Qualifying report

IMSA Daytona 24

Rolex 24: Van der Zande snatches pole from Castroneves

Wayne Taylor Racing's Renger van der Zande denied Helio Castroneves and Penske pole position for the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the climax of a thrilling qualifying session.

Jamie Klein Gary Watkins

Edited: Jan 25, 2018, 11:09 PM

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Overall polesitter Renger van der Zande, Wayne Taylor Racing

GTD polesitters #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3, GTD: Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda, Daniel Serra

#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, P: Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor, Graham Rahal

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi, P: Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Ryan Hunter-Reay

#3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, GTLM: Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, Mike Rockenfeller

#7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, P: Helio Castroneves,

Practice pacesetter Castroneves looked to be in a strong position to put the #7 Penske Acura ARX-05 on pole, vaulting to the top of the timesheets with a 1m36.607s and then pulling clear of the opposition with a 1m36.090s.

But van der Zande was able to beat Castroneves' benchmark in the dying stages of the session by a scant 0.007s on his final flying lap, giving defending race-winners WTR and the #10 Cadillac DPi the top spot.

Filipe Albuquerque made it two Cadillacs in the top three by taking third in the #5 Action Express car, just 0.111s slower than van der Zande, while Pato O'Ward was the best of the LMP2 runners in fourth aboard the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca.

The Mexican's 1m36.318s just edged out Tristan Vautier in the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac to take a place on the second row.

Robin Frijns ended up sixth in the best of the Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas, while Felipe Nasr took seventh in the second Action Express entry.

Jonathan Bomarito claimed ninth place in the only one of the Joest-run Mazdas to take part in qualifying after the sister car that had topped first practice was hit by an undisclosed technical problem.

Fernando Alonso qualified 13th in the #23 United Autosports Ligier JS P217, 0.925s off the pace but around 1.2s faster than teammate Bruno Senna in the #32 car.

Neither of the ESM Nissan DPis set a representative time - Nicolas Lapierre went off on his first hot lap in the #18 entry and damaged the left-front suspension, while the #2 car didn't take part in qualifying because it was undergoing an engine change.

Corvette on GTLM pole

Corvette shaded Ford for honors in the GT Le Mans class, as Jan Magnussen grabbed pole with a 1m42.779s in the #3 C7.R.

That was enough to beat Joey Hand in the #66 Ford GT by a mere 0.019s, while Porsche locked out the second row in class as Laurens Vanthoor beat Patrick Pilet to third late on.

The second of the Ganassi Fords ended up fourth in Richard Westbrook's hands. The sole Ferrari in class, the #62 Risi 488 GTE, took seventh ahead of the two new BMW M8 GTEs.

In GT Daytona, Daniel Serra clinched pole for the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari squad with a best time of 1m46.049s, four tenths clear of Miguel Molina in the #82 Risi 488 GT3.

The Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan that had been qualified third by Mirko Bortolotti, has been sent to the back of the grid after failing the stall test in post-qualifying tech inspection.

Qualifying results (top 10):

Pos.No.DriverChassisTimeGap 1 10 united_states Jordan Taylor
Ryan Hunter-Reay
netherlands Renger van der Zande Cadillac DPi 1'36.083 2 7 brazil Helio Castroneves
Graham Rahal
Ricky Taylor Acura DPi 1'36.090 0.007 3 5 brazil Christian Fittipaldi
portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Joao Barbosa Cadillac DPi 1'36.194 0.111 4 38 united_states Joel Miller
James French
Kyle Masson
Pato O'Ward ORECA LMP2 1'36.318 0.235 5 90 Matt McMurry
france Tristan Vautier
italy Eddie Cheever III Cadillac DPi 1'36.472 0.389 6 37 netherlands Robin Frijns
spain Daniel Juncadella
sweden Felix Rosenqvist
canada Lance Stroll ORECA LMP2 1'36.492 0.409 7 31 united_kingdom Mike Conway
united_states Eric Curran
brazil Felipe Nasr
Stuart Middleton Cadillac DPi 1'36.508 0.425 8 54 france Loic Duval
france Romain Dumas
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun ORECA LMP2 1'36.567 0.484 9 55 Harry Tincknell
Spencer Pigot
Jonathan Bomarito Mazda DPi 1'36.633 0.550 10 6 colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
france Simon Pagenaud
united_states Dane Cameron Acura DPi 1'36.931 0.848

Click here to see full results

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