BMW’s Dries Vanthoor took his second IMSA pole of the year in as many races, with the Belgian setting a 1:47.091 onboard the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8.
Acura MSR’s Tom Blomqvist was second fastest, 0.025 off D. Vanthoor, with Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche 963 third.
The session started with an early red flag, as the #31 Action Express, Whelen-sponsored Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken breaking down early on.
The car pulled out of the pitlane slowly, and then stopped, before Aitken power cycled it in an attempt to get it going again. He wasn’t successful, though, with the car only moving very slowly out of turn 1.
He eventually stopped the car at turn 2/3, with marshals coming to tow the car around the track. They pulled off on the back straight, into the old pit lane, with just minutes left in the session and no representative times set. That said, IMSA did an extra minute onto the session in order to get competitive times on the board.
With just a few minutes left to set times, the race was on. Nasr, Blomqvist and D. Vanthoor were immediately on it, with Nasr initially fastest from Blomqvist and D. Vanthoor.
However, on his next lap, the BMW driver set his pole lap, 1:47.091, which proved unbeatable for Blomqvist. The Briton did another lap but came up short, just a couple of hundredths off, and will start the 12 hour race second.
Nasr and his teammate in the #6 Porsche, Mathieu Jaminet, made it a 3-4 for the German manufacturer, while Neel Jani in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche was fifth.
Sixth was the sister #60 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande, while Louis Deletraz and Ricky Taylor put the remaining Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs seventh and eighth.
Thomas and Hyett duke it out in LMP2
Steven Thomas was fastest in LMP2, onboard the #11 TDS Racing Oreca, with the American setting a 1:51.804.
He was 0.115 faster than PJ Hyett, who was behind the wheel of the #99 AO Racing Oreca, with the fastest United Autosports car of Nick Boulle third, 0.640 off the pace.
Thomas and Hyett had an almighty battle all through the session, with each setting fastest laps to top the field. Hyett was fastest initially once the tyres were up to pace, with a 1:53.3, but Thomas soon beat him with a 1:52.8.
The AO Racing team owner then went seven tenths quicker, but Thomas was the first to break into the 1:51s, with his eventual pole lap. Hyett soon followed him, but was just over a tenth short of beating the TDS driver.
With Boulle third, Daniel Goldburg made it a United Autosports second row, just under two tenths slower than his teammate. Fifth was Tobi Lutke in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca, 1.140 off Thomas on pole.
READ MORE: Ferrari on pole in GTD Pro and GTD at Sebring
See here for full classification of qualifying results.
