Nasr Quickest in Opening Practice at Sebring

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Felipe Nasr paced opening practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a Cadillac DPi-V.R 1-2 sweep.

The No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac was quickest in Thursday’s first of three sessions at the Florida airfield circuit, thanks to the Brazilian’s 1:46.212 lap time.

It was more than four tenths quicker than Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.

Dane Cameron put the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 third on the time sheets despite bringing out an early session red flag after briefly stopping near the start/finish line.

The No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Tristan Vautier was fourth quickest with Ricky Taylor completing the top-five in the Rolex 24 at Daytona-winning Wayne Taylor Racing Acura DPi.

LMP2 was led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen while Jeroen Bleekemolen topped the time charts in LMP3 in his No. 91 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

Jordan Taylor’s GT Le Mans pace-setting No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R was the only production-based car to outpace the top four LMP3 cars, in what again saw a close mix between the two categories.

Porsche factory driver Mathieu Jaminet was second quickest in GTLM in the No, 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 ahead of Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Corvette in third.

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen led the way in GT Daytona.

Auberlen’s 2:00.456 was two-tenths clear of the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and a further three-tenths ahead of Franck Perera in the No. 19 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

All 37 cars set times in the hour-long session which saw only the brief red flag for the stopped MSR Acura DPi.

Practice 2 is set to get underway at 1:55 p.m. ET.

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