Estre Paces Opening Indianapolis Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Kevin Estre led the way the opening IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session of the weekend for Sunday’s TireRack Battle of the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Frenchman, in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, reeled off a series of fast laps in the 90-minute session, ultimately ending up with a chart-topping 1:15.764 lap time.

It was 0.089 seconds quicker than the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist in second.

Sheldon van der Linde made it three different GTP manufacturers in the top-three, aboard the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8.

Felipe Nasr and Earl Bamber completed the top-five in the No. 7 Penske Porsche and points-leading No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, respectively.

The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque was sixth, ahead of Ross Gunn’s No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie.

LMP2 was paced by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson of Tom Dillmann, which was involved in an incident with the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the session.

Robert Wickens was assessed with a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with Jeremy Clarke, with the contact between the two cars not resulting in a red flag.

The session, however, did see a red for the No. 93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande, who ended up in the Turn 4 gravel early in the running.

The No. 93 car, sporting a special ‘Thank You’ livery honoring the teams and drivers that were part of Acura’s decade-long WeatherTech Championship involvement that will come to an end at Motul Petit Le Mans, will lose its fastest qualifying lap due to bringing out the red.

Nicky Catsburg was quickest in GTD Pro in the No. 4 Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette, while Trent Hindman topped GTD, slotting in directly behind the Dutchman in the GT order.

Practice 2 is set for Saturday at 10:45 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