Bourdais Breaks Derani’s Pole Streak at Laguna

Photo: Cadillac

Sebastien Bourdais denied Pipo Derani a fourth consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole, with the Frenchman picking up top qualifying honors for Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey presented by Hyundai N.

Bourdais recorded a GTP track record-breaking lap of 1:12.445 in his No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to edge out Derani by 0.112 seconds in the action-packed 15-minute qualifying session for the top class prototypes.

The Brazilian held WeatherTech Championship poles in all three races heading into this weekend’s two-hour and 40-minute contest at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

It still, however, ensured another all-Cadillac front row.

Philipp Eng qualified third in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, with Mathieu Jaminet and Connor De Phillippi completing the top-five for Porsche Penske Motorsport and BMW M Team RLL, respectively.

Dane Cameron was sixth in the No. 7 Penske Porsche, followed by the pair of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s, with Ricky Taylor ahead of Louis Deletraz.

Tijmen van der Helm and Bent Viscaal, in his WeatherTech Championship debut, completed the top-ten in the pair of privateer Porsche 963s from JDC-Miller Motorsports and Proton Competition, respectively.

Corvette, WTRAndretti Claim GT Poles

GTD Pro saw a class front-row sweep for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, led by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg.

The Dutchman reeled off a 1:19.727 lap time, the only driver to dip into the 1:19s. Catsburg was 0.311 seconds quicker than teammate Antonio Garcia.

It marked the first WeatherTech Championship pole position for the new-for-2024 Corvette as well as for Catsburg.

The lap was more than three seconds quicker than the previous class track record.

Marvin Kirchhoffer qualified third in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3, followed by the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawkwsorth.

The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Seb Priaulx competed the top-five in class.

Danny Formal fought off a challenge from Patrick Gallagher to take top qualifying honors in GTD for WTRAndretti and Lamborghini.

Formal stormed to a 1:20.866 in the No. 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to edge out Gallagher’s No. 557 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 by 0.129 seconds.

Russell Ward is set to roll off third in GTD in his No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The Motul Course de Monterey presented by Hyundai N gets underway Sunday at 12 p.m. PDT (3 p.m. EDT) with live coverage on NBC, 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