Sheldon van der Linde of the BMW RLL team fronted the second free practice session for the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s Detroit Grand Prix.
The thrice-interrupted two-hour session continued the momentum after the 90-minute session earlier on, within the vicinity of the General Motors headquarters, better known as the Renaissance Center.
Three red flags caused stoppages with consequences for the three main cars concerned.
Firstly, debris between Turns 1 and 2 from the #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R incurred the loss of their fastest qualifying lap time because they caused the session disruption.
Many drivers were keen to exploit the ultimate limits of the Detroit Street Course, but contact with the wall was one too many for Antonio Garcia. So this means, for the #3 Corvette, their second-fastest lap time will determine their grid spot later today.
With 38 minutes on the clock, the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) Cadillac V-Series.R driver Filipe Albuquerque also caused a red flag with debris at T1.
BMW RLL’s #25 M Hybrid V8 GTP driver Marco Wittmann retreated at the T1 run-off, but continued without further drama, as the #10 did so too.
Circuit officials used the eight-minute interruption to clear other debris elsewhere before green flag running continued with 30 minutes remaining.
Finally, the championship-leading #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP of Nick Tandy inflicted debris of his rear-decking/engine cover at T1, causing another red flag.
Like the other two cars, the #7 Porsche will lose their fastest lap time during qualifying, opening the door at yet another possible pole position for BMW RLL.
BMW heads GTP class, Corvette 1-2 in GTD Pro
S. van der Linde set the quickest lap time by the end for the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP, a 1:06.427.
Tandy prevented a 1-2 for the Bavarian manufacturer during the closing minutes, claiming second with a 1:06.720 lap time.
Dries Vanthoor finished third in the #24 BMW RLL machine with his 1:06.765 time, ahead of Renger van der Zande’s #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 GTP which did a 1:06.793.
Matt Campbell rounded out the top five in the GTP class for the #6 Porsche Penske entrant with a quickest time of 1:06.867.
In GTD Pro, Garcia set the fastest lap time with a 1:10.565, marginally ahead of the sibling #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and his 1:10.575 time.
Andrea Caldarelli put in a promising performance again for the #9 Pfaff Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, and his lap time was 1:10.653.
Seb Priaulx rounded out the top five in the class for the #64 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3, setting their best pace at 1:10.697.
See here for the full results. Qualifying is the next session, commencing at 16:50 ET or 21:50 BST.
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