Lap records in a tight session have resulted in Cadillacs locking out the front row in Monday’s qualifying run for the Daytona 24 Hours on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.
Brazil’s Pipo Derani, the teammate of Tom Blomqvist and Jack Aitken at Whelen Cadillac Racing, delivered a remarkable lap of 1:32.656 to claim the pole in the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, bettering the lap record set by Blomqvist last year by an impressive 1.5 seconds.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais was second quickest, falling just 0.071 seconds short of the pole in the team’s Cadillac Racing entry. Bourdais is partnering Renger van der Zande, IndyCar champion Alex Palou and New Zealand’s Scott Dixon for the race in the #1 V-Series R.
The first of a four-strong Porsche contingent will line up third, with Felipe Nasr falling 0.220 seconds short of Derani’s time. Connor De Phillippi qualified the #25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 fourth.
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti lockout the third row, with Louis Delatraz qualifying the #40 Acura ARX-06 fifth, ahead of their #10 sister car, of whom Brendon Hartley is racing for alongside Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Marcus Ericsson.
GTP Hypercars lockout the first nine grids, while Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 entry will be left with work to do from the rear of the grid after missing the session following a crash in the earlier warm-up run.
Ben Keating claimed the pole in LMP2 for the fifth consecutive year for United Autosports USA entry and lines up tenth on the overall grid.
Hunter McElrea joins Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Charles Milesi for the race at TDS Racing, with the team set to line up sixth in class from grid 15.
Tower Motorsports, who feature Scott McLaughlin, John Farano, Michael Dinan and Ferdinand Hadsburg-Lothringen, qualified 13th in class and started from grid 22.
Earl Bamber joins Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg at Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, with the team lining up 7th in the GTD Pro class from grid 43 in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Coverage of the Rolex 24 at Daytona begins at 7.30 am on Sunday, with the race concluding at the same time on Monday. The entire race will be broadcast on Sky Sport Popup 1 (600).
Header Image: IMSA
