At the start of the session, Tom Blomqvist went straight on at Turn 1 in his efforts to get the Acura ARX-05 of Meyer Shank Racing onto the front row, and Filipe Albuquerque slid along the wall exiting Turn 5 as he tried extracting the maximum from the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.
They were both making great efforts, but were on the back foot as everyone was shooting at Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing Cadillac, whose top effort, a 1m10.001s, became the first new DPi qualifying record for the 1.968-mile track.
That record lasted for only minutes however, as the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs were on the prowl. Sure enough, Bourdais – who won the Grand Prix of Long Beach three times in his open-wheel career – delivered a sensational 1m09.472s to eclipse Derani’s time by over half a second.
In the #02 Ganassi entry, IMSA rookie Alex Lynn was also seriously impressive in his first weekend at Long Beach, eventually finishing up 0.361s behind Bourdais.
That last-gasp effort from Lynn deposed Blomqvist who nonetheless can be proud to have broken up the all-Cadillac party with a car whose characteristics don’t suit the nature of Long Beach layout and track surface. Derani will start fourth ahead of Tristan Vautier and Albuquerque.
Jordan Taylor delivered the fastest time in a thrilling GT qualifying session, the sole Corvette C8.R clocking a 1m18.048s lap on its final lap. That was enough to leave him 0.067s clear of Connor De Phillippi in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M4 and 0.125s faster than the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mathieu Jaminet.
Ross Gunn, FP1 pacesetter for Heart of Racing, slotted into fourth in the Aston Martin Vantage, just ahead of the fastest GTD cars – a pair of BMW M4s. Madison Snow of Paul Miller Racing edged Robby Foley of Turner Motorsports by just over a tenth of a second.
Next up was the fastest of the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC Fs, Jack Hawksworth’s GTD Pro entry, while Mike Skeen was third fastest GTD, seventh overall in GT, in the quickest Mercedes AMG GT3, the Team Korthoff Motorsports car.
IMSA Long Beach - Qualifying results
| Cla | Driver | Class | Chassis | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Renger van der Zande  Sébastien Bourdais
| DPi | Cadillac DPi | 6 | 1'09.472 | |
| 2 |
 Earl Bamber  Alex Lynn
| DPi | Cadillac DPi | 7 | 1'09.833 | 0.361 |
| 3 |
Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist
| DPi | Acura DPi | 10 | 1'09.939 | 0.467 |
| 4 |
 Pipo Derani  Tristan Nunez
| DPi | Cadillac DPi | 5 | 1'10.001 | 0.529 |
| 5 |
Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook
| DPi | Cadillac DPi | 11 | 1'10.376 | 0.904 |
| 6 |
Ricky Taylor  Filipe Albuquerque
| DPi | Acura DPi | 8 | 1'10.576 | 1.104 |
| 7 |
 Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor
| GTD PRO | Corvette C8.R GTD | 12 | 1'18.048 | 8.576 |
| 8 |
Connor de Phillippi John Edwards
| GTD PRO | BMW M4 GT3 | 6 | 1'18.115 | 8.643 |
| 9 |
 Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet
| GTD PRO | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 7 | 1'18.173 | 8.701 |
| 10 |
Ross Gunn Alex Riberas
| GTD PRO | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 8 | 1'18.437 | 8.965 |
| 11 |
Bryan Sellers Madison Snow
| GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 10 | 1'18.487 | 9.015 |
| 12 |
Robby Foley Bill Auberlen
| GTD | BMW M4 GT3 | 9 | 1'18.599 | 9.127 |
| 13 |
Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat
| GTD PRO | Lexus RC F GT3 | 11 | 1'18.627 | 9.155 |
| 14 |
Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer
| GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 10 | 1'18.918 | 9.446 |
| 15 |
Jon Miller Paul Holton
| GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 11 | 1'18.932 | 9.460 |
| 16 |
Russell Ward  Philip Ellis
| GTD | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 8 | 1'18.973 | 9.501 |
| 17 |
 Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller
| GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 11 | 1'19.146 | 9.674 |
| 18 |
 Roman De Angelis  Maxime Martin
| GTD | Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 10 | 1'19.181 | 9.709 |
| 19 |
Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz
| GTD | Lexus RC F GT3 | 12 | 1'19.181 | 9.709 |
| 20 |
Ryan Eversley Aidan Read
| GTD | Acura NSX GT3 | 12 | 1'19.366 | 9.894 |
| 21 |
Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff
| GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | 9 | 1'19.385 | 9.913 |
| 22 |
Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal
| GTD | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 9 | 1'19.742 | 10.270 |
| 23 |
Cooper MacNeil  Raffaele Marciello
| GTD PRO | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 12 | 1'19.743 | 10.271 |
| 24 |
Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen
| GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 12 | 1'20.072 | 10.600 |
| 25 |
Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge
| GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 10 | 1'21.079 | 11.607 |
| 26 |
Kyle Washington James Sofronas
| GTD | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 11 | 1'23.938 | 14.466 |
| View full results | ||||||
