Alex Palou went fastest in the second practice session for the Daytona 24 Hours thanks to a series of fast laps in his final stint aboard the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, with a 1:35.589s time being the overall benchmark.
The second practice session of the weekend took place over 1 hour and 45 minutes, with the first 15 minutes reserved solely for the LMP2 and GTD competitors.
After that first quarter-hour of running, James Allen headed the LMP2 field courtesy of a 1:39.497s laptime in the #81 DragonSpeed Oreca 07-Gibson machine and Klaus Bachler led the GTD field in the #86 Porsche 911 GT3 R run by MDK Motorsports (1:47.045s).
It was then time for the GTP and GTD Pro runners to join the LMP2 and GTD runners as all competitors shared the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway Road Course for the next hour and 15 minutes.
Quickest out of the blocks amongst the GTP runners was Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 Penske Porsche 963 entry, setting a 1:35.830s laptime on his fourth tour of the circuit, but he was soon surpassed by Felipe Nasr in the sister Penske Porsche, the #7 963 which moved the benchmark to 1:35.724s.
The two Porsches were latterly displaced by Renger van der Zande in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R – who set a 1:35.670s laptime on his seventh tour of the Daytona Road Course and by roughly 40 minutes in the two Penske Porsches had been split by Gianmaria Bruni in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche (1:35.754s) and reigning Michelin Endurance Cup Champion Jack Aitken in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac (1:35.788s).
The GTP order remained that way until the LMP2 and GTD classes left the track for the final quarter-hour of running.
With 15 minutes of the session remaining, the LMP2 and GTD competitors left the circuit, leaving the top three in the LMP2 class featuring leader Clement Novalak in the #52 Inter Europol Oreca 07-Gibson (1:39.416s), second-place Allen in the #81 DragonSpeed entry (1:39.497s) and third-place Malthe Jakobsen in the #04 Oreca run by Crowdstrike (1:39.818s).
In GTD Bachler remained at the top of the class thanks to his early benchmark of 1:47.045s in the #86 Porsche, ahead of second GTD entrant Dennis Olsen in the #55 Proton run Mustang GT3 (1:47.085s) and third place #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 driver Albert Costa Balboa (1:47.106s).
As the final moments wound down, Palou ensured the #01 Cadillac remained on the top of the overall classification for the second session running courtesy of his 1:35.589s lap time, 0.135s quicker than Nasr’s 1:35.724s effort in the #7 Porsche.
Bruni was 0.165s off of Palou in the #5 Proton Porsche (1:35.754s) with Aitken 0.199s off the pace in the #31 Cadillac in fourth (1:35.788).
The top five was capped off by Jaminet in the #6 Porsche thanks to his 1:35.830s effort (+0.241s) and sixth went to Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 (1:35.967s/+0.378s).
Phil Hanson in the #85 JDC-Miller Porsche was next in the order – 0.471s off of the fastest time with his 1:36.060s and eighth went to Ricky Taylor in the #10 WTR Andretti Acura ARX-06 (1:36.404s/+0.815s).
The top 10 was completed by Augusto Farfus in the #24 BMW (1:36.587s/+0.998s) and Colton Herta in the #40 Acura (1:36.805s/+1.216s).
The #5 Porsche completed the most laps with 52 and the #7 Porsche was at the other end of the spectrum having completed just 16 tours.
In GTD Pro, none of the top runners were able to beat the top three GTDs – with Pro leader and Indy 500 Winner Alexander Rossi in the #9 Pfaff McLaren 720S GT3 EVO the fourth fastest GT machine overall thanks to his 1:47.144s laptime.
Second in GTD Pro and ninth fastest GT machine overall was Daniel Serra in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 (1:47.308s) and third GTD Pro/10th GT was Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (1:47.315s) that will be starting on class pole on Saturday.
The next practice session will be run under the cover of night, starting at 18:35 local time (23:35 GMT).
