Sebastien Bourdais led the IMSA Battle on the Bricks after a hectic, wet opening hour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Ahead of the six-hour race itself, weather radars and predictions suggested that rain will fall as drivers have contended with dry conditions thus far in the weekend.
Nevertheless, the start was about competitors making it through the opening hour with minimal damage before the rain emerged.
GTP championship leaders #7 Porsche Penske qualified in seventh place and their nearest rivals in the standings started towards the front.
Their sibling #6 Porsche 963 started in third with Mathieu Jaminet driving, whilst the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais began in first after his last-minute yet confident grasp at pole position.
After he was hit around by Tom Blomqvist’s #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 at Turn 1 last year, the Frenchman eyed out a more promising getaway.
A tense fight for the lead in GTP
At lights out, Bourdais retained his lead ahead of #40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 driver Louis Deletraz.
Meanwhile it was a sterling start for the championship-leading GTP as Felipe Nasr charged with unmatched pace from seventh place.
Nasr asserted great pace and was opportunistic, notably putting a move on the #31 Whelen Cadillac, Jack Aitken, for third before he took second from Deletraz on the outside line at T7.
Quickly enough, his pace got himself the lead from Bourdais into T1.
Unfortunately for Deletraz, he fell from second to third place before contact with Rasmus Lindh’s #56 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 at the penultimate corner.
The first full-course-yellow period was deployed when Luis Perez Companc spun and was stranded at T10 in his #88 AF Corse Oreca 07 LMP2.
With the rain gradually increasing, and with no intermediate tyre, teams and drivers were assessing the ideal moment to turn to the grooved wet tyres.
On the restart, Ben Keating (#2 United Autosports USA Oreca) was challenged for his lead from Nick Boulle’s #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Oreca into T1 as the pair made slight contact.
An opportunistic restart
In GTP, the #01 Cadillac of Bourdais snatched back the lead on the inside of T1 on #7 Nasr, but #7 Nasr made an ambitious dive at T12 and retrieved the lead. The duo fought during the challenging conditions with increasing standing water.
With two more separate cautions deployed due to stranded GTD cars, the race narrative became more interrupted.
After a second caution, on the restart, Nasr made a mistake into T1 after outbraking himself and thus lost the lead, but kept P2 after cutting the corner.
Bourdais led the race in the #01 Cadillac ahead of #7 Nasr, and most impressively the #5 Proton Porsche 963 of Gianmaria Bruni in third after his team performed an excellent first pit stop.
This caused him to gain places, with Mathieu Jaminet’s #6 Porsche in fourth and Connor De Phillippi’s #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in fifth.
In LMP2, Boulle led the way ahead of Keating’s #2 Oreca as Daniel Goldburg, despite having made a few spins during the opening hour, held third in the other #22 United Autosports USA Oreca.
Gar Robinson was in fourth for the #74 Riley Oreca as Steven Thomas held fifth for TDS Racing’s #11 Oreca.
GTs fight in the wet
It emerged yesterday that AO Racing were moved to the back of the grid after incurring a ride height infringement, thus granting pole position to #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R duo Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner.
Additionally Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus RC F GT3 (GTD) triggered the same penalty, so they started at the very back of the 26-car GTD and GTD Pro fields.
The opening laps were slightly messy for the GTs who demonstrated eagerness to make up places.
Unfortunately for Maximilian Paul and his #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan was too ambitious into T10 after side-on contact with Dirk Mueller’s #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang.
The #65 retreated to the pitlane and behind the wall, as did the #19 before they became the first official retirement.
Iron Lynx were unable to serve their drive-through penalty because of their suspension damage.
For Sheena Monk in the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX, she went back out after briefly stopping at the T1 run-off.
During the transition phase to wet conditions, both Lexus RC Fs put on an impressive display of pace on slick tyres.
Unfortunately for #12 driver Frankie Montecalvo, he found himself stranded on the start-finish straight after possible contact from another GT car.
Corvette held a 1-2 in GTD Pro, with Alexander Sims (#3 Corvette) ahead of Nicky Catsburg (#4 Corvette) ahead of Mike Rockenfeller in the other factory Ford Mustang.
In GTD, Patrick Gallagher was in the lead for Turner Motorsport’s #96 BMW M4, followed by class pole-sitter Mikael Grenier (#32 Mercedes-AMG).
Kellymoss Porsche 911 driver Jake Pedersen was third in the #90 entrant.
