Chip Ganassi Racing’s two Cadillacs returned to the top of the timesheets during third practice for the IMSA Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Sebastien Bourdais leading the pack.
With around 40 minutes into the 90-minute session, Sebastien Bourdais posted the fastest time of 1m46.180s on the #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R, almost four tenths behind than Pipo Derani’s FP2 benchmark.
Earl Bamber put the sister #02 Ganassi Cadillac in second on a 1m46.546s, moving ahead of Derani in the best of the Action Express Racing-run Cadillacs, the #31 Whelen Engineering vehicle, following a late red-flag period caused by a Turn 17 shunt for Katherine Legge’s Team Hardpoint Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Tom Blomqvist was the highest Acura driver with a 1m47.226s atop the Rolex 24 at Daytona-winning Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05, but more than a second off the pace, behind an all-Cadillac top three.
Next up were Tristan Vautier’s JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac, Mike Rockenfeller’s AXR-run Ally Caddy, and Filipe Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.
Scott Huffaker, driving the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07, set the pace in LMP2 with a time of 1m48.842s, lowering the class standard established in FP2.
Giedo van der Garde of Racing Team Nederland Oreca was second fastest, ahead of Sebastian Montoya of DragonSpeed, the son of ex-Formula 1 and IndyCar racer Juan Pablo Montoya.
Malthe Jakobsen of Denmark, driving the Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier JS P320, set the fastest time in the LMP3 division, 1m56.878s, a tenth of a second faster than nearest opponent Felipe Fraga in the Riley Motorsports Ligier.
Toni Vilander led an all-Pro/Am top three in the GT Daytona class, driving the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.
However, Vilander’s time of 2m00.962s was about four tenths slower than the best GTD time of the weekend thus far, which was set by the #24 works GTD Pro BMW M4 GT3 in FP1.
Two more BMWs finished second and third respectively in GTD, with Bill Auberlen driving the Turner Motorsports car ahead of Madison Snow in the Paul Miller Racing car, which was making its debut.
The best of the GTD Pro cars followed next, with Daniel Serra in the Risi Competizione Ferrari setting the class record of 2m01.569s.
Jan Heylen’s Wright Motorsports Porsche was next, fourth in GTD and fifth overall among GT3 machines, ahead of Mirko Bortolotti’s TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Philipp Eng and Connor De Phillippi’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMWs.
