The new era ofEndurance has begun. This Sunday, January 22, 2023, qualifying for the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Roar, took place, a week before the Florida double clock. The opportunity to see the new GTPs in action for the first time in competition.
The first sensation of the year was when Nick Tandy left the track at the wheel of the No. 6 Penske Motorsports Porsche. The Briton hit the wall after losing control at the chicane, damaging the bonnet and front left of his prototype, leaving debris on the track. The red flag was out. Ricky Taylor then took the lead in the #10 Acura ARX-06 of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport in 1:34.198, ahead of Felipe Nasr (#7 Porsche).
The session started again for less than 2:30, while Sébastien Bourdais (Cadillac Racing n°01) had not yet registered any flying laps. On fresh tyres, Tom Blomqvist surged forward in the very last moments to steal pole position in 1:34.031. Felipe Nasr came between the two Acura ARX-06s while Sébastien Bourdais placed the first Cadillac in fourth place in 1:34.262. The two BMW M Hybrid V8s remained behind, but the three manufacturers are held in a second. Promising in terms of performance for the race, but the main question now remains reliability over 24 hours.
By comparison, Frenchman Tristan Vautier’s pole position in Roar qualifying in 2022 was set in 1:34.034 in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi.
LM P2: Keating ahead of the two TDS Racing
The LM P2 session was marked by a red flag five minutes from the end of the clock following the off-track excursions by John Farano (Tower Motorsport n°8) and Fred Poordad (Proton Competition n°55), while Ben Keating was in first place with a lap of 1:40.541 in the Frenchman’s #52 Mathiasen Motorsports PR1 Nicolas Lapierre and Paul-Loup Chatin who will therefore start from first place in their category.
Another tricolor will see his crew start from the front row with François Heriau and the TDS Racing n°35 which he shares with Giedo van der Garde, Joshua Pierson and Job van Uitert. TDS Racing’s second Oreca, the n°11 will start from third place ahead of the n°88 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal.
Quintupled Ligier in LM P3
In LM P3, while the errors multiplied at the end of the session, the Ligier JS P320s clearly dominated the Duqueine D08s with a fivefold increase. Chilean Nico Pino was fastest in 1:43.197 for Sean Creech Motorsport, ahead of Dakota Dickerson in the #36 Andretti Autosport by 0.110 seconds. Cameron Shields took third by 0.154 seconds for Performance Tech Motorsports.
Mercedes domination in Grand Touring
On the Grand Tourism side, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 impressed with a hat-trick in GTD and pole position in GTD Pro. Philip Ellis was thus the fastest with his best lap in 1:46.093.
The German got the better of his compatriot Fabian Schiller by 0.219 seconds on the Sun Energy 1 from the mark to the star. Mikael Grenier took third place on the podium with Team Korthoff Motorsports #32.
Maro Engel completed the Mercedes domination in this qualifying session by dominating the GTD Pro field with a lap of 1:46.784 in the #79 WeatherRech Racing car. Narrowly, since Ross Gunn took second place just 0.041 seconds over theAston Martin Vantage n°23 de Heart of Racing Team.
The Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo n°63 of Romain Grosjean will start in 6th position in his category after a lap in 1:48.233 from Andrea Caldarelli. On the side of the Iron Dames and Doriane Pina 15th place in GTD awaits them on the grid after Rahel Frey’s 1:48.991 during this qualifying session.
Find the complete ranking of the Qualifications HERE
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