Costa Quickest on Friday for DragonSpeed at VIR

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Albert Costa topped the time charts in the first practice session of the weekend for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, continuing the upward trend for DragonSpeed.

Costa, who sits just 30 points from the lead of the GTD Pro points standings, reeled off a best lap of 1:45.032 aboard the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 in the 90-minute session, edging out the GTD pace-setting No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Silver-rated driver Russell Ward by 0.439 seconds.

Andrea Caldarelli, in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, was third quickest overall and second in GTD Pro, ahead of the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Neil Verhagen in fourth.

The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff completed the overall top-five and was the second-quickest in GTD.

Tommy Milner edged out Mike Rockenfeller for sixth quickest in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, while the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, No. 13 AWA Corvette and No. 3 Corvette completed the overall top-ten.

Nearly all of the top times came in the opening moments of the session, which only had a single red flag, for debris in Turns 4-5, which led to a brief stoppage at the 15-minute mark.

Practice 2 gets underway at 10:35 a.m. EST.

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