Bourdais denies celebrating Le Mans pole prematurely
Thursday’s decisive qualifying session, gathering the top eight cars from each category, was interrupted with just under eight minutes remaining on the clock, due to Dries Vanthoor crashing out at the wheel of the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 at Indianapolis corner. At that time, Sebastien Bourdais had provisionally set the fastest time with the […]
Bourdais pips Derani for pole in Cadillac 1-2
Bourdais beat the sister Cadillac Racing entry of Pipo Derani and Philipp Eng’s BMW in the quickfire 15-minute qualifying session, ahead of this weekend’s 2h40m event that is being run for GTP and GTD machinery only. Derani’s #31 Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R had taken pole in each of the trio of preceding races, but its […]
BMW beats Cadillac to quickest time in FP2
Eng, whose BMW is run by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, beat Sebastien Bourdais (Cadillac V-Series.R) and the second BMW of Connor De Phillippi in the 90-minute practice session. This weekend’s 2h40m event is being run for GTP and GTD machinery only. After the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s of Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr swapped the […]
Repaved Laguna Seca “to be at least a couple of seconds faster”
Last year saw a full resurfacing of the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course for the first time since 2006, which also included a new pedestrian bridge on the front straight as part of a $14.9 million project. The project began shortly after last May’s IMSA event and was completed by July, with IndyCar the first major […]
No tires strategy “only way” to win Long Beach
After starting third, Bourdais spent most of the early portion of the IMSA’s 100-minute classic in the runner-up spot pursuing pole-sitter Pipo Derani in the Action Express Racing-prepped No. 31 Cadillac. The pivotal moment of the race came when Derani pitted on lap 26, handing off to co-driver Jack Aitken as the team put on […]
Cadillac scores 1-2 in action-packed sprint race
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Bourdais and van der Zande took a ‘no tires’ pit strategy to get ahead of the sister Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R of Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken to score a 1-2 finish for the marque around the 1.968-mile temporary circuit. From pole position, despite crashing in the closing moments of qualifying, Derani […]
Derani takes pole for Cadillac by 0.009s, then wrecks
Derani lapped his #31 Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R in 1m11.388s around the 1.9-mile temporary circuit. The GTP class is using Michelin’s soft-compound tire at Long Beach for the first time outside of Daytona night running, but times were way off last year’s qualifying session on harder rubber – pole being a 1m09.909s by Filipe Albuquerque’s Acura. […]
Bourdais spins then tops FP2 for Cadillac
Bourdais lapped his #01 Chip Ganassi-run V-Series.R in 1m11.637s around the 1.9-mile temporary circuit in the 90-minute session. Nick Tandy set the earlier pace in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, lapping in 1m12.579s, a quarter of a second clear of Connor De Phillippi’s RLL BMW M Hybrid. FP1 pacesetter Pipo Derani began chipping away […]
Derani claims pole to lead 1-2 for Cadillac
The Brazilian skillfully navigated the 17-turn, 3.74-mile circuit and jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a flying lap of 1m48.152s to claim pole in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R prepared by Action Express Racing. Sebastien Bourdais was able to propel the Cadillac prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing to second, 0.114s behind. Wayne Taylor […]