In a qualifying session that was shortened due to a red flag, BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor won the overall pole Friday (March 14) for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. It is his second straight overall pole after taking similar honors at Daytona in January.
Vanthoor ended up .025 seconds ahead of Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist in his Acura ARX-06. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr will start third, followed by teammate Mathieu Jaminet. The customer Porsche 963 for Proton Competition’s Neel Jani was fifth.
The GTP session started off with significant trouble for Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken. The Cadillac stalled exiting 1 on his out lap and Aitken was unable to get it ready. Eventually, the red flag was thrown to retrieve the Whelen Cadillac, ending Aitken’s session. He will start 13th Saturday.
The red flag significantly cut down the amount of on-track time available. By the time the green came back out, there was only a couple of minutes remaining in the session. Time had to be added in order to get the minimum 10 minutes under green.
No one had set a time when the red flag came out. Porsche Penske Motorsport hadn’t put their cars out at all. When the green came back out, it was a land rush onto the track.
Nasr put his Porsche 963 on top on his first lap at speed. He was hoping to improve, but could not do so.
Blomqvist was able to usurp Nasr for the pole, but his time on pole did not last long. Vanthoor was able to take the pole away about 20 seconds later. That time held up for the overall pole.
Vanthoor’s teammate Sheldon van der Linde was trying to equal his teammate’s pace, but he ran into trouble. Van der Linde dropped his right rear wheel off the pavement exiting turn 1 and spun his BMW. He slid across the grass and bumped the wall. Luckily, van der Linde was able to drive away and not cause another stoppage, but he lost his chance to improve. He will start 10th.
The LMP2 class was the only class that required bronze-rated drivers to qualify. Here, United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg was fastest early on.
There were a couple of issues during the session. First, CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz spun exiting turn 5 on his first lap at speed into the dirt. Later on, Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke spun in turn 15, then rejoined in a particularly unsafe manner.
TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas eventually took the provisional pole away from Goldburg. However, he had to battle for it with AO Racing’s PJ Hyett.
Thomas and Hyett swapped quick laps until Thomas set a lap at 120.425 mph with just under five minutes to go. That held up to give him the class pole.
Thomas won the pole by .115 seconds over Hyett. Nick Boulle in the second United Autosports entry was third, then Goldburg and Luis Perez Companc.
Kurtz ended up eighth, having had to deal with dirty, non-ideal tires after his spin. Clarke qualified 10th in class, but lost his best lap in the session due to bringing out a red flag near the end of Practice No. 1 Thursday morning.
For much of the GTD session, it was the Ferraris that were on top. Triarsi Competizione’s Mike Skeen was fastest early on. Later on, AF Corse’s Alessandro Pier Guidi, who normally drives one of the factory Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps in the FIA World Endurance Championship, went to the front.
With six minutes to go, Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth went to the top with the first lap of the session under two minutes. Korthoff Competition Motors’ Kenton Koch and Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis, who were quick in practice Thursday, were right there as well.
With three minutes to go, Pier Guidi put down a lap at 113.018 mph. That lap ultimately stood up to win the class pole.
Pier Guidi ended up .387 seconds quicker than Koch. Hawksworth will start third, followed by Ellis. Cetilar Racing’s Lorenzo Patrese, son of former Formula 1 racer Riccardo Patrese, will start fifth in his Ferrari.
In GTD Pro, teams waited a little bit before getting out there to set times. DragonSpeed’s Albert Costa was right up there, along with AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich, who was fastest in two of the three practice sessions Thursday.
Ultimately, Costa set a lap at 112.929 mph with five minutes to go. That lap held up for the class pole. It is the team’s first class pole in IMSA since 2019 in the LMP2 class.
Costa’s lap was .172 seconds faster than Heinrich. Paul Miller Racing teammates Neil Verhagen and Dan Harper were third and fourth. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia was fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Qualifying Results
The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled to go green at 10:10 a.m. ET. Coverage is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET on Peacock.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.