Reigning FIA World Endurance Hypercar champion Laurens Vanthoor topped the fifth Roar Before the 24 testing session in the #7 Porsche Penske.
The #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP finished at the top of the fifth Roar Before the 24 (Hours of Daytona) testing session in the evening.
Vanthoor set a fastest lap time of 1:36.271 in the #7 Porsche Penske 963. The GTP entrant is not only the title-winning car from last year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship campaign, but more importantly from the 2024 season-opener.
To clarify, the two-hour session ran from 6.30pm to 8.30pm local time at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course on dry conditions once again.
Track action showcased the usual mixture of drivers from all four categories exploring and exceeding track limits, which included between the #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP and the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 LMP2.
A notable incident involved Shopify CEO and IMSA rookie Tobias Lutke in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07, the winning LMP2 car from last year.
A red flag allowed a seven-minute incident clear-up at Turn 3 where Lutke had gone off-course though the #18 returned to the circuit with no presumed critical damage caused.
Vanthoor fastest, Porsche 1-2-3-4 in GT field
By the end, Vanthoor topped the time sheets ahead of Phillip Eng’s #24 RLL BMW which set a 1:36.498 lap time.
Third place was taken by the other BMW, the #25, which accomplished a fastest time of 1:36.912 with credit to Sheldon van der Linde.
In the LMP2 class, Antonio Felix da Costa topped the all-Oreca 07 field for the #43 Inter Europol Competition team.
His 1:39.618 lap time set him ahead of the #11 TDS Racing team, whose Mikkel Jensen drove a 1:39.962.
Callum Ilott of the #73 Pratt Miller Motorsports team rounded out the top-three with his quickest time of 1:39.981.
The 2023 DTM champion Thomas Preining was the quickest driver in the #20 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3.R in the GTD Pro class.
His lap time of 1:48.034 put him ahead of the fastest GTD Porsche, the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Elliott Skeer (1:48.140).
Below him in the combined GT classification were the reigning GTD Pro champions, AO Racing with their #77 ‘Rexy’ Porsche.
Alessio Picariello completed a fastest time of 1:48.166 ahead of the #83 Iron Dames Porsche of Michelle Gatting (1:48.216).
Marvin Kirchhofer followed in the #13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R (GTD) with a 1:48.237, followed by the #81 Dragonspeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa (1:48.286).
See here for the full classification of results from Session 5. Action continues on Sunday 19 January with the penultimate session at 9.45am local / 2.45pm UK.
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