Vanthoor Storms to 12H Sebring Pole for BMW

Photo: BMW

Dries Vanthoor stormed to pole for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring following a late session shootout in GTP qualifying for the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Vanthoor, in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, reeled off a best lap of 1:47.091 to outpace the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist by a mere 0.025 seconds.

It marked Vanthoor’s second pole in as many races this season in the car the Belgian will share with Philipp Eng and Kevin Magnussen in Saturday’s second leg of the Michelin Endurance Cup.

Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Felipe Nasr recorded the third quickest time in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963, ahead of teammate Mathieu Jaminet in fourth.

Neel Jani made it three Porsches in the top-five in the No. 5 Proton Competition entry, with Renger van der Zande sixth in the No. 93 MSR Acura.

Defending race winner Louis Deletraz, of Wayne Taylor Racing, was the best of the Cadillac contingent in seventh.

It came after an issue for the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, which stopped on track after multiple attempts to reset the car’s electronics, resulted in an early red flag and less than five minutes of green flag run time to set the grid.

There was an incident for Sheldon van der Linde, who spun on the Turn 2 curbing before making slight contact with the wall.

The South African was credited with the 10th quickest time, ahead of the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean and the Ross Gunn-qualified No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, which was more than 2.3 seconds off the pace in 12th.

The Lamborghini was given a five-minute hold at the start of qualifying due to a penalty related to the car’s spin test data.

Steven Thomas claimed LMP2 pole honors, taking his No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson to a fast lap of 1:51.804.

It was 0.115 seconds quicker than the No. 99 AO Racing entry of PJ Hyett, with United Autosports’ Nick Boulle qualifying third in class.

Several cars had minor incidents in the session, including George Kurtz and Jeremy Clarke, although both the CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Inter Europol Competition entries continued without any apparent damage.

Ferraris Claim GTD Pro, GTD Pole Positions

DragonSpeed led a Ferrari sweep of the production-based classes, with Albert Costa giving the Elton Julian-led team its first GTD Pro pole position.

Costa recorded a best lap of 1:59.225 in the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 to edge out defending class champion Laurin Heinrich in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.172 seconds.

Neil Verhagen qualified third in class in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, ahead of teammate Dan Harper and the No. 3 Pratt Miller Motorsports-run Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia, who completed the top-five.

GTD pole honors went to the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, who was quickest overall amongst the GT classes but will start behind the entire GTD Pro grid per IMSA’s updated sporting regulations for this year.

Pier Gudi’s benchmark 1:59.131 lap time was more than three-tenths clear of the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kenton Koch.

Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

Five cars: the No. 19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, No. 45 WTR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, each lost their fastest qualifying times due to causing red flags in practice sessions.

The Inception Ferrari, however, did not take part in qualifying.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is set for a 10:10 a.m. EST start time on Saturday, with live coverage on Peacock.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John