Albuquerque Goes Half a Second Clear in Practice 2

The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R paced second practice for Motul Petit Le Mans as Filipe Albuquerque went half a second clear at the head of the field.

After seven of the eight DPi entries fell within half a second of the Practice 1 pace, Albuquerque’s time of 1:09.230 aboard the Action Express Racing-prepared car ended up beating the second-best Practice 2 effort of Mazda driver Tristan Nunez by 0.527s.

Albuquerque, who is joining AXR full-season drivers Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr this weekend, and Nunez in the No. 77 Multimatic-run Mazda RT24-P were two of four drivers to dip under the 70-second barrier in the hour-long session.

Nunez was briefly beaten for second in the closing stages by Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ryan Briscoe, only for the Mazda racer to get back ahead a few moments later.

Briscoe’s 1:09.860 effort put the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac third, ahead of Dane Cameron who produced a 1:09.888 aboard the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05.

Helio Castroneves completed the top five in the sister No. 7 Acura which led Practice 1 in the hands of Ricky Taylor, while Harry Tincknell was sixth in the No. 55 Mazda.

In GT Le Mans, BMW looked set to end the session with a lockout of the top two positions until Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia shot to the top with a late flying run.

Garcia vaulted above Connor de Phillippi and John Edwards in the two Team RLL BMW M8 GTEs, and despite a late fightback from Edwards to move ahead of his teammate it was the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R driver who ended up leading with a time of 1:17.167.

Edwards’ riposte came in the form of a 1:17.224 while de Phillippi’s early pace-setter of 1:17.349 resulted in the American finishing third.

The GTLM manufacturers were bunched under a half-second blanket in Practice 2 as Mathieu Jaminet got the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR-19 down to a 1:17.381 with another lap from the first few minutes. 

GT Daytona was led by Bill Auberlen who produced a 1:20.057 in Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3.

Madison Snow slotted into second driving the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo that led the way in Practice 1 courtesy of Bryan Sellers.

Shinya Michimi was third in class for the championship-leading Meyer Shank Racing Acura squad, ahead of Scuderia Corsa Ferrari driver Jeff Westphal.

Simon Trummer set the LMP2 pace behind the wheel of the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson.

Next up is Petit Le Mans night practice which starts at 7:30 p.m. EST.

RESULTS: Practice 2