Renger van der Zande topped in Thursday night’s practice for the Twelve Hours of Sebring aboard the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
Late in the practice, Van der Zande blasted to the top of the time charts with a 1:49.179 lap aboard the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, overcoming Augusto Farfus’s No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 by 0.258 seconds.
Filipe Albuquerque finished third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 while Tom Blomqvist finished fourth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac and Mathieu Jaminet rounded out the top five in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963.
The #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 clocked the eighth-fastest time under Andrea Caldarelli’s control.
The No. 40 Acura ARX-06 for Wayne Taylor Racing was the only GTP participant who did not complete any laps during the session following an engine change.
The #11 TDS Racing ORECA 07-Gibson led the LMP2 field as Practice 1 leader Mikkel Jensen led the way with a time of 1:51.497, ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin’s #99 AO Racing ORECA dubbed “Spike the LMP2 Dragon.”
Third place went to Ben Hanley in the purple #2 United Autosports USA ORECA.
Unfortunately, night practice was cut short by a late incident around the Sunset Bend. Colin Braun, driving the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, lost control of his car and went tail-first into the tyre barriers after trying to steer clear of the traffic ahead of him. Braun withdrew from the session which was red-flagged with just under four minutes remaining.
The other two red flags in this session were also triggered by LMP2 cars although they were minor. The #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier JS P217 stopped very early at turn eight, but later recovered.
The #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA scattered what looked to be sand along the racing line at Big Bend (turn six) after a run off-track.
The #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was the fastest in GTD Pro as Earl Bamber recorded a time of 2:00.790 while driving the gold-foil ‘Vette.
Young BMW driver Neil Verhagen finished second in the #1 Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3, while Laurin Heinrich driving the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R finished third.
Ferrari Hypercar driver Antonio Fuoco led the class in GTD with a time of 2:00.991, driving the #47 Cetilar Racing 296 GT3.
Daytona 24 Hour class winner Philip Ellis finished second in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Elliott Skeer in the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche finished third in the class.
Qualifying for the Twelve Hours of Sebring is set to get underway Friday at 12:50 p.m. EDT with live coverage on Peacock and IMSA.tv.
