Sebring 12H: Bourdais’ record lap earns pole in Ganassi Cadillac

Sebastien Bourdais broke the DPi lap record to land pole for the IMSA SportsCar Championship's Sebring 12 Hours, heading a Cadillac lockout of the front row.

Bourdais, who won the race last year racing in the Cadillac DPi-V.R for JDC-Miller, delivered a 1m45.166s in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #01 car to eclipse the existing lap record by over two-tenths of a second, but shade his nearest opposition by only 0.026s.

Impressively, the top four cars were under the lap record, and covered by only 0.157s.

Bourdais took only two laps to warm up his tires and deliver his knockout blow to the opposition, ensuring the car he shares full-time with Renger van der Zande and, this weekend, former IndyCar rival Ryan Hunter-Reay, will lead the field to the green in the 70th Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, kept whittling away at Bourdais’ margin, until he was just two and a half hundredths slower.

Although he fell short, he still managed to get ahead of a very brave effort by Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, which shaded Alex Lynn’s best effort in the second Ganassi Caddy by a mere couple of hundredths.

Mike Rockenfeller was 0.4s off pole in the second AXR entry, the Ally Cadillac, while Tom Blomqvist was a full second down in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura.

Tristan Vautier, driving the JDC-Miller Cadillac spun out of Turn 1 with 10 minutes remaining in qualifying session, dropping his right-side wheels off the course on corner exit, which sent the car back to the inside where it struck the Armco barrier. The impact wiped off the splitter and ended the session early for the defending race-winning team, consigning it to seventh on the grid.

Ben Keating did his traditional fine job to claim pole in LMP2 in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry, with Henrik Hedman second for DragonSpeed but six-tenths slower.

He was nonetheless a tenth up on the second PR1 Mathiasen car, driven by Steven Thomas, while Dwight Merriman completed the top four in the Era Motorsport entry.

#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07: Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

A genuinely exciting battle for LMP3 pole emerged as series newcomer Harry Gottsacker’s Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine battled with Gar Robinson in the Riley Motorsports Ligier and the similar car of Andretti Autosport, wheeled by Jarett Andretti.

The latter seemed to have put the matter beyond doubt with a 1m57.234s, at which point he was 0.376s ahead of the field, but Robinson fell less than a tenth short with his penultimate lap and wasn’t about to give up. He rode his bucking Ligier past the checkered flag with a 1min57.048sec, and although Andretti did his utmost on his final lap, he fell just 0.035sec short.

Their battle pulled them over half a second clear of Gottsacker who nonetheless pipped FastMD racing’s Max Hanratty to third, while Dan Goldburg of Performance Tech Motorsports and George Kurtz of CORE autosport was sixth.

Combined GT class qualifying was brought to a halt when John Potter’s Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage ground to a halt at Turn 10, causing a red flag. Six cars – the #66, #28, #21, #47, #42 and #97 – had to serve a drive-through penalty for lining up at pit exit to wait for the session to resume, which is not allowed under IMSA’s rules.

When the session resumed with barely more than five minutes to go, that sextet, after serving the penalty, would have just time to get their tyres to temperature and set one flying lap.

This was irrelevant to Daniel Serra, who delivered a 1m49.414s for Risi Competizione to put the #62 Ferrari 488 at the top of the GTD Pro times, a mere 0.017s faster than Mirko Bortolotti in the TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

Next up was Zacharie Robichon, who by being third overall in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, was fastest of the GTD class, just 0.025s ahead of Robbie Foley in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4.

Russell Ward, who suffered a shunt yesterday, rebounded in impressive style to take third in GTD driving the Winward Mercedes AMG GT3, while Madison Snow was fourth in GTD, sixth overall, in Paul Miller Racing’s first event with a BMW M4.

Behind him in fifth was the Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488, Giorgio Sernagiotto proving fastest of the cars that had had to serve a drive-through penalty.

Third in GTD Pro, but eighth overall was Antonio Garcia in the Corvette C8.R, which IMSA Radio revealed has received a 20bhp boost, as IMSA fettles the Balance of Performance for a car that is only one race into its evolution as a GT3 machine.

