Magnussen Leads Corvette Front Row Sweep at VIR

Photo: Scott LePage/IMSA

Corvette Racing has swept the front row for Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, with Jan Magnussen taking pole for the GT-only round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The Dane reeled off a best lap of 1:41.557 in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, edging out the sister No. 4 entry of GT Le Mans class championship leader Tommy Milner by just 0.011 seconds.

It marked the first class pole for Magnussen since Long Beach 2014 and second of the year for the No. 3 car, after co-driver Antonio Garcia’s pole at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month.

The No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Joey Hand qualified third, two-tenths behind, with a late improvement by Giancarlo Fisichella putting the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE fourth on the grid.

John Edwards completed the top-five in the No. 100 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM, with the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy sixth, as the quickest of the Porsche North America entries.

The top six GTLM cars were separated by less than seven-tenths, in what’s been a hot and humid weekend in Virginia.

The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR gets underway Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET, live on FS1.

RESULTS: Qualifying

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