Five Red Flags In FP1 At Road America, Bourdais Fastest
Sebastien Bourdais set the fastest lap in a heavily-interrupted opening practice session for the IMSA WeatherTech teams at Road America.
The Frenchman set a 1:49.538 in the #01 Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R. The lap was just half a tenth faster than Pipo Derani, who made it a Cadillac 1-2 with a 1:49.952 in the Action Express example.
Free Practice 1 served as the first chance for the teams to run on the newly repaved surface for the Wisconsin-based circuit. Bourdais believes the work, which was completed at the end of last year, has made a significant difference to the feeling behind the wheel.
“It’s just a very different from the Road America from what we knew,” he said after FP1. “I think it will get better after time.
“On the INDYCAR weekend, it must have been really exciting because basically nothing had run before, and even now after INDYCAR, after NASCAR and testing it’s still surprising when you go down the inside. I think it’s going to be tricky in traffic.
“There is a high amount of grip on the line and on the inside and in the braking zones it’s low. We’ll sort it out. Overall, I think we learned things at the Indy road course that helped us figure out a few things and we’re on the right path with the #01 Cadillac.”
Behind, the fastest of the other GTP manufacturers was the #24 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with a 1:49.873 from Augusto Farfus.
Further down the order, Proton Competition ended up 10th in its first practice session in the GTP category with its Porsche 963. The German outfit completed 25 laps.
In LMP2, a 1:52.812 from Mikkel Jensen put the #11 TDS ORECA atop the times. It was the only lap set under 1:53 in the session. Garrett Grist meanwhile, paced LMP3 with a 1:59.030 in his Jr III Ligier. Newly-confirmed Corvette customer team AWA finished up with its Duqueines completing the top three.
The GT ranks saw the ‘Rexy’ AO Racing Porsche run fastest with a 2:05.126 2 from Seb Priaulx. The fastest GTD Pro time was just a fraction off, Alex Riberas reeling off a 2:05.206 in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
FP2 later today is set to start at 15:15 local time.
Image courtesy of Cadillac
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