Albuquerque Leads Acura Front Row Sweep at Road America

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque led an Acura front row lockout for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America.

The Portuguese driver of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 recorded a chart-topping lap of 1:48.601 in GTP qualifying.

It was 0.262 seconds quicker than teammate Jordan Taylor in the No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura.

Renger van der Zande put the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R third on the grid, ahead of the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 of Gianmaria Bruni, who out-qualified both factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entries.

Pipo Derani completed the top-five in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac.

Connor De Phillippi qualified sixth in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, with Nick Tandy seventh in the No. 6 Penske Porsche and Richard Westbrook eighth in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche.

Ninth went to the points-leading No. 7 Penske Porsche of Dane Cameron, who was unable to recover after suffering an off-course excursion early in the 15-minute session.

The No. 24 BMW did not qualify as it underwent a full rear-end change in the paddock that began with issues developed during the morning’s practice session.

LMP2 pole honors went to PJ Hyett, who scored his fourth consecutive class pole in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson.

Hyett’s 1:53.738 lap time was nearly four-tenths clear of second-placed Ben Keating in the No. 2 United Autosports entry.

Daniel Goldburg was third quickest in the sister United Oreca.

Corvette Locks Out GTD Pro Front Row

Nicky Catsburg and Alexander Sims claimed a sweep of the front row in GTD Pro for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports.

Catsburg reeled off a best lap of 2:02.198 in his No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to edge out teammate Sims, who won last time out with Antonio Garcia, by 0.194 seconds.

The No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Giacomo Altoe, in a one-off entry for the Eric Bachelart-led team, qualified third in class, ahead of the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth.

Mike Rockenfeller completed the top-five in GTD Pro in his No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

All ten GTD Pro cars outpaced the entire GTD field.

Mikael Grenier, meanwhile, picked up the pole in GTD in the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver edged out the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Zach Robichon by 0.130 seconds.

Onofrio Triarsi will start third in class in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, meanwhile.

The two-hour and 40-minute race gets underway Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio.

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