Laurens Vanthoor set the pace in the third and final practice session before the Daytona 24 Hours, with the Porsche driver topping the timesheets for the only time in practice this week.
The Belgian, in the #6 Porsche, set a 1:36.475 to go top, his last lap in the session. He was 0.066 up on Ricky Taylor in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, who had set his lap early in the 1 hour 15 minute session, only to be beaten by L. Vanthoor in the dying moments.
Third was Dries Vanthoor, behind the wheel of the #24 BMW, 2 and a half tenths off R. Taylor.
The session was an interrupted, messy one, with three red flags caused by various cars stopping on track or otherwise having issues which necessitated stoppage while the problem was resolved or stricken car removed.
Fourth was the sister #7 Porsche of Julien Andlauer, with Louis Deletraz in the #40 WTR Cadillac fifth.
The fastest Acura was Tom Blomqvist’s #60 machine in sixth. The sister Acura, the #93, will start on pole for the race tomorrow after the original polesitter, the #31 Action Express Cadillac, was excluded from qualifying.
The Acura was 10th in the practice session, with Nick Yelloly setting the car’s fastest lap, a 1:37.795.
Milesi, Engel, McLaughlin fastest in other classes
Charles Milesi was fastest in LMP2, with the #11 TDS Racing Oreca driver setting a 1:39.909 from the car’s 37 laps on the Daytona track. Enzo Fittipaldi was second, 0.074 slower than Milesi, driving the #73 Pratt Miller Oreca, while in third was Gregoire Saucy in the #22 United Autosports Oreca, a further 0.055 off E. Fittipaldi.
Over in GTD Pro, which had the 6 fastest cars from both GTD Pro and GTD, Maro Engel set a 1:46.251 to go quickest in the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3. Max Hesse was second in the #1 Paul Miller BMW, which yesterday was excluded from qualifying. Hesse was over 6 tenths slower than Engel, with the car also only managing 17 laps in the disrupted session.
Andrea Caldarelli was third in the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini Huracan GT3, a further tenth off Hesse.
Finally, in GTD, IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin was the pacesetter, with the #36 DXDT Corvette Z06 GT3R driver lapping Daytona in 1:47.155, with only 7 laps in total on the board for the car in total.
Second was Giacomo Altoe in the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3, 0.043 off McLaughlin, while Matt Bell was third in class in the #13 13 Autosport Corvette.
The race begins tomorrow at 1:40pm local time, or 6:40pm GMT.
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