Mathieu Jaminet declared Porsche Penske Motorsport’s intention to defend its victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 2023 by topping the leader board in the first practice session for Sunday’s six-hour IMSA Battle on the Bricks, as Porsche led Cadillac and BMW. Jaminet, who won last year’s 2h40m race with Nick Tandy, pushed the No. 6 963 around the 2.439, 14-turn IMS road course in 1m16.177s in the closing minutes of the session, good for a 115.32mph average.
That was only 0.039s better than Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, who led much of the session. It was the pair of BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s next, Connor De Phillippi’s 1m16.565s lap in the No. 25 0.137s quicker than Philipp Eng in the No. 24. Louis Deletraz was fifth and quickest of the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras in the No. 40 ARX-06.
The WTRAndretti sister car, the No. 10 of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, rolled to a stop just over 30m into the session, bringing out the first of two red flags, and was towed back to the garage. It didn’t return to the session, and reportedly needed a new MGU in the hybrid system.
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Defending LMP2 winners TDS Racing topped the times in that class, courtesy of Mikkel Jensen’s 1m17.368s in the No. 11 ORECA. Tom Dillmann was second in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry at 1m17.819s, 0.082s better than Charlie Eastwood in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA. Ben Hanley (No. 2 United Autosports USA) and Nicklas Nielsen (No. 88 AF Corse) completed the top five in LMP2.
GTD runners took the first two spots in the overall GT rankings, with Ricardo Agostini quickest in his first visit to IMS. His 1m23.855s in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 was followed by Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 by 0.081s.
After a couple of GTD PRO entries, Miguel Molina posted a 1m24.183s lap for AF Corse to make it two Ferrari 296s in the top three. Albert Costa Balboa made it three in the top five for Conquest Racing, separated from Molina by Jan Heylen in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R in fourth.
Pfaff Motorsports topped GTD PRO courtesy of Marvin Kirchhöfer’s 1m24.030s lap in the No. 9 McLaren 720 S GT3 EVO. Bryan Sellers was next for Paul Miller Racing, 0.075s back in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3. Roman De Angelis, making his first GTD PRO run, was third for Heart of Racing in the No. 027 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. His teammate Alex Riberas was fourth in the No. 23 Aston Martin, and Harry Tincknell completed the top five in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3.
Practice 2 will take place Saturday morning at 8:55am ET.