Filipe Albuquerque put the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura DPi at the top of the charts after IMSA’s opening practice for the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship. The 36-year-old Portuguese driver put down a best lap at 1m14.880s around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
It only took 13 minutes into the one-hour session for Albuquerque to find the top spot with a 1m15.521s lap, with the overall best time secured just past the halfway mark for he and co-driver Ricky Taylor.
The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac DPi of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr ended up second by a narrow 0.094s (1m14.974s). The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi shared by Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis came in third at 1m15.215s.
The No. 5 Mustang Sampling / JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi and the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi rounded out the top five.
Mikkel Jensen set the pace for the LMP2 class with a lap at 1m16.115s in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, which ended up sixth overall – ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing DPi driven by Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla.
The No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA was second quickest in LMP2, followed by the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA and the No. 11 WIN Autosport ORECA, which also completed the rest of the overall top 10.
The No. 4 Corvette Racing C8.R of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner paced the GTLM category at 1m22.081s around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course. The No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR was closely behind with a 1m22.108s lap.
GTD was led by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3, pushing best in class with a time of 1m24.630s. The next closest competitor in class was the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911GT3R at 1m25.105s.
UP NEXT: Practice 2 at 11:45 a.m. ET, Saturday
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