Alex Riberas did his usual stout job in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage to clock fourth best time in GTD Pro, ahead of Matt Campbell’s Pfaff Porsche, Aaron Telitz in the #14 Lexus RC F, and Nick Yelloly in the fastest of the works BMW M4s.

Sebring 12 Hours combined qualifying results

Cla	Num	Driver	Class	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Ryan Hunter-Reay	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'45.166
2	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez Mike Conway	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'45.192	0.026
3	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Will Stevens	DPi	Acura DPi	1'45.301	0.135
4	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Neel Jani	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'45.323	0.157
5	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'45.576	0.410
6	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Stoffel Vandoorne	DPi	Acura DPi	1'46.249	1.083
7	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'49.954	4.788
8	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'50.592	5.426
9	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'50.732	5.566
10	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	DPi	Cadillac DPi	1'51.338	6.172
11	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'51.584	6.418
12	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'51.679	6.513
13	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'51.890	6.724
14	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'52.507	7.341
15	22	Jim McGuire Guy Smith Duncan Tappy	LMP2	ORECA LMP2 07	1'53.209	8.043
16	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'57.048	11.882
17	36	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'57.083	11.917
18	6	Efrin Castro Moritz Kranz Ugo De	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'57.610	12.444
19	40	Max Hanratty Todd Archer James Vance	LMP3	Duqueine D08	1'57.719	12.553
20	38	Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'58.087	12.921
21	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'58.717	13.551
22	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon Eddie Cheever III	GTD PRO	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'59.414	14.248
23	63	Marco Mapelli Andrea Caldarelli Mirko Bortolotti	GTD PRO	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	1'59.431	14.265
24	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'59.763	14.597
25	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	1'59.781	14.615
26	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'59.788	14.622
27	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	1'59.848	14.682
28	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	GTD	BMW M4 GT3	1'59.898	14.732
29	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	1'59.917	14.751
30	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	GTD PRO	Corvette C8.R GTD	1'59.927	14.761
31	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Maxime Martin	GTD PRO	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	1'59.957	14.791
32	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'59.982	14.816
33	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Aaron Telitz	GTD PRO	Lexus RC F GT3	2'00.002	14.836
34	24	Philipp Eng Marco Wittmann Nick Yelloly	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	2'00.031	14.865
35	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Daniel Juncadella	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'00.176	15.010
36	21	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	GTD	Ferrari 488 GT3	2'00.203	15.037
37	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Dakota Dickerson	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	2'00.230	15.064
38	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus	GTD PRO	BMW M4 GT3	2'00.460	15.294
39	13	Orey Fidani Kuno Wittmer Lars Kern	LMP3	Duqueine D08	2'00.487	15.321
40	93	Ashton Harrison-Henry Kyle Marcelli Tom Long	GTD PRO	Acura NSX GT3	2'00.605	15.439
41	7	Mark Kvamme Anthony Mantella	LMP3	Duqueine D08	2'00.624	15.458
42	28	Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad Maximillian Goetz	GTD	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'00.919	15.753
43	79	Cooper MacNeil Julien Andlauer Alessio Picariello	GTD PRO	Porsche 911 GT3 R	2'00.951	15.785
44	59	Jon Miller Patrick Gallagher Paul Holton	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	2'01.287	16.121
45	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	GTD	Acura NSX GT3	2'01.352	16.186
46	12	Frankie Montecalvo Scott Andrews Richard Heistand	GTD	Lexus RC F GT3	2'01.536	16.370
47	97	Cooper MacNeil Jules Gounon Maro Engel	GTD PRO	Mercedes-AMG GT3	2'01.947	16.781
48	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'01.973	16.807
49	27	Roman De Angelis Ian James Tom Gamble	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	2'02.271	17.105
50	42	Don Yount Jaden Conwright Mateo Llarena	GTD	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2'05.834	20.668
51	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	GTD	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	0.000
52	70	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	GTD	McLaren 720S GT3	0.000
53	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson	GTD	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0.000