Practice report
IMSA Sebring
Sebring 12h: Cadillac dominance under threat in fourth practice
A challenge to the Cadillacs is brewing at Sebring, as five cars broke the 1min50sec barrier in the final practice session before qualifying and Christian Fittipaldi’s pacesetting Action Express Racing Cadillac had an edge of just 0.118sec.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Mar 17, 2017, 3:22 PM
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It was Fittipaldi’s fulltime teammate Joao Barbosa who first threatened the 1min50sec mark, falling just 0.033sec short on his third lap, with Jonathan Bomarito’s #55 Mazda DPi-RT24P going second quick but then pulling in with a gearbox issue. Then Barbosa set a stunning 1min49.456sec, fastest lap of the weekend so far, with Marino Franchitti moving the #70 Mazda up into P2, albeit 1.1sec off top spot.
Brendon Hartley’s efforts in the #22 ESM Nissan-Ligier earned him P2 just 0.32sec behind Barbosa with his ninth lap, and Eric Curran in the #31 AXR Cadillac did a highly commendable job to get within half a second of Barbosa.
Then Porsche’s World Endurance champion Neel Jani shoved the Rebellion Oreca into top spot…. but his position barely lasted a minute, as Fittipaldi took over the #5 AXR Caddy to grab a 1min49.211sec lap.
Pipo Derani nailed a 1min49.5 to go fourth, a couple of tenths quicker than ESM teammate Hartley and then jumped up to third behind Jani with a 49.4. Derani had just set the fastest first sector of the weekend when the checkered flag flew and so he pitted, ultimate potential unrealized. Hartley’s best was still good enough for fifth, while the P6 and P7 cars – Renger Van der Zande’s Visit Florida Racing Riley Multimatic and Misha Goikhberg’s JDC-Miller Oreca – were also within a second of Fittipaldi’s best.
In GT Le Mans, the Porsche vs. Ford battle continued, and at the halfway point of the session, Dirk Werner sat at the top of the times in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR with a 1min56.931sec, chased by the three Ford GTs of Dirk Muller, Ryan Briscoe and Stefan Mucke.
However, Muller then moved to the top and then this two-marque fight was interrupted by a great lap from Nicky Catsburg in the #24 RLL BMW M6 which put him second fastest, a couple of tenths off Muller’s top spot. Kevin Estre grabbed third in the #912 Porsche to eclipse teammate Werner by just a tenth of a second, with Briscoe and Mucke completing the top six.
Tommy Milner and Giancarlo Fisichella, in the #4 Corvette C7.R and the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 respectively, were seventh and eighth, 0.7sec off the class leaders.
Michael Christensen’s Alegra Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R proved the Audis are beatable in the GT Daytona class, finishing the session a tenth-and-a-half ahead of Andrew Davis in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports R8 LMS, and two-tenths clear of Connor De Phillippi in the Land-Motorsport R8.
But as in GTLM, BMW showed pace, with Jens Klingmann taking fourth in the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6, as Mirko Bortolotti’s #11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan was fifth, half a second off Christensen’s best. Two Mercedes AMG GT3s were next up – Mario Farnbacher in the #33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG entry and Tristan Vautier in the SunEnergy1 Racing car.
The Michael Shank Racing-run Acura NSXs were in the wars, however. The session was halted less than 10mins in when Mark Kvamme’s #20 PC car collided with Ozz Negri’s #86 Acura which sustained too much suspension damage to continue the session. Then, toward the end of the session, the #93 NSX was seen trailing damage down pitroad not long after Katherine Legge had been setting encouraging times, within a second of GTD top spot.
In Prototype Challenge, Gustavo Yacaman was again top for BAR1 Motorsports, a full second ahead of Pato O’Ward in the Performance Tech machine and 1.7sec up on Sean Rayhall’s best for Starworks.
Qualifying begins with GTD at 1pm ET.
