Daytona 24 Hours: Aleshin on pole for SMP, GT Porsches fastest

The IndyCar driver set the fastest time during the 15-minute Prototype session but ended up slower than seven GT Le Mans cars and one Prototype Challenge entry because the rain intensified over the course of the four class qualifying periods.

GTLM cars start along with GT Daytona entries in the second block of cars under IMSA SportsCar Championship rules, but PC machinery can outqualify Prototypes.

Because the race director declared that the conditions warranted, according to the rulebook, "flexibility in tyre type" the grid for the race start on Saturday afternoon will line up in class order rather than actual times.

That means Aleshin's 2m05.973s lap claimed the pole by more than half a second from Pipo Derani in the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-Honda JSP2.

Aleshin set the time despite limited experience of the spec Continental wet tyre.

"I did some laps in the wet in practice, but not in conditions as bad as those," he said.

"There was a lot of standing water and I almost hit the wall twice on my fastest lap."

Oswaldo Negri Jr was third fastest in the Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda, while the quickest Daytona Prototype was the Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP in the hands of Ricky Taylor.

PC driver Johnny Mowlem would have been awarded the overall pole had the mixed conditions clause not been invoked.

The Briton set a time of 2m05.708s in his BAR1 Motorsports ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09, which compared with a 2m07.413s set by second-placed Stephen Simpson in the JDC-Miller entry.

The two factory CORE-run GTLM Porsche 911 RSRs recorded the fastest times in qualifying before the conditions worsened.

Nick Tandy set a 2m01.408s, which put him nearly a second up on team-mate Frederick Makowiecki's 2m02.364s

John Edwards was just over a tenth behind in third in the best of the Rahal BMW M6 GTLMs, while Alessandro Pier Guidi was nearly a second further back in fourth in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE.

Pole in the GT Daytona class went to Norbert Siedler in the Park Place Motorsports 991-shape Porsche 911 GT3-R.

He recorded two laps good enough for pole, his best of 2m05.798s putting him over half a second up on Marc Basseng's 2m06.357s aboard the best of the Konrad Lamborghini Huracan GT3s.

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