Honours have been shared between Acura, Cadillac, and Porsche on the opening day of practice for this weekend’s Rolex 24 in Daytona.
Three sessions brought with it three different pace-setters, with Australian Matt Campbell fastest in Practice 3.
The day’s final outing was held at night, the Porsche Penske Motorsports pilot logging a 1:35.802s to top proceedings.
It had been a day riddled with interruptions with a spate of red flags in all three sessions.
Lucas Auer came off worst with a hefty crash in Practice 1 to draw what was the fifth stoppage of the 90-minute session.
There were further red flags in Practice 2 and while Practice 3 ran more smoothly it still witnessed a stoppage when the #476 Ferrari 296 GT3 ran wide and clouted the wall at Turn 5.
Practice 1 saw the #10 Konica Minolta Acrua fastest with a 1:35.366s set by Filipe Albuquerque before Richard Westbrook recorded a 1:35.185s aboard the #02 Cadillac in the day’s second session.
Across the first two hitouts, the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports proved the fastest of the LMP2 runners, with Aussie Josh Burdon’s #74 Riely heading the LMP3 pack in both Practice 1 and Practice 2.
AF Corse then took the initiative in Practice 3 with the 10th fastest time of the session for the #88 Oreca LMP2, while Andretti Autosport topped the LMP3 field.
Mercedes proved fastest in GTD, with the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports car ending Practice 2 fastest after the #57 Winward Racing car was quickest in the opening session.
Both were GTD class cars, with the fastest GTD Pro effort being the Jules Gounon WeatherTeach Racing Mercedes, which recorded a 1:46.400s to sit 29th overall in Practice 2 – that car then proved the fastest of all GTD runners in Practice 3 in the hands of Maro Engel.
Scott McLaughlin’s #8 Tower Motorsports entry started the day with the seventh-best time in class, slipping to 10th in Practice 2 and ending the day fourth of the LMP2 runners.
The Earl Bamber Cadillac enjoyed promising pace, topping Practice 2, while the #10 Acrua which features Brendon Hartley was quickest in Practice 1.
Scott Dixon has a strong day, his #01 effort not finishing lower than fourth in any of the three sessions.
Elsewhere there were promising signs for Josh Burdon and the #74 Riley Ligier as it topped two of the three sessions in LMP3, while Kenny Habul’s SunEnergy1 Mercedes was seventh, third, and sixth in GTD class.
A fourth practice session follows tomorrow at 11:20 local time, with the GTP class runners having their own session at 18:25.
The Rolex 24 gets underway at 13:40 local time on Saturday, the starting order for which was set in last weekend’s Roar Before The 24.
Results: Practice 1 | Practice 2 | Practice 3
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