Tristan Vautier has ensured that JDC-Miller Motorsports will start the qualifying race for the Rolex 24 at Daytona from pole position.
Vautier posted the best time in the #5 Cadillac DPi-VR with a 1m 34.034s, 0.122s ahead of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 driven by Filipe Albuquerque.
Alex Lynn was third in the #02 Chip Ganassi Cadillac, with Tristan Nunez fourth for Whelen Engineering Racing ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Tom Blomqvist.
The session was red flagged in the closing minutes when Renger van der Zande, who was running second at the time, slid off the track and into the wall into the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
The Dutchman was stripped of his two fastest times as a result and will start seventh.
Dominant performances in LMP2 and LMP3
Pole position in LMP2 was taken by the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson, driven by Ben Keating.
Keating’s best effort of 1m 37.296s was well clear of stablemate Steven Thomas in the #11 car, the gap between the two measuring in at 0.637s.
Dennis Andersen was third for High Class Racing, with Francois Heriault and John Falb fourth and fifth for G-Drive Racing respectively.
In LMP3, Muehlner Motorsports’ Cameron Shields took pole in dominant fashion.
The Australian was a class apart in the #26 Duqueine D08-Nissan and ultimately settled on a quickest time of 1m 42.128s.
Shields was at one point well over a second clear of the rest of the LMP3 field.
Nico Pino ultimately brought the gap down, qualifying second in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320-Nissan and 0.286s down on Shields.
Jarett Andretti took third for Andretti Autosports, 1.601s behind Pino and just 0.016s ahead of the #6 Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine of Ayrton Ori. Veteran driver Jon Bennett rounded out the top five in the #54 CORE Autosport Ligier.
Imperatori quickest in mixed GTD/GTD Pro session
Alexandre Imperatori has taken GTD Pro pole for KCMG.
The Swiss driver posted the fastest time of all GT runners at the closing seconds of the session, setting a 1m 46.136s in the #2 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Imperatori demoted the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet to second by just 0.063s. Andrea Caldarelli was third in the #63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, although slower than the top two GTD cars.
Ross Gunn was fourth for The Heart of Racing, with Risi Competizione’s Davide Rigon fifth.
Ben Barnicoat had to settle for sixth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 even though he led the session on multiple occasions. Maro Engel took seventh in the #97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
The top ten in the new class was rounded out by the #24 BMW M4 GT3 of Sheldon van der Linde, the WeatherTech Porsche of Julien Andleauer, and the #4 Corvette C8.R driven by Tommy Milner.
Kenny Habul surprised by taking GTD pole and third overall in the GT classes in the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Habul’s 1m 46.313 was faster than almost all of the GTD Pro runners, only losing out to Imperatori and Jaminet.
Defending Rolex 24 champion Russell Ward was second in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes, with debutant Jon Miller third in the #59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3.
Michael de Quesada was fourth for Alegra Motorsports, ahead of Cetilar Racing’s Roberto Lacorte and Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
