Porsche factory LMP1 driver Brendon Hartley laid down the early pace for this weekend's IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship finale at Road Atlanta with the fastest lap on Thursday.
Hartley, a winner of this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, turned in a time of 1:12.017s behind the wheel of the Extreme Speed Motorsports-entered Nissan DPi to lead the prototype field after three sessions.
The New Zealander's flyer came during the final evening run, held under darkness, and eclipsed the previous markers set by Renger van der Zande in FP1 and Juan Pablo Montoya in FP2.
Second quickest on the first day of running was Filipe Albuquerque, who fell 0.310 seconds short of Hartley in the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi.
After the LMP2 runners commanded the opening two sessions, the Daytona Prototype international entries responded with quicker times later in the day.
Montoya's table-topping effort during FP2 held out as the third-best time, and the leading figure posted by one of the Gibson-powered, European-style prototypes.
The former grand prix and IndyCar star, who is part of Team Penske's full-season IMSA project next year with the Acura DPi, is sharing an ORECA-07 this weekend with three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and 2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud.
Montoya posted a time of 1:12.445s to nip ahead of the Visit Florida Racing Ligier piloted by Van der Zande, which won the previous IMSA WSCC race at Laguna Seca.
Rounding out the top five was Pipo Derani in the second Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan, half a second off the class-leading effort, while the championship-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi placed seventh.
In GT Le Mans, BMW locked out the other manufacturers with Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg recording a one-two during the night session.
Sims' 1:17.818s benchmark out-performed Catsburg's attempt by 0.124 seconds, while Tommy Milner came through a further tenth down in the #4 Corvette.
The pair of Ford GTs occupied the next two places, ahead of the #912 Porsche which led opening practice in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor.
James French's flyer during FP1 held out as the fastest Prototype Challenge lap of the day, while Jack Hawksworth led GT Daytona in the #15 Lexus RCF-GT3.
Qualifying for te Petit Le Mans 10-hours takes place on Friday, October 6th at 16:20 EDT (21:20 UK).
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