Daytona 24H: Albuquerque, Blomqvist and Taylor headline opening practice sessions

Albuquerque lapped the 12-turn 3.56-mile course in 1m34.947s to pull a 0.4s margin over the fastest of the opposition.

That accolade went to Michelin Endurance Championship driver Mike Conway whose Action Express Racing entry became the first Cadillac DPi-V.R to break the Acura domination at the top of the times this weekend.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura, in the hands of Helio Castroneves who won this race with WTR last year, was third fastest ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in the quicker of the two Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs, and Mike Rockenfeller in the second AXR Cadillac.

MSR had been quickest in Friday's second practice session courtesy of Tom Blomqvist, posting a 1m34.351s time, while WTR topped the first session thanks to Ricky Taylor's efforts. 

IndyCar race winner Marcus Ericsson in the new #02 Ganassi entry was sixth ahead of Richard Westbrook, JDC Miller MotorSport’s newest recruit.

But Westbrook’s best effort was marginally slower than the fastest LMP2 car, the Tower Motorsport Oreca pedalled by Ferdinand Habsburg who lapped in 1m36.710s.

Fabio Scherer was second in High Class Racing’s entry, while Nicolas Lapierre and Jonathan Bomarito were half a tenth apart in the two PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entries, followed by IndyCar ace Pato O’Ward in the DragonSpeed entry.

Seb Priaulx, an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debutant was top of the LMP3 entries in the Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, while Ugo de Wilde was second in the Duqueine of Muehlner Motorsports, and former Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves put Andretti Autosport into third place.

Dirk Muller led GTD Pro in the Proton Mercedes AMG GT3, although he was two-tenths off the best GTD time, set by David Pittard in the Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage. Next up in Pro was Alessio Picariello in the Proton operated WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, followed by Denis Olsen in the similar car of KCMG, Ben Barnicoat in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F and Rolf Ineichen’s TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

In GTD, Pittard was a quarter second clear of Giacomo Altoe’s Lamborghini (TR3), Klaus Bachler’s GMG Racing Porsche, Andy Lally’s Magnus Racing Aston Martin and Paul Holton in Crucial Motorsports’ McLaren 720S.

Two of the red flags were caused by Gradient Racing’s Acura NSX, the first time when it came to a halt at pit exit, and the second around 20mins later when it came to a more abrupt halt in an accident. The driver was unhurt but the damage was severe enough that the car never re-emerged from the paddock.

The other two reds were halts for the LMP3 cars of Forty7 Motorsports and Peformance Tech Motorsports.