Bourdais Paces Final Long Beach Practice

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Sebastien Bourdais was quickest in the final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session prior to qualifying for Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Frenchman in the 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R recorded a best lap of 1:11.637 to edge out Nick Yelloly’s No 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid by 0.484 seconds.

Pipo Derani was third in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, followed by Philipp Eng in the No. 24 BMW.

Porsche 963s slotted in fifth through seventh, led by the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport entries of Nick Tandy and Dane Cameron, followed by Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller Motorsports entry.

The pair of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s were eighth and ninth, respectively, with the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche bringing up the rear of the ten-car GTP grid.

GTD was paced by the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Stevan McAleer, thanks to a last-lap flyer of 1:18.259 that bumped the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal from the top spot.

Albert Costa in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 was third quickest in class, followed by the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Matt Bell in fourth.

There were no red flags or major incidents in the 90-minute session.

The No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which crashed in the hands of Mikael Grenier in opening practice, did not set any times, although it’s believed the team is aiming to be back on track for qualifying.

Qualifying gets underway at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. EDT) with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio.

RESULTS: Practice 2

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