BMW snatched pole place for the Daytona 24 Hours throughout an interrupted qualifying session for this weekend’s IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener.
Dries Vanthoor jumped to the highest of the instances on his remaining lap within the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh run by the Rahal crew to knock Meyer Shank Racing Acura driver Nick Yelloly off the pole.
Vanthoor’s 1m33.895s gave him a margin of practically three tenths over former BMW driver Yelloly, who posted a 1m34.186s within the dramatic remaining levels of the 15-minute session on Thursday.
“It was not straightforward with the purple flag; it made tyre warming a bit troublesome,” stated Vanthoor, who additionally set the quickest throughout final weekend’s official pre-event Roar take a look at.
“We’ve been enhancing on that – it was a little bit of a wrestle level final yr.
“Then it was about getting the lap collectively.”
Operating was restricted when the #25 BMW with Sheldon van der Linde on the wheel stopped on monitor for therefore far undisclosed causes on the finish of the infield, leading to a brief stoppage whereas the clock continued to run.
#25 BMW M Group RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Marco Wittmann, Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast
Photograph by: Andreas Beil
Felipe Nasr took third for 2024 Daytona winner Porsche, his 1m34.280s within the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry leaving him practically 4 tenths off the tempo.
Cadillac took a step ahead from the Roar after a mid-week Stability of Efficiency change wherein it has gained 20kW or 26bhp in its baseline energy output, Jack Aitken taking fourth within the Motion Categorical Racing entry.
The Briton’s 1m34.350s in the very best of the Caddy V-Sequence.R LMDhs snuck him forward of Gianmaria Bruni within the JDC-Miller Motorsports buyer Porsche, which lapped in 1m34.374s.
Tom Blomqvist had sat on the high of the instances beginning his remaining lap on 1m34.432 within the #60 Shank Acura, however he was unable to enhance after he got here up Mirko Bortolotti within the solo Lamborghini SC63 LMDh as he swept up onto the banking after the infield.
The 2 vehicles appeared to make the lightest of contacts within the incident, which resulted in Blomqvist aborting his lap.
Filipe Albuquerque was quickest of the Wayne Taylor Racing entries on the a number of Daytona-winning crew’s return to Cadillac.
The Portuguese driver took seventh with a 1m34.933s, which was simply two hundredths forward of team-mate Louis Deletraz.
#40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V- Sequence.R: Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, Alex Lynn, Kamui Kobayashi
Photograph by: James Gilbert – Motorsport Photographs
Bortolotti was ninth quickest within the Lambo, whereas the second PPM entry was tenth in Matt Campbell’s arms.
United Autosports topped the instances in LMP2 with its #22 ORECA-Gibson 07 pushed by Daniel Goldburg.
A 1m38.676s from the American gave him a margin of simply over three tenths forward of Ben Keating.
The PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports driver seemed heading in the right direction for a sixth consecutive P2 pole with a 1m39.000s earlier than he was demoted to second by Goldburg.
Nick Boulle made it a 1-3 qualifying outcome for United with 1m39.203s within the crew’s #2 entry.
He benefitted from the demotion of PJ Hyett within the AO Racing ORECA after he misplaced his quickest two lap instances for inflicting the session to be red-flagged in its remaining seconds.
Hyett dropped to sixth behind Chris Cumming and Steven Thomas of their respective Pratt Miller Motorsports and TDS Racing ORECAs.
#99 AO Racing, ORECA LMP2 07: PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar, Christian Rasmussen
Photograph by: James Gilbert – Motorsport Photographs
Ford blocked out the entrance row in GT Daytona Professional with its Mustang GT3, Mike Rockenfeller main the best way from Frederic Vervisch.
Rockenfeller set two laps ok for the pole, ending up on a 1m45.523s within the #64 Multimatic Motorsport entry.
That gave him a bonus of three tenths over Vervisch’s 1m45.855s within the sister #65 automobile.
BMW took third place with Dan Harper within the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo with a 1m46.005s.
Alexander Sims was simply seven thousandths behind on 1m46.012s within the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06.GT3.
Lamborghini ended up fifth with the Pfaff Motorsport Huracan GT3 EVO2 pushed by Andrea Caldarelli forward of Tommy Milner within the #4 Corvette Racing entry.
Porsche claimed class honours within the common GTD class with Elliott Skeer driving the Wright Motorsports 911 GT3-R.
#120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992): Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer, Tom Sargent, Ayhancan Guven
Photograph by: Andreas Beil
A 1m46.634s gave the American, winner of the GT World Problem America final yr, the highest spot by lower than two hundredths of a second over Philip Ellis within the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Trent Hindman was simply six thousandths behind in third aboard the Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
The Rolex 24 assembly at Daytona resumes at 18:30 native time with the 90-minute evening apply session.
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