Bourdais Leads Cadillac 1-2 in Opening Practice

Sebastien Bourdais led a Cadillac 1-2 in the opening practice session for Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The French racer steered the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to a best time of 1:11.440, outpacing the No. 31 Action Express Racing machine of Jack Aitken by 0.049 seconds.

The No. 01 car, which Bourdais shares with Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon for the ten-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale, has undergone a livery change for this event.

The car’s regular yellow has been swapped out for pink, to support the American Cancer Society to support the fight against breast cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Porsche 963 made up the remainder of the top five, with the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport entries in third and fifth, split by the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Philipp Eng.

Eng’s late flyer dropped the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 of Tijmen van der Helm to sixth, ahead of the No. 25 BMW piloted by Connor De Phillippi.

The top ten was completed by the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 and the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s of Jordan and Ricky Taylor.

Felipe Fraga set the pace in LMP2 with a best lap of 1:12.823 behind the wheel of the No. 74 Riley Oreca 07 Gibson, beating the pair of United Autosports entries of Ben Hanley and Paul di Resta in the process.

GTD Pro was led by the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, with Jordan Pepper’s best effort of 1:19.048 just o.059 seconds clear of Ross Gunn’s No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Alexander Sims took third in class for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports and sat just ahead of the GTD-leading No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Miguel Molina in the overall timetable.

The opening 90-minute session ran without red flags and was completed without any significant incidents, apart from two separate spins for Ben Keating and Dennis Andersen at Turn 7. Both drivers were able to continue without further issues.

Second practice for the WeatherTech Championship is scheduled for 3:20 p.m. EDT.

RESULTS: Practice 1