriel Casagrande	GTD PRO	Ferrari 296 GT3	31	2'01.394	13.091
32	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	29	2'01.437	13.134
33	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen Zacharie Robichon	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	30	2'01.447	13.144
34	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas David Pittard	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	31	2'01.450	13.147
35	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje	GTD	Mercedes AMG GT3	28	2'01.529	13.226
36	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon Maro Engel	GTD PRO	Mercedes AMG GT3	26	2'01.590	13.287
37	63	Frank Perera Jordan Lee Pepper Romain Grosjean	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	27	2'01.662	13.359
38	92	David Brule Alec Udell Julien Andlauer	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	26	2'01.705	13.402
39	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge Marc Miller	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	32	2'01.708	13.405
40	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Tommy Milner	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	30	2'01.793	13.490
41	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo Jaxon Evans	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	25	2'01.833	13.530
42	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen Ian James	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	29	2'01.991	13.688
43	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	19	2'02.034	13.731
44	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli Benjamin Hites	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	17	2'02.082	13.779
45	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	30	2'02.142	13.839
46	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	25	2'02.272	13.969
47	83	Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	27	2'02.278	13.975
48	95	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull John Edwards	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	22	2'02.366	14.063
49	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet Laurens Vanthoor	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	27	2'02.504	14.201
50	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx Gunnar Jeannette	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	31	2'02.518	14.215
51	023	Onofrio Triarsi Charles Scardina Alessio Rovera	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	16	2'02.809	14.506
52	21	Simon Mann Miguel Molina Francesco Castellacci	GTD	Ferrari 296 GT3	26	2'02.883	14.580
53	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff Ollie Millroy	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	33	2'03.103	14.800
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