Yahoo Autos Bourdais again puts Cadillac on top in second Petit Le Mans practice
With 15 minutes left in Thursday’s second practice session for Motul Petit Le Mans, Felipe Nasr reeled out a series of quick laps to jump the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 to the top of the time sheet. But once the pro-am cars were all on pit lane, the rest of the field started eclipsing that time, pushing Nasr down the order. Although Nasr would do the same at the end, the best he could produce was third behind Sebastien Bourdais and Augusto Farfus.
Like he had in the first session, Bourdais once again had the fastest time, and by a bit. The only car to post a lap time under 70 seconds, his 1m9.671s lap (131.25mph) in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was 0.432s better than Farfus in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
Nasr ended the session with a 1m10.138s time on his penultimate lap, with Louis Deletraz next in the first of the championship-contending cars, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. The other Acura was fifth, with Tom Blomqvist turning the best time in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian ARX-06. Two more championship contenders were sixth and seventh: Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry and Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
Antonio Garcia pulled out a late lap in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C8.R to jump over Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra in GTD PRO. Garcia posted a 1m19.543s lap (114.96mph), 0.182s better than Serra’s best in the No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3. Jack Hawksworth was third for Vasser Sullivan Racing in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 at 1m19.740s. After Kevin Estre spun the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, Patrick Pilet hopped in to set a lap good enough for fourth, with Frank Perera fifth in the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2.
At the front of GTD was Madison Snow, with a 1m19.731s lap in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 that was good enough for third overall in GTD. Aaron Telitz put the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F in second, 0.069s back, followed by Mike Skeen in the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG. Philip Ellis (No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG) and Loris Spinelli (No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracán) completed the top five in GTD.
The championship contenders headed the LMP2 field, Scott Huffaker in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA (1m13.357s) besting Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry (1m13.557s). Nolan Siegel was third for Crowdstrike Racing by APR, 0.411s behind Chatin.
Garett Grist was the quickest in LMP3, setting a 1m16.749s lap in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier to beat Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier by 0.203s. Glenn van Berlo posted a 1m17.109s lap to sit third for Andretti Autosport in the No. 36 Ligier.
A spin by Giedo van der Garde, which left a perfect self-portrait of the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA on the wall, brought out the session’s only red flag, just over 45 minutes into the session.
Up next: Night practice, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
