Nasr Sets Fastest Lap So Far to Lead Friday Practice

Action Express Racing’s No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R paced three of the four practice sessions for Motul Petit Le Mans, as Felipe Nasr went quickest on Friday morning.

Nasr posted the fastest lap of the event so far – a 1:08.419 – to lead the way during the final session before qualifying for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-closer.

The Brazilian driver’s closest challenge came from Ricky Taylor, who slotted into second with a time of 1:09.041 behind the wheel of the No. 7 Acura ARX-05 DPi.

This established a 0.622-second gap between the Whelen Cadillac, which Nasr yesterday described as feeling “alive” around Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and the best of the Penske-run Acura machines.

Third-quickest was Filipe Albuquerque on a 1:09.115 aboard the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac, while Renger van der Zande lapped fourth in the Cadillac run by Wayne Taylor Racing.

Mazda Team Joest’s best effort came courtesy of two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard, who registered the fifth-best time in the team’s No. 77 car.

The second Mazda RT24-P DPi, meanwhile, had an off-track moment in the latter stages of the session, with Harry Tincknell leaving the road and incurring front-end damage to the No. 55 car’s bodywork.

This was the second DPi incident of the session, with the first being a spin for Misha Goikhberg who brought out the red flags when he beached the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac in the Turn 10 gravel.

The fastest lap in the GT Le Mans class was provided by James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The Englishman became the first driver to break the 1m 16s barrier, with a time of 1:15.757 that created a gap of six-tenths to the No. 67 Ford GT in second place.

Richard Westbrook set the lap in the Chip Ganassi-run Ford, while Antonio Garcia slotted the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R into third.

In GT Daytona, Robby Foley set Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3 on top of the class pile for the third session out of four, beating Toni Vilander in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 to the top spot.

Quickest in LMP2 was PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports driver Gabriel Aubry, who beat Kyle Masson by a fraction of a second.

Qualifying for Motul Petit Le Mans gets underway at 3:55 p.m. ET.

RESULTS: Practice 4