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Daytona 24: Nasr/Derani overcome grid penalty to win qualifying race

Overcoming a grid penalty for being underweight, Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani landed pole for next weekend's IMSA SportsCar Daytona 24 Hours at Daytona in their Action Express Cadillac

With the wet conditions adding around a dozen seconds to the laptimes of the Prototype, Mazda's Oliver Jarvis retained the lead at the drop of the green flag, but immediately came under pressure from IMSA debutant and ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen.

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac wrested the lead at the end of lap one, the pair pursued by Tristan Vautier in the JDC-Miller Motorsports Caddy - with Nasr not wasting time to move ahead of the Acuras to claim fourth place.

At the first restart, Vautier went around the outside of Jarvis at Turn 1 to make it a Cadillac 1-2, while Filipe Albuquerque moved the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura up ahead of Nasr to take fourth and start applying pressure to Jarvis who lost momentum and fell to seventh.

Then the yellow flew again for a GTD shunt, and all the DPi runners pitted for slicks except leader Magnussen.

They would rejoin in the order Vautier, Cameron, Ricky Taylor (who had taken over from Albuquerque in the WTR car, Nasr, Jimmie Johnson and Harry Tincknell who was now in the Mazda.

However, the RT24-P regained one spot when Cameron stopped his Meyer Shank Racing Acura for a second time.

Following the second restart, Nasr went around the outside of Taylor at the Horseshoe turn to make it a Cadillac 1-2-3, while later around the lap Tincknell would blast past Taylor for fourth.

A lap later, Vautier took advantage of being on slicks and Magnussen being on wets on a drying track and the Frenchman moved to the front pursued by Nasr, who took the lead with 50 minutes to go.

Magnussen would then pit and hand off the Ganassi car to Renger van der Zande.

With 34min to go, the final pitstop sequence started, with Nasr handing off to Pipo Derani, and Mazda jumping Tincknell ahead of Loic Duval who had taken over the JDC-Miller Cadillac.

However, with 20 minutes to go, Duval was filling the Mazda's mirrors until Tincknell seemed to find another level.

Duval had to cede third to the Meyer Shank Acura drive by Olivier Pla, but Duval moved back ahead as they closed on the Mazda once more as it fell 4.5s behind leader Derani.

However, this three-car battle for second rather dissipated over the final 10 minutes.

Taylor had a fairly lonely run to fifth at the end, keeping well ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who had taken over the #48 Cadillac from the impressive Jimmie Johnson and set the fastest lap of the race.

In the GTLM class, Corvette scored a 1-2 courtesy of Nick Tandy/Alexander Sims and Jordan Taylor/Nicky Catsburg ahead of the WeatherTech Racing Proton Porsche piloted by Kevin Estre/Cooper MacNeil, while the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry took top honours in LMP2.

Complete Roar Before the 24 results

Pos Class Driver Team Laps Gap
1 DPi F.Nasr, P.Derani Whelen Engineering Racing 51 1h41m06.688s
2 DPi O.Jarvis, H.Tincknell Mazda Motorsports 51 3.664s
3 DPi T.Vautier, L.Duval JDC-Miller Motorsports 51 4.627s
4 DPi D.Cameron, O.Pla Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian 51 6.995s
5 DPi R.Taylor, F.Albuquerque Konica Minolta Acura 51 8.997s
6 DPi J.Johnson, K.Kobayashi Ally Cadillac Racing 51 19.985s
7 DPi R.van der Zande, K.Magnussen Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing 51 1m14.834s
8 LMP2 B.Keating, M.Jensen PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports 51 1m33.798s
9 LMP2 D.Andersen, F.Habsburg High Class Racing 50 1 Lap
10 LMP2 J.Farano, G.Aubry Tower Motorsport by Starworks 50 1 Lap
11 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde Racing Team Nederland 50 1 Lap
12 LMP2 R.Hodes, G.Grist Dragonspeed USA 50 1 Lap
13 LMP2 R.Lacorte, A.Fuoco Cetilar Racing 50 1 Lap
14 LMP2 D.Merriman, P-L.Chatin Era Motorsport 49 2 Laps
15 LMP2 C.Ware, S.Yoluc RWR Eurasia 49 2 Laps
16 GTLM N.Tandy, A.Sims Corvette Racing 49 2 Laps
17 GTLM J.Taylor, N.Catsburg Corvette Racing 49 2 Laps
18 GTLM C.MacNeil, K.Estre WeatherTech Racing 49 2 Laps
19 LMP2 E.Lux, D.Defrancesco Dragonspeed USA 48 3 Laps
20 LMP2 S.Thomas, T.Nunez WIN Autosport 48 3 Laps
21 GTLM J.Calado, A.P.Guidi Risi Competizione 48 3 Laps
22 GTD B.Auberlen, R.Foley Turner Motorsport 48 3 Laps
23 GTD Z.Robichon, L.Vanthoor Pfaff Motorsports 48 3 Laps
24 GTD R.Ineichen, M.Bortolotti GRT Grasser Racing Team 48 3 Laps
25 GTLM P.Eng, T.Glock BMW Team RLL 48 3 Laps
26 GTD A.Telitz, O.Gavin Vasser Sullivan 48 3 Laps
27 LMP3 M.Kranz, L.Horr Muehlner Motorsports America 48 3 Laps
28 GTD R.Ward, P.Ellis Winward Racing 48 3 Laps
29 GTD I.James, R.De Angelis Heart of Racing Team 47 4 Laps
30 LMP3 M.Kvamme, R.Norman Forty7 Motorsports 47 4 Laps
31 GTLM A.Farfus, M.Wittmann BMW Team RLL 47 4 Laps
32 LMP3 J.Bennett, G.Kurtz CORE Autosport 47 4 Laps
33 GTD E.Jones, B.Curtis Scuderia Corsa 47 4 Laps
34 GTD R.Hardwick, P.Long Wright Motorsports 47 4 Laps
35 GTD R.Megennis, Z.Veach Vasser Sullivan 46 5 Laps
36 GTD K.Habul, R.Marciello Sun Energy 1 46 5 Laps
37 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally Magnus with Archangel 45 6 Laps
38 GTD M.Root, C.Eastwood TF Sport 45 6 Laps
39 GTD C.Nielsen, E.Bamber Team Hardpoint EBM 45 6 Laps
40 GTD D.Morad, M.De Quesada Alegra Motorsports 45 6 Laps
41 GTD S.Mann, N.Nielsen AF Corse 44 7 Laps
42 LMP3 L.Willsey, J.Barbosa Sean Creech Motorsport 30 Not running
43 GTD A.Metni, A.Davis NTE Sport 18 Not running
44 LMP3 R.Lindh, C.Cassels Performance Tech Motorsports 13 Not running
45 LMP3 J.Cox, D.Murry Riley Motorsports 8 Not running
46 GTD B.Sellers, M.Snow Paul Miller Racing 2 Not running
47 GTD M.Goikhberg, F.Perera GRT Grasser Racing Team 48 3 Laps
- GTD T.Giovanis, O.Trinkler Team TGM 0 Not started
- LMP3 G.Robinson, S.Pigot Riley Motorsports 0 Not started

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