DAYTONA BEACH — Felipe Nasr, wheeling the No. 31 Cadillac DPi, emerged with the fastest speed in a first-ever, early qualifying session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, which will be staged Jan. 27-28.
At stake during this Roar Before The 24 competition was top choice of pit road and garage positions among IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams when they return for race weekend.
Each class in [...]
DAYTONA BEACH — Felipe Nasr, wheeling the No. 31 Cadillac DPi, emerged with the fastest speed in a first-ever, early qualifying session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, which will be staged Jan. 27-28.
At stake during this Roar Before The 24 competition was top choice of pit road and garage positions among IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams when they return for race weekend.
Each class in the series — Prototype, GT Le Mans, GT Daytona — had their own 15-minute qualifying session.
Nasr’s best effort during his eight laps over Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course was a lap clocked at 133.770 mph by IMSA scoring.
The Cadillacs ruled Sunday, sweeping the top-four positions in this new Roar competition.
“It’s good to be back,” Nasr said. “We had the car that had run the most amount of laps out there, so we are really preparing for the race. We know this weekend is just a small part of what will come at the end of the month.
“We felt the car was well and behaving well. In qualifying we gave everything we had. There are some cars out there not showing fully what they can do. I’m happy with what we have right now.”
Nasr, who was a Formula One regular in 2015 and 2016, showed speed in a car similar to the one that captured the 2017 Rolex 24 and Prototype championship. That was no surprise.
The shocker was Tristan Vautier, wheeling the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Cadillac DPi to second-place honors. He had a lap of 133.448 mph.
The Spirit team owned by Troy Flis is based in downtown Daytona Beach. Flis had no car when IMSA tested Daytona in early December. The No. 90 got its first test lap less than a week ago.
“The first time this car hit the ground was Jan. 2,” Vautier said.
Despite the lack of track time, Vautier used his pedal-to-the-metal mentality for this unusual qualifying session.
“Whether it is practice, fake qualifying or real qualifying, we want to be P1 (position 1),” Vautier said with a smile. “All the Cadillac teams here wanted to show what we have. We were flat out for the whole test.
“We all pushed each other, which is good, because it helps us all learn more about the car.”
Joey Hand, who is an old hand at sports-car racing, took the No. 66 Ganassi Racing Ford GT to the top of the GTLM board. His quickest lap was 123.694 mph.
“If somebody says ‘qualify’ and you can get a pole, I’ll take it,” Hand said. “You are always trying to win practice.”
Mirko Bortolotti, who was behind the wheel of the No. 29 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 machine, took top honors in the GT Daytona session. His fast lap was 119.358 mph.
“We are not a regular team for the season,” Bortolotti said. “We got a good garage spot for the race. Let’s see how we benefit from it.”
Fernando Alonso, who is an active Formula One driver and a crowd favorite during the Roar, drove the No. 23 United Autosports Ligier LMP2 to 12th place among the 20 Prototypes in attendance.
Alonso’s best speed during the timed session was 131.425 mph.
IMSA will return to Daytona Jan. 25 with practice and qualifying for the Rolex 24.