IMSA – Penske on pole at Petit Le Mans

If Team Penske participates this weekend in the 20^e edition of Le Petit Le Mans, it is above all to prepare for the 2018 season, which will see her compete in the entireIMSA SportsCar Championship with two Acura ARX-05s. But the Mooresville team is not the type to make trips to make up the numbers. She proved it this afternoon by taking pole position in the Georgian classic thanks to Helio Castroneves, who completed a lap of the Road Atlanta track in 1'11"314. The Brazilian, who shares the wheel with Juan Pablo Montoya and simon pagenaud, was ahead of the two Nissan Onroak DPi by a tenth, who achieved a nice group shot. At ESM, Pipo Derani (n°22) got the better of Brendon Hartley (No. 2). The leading fifth is completed by the No. 07 Oreca 13 of Rebellion Racing entrusted to Mathias Beche and the No. 217 Ligier JS P90 of Ranger van der Zande, who concede 0 and 3 to the poleman. The first Cadillac DPi-VR, the No. 0 of Wayne Taylor Racing, is seventh at 7” behind.

In spirit since the first free practice session, the Ferrari 488 GTE n°62 a été la plus véloce des GTLM grâce à Toni Vilander, qui a bouclé un tour en 1’29 »395. Le Finlandais a devancé Richard Westbrook (Ford GT n°67), Antonio Garcia (Corvette C7.R n°3), Joey Hand (Ford GT n°66) et Bill Auberlen (BMW M6 GTLM n°25), cinq voitures regroupées en 0 »071 ! Si les deux Porsche 911 RSR ferment la marche, la n°911, neuvième et dernière, n’accuse que 0 »766 de retard sur la marque de référence. La lutte s’annonce âpre demain.

In GTD, Matteo Cressoni took pole position in 1'23"690 at the wheel of the No. 488 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 3 GT63 which he shares with Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan. Followed by the No. 3 Acura NSX GT93 of Lally-Legge-Wilkins, the No. 3 Lexus RCF GT15 of Hawksworth-Pruett-Cindric, the No. 8 Audi R29 LMS of Van der Linde-Mies-De Philippi and the BMW M6 GT3 No. 96 from Marks-Klingmann-Krohn, which completes the top five. Note that thirteen cars are grouped together in the same second.

As a reminder, Wayne Taylor Racing (Jordan and Ricky Taylor), Corvette Racing (Jan Magnussen-Antonio Garcia) and Scuderia Corsa (Christina Nilsen-Alessandro Balzan) are guaranteed to be titled in their respective categories provided they start the event tomorrow, at 17 p.m. French time.