Derani Claims Sebring Pole

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Pipo Derani has claimed pole for this afternoon’s Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring.

The Brazilian in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R reeled off a 1:46.733 lap time, outpacing the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 of Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.216 seconds.

Derani scored his fourth career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole at a track he holds three victories at in the last four years.

He will share the wheel of the Whelen Engineering-sponsored Cadillac DPi with Felipe Nasr, who makes his series return after missing the recent Daytona round due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.

Friday’s pace-setting No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi will start third in the hands of Renger van der Zande, ahead of the best of the Mazda RT24-Ps, the No. 77 entry of Tristan Nunez in fourth.

Sebastien Bourdais completed the top-five in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi.

LMP2 pole honors went to Patrick Kelly in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

Kelly’s 1:51.526 lap time was more than a half-second faster than Henrik Hedman in the No. 81 DragonSpeed entry, who ended up second.

Cameron Cassels qualified third in class in the No. 38 Performance Tech Oreca.

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Corvette, Lexus on GT Poles

Jordan Taylor led a Corvette Racing sweep of the front row in GT Le Mans, picking up where he left off with the team’s 100th victory in IMSA competition at Daytona.

Taylor’s 1:55.634 lap time in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R edged out teammate Oliver Gavin by 0.381 seconds.

It was Taylor’s first pole in GTLM and his third in the WeatherTech Championship.

The No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Fred Makowiecki qualified third with a 1:56.079 lap, some three tenths quicker than teammate Laurens Vanthoor in fourth.

The pair of Team RLL BMW M8 GTEs rounded out the six-car field after electing to sit out the majority of the 15-minute session.

Frankie Montecalvo led an AIM Vasser Sullivan 1-2 in GT Daytona, claiming his first career pole position.

Montecalvo reeled off a 2:01.190 in the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 to edge out teammate and WeatherTech 240 at Daytona class winner Aaron Telitz by 0.067 seconds.

It marked the first pole of the season for the Canadian squad, which swept the Daytona race earlier this month.

The No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Cooper MacNeil will start third in class, having qualified some eight-tenths slower than the Lexus.

Robby Foley and Corey Fergus completed the too-five in class, for Turner Motorsport and Compass Racing, respectively.

The Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring is scheduled to get underway at 5:30 p.m. ET.

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