Derani in pole position for the 12 Hours of Sebring

Qualifying for the 69th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring, second round of theIMSA, have just ended. Highly visible during free practice yesterday, the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-VR took pole position this afternoon.

Triple winner of the event, the swift Pipo Derani – who shares the wheel with Mike conway and Felipe Nasr – proves once again that he feels at home at the former Florida military airport. Credited with a 1'45"354, the Brazilian was 0"110 ahead of the No. 05 Acura ARX-10 from Wayne Taylor Racing (Albuquerque-R. Taylor-A. Red) and 0 »495 the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-VR of Chip Ganassi Racing (Van der Zande-K. Magnussen-S. Dixon).

The top five is completed by the #24 Mazda RT55-P (Jarvis-Tincknell-Bomarito) and the #05 Acura ARX-60 from Meyer Shank Racing (Pla-Cameron-Montoya), while the #5 Cadillac DPi 6 of JDC-Miller Motorsports fails in XNUMXth place (Bourdais-Duval-Vautier), 1”195 from pole.

In LM P2, it is Steven Thomas (Oreca 07 n°11) who takes the leading position ahead of Ben Keating (Oreca 07 n°52).

Note that these qualifications were interrupted a few seconds before the checkerboard after the violent exit from the track of Jimmie Johnson, entered in the No. 48 Cadillac DPi-VR with simon pagenaud et Kamui Kobayashi. The American is unhurt but the Action Express Racing mechanics now have their work cut out for them to restore his bike.

The LM P3 saw Rasmus Lindh set the reference time (1'56"001) at the wheel of the No. 320 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P38. The Swede, who teams up with Dan Goldburg and Mateo Llarena, beat the ex-pilot McLaren en IndyCar Oliver Askew, entered in the No. 08 Duqueine D7 of Forty7 Motorsports. The top three is completed by Gar Robinson, in the No. 320 Riley Motorsports JS P74.

The No. 8 Corvette C3.R will start on pole in GTLM. © Courtesy of IMSA

Winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona at the end of January, the No. 8 Corvette C3.R will start tomorrow from pole position in GTLM. Tasked with attacking the time this afternoon, Antonio García posted a 1'54"910, putting him just ahead of his teammate Tommy Milner. The two BMW M8 GTEs follow, while the Porsche 911 RSR-19 No. 79 from WeatherTech Racing brings up the rear, which was led for the occasion by gentleman driver Cooper MacNeil, author of a lap in 1'56"119.

Finally, in GTD, the new regulations were, for the first time, applied. A first fifteen-minute session reserved for Silver or Bronze drivers determined the positions on the starting grid. The advantage went to Tim Zimmermann, who shares the wheel of the No. 3 Lamborghini Huracan GT19 with Misha Goikhberg and Franck Perera. The German beat Jan Heylen (N°911 Wright Motorsports Porsche 3 GT16 R) and Daniel Morad (Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°28 from Alegra Motorsports).

A second session, also 15 minutes long and which took place at the same time as GTLM qualifying, awarded championship points. Entered in the No. 3 Lexus RC F GT14 of Vasser Sulliven, Jack Hawksworth won the race thanks to a lap completed in 1'59"247, and at the same time offered 35 more points to his team and crew. The top three was completed by Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 911 GT3 R n°9 from Pfaff Motorsports) and Franck Perera.

The start of the race – which will be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr – will be given tomorrow Saturday at 15 p.m.