Sebastien Bourdais took pole position with the #01 Cadillac for the race, setting a supreme lap time of 1:12.445.
The #31 Whelen Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani would not be far off, joining the #01 Cadillac on the front row of the grid, just a single tenth of a second behind. The #31 Whelen Cadillac initially struggled this weekend, Jack Aitken had a huge crash in FP1 at Turn 4 which halted proceedings, bringing out the red flag.
Phillipp Eng aboard the #24 BMW would continue their positive pace from FP2, starting in the final podium place and just a couple of tenths from both Cadillac’s. BMW initially struggled at the start of the season at the Daytona 24 Hours, however with a string of positive performances, this weekend at Laguna Seca could begin to shift the overall perception of the german manufacturer. The sister #25 car would round off the top five in the GTP class, with margins extremely tight, the #25 only finished 0.055 from the #24.
The #6 Porsche would line up in fourth place, being driven by Mathieu Jaminet. The #6 Porsche has not always been the quickest this weekend, but has remained in contention for the podium places with consistent pace, that the team will look to build upon during the race.
The entire GTP class would be separated by less than a second in a qualifying session that rewrote the lap records. With the entire GTP field so close in pace, it leaves room for minimal error and sets up a potentially thrilling 2 Hours and 40 Minute race.
In GTD Pro, the #4 Corvette driven by Nicky Catsburg would be the first GT car to have a lap time below the 1:20.000s with a 1:19.727. An extraordinary lap time around half a second in front of the sister #3 Corvette, who would join Catsburg on the front row. The Corvette’s continue their strong pace which they’ve held throughout the practice sessions.
The #9 McLaren driven by Marvin Kirchh fer would take the final podium spot on the grid, still half a second down on the polesitter. Jack Hawksworth’s #14 Lexus would finish seven tenths off pole, starting from fourth place for the IMSA sprint race tomorrow. Seb Priaulx’s #77 Porsche would round out the GTD Pro top five. Some GTD drivers caught out by the new resurfacement on the circuit, with new grip levels catching some drivers out.
The #27 Aston Martin would run wide at Turn 4, ending the session in eleventh and with a lot of work to do, in order to climb the GTD field.
The IMSA Racing action continues at 8.10pm UK time this Sunday.
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