Helio Castroneves has set the quickest time in opening practice for this weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The championship leader lapped the Sebring International Raceway in a time of 01:49:360, putting the #7 Acura ARX-05 on top of the leaderboards. Castroneves’ best effort was just under half a tenth slower than the slowest time set by Sebastien Bourdais in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-VR.
Matheus Leist put the #85 JDC-MIller Motorsports in third place, ahead of Ryan Briscoe’s #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-VR in fourth. Felipe Nasr, nearly sixth-tenths behind Castroneves, made it four Cadillacs in the top five in the #31 Whelen Engineering car.
The two Mazdas were sixth and seventh, with Dane Cameron bringing up the rear in the #6 Acura ARX-05.
In LMP2, newly crowned champions PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports topped the timing sheets thanks to a lap of 01:52:040 by Simon Trummer in the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson. Matt Bell was second for Inter Europol Competition, with David Heinemeier Hansson third for Tower Motorsport by Starworks.
Performance Tech Motorsports caused a red flag during the session when the #38 ORECA 07-Gibson found the barriers.
Porsche kicked off its final weekend in GTLM by topping the class with both cars. Frederic Makowiecki was fastest in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR-19, setting a lap time of 01:58:717. That was enough to outpace the #912 Porsche, driven by Laurens Vanthoor, by 0.374s.
Connor de Phillippi completed the top three in the #25 BMW M8 GTE, ahead of Tommy Milner’s #4 Corvette C8.R in fourth place. Jordan Taylor was three-tenths slower than his team-mate in fifth place, while the class was rounded out by the #24 BMW M8 GTE in the hands of Augusto Farfus.
AIM Vasser Sullivan topped the timesheets in GTD, with the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 on top courtesy of a 02:02:961 by Jack Hawksworth. Patrick Long was second quickest in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Townsend Bell was third in the #12 Lexus.
