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Long Beach IMSA: Cadillac pips BMW in twice red-flagged practice

Derani lapped his Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R in 1m13.477s around the 1.9-mile temporary circuit in the one-hour session.

The GTP class is using Michelin’s soft-compound tire at Long Beach for the first time outside of Daytona night running, and an extra set has been made available for Saturday’s 100-minute race.

Ricky Taylor made an early error in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, going straight on at Turn 6 before rejoining. Towards the end of the session his stable-mate Louis Deletraz did exactly the same in the #40.

Nick Tandy led the way in the opening exchanges, lapping the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 – which won here last year following a bold tire strategy gamble – in 1m14.056s.

Felipe Nasr made it a PPM 1-2 after 10 minutes, albeit almost a second off Tandy’s pace. Jack Aitken split their party in the #31 AXR Cadillac V-Series.R, getting within 0.197s of P1, before Sebastien Bourdais brought the #01 Ganassi-run Caddy into the mix, a further tenth back.

Bourdais – who crashed out at the first corner here last year – snatched the top spot after 22 minutes with a 1m13.531s, eclipsing Tandy by half a second.

Following two red flags for GTD cars crashing, the pacesetting Cadillac didn’t run again – which meant it recorded the least laps of any cars in the field. That opened the door to Derani to snatch the quickest time of the day at 1m13.477s, 0.054s quicker than Bourdais.

Connor De Phillippi (RLL BMW M Hybrid) jumped up to second on the final lap of the session, just 0.026s off Derani’s pace. Bourdais remained third, ahead of Tandy and the second BMW of Philipp Eng.

Nasr fell to sixth from Richard Westbrook (JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963) and Mike Rockenfeller, who has joined Gianmaria Bruni this weekend in Proton’s 963.

The pair of WTRA Acuras languished at the tail of the GTP class, with Filipe Albuquerque shading Deletraz by 0.047s but the pair of them were 1.8s off the pace.

#13 AWA Corvette C8.R GTD: Orey Fidani, Matthew Bell (Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images)

Corvette fastest in GTD

In GTD, with no Pro class cars allowed to race this weekend, Frederik Schandorff set the early pace in the #70 McLaren 720 before being pipped by Loris Spinelli’s Lamborghini and the Lexus of Jack Hawksworth (who has been seconded into the #12).

Hawksworth's quickest lap of 1m19.516s was challenged by Schandorff, who got within 0.045s of the Lexus on his second flying tour.

Brendan Iribe then crashed the Inception McLaren into the Turn 1 tirewall, causing a red flag.

Mikael Grenier was the next driver to go into the wall, shunting his Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes at Turn 9 and causing another stoppage a few minutes after the restart.

After the red flags were done, Matt Bell leapt to the top of the times in his AWA-run Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Bell then had a big moment at Turn 5 and slowly rejoined.

Parker Thompson took second in the #89 Lexus RC F with a lap of 1m19.055s set right at the end of the session, just pipping Kyle Marcelli (#45 Lamborghini) and Hawksworth by a tenth of a second.

Free practice two kicks off at 3:50pm local time for a 90-minute session.

   
1
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3
   
Cla Drivers # Chassis Laps Time Interval km/h
1 Brazil P. Derani United Kingdom J. Aitken Whelen Cadillac Racing 31 Cadillac V-Series.R 30

1'13.477

  96.451
2 United States C. de Phillippi United Kingdom N. Yelloly BMW M Team RLL 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 28

+0.026

1'13.503

0.026 96.417
3 Netherlands R. van der Zande France S. Bourdais Cadillac Racing 01 Cadillac V-Series.R 9

+0.054

1'13.531

0.028 96.381
4 United Kingdom N. Tandy France M. Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsport 6 Porsche 963 28

+0.579

1'14.056

0.525 95.697
5 Finland J. Krohn Austria P. Eng BMW M Team RLL 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 30

+0.736

1'14.213

0.157 95.495
6 United States D. Cameron Brazil F. Nasr Porsche Penske Motorsport 7 Porsche 963 26

+0.947

1'14.424

0.211 95.224
7 Netherlands T. van der Helm United Kingdom R. Westbrook JDC/Miller Motorsports 85 Porsche 963 27

+1.121

1'14.598

0.174 95.002
8 Italy G. Bruni Germany M. Rockenfeller Proton Competition 5 Porsche 963 33

+1.758

1'15.235

0.637 94.198
9 United States R. Taylor Portugal F. Albuquerque Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 10 Acura ARX-06 23

+1.762

1'15.239

0.004 94.193
10 United States J. Taylor Switzerland L. Deletraz Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 40 Acura ARX-06 23

+1.809

1'15.286

0.047 94.134
11 Canada O. Fidani United Kingdom M. Bell AWA 13 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD 29

+5.434

1'18.911

3.625 89.810
12 United Kingdom B. Barnicoat Canada P. Thompson Vasser Sullivan 89 Lexus RC F GT3 28

+5.578

1'19.055

0.144 89.646
13 Canada K. Marcelli Costa Rica D. Formal Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 29

+5.673

1'19.150

0.095 89.538
14 United States F. Montecalvo United Kingdom J. Hawksworth Vasser Sullivan 12 Lexus RC F GT3 28

+5.676

1'19.153

0.003 89.535
15 United States B. Iribe Switzerland F. Schandorff Inception Racing 70 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 13

+5.721

1'19.198

0.045 89.484
16 United States R. Foley United States P. Gallagher Turner Motorsport 96 BMW M4 GT3 24

+5.726

1'19.203

0.005 89.478
17
A. Adelson
E. Skeer Wright Motorsports
120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 30

+5.733

1'19.210

0.007 89.471
18 Canada M. Goikhberg Italy L. Spinelli Forte Racing 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 28

+5.816

1'19.293

0.083 89.377
19 United States M. Skeen Canada M. Grenier Korthoff/Preston Motorsports 32 Mercedes AMG GT3 14

+5.934

1'19.411

0.118 89.244
20 Canada R. De Angelis United States S. Pumpelly Heart Of Racing Team 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 26

+5.941

1'19.418

0.007 89.236
21
M. Franco
Spain A. Costa Conquest Racing
34 Ferrari 296 GT3 27

+5.964

1'19.441

0.023 89.210
22 United States J. Andretti Colombia G. Chaves Andretti Motorsports 43 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 28

+5.968

1'19.445

0.004 89.206
23 United States R. Ward Switzerland P. Ellis Winward Racing 57 Mercedes AMG GT3 29

+6.189

1'19.666

0.221 88.958
24
S. Monk
United Kingdom S. McAleer Gradient Racing
66 Acura NSX GT3 28

+6.212

1'19.689

0.023 88.933
25
G. Levorato
United States C. Lewis Proton Competition
55 Ford Mustang GT3 26

+6.278

1'19.755

0.066 88.859
26
K. Li
Denmark A. Fjordbach MDK Motorsports
86 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 29

+6.574

1'20.051

0.296 88.531
27
E. Sabo
A. Lee Flying Lizard Motorsports
28 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 32

+6.930

1'20.407

0.356 88.139
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