Nasr Quickest on Friday at Laguna Seca
Late flyer puts No. 7 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr on top of time sheets...
Photo: MIke Levitt/IMSA
Felipe Nasr put in a late flyer to put Porsche Penske Motorsport atop the time sheets in Friday’s one-and-only IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session for Sunday’s Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The GTP points leader, who heads into the weekend undefeated so far this season, reeled off a chart-topping 1:14.638 in his No. 7 Porsche 963 to edge out an early flyer by the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken by 0.312 seconds.
Marco Wittmann made it three different GTP manufacturers in the top-three in his No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8.
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, which spent the better part of an hour in the garage with suspected brake issues, and the sister No. 40 Cadillac, completed the top-five, with Philip Eng sixth in the No. 24 BMW.
A Porsche topped the time charts in GTD Pro as well, with the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich leading the way in class, thanks to a 1:21.418 lap time.
The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley was second quickest amongst the GT cars and best of the GTD runners, ahead of the GTD Pro class No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia.
The 90-minute session saw a single red flag for a heavy hit by Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 in Turn 9 after losing control of the car at the exit of the Corkscrew.
Braun managed to take the car back to the pits, with no apparent suspension damage sustained.
Barrier repairs, however, were required, resulting in a lengthy red.
The car later returned to the track in the hands of co-driver Tom Blomqvist but will be subject to losing its fastest time in qualifying due to IMSA’s new-for-2025 rule for cars bringing out a red flag in a practice session.
Several other cars had off-course excursions but managed to keep it off the walls.
Practice 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 9:55 a.m. PST (12:55 p.m. EST).
RESULTS: Practice 1
