Braun Tops Opening Practice at CTMP

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Colin Braun led the way in opening practice for Sunday’s Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, putting CORE autosport on top of the time sheets.

Braun reeled off a 1:05.876 lap time in the No. 54 Nissan DPi early in the session to outpace the Watkins Glen-winning No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P of Harry Tincknell by 0.419 seconds.

Helio Castroneves was third quickest in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura ARX-05, followed by the Pipo Derani-driven No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, which battled clutch issues early in the session.

The DPi championship-leading No. 6 Penske Acura DPi of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya, meanwhile, completed the top-five.

Porsche Leads 1-2 in GTLM

Porsche GT Team continued its dominance in GT Le Mans, having gone 1-2 in class.

The No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber posted a 1:14.560 lap time, which was just 0.097 seconds faster than the sister No. 911 entry.

BMW Team RLL was third in class with its No. 25 BMW M8 GTE, which has been rebuilt following its race-ending flash fire at Watkins Glen.

Jeroen Bleekemolen, in a spare Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 chassis, meanwhile, went quickest in GT Daytona.

The Dutchman’s time of 1:16.885 was just 0.013 seconds faster than Andy Lally in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, with Bryan Sellers third in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.

Performance Tech Motorsports’ Oreca 07 Gibson, meanwhile, was quickest in LMP2 in the hand of Kyle Masson.

No major incidents were reported in the session, which ran without any red flags.

The second and final practice session of the day is set for 4:10 p.m. EDT.

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