Pipo Derani and the Cadillac achieved the second Pole Position in a row for the 2024 season of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, coming out on top at the end of Qualifying valid to define the starting grid for the 12h of Sebring.
In addition to the great performance of the Brazilian among the LMDh of the GTP Class, in the LMP2 Class comes the push from PJ Hyett with the Oreca with the livery of the little dragon 'Spike', while among the GTD PRO and GTD Lexus and Ferrari prevail, but let's go with order in the story.
GTP: Derani perfect, great bang from Jaminet
Derani put everyone in line with his 1'48″152 at the wheel of the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, but the 15-minute session was actually much shorter because after about five laps an accident occurred in curve 1.
Mathieu Jaminet arrived slightly wide, skidding on the uneven surfaces and putting his right rear on the dirt, he lost control of his Porsche #6.
The 963 of Team Penske crossed the road and then splashed towards the right-hand barriers in a pendulum effect, hitting them rather violently, ruining the front part. Jaminet fortunately escaped unscathed, but the blow required a suspension to remove the car and when the session restarted there were around 3 minutes left on the clock.
Derani was perfect, leading the V-Series.R #01 of his brand mate Sébastien Bourdais (Chip Ganassi Racing) by 0″147, with Louis Delétraz having to settle for third place at the wheel of the Acura #40 of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti.
Among other things, the Swiss is also the best of the ARX-06 LMDhs given that the #10 of his teammate Ricky Taylor saw all the times canceled following an intervention on the tire pressure carried out by the mechanics during the red flag, when at most it is allowed to change tires without further interventions on the cars.
#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Pipo Derani
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
In the second row there is also the BMW #24 of Team RLL driven by Philipp Eng, while at Porsche-Penske we had to settle for fifth place obtained by Felipe Nasr with the 963 #7, followed by the private #85s of Phil Hanson (JDC-Miller Motorsports) and #5 of Julien Andlauer (Proton Competition), just above second.
Eighth time in the category for the debuting Lamborghini SC63 in the hands of Matteo Cairoli, who did everything possible to try to finish with a good placing, but the traffic also slowed down the Iron Lynx driver a bit.
Connor De Phillippi also had the same problem with the BMW #25 of Team RLL, who completes the category ranking in ninth place with only Jaminet's Porsche which was KOed and the Acura #10 penalized behind him.
#99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: PJ Hyett
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
LMP2: 'Spike' flies ridden by Hyett
The little dragon 'Spike' gets his first satisfaction of the year in the LMP2 Class thanks to the great performance of PJ Hyett.
Here too the session was interrupted prematurely by a red flag due to the early stop of Dennis Andersen with the Oreca #20 of MDK by High Class Racing in the last minute, but Hyett had already managed to obtain the lead at that moment.
The AO Racing driver with his 1'52″142 put the Orecas of United Autosports USA driven by Dan Goldburg (#22) and Ben Keating (#2) in line, while Nikc Boulle finished fourth in the #52 of Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen.
Top5 for the Riley #74 in the hands of Gar Robinson, over a second from the top, followed by George Kurtz with the #04 of APR. Steven Thomas finishes seventh at the wheel of the TDS Racing #11, also in the Top10 are Louis Pérez Companc (#88 AF Corse), Henrik Hedman (#81 Dragon Speed) and Dwight Merriman (#18 Era Motorsport).
Andersen will start 11th with John Farano behind him in the #8 of Tower and the #33 Ligier of Sean Creech Motorsport driven by Lance Willsey.
#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
GTD PRO: Lexus on the shields
An excellent Jack Hawksworth went on to get his hands on Pole in the GTD PRO Class in another hotly contested session where the teams' choice of drivers also saw the GTD cars rise to the top positions in terms of times.
The boy from Vasser Sullivan Racing achieved a good 1'58″714 with the #14 Lexus which allowed him to finish ahead of the Heart of Racing Aston Martin #23 in the hands of Mario Farnbacher by almost half a second.
Third place in the category was taken by Sébastien Priaulx in the #77 Porsche 'Rexy' of AO Racing, beating the #3 Corvette of Alexander Sims and the #19 Lamborghini of Franck Perera (Iron Lynx).
Sixth time for Davide Rigon in the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione, just ahead of the BMW #1 of Madison Snow (Paul Miller Racing), which in turn precedes the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner.
Ninth place with a wider gap for the McLaren #9 of Oliver Jarvis (Pfaff Motorsports), the new Ford Mustangs suffer and do not go beyond tenth and eleventh place in the category with Mike Rockenfeller (#64) and Joey Hand (#65).
Bringing up the rear with a gap of 6″4 from the lead is Claudio Schiavoni with the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx.
#47 CETILAR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto, Antonio Fuoco
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
GTD: Ferrari joy, Mercedes mockery
In the GTD Class it was Philip Ellis who flew ahead of everyone in 1'58″778 and was also the best after Hawksworth, but a sensor considered not to be up to standard discovered in the post-session technical checks caused the #57 Mercedes of Winward Racing.
And so the one celebrating is Antonio Fuoco at the wheel of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari shared with Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto, who gets the better of the #12 Lexus of Parker Thompson (Vasser Sullivan).
The #32 Mercedes of Mikael Grenier (Korthoff/Preston Motorsports) and the #78 Lamborghini of the excellent Loris Spinelli (Forte Racing) will start on the second row.
Top5 for Scott Andrews in the #80 Mercedes of Lone Star Racing, keeping behind the Ferraris of Alessio Rovera (#023 Triarsi Competizione) and Simon Mann (#21 AF Corse).
The #70 McLaren of Inception Racing driven by Brendan Iribe, the #96 BMW of Turner Motorsport with Patrick Gallagher and the #45 Lamborghini of Kyle Marcelli (WTR Andretti) complete the Top10.
The start of the 12h of Sebring is scheduled for 2.40pm Italian time and the race will be available on IMSA.TV and on the canal YouTube of the series.
#IMSA #12h #Sebring #PoleCadillac #Derani #good #Ferrari
