Sebastien Bourdais has captured pole position for the Twelve Hours of Sebring in a new IMSA lap record.
The Frenchman posted a 1m 45.166s in the #01 Chip Ganassi Cadillac DPi-VR, 0.026s ahead of the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani.
Ricky Taylor took third for Wyane Taylor Racing, leading the second Ganassi Cadillac driven by Alex Lynn, Ally’s Mike Rockenfeller and Tom Blomqvist for Meyer Shank Racing.
Tristan Vautier failed to set a competitive lap time, as the Frenchman had an off in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac on the exit of turn one and damaged the nose.
Ben Keating took a convincing pole position in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson.
The Texan, who is also on pole in GTE Am for today’s 1000 Miles of Sebring, set a 1m 49.954s, which was 0.638s ahead of the second-placed #21 DragonSpeed ORECA driven by Henrik Hedman.
Gar Robinson took pole position for Riley Motorsports at the line, beating Jarrett Andretti by just 0.036.
Robinson posted his fastest time, a 1m 57.048s, at the chequered flag in the #74 Ligier JS P320-Nissan.
Andretti improved at the line as well, but not enough to take the top spot.
Harry Gottsacker took third in the #6 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine D08-Nissan, leading FastMD Racing’s Max Hanratty and Dan Goldburg for Performance Tech Motorsports to round out the top five.
Daniel Serra put Risi Competizione on pole in the GTD Pro category.
The Brazilian set a 1m 59.414 in the #62 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, leading the #63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo by just 0.017s.
The two drivers traded the top time back and forth in the closing minutes of the session, but Serra put in a late improvement that Bortolotti was unable to top at the flag.
Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia was third fastest in #3 C8.R, followed by Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas and Matt Campbell for Pfaff Motorsport.
Serra and Bortolotti were the only cars to outpace the fastest GTD cars, with the pack led by Zach Robichon in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The Canadian’s time of 1m 59.763s was just 0.025s faster than the #96 BMW M4 GT3 driven by Robby Foley, who was second.
Third went to Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, followed by Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow and Giorgio Sernagiotto for Cetilar Racing being the last GTD runners to outpace Garcia.
The session was briefly interrupted by a red flag, caused by a stoppage for the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of John Potter.
