Albuquerque Paces Friday Practice at Laguna

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Filipe Albuquerque led the way in opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, putting Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura atop the time sheets.

The Portuguese star reeled off a 1:14.880 lap time in the No. 10 Acura ARX-05 to outpace the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Pipo Derani by 0.094 seconds.

Harry Tincknell set the third quickest time in the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P with the Cadillac entries driven by Tristan Vautier and Kevin Magnussen completing the top-five for JDC-Miller Motorsports and Chip Ganassi Racing, respectively.

The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura DPi set the seventh quickest time overall, slower than the LMP2 pace-setter.

It had struggled early in the hands of Olivier Pla and only saw marginal improvements once Dane Cameron climbed aboard.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen while Nick Tandy was out front in GT Le Mans in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

Bill Auberlen topped GT Daytona in the class championship-leading No. 96 BMW M6 GT3, thanks to a 1:24.630 lap time.

Auberlen outpaced the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurens Vanthoor by 0.475 seconds with Bryan Sellers third quickest in class in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

No major incidents were reported in the 60-minute session which ran without any red flags.

Practice 2 gets underway Saturday at 8:45 a.m. PT.

RESULTS: Practice 1

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