WTR Andretti’s Felipe Albuquerque topped the opening IMSA practice session of the Sportscar Weekend at Road America, courtesy of a 1:51.089 laptime behind the wheel of the #10 Acura ARX-06 GTP machine.
The 90-minute practice session marked the first time all four classes were in action together since June’s Six Hours of the Glen with this Sunday’s Sportscar weekend the only 2hr40 minute sprint race of the season to feature GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD entrants.
The opening practice session of two this weekend provided the field with vital running in glorious weather to get reacquainted with the four-mile Road America layout.
#25 BMW M Hybrid V8 driver Connor De Phillippi topped the majority of the session with a 1:51.500 lap time, before being pipped by Albuquerque by nearly half a second with mere minutes remaining as a Red Flag brought an early end to the session.
After such a blistering lap, Albuquerque revealed to IMSA pit-lane reporter Shea Adam that there was “not much” speed left in his Acura.
Behind the leading duo was third-placed Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R machine with a time of 1:51.666, ahead of #7 Porsche 963 driver Felipe Nasr in fourth (1:51.840) and #40 WTRAndretti Acura driver Louis Deletraz in fifth (1:51.902).
The top six cars in GTP were within a second of each other as Gianmaria Bruni posted a 1:52.039 effort at the wheel of the #5 Proton Competition Porsche.
Seventh went to #24 BMW driver Jesse Krohn (1:52.341) and Jack Aitken rounded out the top eight in the #31 Whelen Engineering Caddy (1:52.436).
In LMP2, top honours went to Paul di Resta at the wheel of the #22 Oreca 07 run by United Autosports with the Scotsman setting a 1:53.486 laptime.
Di Resta’s benchmark was over six-tenths of a second quicker than Tom Dillmann’s best effort in the #52 Inter Europol Oreca (1:54.093) with United Autosport’s Ben Hanley rounding out the top three in the #2 Oreca (1:54.177).
A GTD car led the remaining categories, Inception Racing’s Frederik Schandorff, who set a time of 2:05.242 at the wheel of his #70 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO machine.
That time was just over a tenth quicker than the leading GTD Pro entry, Corvette’s #3 Z06 GT3.R machine piloted by Antonio Garcia to lap the Road America course in 2:05.369.
The next two spots in the GT classification were each occupied by Pro entrants Mike Rockenfeller (#64 Ford Mustang GT3, 2:05.588) and Nicky Ctasburg (#4 Corvette, 2:05.676).
Completing the top three in GTD was Loris Spinelli in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 (ninth overall in GT, 2:05.871) and Patrick Gallagher in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 (10th overall in GT, 2:05.955).
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