Castroneves Quickest in Final Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Helio Castroneves led the way in the second and final practice session prior to qualifying for Saturday’s Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach.

The Brazilian made a series of late-session improvements to take his No. 7 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 to a quick lap of 1:11.918 in the 45-minute session.

It was 0.019 seconds faster than Practice 1 pace-setter Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R, with Jonathan Bomarito completing the top-three in the No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P.

Laurens Vanthor, meanwhile, was quickest in GT Le Mans, thanks to a 1:16.710 lap in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR.

The Belgian was 0.234 seconds quicker than teammate Nick Tandy, who made it another Porsche 1-2 late in the session.

The session saw a number of brief off-course moments, including for both of the Ford GTs and No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi, although none of the cars sustained any significant damage.

Qualifying gets underway at 5:40 p.m. PT.

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