Sebring 12 Hours: Vautier takes pole for Spirit of Daytona Cadillac
Cadillac claimed pole position for the Sebring 12 Hours with Tristan Vautier and the Spirit of Daytona team
The former IndyCar driver took the top spot in qualifying ahead of tomorrow's second round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship with a 1m47.432s aboard the team's solo Cadillac DPi-V.R.
That gave the Frenchman a 0.16-second margin over Olivier Pla in the fastest of the Extreme Speed Motorsports Onroak-Nissan DPis, which ended up on 1m47.592s.
Vautier, who claimed GT Daytona pole at Sebring one year ago, said: "This was a bit unexpected because we didn't do so much running in practice after having some problems.
"It was hot, so the tyres came in quickly and then degraded quickly, so you had to do the time early."
Ricky Taylor was a further two tenths behind in third position aboard the fastest of the Penske Racing Acura ARX-05s on a 1m47.773s.
Pipo Derani took fourth in the second ESM with a 1m47.834s.
Felipe Nasr ended up fifth for the Action Express Racing Cadillac team, while Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top six in the second Acura.
Stephen Simpson posted the fastest time in an LMP2 car, ending up on a 1m48.742s to take 11th place aboard his JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA-Gibson 07.
The new BMW M8 GTE claimed pole position in the GT Le Mans class.
Conor De Phillippi's 1m55.839s aboard the #25 Rahal entry put him just six hundredths up on James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.
Jesse Krohn made it two BMWs in the top three after changes to the Balance of Performance, including a 20kg weight break, ahead of the Sebring event.
Richard Westbrook took fourth in the best of the Chip Ganassi Ford GTs.
All but one of the nine GTLM cars qualified within a second of De Phillippi's pole mark.
Daniel Serra made it two poles in two races in the AF Corse-run Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE.
The Brazilian posted a 1m58.710s to end up half a second clear of Christopher Mies in the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS.
Qualifying result
| Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | M.McMurry, T.Vautier, E.Cheever | Spirit of Daytona Racing | Cadillac | 1m47.432s | - |
| 2 | P | S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, O.Pla | Tequila Patron ESM | Nissan | 1m47.592s | 0.160s |
| 3 | P | H.Castroneves, R.Taylor, G.Rahal | Acura Team Penske | Acura | 1m47.773s | 0.341s |
| 4 | P | J.van Overbeek, P.Derani, N.Lapierre | Tequila Patron ESM | Nissan | 1m47.834s | 0.402s |
| 5 | P | F.Nasr, E.Curran, M.Conway | Whelen Engineering Racing | Cadillac | 1m47.853s | 0.421s |
| 6 | P | D.Cameron, J.P.Montoya, S.Pagenaud | Acura Team Penske | Acura | 1m48.177s | 0.745s |
| 7 | P | O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, R.Rast | Mazda Team Joest | Mazda | 1m48.192s | 0.760s |
| 8 | P | F.Albuquerque, J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi | Mustang Sampling Racing | Cadillac | 1m48.256s | 0.824s |
| 9 | P | J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, S.Pigot | Mazda Team Joest | Mazda | 1m48.279s | 0.847s |
| 10 | P | J.Taylor, R.van der Zande, R.H.-Reay | Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R | Cadillac | 1m48.370s | 0.938s |
| 11 | P | C.Miller, S.Simpson, M.Goikhberg | JDC-Miller Motorsports | ORECA/Gibson | 1m48.742s | 1.310s |
| 12 | P | J.French, K.Masson, P.O'Ward | Performance Tech Motorsports | ORECA/Gibson | 1m49.068s | 1.636s |
| 13 | P | J.Bennett, C.Braun, R.Dumas | CORE Autosport | ORECA/Gibson | 1m49.158s | 1.726s |
| 14 | P | S.Trummer, R.Alon, N.Panciatici | JDC-Miller Motorsports | ORECA/Gibson | 1m49.329s | 1.897s |
| 15 | P | S.Saavedra, G.Yacaman, R.Gonzalez | AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports | Ligier/Gibson | 1m49.423s | 1.991s |
| 16 | P | P.Hanson, A.Brundle, P.Di Resta | United Autosports | Ligier/Gibson | 1m49.488s | 2.056s |
| 17 | GTLM | A.Sims, C.De Phillippi, B.Auberlen | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 1m55.839s | 8.407s |
| 18 | GTLM | T.Vilander, J.Calado, A.P.Guidi | Risi Competizione | Ferrari | 1m55.897s | 8.465s |
| 19 | GTLM | J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, N.Catsburg | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 1m55.985s | 8.553s |
| 20 | GTLM | R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford | 1m56.098s | 8.666s |
| 21 | GTLM | J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford | 1m56.191s | 8.759s |
| 22 | GTLM | L.Vanthoor, E.Bamber, G.Bruni | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 1m56.251s | 8.819s |
| 23 | GTLM | J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 1m56.588s | 9.156s |
| 24 | GTLM | P.Pilet, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 1m56.626s | 9.194s |
| 25 | GTLM | O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 1m56.900s | 9.468s |
| 26 | GTD | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda, D.Serra | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 1m58.710s | 11.278s |
| 27 | GTD | S.van der Linde, C.Mies, A.Picariello | Montaplast by Land-Motorsport | Audi | 1m59.229s | 11.797s |
| 28 | GTD | J.Hawksworth, D.H.Hansson, S.Rayhall | 3GT Racing | Lexus | 1m59.251s | 11.819s |
| 29 | GTD | D.Baumann, K.Marcelli, P.Frommenwiler | 3GT Racing | Lexus | 1m59.476s | 12.044s |
| 30 | GTD | B.Sellers, M.Snow, C.Lewis | Paul Miller Racing | Lamborghini | 1m59.489s | 12.057s |
| 31 | GTD | C.MacNeil, A.Balzan, G.Jeannette | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 1m59.609s | 12.177s |
| 32 | GTD | K.Habul, T.Jager, M.Grenier | SunEnergy1 Racing | Mercedes | 1m59.952s | 12.520s |
| 33 | GTD | C.Gilsinger, R.Eversley, T.Dyer | HART | Acura | 2m00.069s | 12.637s |
| 34 | GTD | B.Sweedler, T.Bell, F.Montecalvo | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 2m00.080s | 12.648s |
| 35 | GTD | K.Legge, A.Parente, T.Hindman | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Acura | 2m00.198s | 12.766s |
| 36 | GTD | P.Long, C.Nielsen, R.Renauer, M.Jaminet | Wright Motorsports | Porsche | 2m00.378s | 12.946s |
| 37 | GTD | M.Miller, T.Bechtolsheimer, K.Wittmer | CJ Wilson Racing | Acura | 2m00.686s | 13.254s |
| 38 | GTD | K.Koch, L.Spinelli, J.Perez | P1 Motorsports | Mercedes | 2m00.717s | 13.285s |
| 39 | GTD | B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, L.Stolz | Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports | Mercedes | 2m00.743s | 13.311s |
| 40 | GTD | J.Potter, A.Lally, A.Davis | Magnus Racing | Audi | 2m02.151s | 14.719s |
| 41 | GTD | D.Yount, D.Machavern, M.Palttala | Turner Motorsport | BMW | 2m03.227s | 15.795s |
| 42 | GTD | P.Lindsey, J.Bergmeister, T.Pappas | Park Place Motorsports | Porsche | 2m04.650s | 17.218s |
| - | GTD | J.Marks, L.Aschenbach, M.Farnbacher | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Acura | - | - |
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