Albuquerque Fastest in First Practice; Trouble for GTPs

Filipe Albuquerque set the fastest time in the opening practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a session that brought trouble for several other cars in the GTP class.

Albuquerque steered the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to a best lap of 1:48.303, leading the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Renger van der Zande by 0.133 seconds.

Jack Aitken completed the top three for Action Express Racing, with the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi in fourth.

The BMW M Team RLL entry was one of a number of GTP class runners to encounter trouble during the opening 90-minute session of the weekend.

De Phillippi’s co-driver Sheldon van der Linde triggered a session-ending red flag when the South African lost control over the car at Sunset Bend, resulting in a frontal impact with the barrier.

Ten minutes earlier, Matt Campbell damaged the No. 7 Porsche 963 when he lost control of the car on an out lap at Turn 3, although he was able to continue.

More serious troubles befell the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, with Tom Blomqvist bringing the car to a halt at Turn 16 within the final 30 minutes of running. The car was unable to continue and was towed back to the paddock.

Albuquerque, who would later go on to set the fastest time of the morning, experienced his own on-track stoppage earlier in the session, although he rejoined the session after a system reset.

Trent Hindman led the GTD pack for Wright Motorsports, setting a 2:01.092 aboard the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Kyle Kirkwood just 0.064 seconds back to lead GTD Pro.

Kyle Marcelli completed the top three aboard the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX GT3 Evo22.

Christian Rasmussen topped the times in LMP2, with the Danish driver reeling off a 1:50.926 aboard the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson.

Rasmussen outpaced the No. 35 TDS Racing Oreca of Giedo van der Garde by 0.214 seconds, with George Kurtz and Steven Thomas third and fourth for CrowdStrike Racing by APR and TDS Racing, respectively.

A late flyer from Dakota Dickerson put the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan quickest in LMP3, ahead of Riley Motorsports and Andretti Autosport.

The second practice session for the WeatherTech Championship kicks off at 3:50 pm ET.

RESULTS: Practice 1