today is Mar 24, 2023
Sebastien Bourdais turned in the quick time of the second practice session for the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio, Round 5 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He lapped the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac in 1m10.507s, an average speed of 115.29mph around the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sport Car Course. It was a nice recovery from yesterday’s first practice, when the No. 01 lost much of the session chasing down an electrical problem, a process that including replacing a steering column on pit lane.
The DPi runners were denied their full 15 minutes of alone time when Ryan Eversley pulled the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX off track just as the all-play part of the session ended. The last 15 minutes of the session are reserved for the DPi teams, and are often used to simulate qualifying that comes later in the day. But with the red flag lasting seven minutes into the final 15, they weren’t able to get in a full simulation of a 15-minute qualifying session.
Oliver Jarvis was the first to turn a quick lap in the final minutes, but spun in Turn 9 shortly thereafter. His 1m10.624s lap in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura was good for second, and 0.315s behind yesterday’s benchmark, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque. Tristan Vautier was fourth in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac, 0.064s off Albuquerque in another possible indication that the Cadillacs are closer to the Acuras at Mid-Ohio than many expected.
Anders Fjordbach was quickest of the LMP2 drivers, pushing the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA to a 1m13.015s lap. Will Stevens was only 0.053s off Fjordbach’s time in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA. The top three in LMP2 were covered by less than a tenth of a second, Ryan Dalziel just another 0.40 s back of Stevens in the No. 18 Era Motorsport Acura.
Colin Braun once again was quickest in LMP3, turning a 1m16.630s lap in the No. 53 CORE Autosport Ligier, nearly a quarter-second clear of Garret Grist in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. Felipe Fraga lapped at 1m16.925s in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier to finish the session with the third-quickest time.
The top four in GTD were covered by less than a third of a second, and were paired by manufacturer. Madison Snow was the quickest in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with a 1m20.261s lap, followed by Bill Auberlen in the other BMW, the No. 96 Turner Motorsports machine, 0.172s shy of Snow’s time. The pair of Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s were next, Jack Hawksworth the quickest of the two in the No. 17 at 1m20.519s, 0.039s ahead of Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12. Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage completed the top five.
Aside from the red flag at the end of the session, the only other stoppage was to retrieve the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GTD entry from the Turn 1 gravel trap after Jordan Pepper dropped a wheel on corner entry and spun.
RESULTS
UP NEXT: Qualifying, 1: 15 p.m. ET
