Filipe Albuquerque has resigned his and Ricky Taylor’s chances of competing for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship GTP title with three races left – but don’t think for a second that he’s phoning it in for the rest of 2024.
The Portuguese driver went fastest in first practice for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America, setting a best lap of 1:51.089 aboard the blue and black #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06.
Albuquerque completed his lap seconds before the #45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal went off at the final corner and got stuck in the gravel. With less than five minutes remaining, the red flag came out to end the session.
Connor de Phillippi was second-fastest aboard the #25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, followed by Sébastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. GTP Championship leader and defending Road America race winner Felipe Nasr was fourth-fastest in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
Leading the way in LMP2 was the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 of Paul di Resta, who set a 1:53.486 to go six-tenths faster than the rest of the field.
Tom Dillmann in the #52 ORECA for Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen was second-fastest. His co-driver, Nick Boulle, brought out the first of two red flags in the session when he ran wide at the last corner and pushed a cardboard advertising sign onto the track.
Ben Hanley was third in the #2 United ORECA, while championship co-leader Felipe Fraga was eighth in the #74 Riley ORECA.
Frederik Schandorff set the fastest time in GTD aboard the #70 Inception Racing McLaren GT3 EVO, at 2:05.242 – quicker than the leading GTD Pro time from Antonio Garcia in the #3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Garcia’s 2:05.369 still led GTD Pro ahead of Harry Tincknell in the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, the #4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, and points leader Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.
On the GTD side, Loris Spinelli went second-fastest in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini, followed by the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Patrick Gallagher.
Practice 2 starts tomorrow at 9:55 AM CDT (local time), with Qualifying scheduled to start at 4:20 PM CDT.
Feature image © Jake Galstad / IMSA
