In the #01 Chip Ganassi Cadillac V-Series.R Palou put in a stellar stint and throttled to a flying lap of 1m35.589s around Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course. The reigning and two-time IndyCar champion secured the top time on the 40th of the entry’s 48 laps logged.
Felipe Nasr pushed the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 to a run that ended up second in overall and in the GTP class at 0.135 behind Palou’s time. Proton Competition’s 5 Porsche 963 was third after Alessio Picariello hit a mark that was 0.165s off the pace.
Renger van der Zande, Palou’s team-mate, demonstrated Cadillac’s speed early in the session after pulling off a quick lap of 1m35.670s in the opening minutes. That mark was untouched until Palou’s pace-setting time.
The #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07, which had a class best 46 laps logged during the session, led the way in LMP2 after Clement Novalak nailed down a flyer at 1m39.416s.
Prior to the GTP machines getting released for the session, DragonSpeed’s James Allen throttled to a lap of 1m39.497s in the #81 ORECA, which ended up second among the LMP2 machines by 0.081s in the end.
Malthe Jakobsen had the #04 entry for Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA third in the category, sporting run that was 0.402s off the pace set by Novalak.
Source: Autosport