Van der Zande and Chip Ganassi Racing set pace in Rolex 24 FP1

Renger van der Zande set the pace for the opening practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, pipping Mike Conway by less than a tenth of a second.

Van der Zande set a 01:34.649 in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-VR, just 0.082s ahead of Conway in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac.

In third, Harry Tincknell was just over half a tenth away from Conway, almost a tenth and a halved behind van der Zande, in the #55 Multimatic Mazda RT24-P. That left the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, driven by Ricky Taylor, to pick up the pieces in fourth place.

In LMP2, Nico Lapierre set a time of 01:36.153 and led the way in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson, with Ben Hanley in #81 DragonSpeed ORECA 07-Gibson more than two tenths off the Frenchman.

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Job van Uitert was hot on Hanley’s heels, though, with the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA 07-Gibson driver just over four hundreths away.

Jeroen Bleekemolen was the only LMP3 driver faster than a GTLM car. The Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 driver was almost four tenths quicker than Colin Braun in the CORE autosport Ligier JS P320, topping the time sheets with a 01:42.416, Third in class was the #6 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine D08, driven by Kenton Koch.

In GTLM, in what will be the class’s final Rolex 24 at Daytona, Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette Racing C8.R went quickest with 01:42.766, with his teammate Antonio Garcia three tenths back in the sister #3 Corvette Racing C8.R.

Jules Gounon was a further tenth and a half off in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Finally, in GTD, Billy Johnson in the #28 Alegra Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo edged out Earl Bamber, in the #88 Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3 R, by a few hundreths of a second. Johnson’s 01:45.822 was enough to beat out Bamber by 0.042s, the smallest margin to the lead in the session.

Third in GTD went to another Porsche, Matt Campbell in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Practice 2 for the 2021 Rolex 24 at Daytona starts at 3:20pm ET (8:20pm UTC).