Petit Le Mans Thursday practices

IMSA

Oct 11

Sébastien Bourdais dominated today’s day practices at Road Atlanta for the last round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup and the IMSA SportsCar Championship ahead Motul Petit Le Mans.

GTP class

Sebastien Bourdais steered the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to a best time of 1:11.013 in the opening practice session for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The #01 Cadillac’s regular yellow has been swapped out for pink to support the American Cancer Society supporting the fight against breast cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness month.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road Atlanta. #01 Cadillac Racing; #31 Whelen Cadillac Racing; #25 BMW M Team RLL and #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Jordan Taylor did set the pace with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti #40 Acura ARX-06 in 1:11.081 for the second Motul Petit Le Mans practice session. It was still 0.068 sec. slower than Bourdais’s morning Benchmark. Jack Aitken with the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac was 0.049 seconds slower than Taylor.

Nick Tandy with #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 and Felipe Albuquerque in #10 Acura ARX-06 round the top five of combined practices.

LMP2 class

In LMP2, during the afternoon test, nobody was able to improve Felipe Fraga’s morning fastest lap in 1:12.823 with #74 Riley’s Oreca.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road Atlanta. Felipe Fraga’s #74 Riley’s Oreca.

GTD PRO class

In GTD PRO, the afternoon session saw four drivers setting fastest laps than the morning Benchmark with Daniel Serra in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 on top in 1:18.722, 0.015 seconds ahead of Jack Hawksworth’s #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Ross Gunn with #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage slotted into third.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road Atlanta. #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 - #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 - #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage

GTD class

Two GTD drivers were able to improve the morning class Benchmark: Parker Thompson with #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus in 1:18.916, 0.057 seconds faster then Philip Ellis with #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. M. Molina with #21 AF Corse Ferrari is third of combined practices with the morning best lap of #:19.128.