It is Cadillac and Ferrari that shine in the last test session on Saturday at the Roar Before the 24 tests which serve to prepare for next week's 24h of Daytona.
The protagonists of the IMSA SportsCar Championship took to the International Raceway for 120 minutes in cooler temperatures, being able to test the conditions that will arise at night, also taking the opportunity to put together a good number of laps and simulating race situations with the various compounds of tires.
Obviously not knowing what type of work each team does, we can however note that there were no particular exploits in terms of maximum performance, with Alex Palou who brought the Cadillac back to the front by clocking 1'35″705 with the #01 of Chip Ganassi Racing , while the V-Series.R #31 of Action Express Racing spent more time in the pits to resolve some problems, finishing only fifth, half a second behind the Spaniard.
In the middle we find the other three brands involved in the GTP Class, namely the BMW #25 of Team RLL which together with the Porsche #6 of Team Penske is a couple of tenths from the top, separated by just 2 thousandths, and with the Acura in its wake #10 by WTR Andretti.
In a similar order from sixth place we find their respective little sisters, namely the Porsche #7, the BMW #24 and the Acura #40, all however with gaps ranging from 0″8 to a full 1″.
The two private Porsches of Proton Competition #5 and JDC-Miller Motorsports #85 also placed in the top ten overall, also just over 1″.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon, Alex Palou
In the LMP2 Class, MDK by High Class Racing takes the top thanks to the 1'38″270 set by Scott Huffaker with the Oreca #20, beating Matthieu Vaxivière by 0″3 at the wheel of the #88 of AF Corse.
Also very close to the Frenchman are TDS Racing #11, Riley #74 and United Autosports #22 by a matter of hundredths, in a very short ranking which sees the 07-Gibson #99 in the 'Spike' livery of AO Racing finish sixth, pulling behind the Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen #52, the Ligier #33 of Sean Creech Motorsport and the Tower #8.
The APR #04 completes the Top10 in the category less than 1″ from the record, behind which we finally have the #2 of United Autosports, the #18 of Era Motorsport and the DragonSpeed #81.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
#34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Manny Franco, Albert Costa Balboa, Alessandro Balzan, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Dennis Andersen, Seth Lucas, Laurents Hoerr, Scott Huffaker
Instead, Cetilar Racing set the best time for the GT3s on the track: Eddie Cheever III set a 1'45″739 at the wheel of the Ferrari #47 which allowed him to put the 296 ahead in the GTD Class, also ahead of a couple of PRO cars.
We are talking about the McLaren #9 of Pfaff Motorsports driven by Marvin Kirchhöfer, author of a 1'45″980 which puts him in the lead by 27 thousandths compared to the Mustang #65 of Multimatic's rival in the category, as well as a large group of GTDs.
Of this lot, second place was taken by the Porsche #120 of Wright Motorsports, almost 0″3 from Cheever's time, with the Ferrari #21 of AF Corse, the Porsche #86 of MDK Motorsports and the Lamborghini #85 of Iron behind. Dames.
The GTD Mustang #55 of Proton Competition finishes in sixth place, closely followed by the Ferrari 296 #34 of Conquest Racing and the Corvette #13 of AWA, while the Ferrari #023 of Triarsi Competizione and the McLaren #70 of Inception Racing finish in Top10 with a margin of just over half a second from the record.
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
#9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 EVO: Marvin Kirchhöfer, Oliver Jarvis, James Hinchcliffe, Alexander Rossi
A couple of positions further back in the general order is the Corvette #3 of Pratt Miller Motorsports, third GTD PRO, which suffered some electrical problems during the various tests, as did its sister car #4 which is sixth in its category.
The #77 Porsche 'Rexy' of AO Racing and the #19 Lamborghini of Iron Lynx squeeze in between the two new Z06 GT3.Rs with almost half a second to recover from the leader.
Seventh GTD PRO is the Mustang #64 of Multimatic, then here is the Lamborghini #60 of Iron Lynx, the Lexus #14 of Vasser Sullivan Racing and the Aston Martin #23 of Heart of Racing to finish the list of the top 10 of this group .
Saturday will see the GTP cars take to the track for a very short 15' test immediately before Qualifying, which in Italy will start at 7.55pm.
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