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Sebring 12 Hours: Vautier takes pole for Spirit of Daytona Cadillac

Cadillac claimed pole position for the Sebring 12 Hours with Tristan Vautier and the Spirit of Daytona team

The former IndyCar driver took the top spot in qualifying ahead of tomorrow's second round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship with a 1m47.432s aboard the team's solo Cadillac DPi-V.R.

That gave the Frenchman a 0.16-second margin over Olivier Pla in the fastest of the Extreme Speed Motorsports Onroak-Nissan DPis, which ended up on 1m47.592s.

Vautier, who claimed GT Daytona pole at Sebring one year ago, said: "This was a bit unexpected because we didn't do so much running in practice after having some problems.

"It was hot, so the tyres came in quickly and then degraded quickly, so you had to do the time early."

Ricky Taylor was a further two tenths behind in third position aboard the fastest of the Penske Racing Acura ARX-05s on a 1m47.773s.

Pipo Derani took fourth in the second ESM with a 1m47.834s.

Felipe Nasr ended up fifth for the Action Express Racing Cadillac team, while Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top six in the second Acura.

Stephen Simpson posted the fastest time in an LMP2 car, ending up on a 1m48.742s to take 11th place aboard his JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA-Gibson 07.

The new BMW M8 GTE claimed pole position in the GT Le Mans class.

Conor De Phillippi's 1m55.839s aboard the #25 Rahal entry put him just six hundredths up on James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE.

Jesse Krohn made it two BMWs in the top three after changes to the Balance of Performance, including a 20kg weight break, ahead of the Sebring event.

Richard Westbrook took fourth in the best of the Chip Ganassi Ford GTs.

All but one of the nine GTLM cars qualified within a second of De Phillippi's pole mark.

Daniel Serra made it two poles in two races in the AF Corse-run Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE.

The Brazilian posted a 1m58.710s to end up half a second clear of Christopher Mies in the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS.

Qualifying result

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 P M.McMurry, T.Vautier, E.Cheever Spirit of Daytona Racing Cadillac 1m47.432s -
2 P S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, O.Pla Tequila Patron ESM Nissan 1m47.592s 0.160s
3 P H.Castroneves, R.Taylor, G.Rahal Acura Team Penske Acura 1m47.773s 0.341s
4 P J.van Overbeek, P.Derani, N.Lapierre Tequila Patron ESM Nissan 1m47.834s 0.402s
5 P F.Nasr, E.Curran, M.Conway Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 1m47.853s 0.421s
6 P D.Cameron, J.P.Montoya, S.Pagenaud Acura Team Penske Acura 1m48.177s 0.745s
7 P O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, R.Rast Mazda Team Joest Mazda 1m48.192s 0.760s
8 P F.Albuquerque, J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 1m48.256s 0.824s
9 P J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, S.Pigot Mazda Team Joest Mazda 1m48.279s 0.847s
10 P J.Taylor, R.van der Zande, R.H.-Reay Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 1m48.370s 0.938s
11 P C.Miller, S.Simpson, M.Goikhberg JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 1m48.742s 1.310s
12 P J.French, K.Masson, P.O'Ward Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 1m49.068s 1.636s
13 P J.Bennett, C.Braun, R.Dumas CORE Autosport ORECA/Gibson 1m49.158s 1.726s
14 P S.Trummer, R.Alon, N.Panciatici JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 1m49.329s 1.897s
15 P S.Saavedra, G.Yacaman, R.Gonzalez AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier/Gibson 1m49.423s 1.991s
16 P P.Hanson, A.Brundle, P.Di Resta United Autosports Ligier/Gibson 1m49.488s 2.056s
17 GTLM A.Sims, C.De Phillippi, B.Auberlen BMW Team RLL BMW 1m55.839s 8.407s
18 GTLM T.Vilander, J.Calado, A.P.Guidi Risi Competizione Ferrari 1m55.897s 8.465s
19 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, N.Catsburg BMW Team RLL BMW 1m55.985s 8.553s
20 GTLM R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 1m56.098s 8.666s
21 GTLM J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 1m56.191s 8.759s
22 GTLM L.Vanthoor, E.Bamber, G.Bruni Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m56.251s 8.819s
23 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing Chevrolet 1m56.588s 9.156s
24 GTLM P.Pilet, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m56.626s 9.194s
25 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing Chevrolet 1m56.900s 9.468s
26 GTD P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda, D.Serra Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m58.710s 11.278s
27 GTD S.van der Linde, C.Mies, A.Picariello Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi 1m59.229s 11.797s
28 GTD J.Hawksworth, D.H.Hansson, S.Rayhall 3GT Racing Lexus 1m59.251s 11.819s
29 GTD D.Baumann, K.Marcelli, P.Frommenwiler 3GT Racing Lexus 1m59.476s 12.044s
30 GTD B.Sellers, M.Snow, C.Lewis Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 1m59.489s 12.057s
31 GTD C.MacNeil, A.Balzan, G.Jeannette Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 1m59.609s 12.177s
32 GTD K.Habul, T.Jager, M.Grenier SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes 1m59.952s 12.520s
33 GTD C.Gilsinger, R.Eversley, T.Dyer HART Acura 2m00.069s 12.637s
34 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell, F.Montecalvo Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 2m00.080s 12.648s
35 GTD K.Legge, A.Parente, T.Hindman Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 2m00.198s 12.766s
36 GTD P.Long, C.Nielsen, R.Renauer, M.Jaminet Wright Motorsports Porsche 2m00.378s 12.946s
37 GTD M.Miller, T.Bechtolsheimer, K.Wittmer CJ Wilson Racing Acura 2m00.686s 13.254s
38 GTD K.Koch, L.Spinelli, J.Perez P1 Motorsports Mercedes 2m00.717s 13.285s
39 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, L.Stolz Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes 2m00.743s 13.311s
40 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, A.Davis Magnus Racing Audi 2m02.151s 14.719s
41 GTD D.Yount, D.Machavern, M.Palttala Turner Motorsport BMW 2m03.227s 15.795s
42 GTD P.Lindsey, J.Bergmeister, T.Pappas Park Place Motorsports Porsche 2m04.650s 17.218s
- GTD J.Marks, L.Aschenbach, M.Farnbacher Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura - -


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