Cadillac continues to look down on everyone even at the end of Free Practice 2 of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the first event of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
With temperatures continuing to rise on a 37°C afternoon, Alex Palou reiterated the strength of Chip Ganassi Racing's V-Series.R #01 with a time of 1'35″589 achieved towards the end of the works.
Despite many fewer laps completed, the official Porsche #7 of Team Penske is second at 0″135, followed closely by the 963 #5 of Proton Competition which finally managed to lap a lot.
The #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac takes fourth place by almost 2 tenths, which is the gap of the #6 Team Penske Porsche, while the #25 Team RLL BMW finishes sixth at +0″378.
Almost half a second of delay for the private Porsche of JDC-Miller Motorsports #85, among the cars that made the most passes, still difficulties for the Acuras of WTR Andretti because the #10 is eighth and the #40 tenth, respectively at +0 “8 and +1″2. Among the ARX-06 LMDh we have the BMW #24.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
#52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Jakub Smiechowski, Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann, Clement Novalak
In the LMP2 Class, Clement Novalak did very well, lapping in 1'39″416 with the Oreca #52 of Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen, just ahead of the #81 of DragonSpeed.
The other 07-Gibsons are a little further behind, starting from the #04 of APR, third with the Tower Motorsports #8 and the Riley #74 behind in the Top5 of the category.
The United Autosports #22 and #2 took the sixth and seventh times, more than half a second from the leader, the Era Motorsport #18 stopped eighth, while the 'Spike' #99 of AO Racing and the #20 of MDK by High Class Racing complete the top ten.
Finally, the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsports is eleventh, narrowly preceding the Oreca #88 of AF Corse, while the TDS Racing #11 closes the list with some problems.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
#86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R: Kerong Li, Anders Fjordbach, Larry ten Voorde, Klaus Bachler, #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, Laurents Hoerr, Scott Huffaker
This time too, among the GT3s, a GTD car prevailed over the GTD PROs: it took to the track first and finished 10' ahead of the others. Among these, Klaus Bachler stood out on the Porsche #86 of MDK Motorsports with the fastest time. of 1'47″045 signed at the start.
Second with 0″040 is the Ford Mustang #55 of Proton Competition, which is followed by 2 cents by the Ferrari #34 of Conquest Racing, which climbed onto the virtual 'podium' in the final stages with the excellent Albert Costa.
The following cars were also all very close: the BMW #96 of Turner Motorsports finished fourth at +0″106 despite having completed just a few laps due to a technical problem that kept it in the pits for a long time, fifth was the Aston Martin #44 of Magnus Racing 7 hundredths from the M4, while the Mercedes #80 of Lone Star Racing placed sixth with 0.2 seconds behind the top, as did the Porsche #120 of Wright Motorsports and the Ferrar #023 of Triarsi Competizione which was eighth.
Top10 which also includes the Porsche #92 of Kellymoss with Riley, ninth in the final overtaking the Mercedes #57 of Winward Racing and the Corvette #13 of AWA, respectively with 0″3 and 0″4 to overcome, while the Lamborghini #78 of Forte Racing, the #47 Ferrari of Cetilar Racing and the #66 Acura of Gradient Racing finished behind the Z06, half a second from the lead.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO: Marvin Kirchhöfer, Oliver Jarvis, James Hinchcliffe, Alexander Rossi
In the GTD PRO Class Alexander Rossi immediately flies with the McLaren #9 of Pfaff Motorsports, setting a time of 1'49″054 which allows him to beat a series of very fierce and very close rivals.
First of these is Daniel Serra in the Ferrari #62 of Risi Competizione at 0″164, followed by 7 thousandths of a second from the Porsche-'Rexy' #77 of AO Racing, in turn with 6 thousandths of a second on the Lamborghini #19 of Iron Lynx.
A couple of tenths of a second behind the Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette #4, fifth after trying to resolve some problems that had already arisen in Free Practice 1.
Sixth place for the BMW #1 of Paul Miller Racing with the Aston Martin #23 of Heart Of Racing behind it, 0″345 from the record. A little further away the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1 Racing and the Ford Mustang complete the Top10 #64 of Multimatic and the #14 Lexus of VasserSullivan who had finished the first session in the lead.
Just over a second are taken by the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx and the Ford Mustang #65 of Multimatic, at the bottom of the standings together with the second Corvette, which also remained in the pits with problems without being able to get onto the track.
Now the Friday program will end with the evening Free Practice 3 (90'), which will be held when it is 00.35 in Italy.
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