Derani lapped his Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R in 1m13.477s around the 1.9-mile temporary circuit in the one-hour session.
The GTP class is using Michelin’s soft-compound tire at Long Beach for the first time outside of Daytona night running, and an extra set has been made available for Saturday’s 100-minute race.
Ricky Taylor made an early error in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, going straight on at Turn 6 before rejoining. Towards the end of the session his stable-mate Louis Deletraz did exactly the same in the #40.
Nick Tandy led the way in the opening exchanges, lapping the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 – which won here last year following a bold tire strategy gamble – in 1m14.056s.
Felipe Nasr made it a PPM 1-2 after 10 minutes, albeit almost a second off Tandy’s pace. Jack Aitken split their party in the #31 AXR Cadillac V-Series.R, getting within 0.197s of P1, before Sebastien Bourdais brought the #01 Ganassi-run Caddy into the mix, a further tenth back.
Bourdais – who crashed out at the first corner here last year – snatched the top spot after 22 minutes with a 1m13.531s, eclipsing Tandy by half a second.
Following two red flags for GTD cars crashing, the pacesetting Cadillac didn’t run again – which meant it recorded the least laps of any cars in the field. That opened the door to Derani to snatch the quickest time of the day at 1m13.477s, 0.054s quicker than Bourdais.
Connor De Phillippi (RLL BMW M Hybrid) jumped up to second on the final lap of the session, just 0.026s off Derani’s pace. Bourdais remained third, ahead of Tandy and the second BMW of Philipp Eng.
Nasr fell to sixth from Richard Westbrook (JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963) and Mike Rockenfeller, who has joined Gianmaria Bruni this weekend in Proton’s 963.
The pair of WTRA Acuras languished at the tail of the GTP class, with Filipe Albuquerque shading Deletraz by 0.047s but the pair of them were 1.8s off the pace.
Corvette fastest in GTD
In GTD, with no Pro class cars allowed to race this weekend, Frederik Schandorff set the early pace in the #70 McLaren 720 before being pipped by Loris Spinelli’s Lamborghini and the Lexus of Jack Hawksworth (who has been seconded into the #12).
Hawksworth’s quickest lap of 1m19.516s was challenged by Schandorff, who got within 0.045s of the Lexus on his second flying tour.
Brendan Iribe then crashed the Inception McLaren into the Turn 1 tirewall, causing a red flag.
Mikael Grenier was the next driver to go into the wall, shunting his Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes at Turn 9 and causing another stoppage a few minutes after the restart.
After the red flags were done, Matt Bell leapt to the top of the times in his AWA-run Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Bell then had a big moment at Turn 5 and slowly rejoined.
Parker Thompson took second in the #89 Lexus FC F with a lap of 1m19.055s set right at the end of the session, just pipping Kyle Marcelli (#45 Lamborghini) and Hawksworth by a tenth of a second.
Free practice two kicks off at 3:50pm local time for another hour-long session.