Castroneves Quickest in Practice 2 at Detroit

Helio Castroneves kept Acura Team Penske on top of the time charts by setting the fastest lap in Practice 2 for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship at Detroit.

The Brazilian’s best lap in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05, a 1:22.363, was 0.025 seconds faster than second-place Pipo Derani for Tequila Patron ESM, but Castroneves slowed on track in the final 10 minutes to bring out the third and final red flag of the session.

The No. 7 car was taken back behind the wall after stopping on track while on a qualifying simulation run but the cause of the problem was unclear at the time of posting.

Joao Barbosa’s No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R was third, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya’s Acura and the Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell.

Jack Hawksworth was the quickest in the GT Daytona category in the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 for 3GT Racing.

Hawksworth’s best lap of 1:29.468 was 0.184 seconds faster than Jeff Segal who is deputizing for Alessandro Balzan this weekend in the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 for Scuderia Corsa.

Practice 1 pacesetter Katherine Legge was third fastest in the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 for Meyer Shank Racing, followed by Jeroen Bleekemolen in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.

An early red flag period brought the session to a lengthy halt due to a problem for the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3.

According to IMSA Radio, the car stopped on track in T1 with a fire on board. Driver Andy Lally exited the car safely, and later said on Twitter the fire was caused by a blown engine.

IMSA Radio reports that Magnus is not expecting to take part in qualifying this evening.

The red flag was displayed for a second time with just under an hour remaining in the session due to a spin for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Nasr which made wall contact with the rear of the car following a spin.

The team immediately set to work making repairs and hopes to be ready to go for qualifying.

The hit was significant enough to necessitate repairs to the barriers which prolonged the stoppage which lasted nearly 20 minutes.

Qualifying for Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic is scheduled for 5:20 p.m. ET beginning with the GTD class competitors.

RESULTS: Practice 2