Bourdais Takes Sebring Pole in Record-Breaking Lap

Photo: Cadillac

Sebastien Bourdais has claimed pole for Saturday’s 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, in a record-breaking DPi lap for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.

The Frenchman reeled off a 1:45.166 in the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R to edge out fellow Cadillac runner Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry by 0.026 seconds. 

Bourdais will share driving duties with Renger van der Zande and Ryan Hunter-Reay for the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and Michelin Endurance Cup.

Ricky Taylor qualified third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, ahead of Alex Lynn in the No. 02 CGR Cadillac in fourth.

The No. 48 Action Express Cadillac of Mike Rockenfeller completed the top-five in a session that saw an accident for last year’s race-winning No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Tristan Vautier.

Vautier spun on the exit of Turn 2 before making contact with the barriers. The Frenchman was able to bring the car back to the pits but sustained nose damage.

LMP2 saw the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Ben Keating take pole, outpacing Henrik Hedman’s No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca for the top spot in class.

Gar Robinson, meanwhile, took a last-gasp pole in LMP3 in his Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan. 

Robinson’s 1:57.048 outpaced the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier of Jarett Andretti by 0.035 seconds, with last-minute sub Harry Gottsacker qualifying third in the No. 6 Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine D08 Nissan.

Gottsacker has been a late replacement for Moritz Kranz, who has been ruled out for unknown reasons at this time.

Serra, Robichon Take GTD Pro, GTD Poles

Daniel Serra and Zach Robichon captured GTD Pro and GTD pole positions, meanwhile.

Serra reeled off a 1:59.414 in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 to edge out the Rolex 24 at Daytona pole-sitting No. 63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Mirko Bortolotti by 0.017 seconds.

The No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia — running with an additional 20 horsepower following a mid-event Balance of Performance adjustment — was third in class but eighth amongst GTD runners overall.

Robichon’s 1:59.763 lap in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 91 GT3 R was 0.025 seconds quicker than the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Robby Foley.

Russell Ward will line up third in GTD, thanks to a 1:59.848 lap time in his No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that has been repaired following an accident on Thursday.

The combined GTD session featured a red flag for the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of John Potter, who stopped on track.

It set up a six-minute dash to the finish for the majority of drivers to set flying laps.

The 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring gets underway at 10:10 a.m. ET with live coverage on 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