Porsche Penske Motorsport led every practice session yesterday, but it’ll be Cadillac Whelen starting on pole for the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring tomorrow morning after winning the pole in Qualifying on Friday.
Jack Aitken scored the Action Express Racing-run #31 Cadillac V-Series.R’s third pole at Sebring in the last four years.
The top spot changed hands many times, but 2023 Sebring winner Aitken pulled through with a 1:46.153s to win the pole for he and co-drivers Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti. Aitken’s best lap was only three-tenths behind the GTP course record set by former co-driver Pipo Derani in 2023.
“From what we saw in practice, it was some really quick cars out there. We were up there,” Aitken said after Qualifying. “I think we were trying to find a little bit of something, especially as the conditions were cooling off. It’s one of the coolest Sebrings that we’ve had for a few years.”
“Just getting the tire to work with you is a bit of a job. We know that we’re relatively strong in qualifying. Again, I have a fantastic car. The Whelen Cadillac was giving me a lot of confidence. It’s a really tough lap around here, so I don’t think anybody gets a perfect lap, but we were closest.
“It’s a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot. We’re going to keep doing our homework tonight and expect we’re going to have some stiff competition tomorrow.”
Sharing the front row will be the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06. Tom Blomqvist qualified second with a 1:46.262s to break up what would have been an all-Cadillac front row – as Filipe Albuquerque went third-fastest in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, with a 1:46.298s.
The fastest of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s was the #6 Porsche; Kévin Estre set a 1:46.395s to qualify fourth, ahead of the #40 WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz. Defending Sebring overall winner Felipe Nasr qualified sixth at the very end in the #7 Penske Porsche.
Behind them, Kaylen Frederick in the new-look #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche qualified a very impressive seventh, ahead of both BMW M Team WRT cars, and the #93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande.
Ross Gunn qualified tenth in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie as the GTP field was covered by 1.296 seconds.
In LMP2, Misha Goikhberg in the new-look #52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen ORECA 07-Gibson won the pole position – the first career pole for the 13-year IMSA veteran – in only his second race back behind the wheel of an LMP2 car.
Goikhberg’s best lap was a 1:51.182s, putting him at the top of what ended up as a close fight for the top spot with only 0.078 seconds separating first from third place.
Daniel Goldburg qualified second in the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA with a 1:51.255s, only five milliseconds ahead of defending Sebring class winner Jeremy Clarke, who was third-fastest in the #43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA with a 1:51.260s.
PJ Hyett actually set the fastest time in LMP2 qualifying, but will start fourth in the #99 AO Racing “Spike” car. Hyett forfeited his fastest lap of 1:50.941s as a consequence of his accident in Practice 1 on Thursday, which brought out a red flag. Instead, he’ll fall back on his time of 1:51.322s, still a strong effort in the rebuilt #99 car.
Daytona winner George Kurtz qualified fifth in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car.
On the eve of his 100th IMSA race for Lexus, Jack Hawksworth set a new GT3 course record to win the GTD Pro pole for Vasser Sullivan Racing and the #14 Lexus RC F GT3.
Hawksworth and co-drivers Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood will start up front in GTD Pro after Hawksworth set a lap time of 1:58.480s with six minutes left in the GTD Pro qualifying session. That broke not only his own GTD Pro course record set in 2024, but also Daniel Serra’s long-standing GTD class record of 1:58.710s set back in 2018.
Luca Stolz had seemingly put the part-time #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO second on the grid with a 1:58.769, but during post-qualifying inspection, the car was found to have exceeded its minimum allowed ground clearance, resulting in all of Stolz’s times being deleted and the #48 car being sent to the rear of the GTD Pro grid.
Rolex 24 winners Paul Miller Racing and Neil Verhagen will now start second with the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which set a 1:58.886s, followed by Ricardo Feller in the #911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche 911 GT3 R in third, and Dean MacDonald in the #59 RLL Team McLaren (720S) GT3 EVO in a strong fourth.
Antonio García will start fifthth in the #3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, ahead of previous course record holder Serra in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, and Tommy Milner in the #4 Corvette.
AO Racing’s “Roxy” looked strong in practice, but the #77 Porsche could do no better than eighth on the grid.
Andrea Caldarelli will start 12th in the debuting #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3; Caldarelli’s lap was a 2:00.062s, 1.582 seconds behind the record time of Hawksworth.
Heart of Racing Team’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo won the pole in GTD for the second time in two races, and second-generation Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello captured his first IMSA pole position.
Barrichello, in just his third IMSA WeatherTech race, set a 1:58.856s to rip the pole away from Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. Ellis’ time of 1:58.980s puts the back-to-back Sebring-winning team second on the GTD grid.
Robby Foley qualified third in the split-liveried #96 Turner Motorsport BMW, ahead of Scott Andrews, who was fourth in the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG – but appeared to have mistimed his approach to the start/finish line and lost the chance to set one more flying lap at the end.
Le Mans overall winner Antonio Fuoco in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari rounded out the top five in GTD.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
