Blomqvist, Bourdais in Dead Heat in Friday CTMP Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist and Sebastien Bourdais led the way in opening practice for Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, in a dead heat between the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 and No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R entries.

Blomqvist reeled off a best lap of 1:05.712 in his MSR Acura DPi to first top the time charts, followed by an identical time by the Frenchman later in the running.

The No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Earl Bamber ended up third in the 90-minute session.

Pipo Derani was fourth quickest in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, followed by the DPi championship-leading No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, thanks to a time set by Filipe Albuquerque. 

LMP3 was led by the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P3 Nissan of Garett Grist, who outpaced both CORE autosport’s Colin Braun and the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry of Scott Andrews.

Andrews beached his car in Turn 2 to bring out the session’s only red flag with 35 minutes to go, with no apparent damage.

Dani Juncadella was quickest in GTD Pro in his No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo ahead of the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Mathieu Jaminet.

The Watkins Glen class-winning No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Alex Riberas completed the top-three.

Frankie Montecalvo put up a 1:16.927 in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 to go quickest in GTD and third among the production-based classes late in the session.

Of note, the sister No. 14 Lexus, featuring Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship star, Kamui Kobayashi, was last in class, with co-driver Ben Barnicoat setting the car’s quickest time.

Practice 2 is scheduled for 8 a.m. ET on Saturday.

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