IMSA: Bourdais puts #01 Ganassi Cadillac on pole for the 12 Hours of Sebring

Former IndyCar champion Sebastien Bourdais won pole for Saturday’s 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, turning a record-breaking DPi lap in his #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.

The Frenchman reeled off a 1:45.166 to edge out fellow Cadillac runner Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry by 0.026 seconds.

Bourdais will share driving duties with Renger van der Zande and former Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay for the 12-hour classic.

Ricky Taylor qualified third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05, ahead of Alex Lynn in the No. 02 CGR Cadillac in fourth.

LMP2 saw the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Ben Keating take pole, outpacing Henrik Hedman’s No. 81 DragonSpeed Oreca for the top spot in class.

Ferrari takes GTD Pro Pole

Daniel Serra turned a 1:59.414 in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 to edge out the Rolex 24 at Daytona pole-sitting No. 63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Mirko Bortolotti by 0.017 seconds.

This is only Serra’s third race event at the legendary track. His co-drivers for the 12-hour race are Italians Davide Rigon and Eddie Cheever III. Risi Competizione’s last class victory at Sebring was in 2010.

“It’s always great to get the pole position,” said Serra.

“It’s nice to drive in Sebring and push the car to the limit on the bumps. It’s a great feeling for a driver. I’m really happy with the team. They did a great job during the session. Of course, it’s just the pole position and we still need to race for twelve hours, but it will be nice to start from the front.”

The No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia — running with an additional 20 horsepower following a mid-event Balance of Performance adjustment after IMSA screwed them initially — was third in class but eighth among GTD runners overall.

Garcia set a best lap of 1:59.927 (112.268 mph) in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he will share with Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg. The Corvette was 0.513 seconds off the GTD PRO pole time of Daniel Serra and was eighth among the combined GTD category; there was only 0.164 seconds between Garcia and the fastest GTD class entry.

After struggling for pace in Thursday’s practice sessions, the No. 3 Corvette in GTD PRO received a power increase to bring it closer to the GTD field. The IMSA-spec Corvette has notable differences between the C8.R that ran in Friday’s WEC race and also was part of IMSA’s GT Le Mans category the last two seasons. The GTD PRO Corvette also will compete Saturday with an additional four liters of fuel compared to its original capacity Thursday.

The biggest area of learning for Corvette Racing continues to be the customer Michelin tires that are mandated across all GTD cars as compared to Michelins specifically developed for the C8.R in GTLM. Corvette Racing engineers dedicated significant time at the February test to gaining further understanding of the performance and degradation levels of the new Michelins.

Zacharie Robichon, who by being third overall in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R, was fastest of the GTD class, just 0.025s ahead of Robbie Foley in the Turner Motorsports BMW M4.

Qualifying Results