IMSA Long Beach: Albuquerque takes stunning pole for Acura

In the 20-minute GTP-only session around the 1.968-mile Californian street course, Albuquerque lapped in 1m09.909s in his Acura ARX-06.

Albuquerque's early benchmark of 1m11.582s in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura was soon beaten by the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais with a 1m11.541s.

Albuquerque then took P1 again with 1m10.943s, only to be was bettered by Tom Blomqvist’s Meyer Shank Racing Acura on 1m10.720s. But the Portuguese then unleashed 1m10.428s to Blomqvist’s 1m10.489s, with just 0.061s between the Acuras at the time.

The 2018 and 2019 Long Beach winner sealed the deal with a 1m10.371s, which opened the gap between them to 0.349s, and then set his stunning 1m09.909s – putting him almost seven tenths clear of Blomqvist.

Bourdais was best of the rest, but over a second off the ultimate pace, just clear of Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8. Augusto Farfus backed him up with fifth place in the #24 BMW, an impressive result for the improving Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run cars, just ahead of Nick Tandy’s #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.

Alexander Sims will start seventh in the Action Express Racing Cadillac, with Felipe Nasr bringing up the rear of the class in the #7 Porsche.

#27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3: Roman De Angelis, Marco Sorensen

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images

Sorensen’s Aston Martin grabs GTD pole

With no LMP2 or LMP3 cars in action, GTD is the sole secondary class at Long Beach. Marco Sorensen claimed pole for Aston Martin, just beating GTD Pro category leader Jack Hawksworth's Lexus.

Ross Gunn set the early GTD Pro pace but then had an early moment in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin at Turn 8. Hawksworth took over at the top in his Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F with a 1m18.490s.

Gunn took the provisional pole back with 1m18.113s, before Hawksworth punched in two faster laps to break the class qualifying lap record, lowering the pole time to 1m17.811s.

But that was just pipped by Sorensen in the pro-am #27 Heart of Racing Aston, who lapped in 1m17.811s. Hawksworth had set an even faster first split when the session was curtailed by a huge shunt at Turn 8.

Ashton Harrison (Racers Edge with WTR Acura NSX) clipped the wall on the outside and came to halt, before the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of PJ Hyett, who’d clipped the wall on the inside, slammed into the barrier just behind her. Harrison’s car caught fire, which she was able to escape from, while Hyett was also able to walk away unhurt after his huge impact with the concrete.

Gunn will start third, ahead of Patrick Pilet (Pfaff Motorsports Porsche) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette C8.R).

In an incident-packed session, Brendan Iribe’s #70 McLaren was turned by the #1 BMW Madison Snow at Turn 5 on their out laps. Snow had another spin at Turn 1, and Iribe also spun again later at Turn 5.

The first IMSA sprint race of the season, a 1h40m event, starts Saturday at 2:00pm local (Pacific) time.

IMSA Long Beach Qualifying Results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura ARX-06	13	1'09.909
2	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	Acura ARX-06	14	1'10.583	0.674
3	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R	13	1'10.981	1.072
4	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly	BMW M Hybrid V8	11	1'11.002	1.093
5	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus	BMW M Hybrid V8	14	1'11.368	1.459
6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 963	13	1'11.406	1.497
7	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	13	1'11.410	1.501
8	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr	Porsche 963	13	1'11.591	1.682
9	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	10	1'17.811	7.902
10	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Lexus RC F GT3	8	1'17.817	7.908
11	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	10	1'17.958	8.049
12	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	8	1'18.083	8.174
13	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R GTD	9	1'18.329	8.420
14	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	10	1'18.376	8.467
15	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	BMW M4 GT3	10	1'18.383	8.474
16	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier	Mercedes AMG GT3	10	1'18.455	8.546
17	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	10	1'18.831	8.922
18	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Mercedes AMG GT3	10	1'18.943	9.034
19	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull	BMW M4 GT3	10	1'19.159	9.250
20	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	BMW M4 GT3	10	1'19.171	9.262
21	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	10	1'19.188	9.279
22	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon	Mercedes AMG GT3	10	1'19.436	9.527
23	Ashton Harrison Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	9	1'19.583	9.674
24	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	10	1'19.629	9.720
25	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge	Acura NSX GT3	10	1'19.716	9.807
26	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	9	1'19.767	9.858
27	Alec Udell Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	10	1'19.807	9.898
28	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	10	1'20.789	10.880
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