Aitken Beats Blomqvist to 12H Sebring Pole

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Jack Aitken edged out Tom Blomqvist to claim pole for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a hard-fought GTP qualifying session for the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Aitken, whose initial pole-winning run for the Rolex 24 was thrown out due to a technical infraction, reeled off a chart-topping 1:46.153 in his No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

It was 0.109 seconds quicker than Blomqvist, in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, who will line up alongside the Cadillac on the front row.

Filipe Albuquerque qualified the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac third, while the best Porsche 963 was Kevin Estre’s No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry in fourth, after the team dominated the opening two practice sessions.

The No. 40 WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz completed the top-five, ahead of Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche and Kaylen Frederick’s privateer JDC-Miller Motorsports entry.

Sheldon van der Linde outpaced Renger van der Zande for eighth, while Ross Gunn completed the top-ten in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie.

Philipp Eng survived a high-speed off-course excursion in Turn 1 in the No. 25 with less than five minutes to go after hitting a bump.

Eng set the slowest lap in GTP qualifying and will line up 11th.

Hyett Quickest in LMP2, Goikhberg Claims Class Pole

While PJ Hyett set the quickest lap in LMP2 qualifying, it was Misha Goikhberg in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen entry that claimed pole in the spec prototype class.

Hyett’s benchmark 1:50.941 lap time in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson was erased due to bringing out a red flag in opening practice following an accident for the team owner/driver.

It demoted Hyett to fourth on the grid, behind pole-sitter Goikhberg (1:51.182), the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Daniel Goldberg and defending Sebring class winer Jeremy Clarke, who will start second and third, respectively.

George Kurtz completed the top-five in the Rolex 24 class-winning and points leading No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR entry.

The 15-minute session saw separate incidents for both Naveen Rao and Phil Fayer in Turn 15.

Hawksworth, Barrichello Take Sebring GT Poles

Jack Hawksworth, in his 100th WeatherTech Championship start with the Lexus RC F GT3, claimed GTD Pro pole with a blazing lap.

The 2024 class champion reeled off a 1:58.480 lap time to edge out the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Luca Stolz by 0.289 seconds.

Rolex 24 class winner Neil Verhagen qualified third in the GTD Pro class, but was slower than GTD pole-sitter Eduardo Barrichello in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Barrichello’s 1:58.856 lap time outpaced GT3 star Philip Ellis, who will line up second in class in the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG.

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley was third quickest in GTD, with Scott Andrews (Lone Star Racing) and Antonio Fuoco (AF Corse) completing the top-five.

As is the case in the WeatherTech Championship, all GTD Pro cars will be gridded ahead of GTD entries, regardless of their qualifying runs.

The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring gets underway Saturday at 10:10 a.m. EST with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel for international viewers.

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