Deletraz Gives WTR Andretti Points Lead With Petit Pole

Louis Deletraz moved his Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport co-drivers into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship points lead by taking the GTP pole position in a damp qualifying session for Motul Petit Le Mans.

The Swiss driver, piloting the No. 10 Acura ARX-06, made a late improvement on a second set of wet Michelin tires to lead a challenging 20-minute qualifying session that was held in drizzly conditions.

Deletraz set the GTP pace with a time of 1:15.402, although the fastest lap in all of qualifying was set by LMP2 pole-sitter Ben Keating on slick tires in an earlier session.

The GTP field will be shuffled ahead of the LMP2s for Saturday’s race start.

Thanks to their co-driver’s performance, the WTR Andretti full-season pairing of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque moved to the top of the GTP standings, advancing above Action Express Racing’s Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani who will start eighth.

Deletraz beat Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R by 0.230 seconds, while Augusto Farfus was third in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

The GTP cars started out on slick tires but all reverted to wets as light rain created a greasy track surface.

Fourth place went to Tom Blomqvist in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura, with Nick Tandy taking fifth in the best of the factory Team Penske-run Porsche 963s.

In LMP2, overall pace-setter Keating beat Steven Thomas by two-hundredths of a second right at the end of the session.

Thomas and Keating battled throughout the duration and their duel came to a head when the latter posted a 1:13.879, only to be narrowly eclipsed moments later. Third-placed John Falb came through a further half-second back for TDS Racing.

The final pole position in the WeatherTech Championship’s LMP3 class, which is being removed after the current season, went to Andretti Autosport driver Glenn van Berlo.

The Dutchman produced a 1:16.674 in the No. 36 Ligier JS P320 Nissan before almost immediately running off-track at Turn 3, collecting an advertising board in the process.

Van Berlo qualified 0.129 seconds ahead of JDC-Miller Motorsports’ Rasmus Lindh.

Slick Tire Gamble Pays Off for James

The Heart of Racing’s gamble to put slick tires on its No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 paid dividends as Bronze-rated Ian James set the fastest combined time across the two GTD classes in the first qualifying session.

James first equaled GTD Pro pole-sitter Jack Hawksworth, who was on wets, with a time of 1:23.168 but went on to make a last-gasp improvement down to 1:23.116.

Hawksworth still took the GTD Pro pole in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, beating Iron Lynx Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti by three-tenths of a second.

However, Bortolotti had all of his lap times deleted for stepping out of the car before the end of the session.

That provisionally promoted Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia to second in GTD Pro, although the Spaniard ended up behind a trio of GTD competitors.

Doriane Pin took second in GTD for Iron Lynx, beating Aaron Telitz in the other Vasser Sullivan Lexus and Turner Motorsport BMW driver Bill Auberlen.

The 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans gets underway Saturday at 11:40 a.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA Radio.

RESULTS: Qualifying