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WeatherTech Championship

Pla Leads Practice 2 by Eight-Tenths

Olivier Pla leads second practice for 12H Sebring by significant margin…

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Mazda Team Joest finished the second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session on Thursday at Sebring over eight-tenths up following a flying lap from Olivier Pla. 

The Frenchman posted a best time of 1:46.834 early in the hour-long session and remained on top despite a stop on track.

He ran out of fuel midway through the session, prompting the second red flag period, but the team was later able to get its No. 55 Mazda RT24-P back out on track with Jonathan Bomarito at the wheel.

Pipo Derani was second quickest in his Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R which was quickest earlier in the day during opening practice.

His best lap time was 0.815 seconds down on Pla, while Jordan Taylor put the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac a further 0.002 seconds back in third.

Acura Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves made it three manufacturers in the top four positions, meanwhile.

The session’s major drama came from a crash by Don Yount after just a few minutes of running, bringing out the first red flag period for over ten minutes.

It resulted in the Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo sustaining heavy damage at Turn 3.

Porsche topped GT Le Mans for the second consecutive session with its No. 911 entry driven by Nick Tandy, who set a best time of 1:56.991.

He was followed by the pair of Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs which again placed second and third.

Bill Auberlen set the pace in GT Daytona with his Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3, 0.330 seconds clear of the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports topped LMP2 again, with the gap between it and Performance Tech Motorsports increasing to 3.5 seconds.

Night practice gets underway at 7:45 p.m. EDT for 90 minutes.

RESULTS: Practice 2

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.

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