Long Beach IMSA: Nasr and Derani take comfortable victory

Nasr led from pole in the 100-minute contest aboard the Whelen Engineering/Action Express Racing-run Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, before handing over to Derani who finished well clear of the similar Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Magnussen/van der Zande.

French pair Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier completed the podium sweep for JDC/Miller Motorsports.

The leading prototype contenders made it to the finish with just a single pitstop which meant they were all obliged to save fuel, while for the third race running, Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura ARX-05 driven by Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla was committed to an alternative strategy.

They were still running behind the other five DPi contenders when Frenchman Pla was involved in an incident while trying to pass two slower GT cars with a little over 10 minutes remaining.

The championship-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Acura finished a distant fourth, despite a bold early charge by Filipe Albuquerque who leapt from fifth on the grid and briefly held second place, behind Nasr, at the exit of Turn 1. Magnussen fought back immediately, however, barging past Albuquerque into Turn 2 and then chasing down Nasr.

Felipe Nasr/Pipo Derani (Cadillac DPi-V.R) IMSA Sportscar Championship, Long Beach 2021

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Magnussen took advantage of a slower car to nip past Nasr at the Turn 11 hairpin on lap 10, although his lead lasted only a couple of laps before his attempt to sneak past a couple more GTD cars in the first corner make him miss the apex and clip the tyre wall at the exit.

Nasr grasped the opportunity to nip back past and was never again seriously challenged. The Ganassi car continued in second despite damage to its right-rear corner.

An intra-team battle between the pair of Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs in GTLM allowed Tommy Milner to slice past polesitter Jordan Taylor shortly before the end of the opening stint. Nick Tandy maintained the position after the pit stops and finally took the flag less than a second ahead of Antonio Garcia for the No. 4 team’s second successive win.

In GTD, Madison Snow led throughout the opening stint after starting from the pole in Paul Miller Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Team-mate Bryan Sellers continued the good work to secure the team’s first win of the season.

Porsches finished second and third, with the Canadian-entered Pfaff Motorsports 911 GT3R of Zach Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor narrowly edging out Trent Hindman/Patrick Long. Robichon/Vanthoor thereby securing the championship lead following its recent run of two consecutive wins.

Long Beach IMSA result - 78 laps

Cla	Class	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	DPi	Felipe Nasr Pipo Derani	Cadillac DPi	1:40'46.781
2	DPi	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen	Cadillac DPi	1:40'57.733	10.952
3	DPi	Tristan Vautier Loic Duval	Cadillac DPi	1:41'02.650	15.869
4	DPi	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura DPi	1:41'37.347	50.566
5	DPi	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell	Mazda DPi	1:41'59.966	1'13.185
6	GTLM	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Corvette C8.R	1:41'11.579	3 Laps
7	GTLM	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R	1:41'12.330	3 Laps
8	GTLM	Cooper MacNeil Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1:41'05.788	4 Laps
9	GTD	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1:41'17.351	5 Laps
10	GTD	Zacharie Robichon Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1:41'28.431	5 Laps
11	GTD	Patrick Long Trent Hindman	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1:41'28.817	5 Laps
12	GTD	Aaron Telitz Jack Hawksworth	Lexus RC F GT3	1:41'36.907	5 Laps
13	GTD	Richard Heistand Jeff Westphal	Audi R8 LMS GT3	1:41'38.706	5 Laps
14	GTD	Roman De Angelis Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1:41'39.288	5 Laps
15	GTD	Steven Aghakhani Jacob Eidson	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1:42'00.210	5 Laps
16	GTD	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3	1:42'00.768	5 Laps
17	GTD	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1:41'02.069	6 Laps
18	GTD	Colin Braun Daniel Mancinelli	Ferrari 488 GT3	1:41'09.858	6 Laps
19	GTD	Matt McMurry Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	1:41'22.181	6 Laps
20	GTD	Ian James Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1:41'27.372	6 Laps
21	GTD	Frankie Montecalvo Zach Veach	Lexus RC F GT3	1:41'28.059	6 Laps
22	GTD	John Potter Andy Lally	Acura NSX GT3	1:41'05.891	7 Laps
23	GTD	Kyle Washington James Sofronas	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1:41'57.645	8 Laps
24	GTD	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley	BMW M6 GT3	1:41'15.083	9 Laps
25	DPi	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla	Acura DPi	1:30'45.786	10 Laps
26	GTD	Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	36'33.246	53 Laps
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