Bourdais Paces Sebring Night Practice in CGR 1-2

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Sebastien Bourdais led the way in Thursday’s night practice session for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, in a session that saw Cadillac DPi-V.Rs post the three quickest times.

The Frenchman reeled off a best lap of 1:46.180 in his No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry to outpace teammate Earl Bamber by 0.366 seconds.

Both Bamber and the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani made late-session improvements, as well as Tom Blomqvist, who ended up fourth in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Scott Huffaker, while Malthe Jakobsen posted the quickest time in LMP3 for Sean Creech Motorsports.

Toni Vilander was quickest of all the GTD cars in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, meanwhile.

The Finn set a best lap of 2:00.962 to edge out the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen by 0.446 seconds.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW was third quickest followed by the GTD Pro class pace-setting No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra.

The 90-minute session saw a red flag with 20 minutes to go for an accident by Katherine Legge in the No. 99 Hardpoint Porsche in Turn 17. Legge climbed out of the car uninjured.

Fifty-two of the 53 cars turned laps in the session, with the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo remaining in the garage with a reported oil leak.

A 15-minute Practice 4 session is on tap for 8:55 a.m. ET on Friday followed immediately by qualifying.

RESULTS: Practice 3

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