Sebring FP4 times
PosDriverClassChassisLapsTimeGap 1 
Christian Fittipaldi
Filipe Albuquerque
Joao Barbosa P Cadillac DPi 24 1'49.211 2 
Nick Heidfeld
Sébastien Buemi
Neel Jani P ORECA 24 1'49.329 0.118 3 Pipo Derani
Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel P Nissan DPi 20 1'49.405 0.194 4 Mike Conway
Dane Cameron
Eric Curran P Cadillac DPi 23 1'49.547 0.336 5 Bruno Senna
Brendon Hartley
Ed Brown
Johannes van Overbeek P Nissan DPi 24 1'49.774 0.563 6 René Rast
Marc Goossens
Renger van der Zande P Multimatic/Riley 24 1'50.137 0.926 7 
Mikhail Goikhberg
Chris Miller
Stephen Simpson P ORECA 24 1'50.154 0.943 8 Jordan Taylor
Ricky Taylor
Alex Lynn P Cadillac DPi 8 1'50.399 1.188 9 Tom Kimber-Smith
Jose Gutierrez
Mike Guasch P Ligier 23 1'50.601 1.390 10 Tom Long
Joel Miller
Marino Franchitti P Mazda DPi 20 1'50.622 1.411 11 Spencer Pigot
Jonathan Bomarito
Tristan Nunez P Mazda DPi 20 1'50.872 1.661 12 
Gustavo Yacaman
Colin Thompson
Marc Drumwright
Chapman Ducote PC ORECA FLM09 22 1'53.340 4.129 13 James French
Kyle Masson
Patricio O'Ward PC ORECA FLM09 23 1'54.366 5.155 14 Sean Rayhall
Garett Grist
Max Hanratty
James Dayson PC ORECA FLM09 23 1'55.189 5.978 15 
Sébastien Bourdais
Joey Hand
Dirk Müller GTLM Ford GT 21 1'56.556 7.345 16 John Edwards
Nicky Catsburg
Martin Tomczyk GTLM BMW M6 GTLM 20 1'56.782 7.571 17 
Richard Lietz
Kevin Estre
Laurens Vanthoor GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 22 1'56.825 7.614 18 Patrick Pilet
Frédéric Makowiecki
Dirk Werner GTLM Porsche 911 RSR 22 1'56.931 7.720 19 
Ryan Briscoe
Scott Dixon
Richard Westbrook GTLM Ford GT 21 1'57.038 7.827 20 Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Billy Johnson GTLM Ford GT 23 1'57.155 7.944 21 Marcel Fassler
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner GTLM Corvette C7.R 23 1'57.262 8.051 22 
Giancarlo Fisichella
James Calado
Toni Vilander GTLM Ferrari 488 GTE 21 1'57.283 8.072 23 
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
Mike Rockenfeller GTLM Corvette C7.R 22 1'57.666 8.455 24 Bill Auberlen
Kuno Wittmer
Alexander Sims GTLM BMW M6 GTLM 21 1'57.960 8.749 25 Michael Christensen
Daniel Morad
Spencer Pumpelly
Michael de Quesada GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 23 2'00.491 11.280 26 Lawson Aschenbach
Andrew Davis
Matt Bell GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 24 2'00.646 11.435 27 Connor de Phillippi
Jules Gounon
Christopher Mies GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 22 2'00.689 11.478 28 Justin Marks
Jens Klingmann
Jesse Krohn GTD BMW M6 GT3 20 2'00.912 11.701 29 Richard Antinucci
Rolf Ineichen
Mirko Bortolotti
Christian Engelhart GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 22 2'00.996 11.785 30 Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ben Keating
Mario Farnbacher GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 19 2'01.074 11.863 31 Boris Said
Kenny Habul
Tristan Vautier GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 15 2'01.159 11.948 32 Matteo Cressoni
Christina Nielsen
Alessandro Balzan GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 23 2'01.267 12.056 33 Andy Lally
Katherine Legge
Mark Wilkins GTD Acura NSX GT3 15 2'01.360 12.149 34 Dion von Moltke
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 21 2'01.396 12.185 35 Cooper MacNeil
Gunnar Jeannette
Shane van Gisbergen GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 19 2'01.397 12.186 36 Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey
Matt McMurry GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 17 2'01.440 12.229 37 Paolo Ruberti
Lawrence DeGeorge
Cedric Sbirrazzuoli GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 23 2'01.479 12.268 38 Austin Cindric
Jack Hawksworth
Robert Alon GTD Lexus RCF GT3 19 2'01.496 12.285 39 Townsend Bell
Frankie Montecalvo
Bill Sweedler GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 21 2'01.571 12.360 40 Scott Pruett
Ian James
Sage Karam GTD Lexus RCF GT3 18 2'01.585 12.374 41 Brett Sandberg
Corey Lewis
Jeroen Mul GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 23 2'01.600 12.389 42 
Niclas Jönsson
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 18 2'01.822 12.611 43 Emmanuel Collard
Fabio Babini
Emanuele Busnelli
Michele Beretta GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 23 2'02.142 12.931 44 Brandon Gdovic
Anthony Massari
Emmanuel Anassis GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 22 2'03.789 14.578 45 Don Yount
Buddy Rice
Daniel Burkett PC ORECA FLM09 2 2'06.797 17.586 46 Jeff Segal
Oswaldo Negri Jr.
Tom Dyer GTD Acura NSX GT3 2 2'07.744 18.533
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