Felipe Nasr has put Whelen Engineering Racing on pole position for the Motul Pole Award 100, taking the first IMSA pole position of 2021 in the process.
Nasr posted the quickest time in a competitive session by sending the #31 Cadillac DPi-VR round Daytona International Speedway in a time of 01:34:311.
That effort was enough to beat the #55 Mazda RT24-P of Oliver Jarvis to pole by 0.131s. Jarvis, in turn, was just 0.043s quicker than the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac of Tristan Vautier.
Kevin Magnussen performed well in his first qualifying outing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. The former Formula One driver briefly held the fastest time in the #01 Cadillac DPi-VR, but the Dane ultimately qualified fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing.
He was quicker than the two Acura DPis, with Filipe Albuquerque fifth for Wayne Taylor Racing and Dane Cameron sixth for Meyer Shank Racing.
The class was rounded out by the #48 Ally Cadillac Racing Cadillac of Jimmie Johnson, who seemed to struggle against the more experienced IMSA racers. Johnson’s best effort, a 01:35:688, was 1.3s off the pole time and nearly eight-tenths behind Cameron.
In LMP2, Ben Keating dominated proceedings to take pole for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The Texan, driving the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson, initially traded the top time back and forth with High Class Racing’s Dennis Anderson.
Keating then set a series of increasingly quick laps. His best effort, a 01:37:368, was enough to beat Anderson’s #20 ORECA 07-Gibson by 1.164s.
Roberto Lacorte qualified the #47 Cetilar Racing Dallara P217-Gibson third, ahead of John Farano in the #8 Tower Motorsport ORECA in fourth place. The top five was rounded out by Le Mans class winner Salih Yoluc in the #51 RWR Eurasia Ligier JS P217-Gibson.
The first ever qualifying session for LMP3 in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship went the way of Moritz Kranz and Muelhner Motorsports America.
The German driver posted a number of steadily improving laps throughout the session. In the end, he steered the #6 Duqueine D08 to a best time of 01:42:384.
His effort proved over a second quicker than that of second-place Ryan Norman, driving the #7 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine. Third went to Rasmus Lindh in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320, ahead of the #54 CORE Autosport Ligier of Jon Bennett.
Lance Willsey qualified fifth for Sean Creech Motorsport, while the two Riley Motorsports Ligiers did not set any lap times.
In GTLM, Marco Wittmann led the way in a BMW front-row lockout, put together entirely by DTM stars.
Wittmann led the way in the #24 BMW M8 GTE, posting a 01:42:980 in a disrupted session that was briefly red flagged early on after the #29 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo came to a halt on track.
Wittmann bested team-mate Timo Glock in the #25 BMW M8 GTE, who was 0.363s back.
Corvette’s new signing Alexander Sims was third in the #4 Corvette C8.R, ahead of team-mate Jordan Taylor in the #3 Corvette.
The class was rounded out by Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in fifth and Cooper MacNeil sixth in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Finally, GTD went the way of Ryan Hardwick in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Hardwick set a late flyer and went top with a best time of 01:46:831.
Simon Mann, driving the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, came closest to besting Hardwick, but had to concede some two-tenths to the Porsche driver despite a late flying lap.
The late improvements from both Hardwick and Mann demoted Madison Snow’s #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo to third place.
The top five in class was completed by Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and Ian James’ #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
