Acura take 1-2 in IMSA Detroit qualifying, Ford also lock out front row in GTD

Written by Aaron Carroll

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The No.93 Acura has taken pole for the IMSA race in Detroit, leading a 1-2 for the American brand. In GTD PRO it was Ford who also took a 1-2 in their Mustangs, No.64 ahead of No.65.

Qualifying for the IMSA Detroit Sports Car Classic got underway at 4:50pm in Michigan. The tight, tricky and quirky street circuit would challenge the GTP and GTD PRO drivers in their two 15 minute sessions.

GTD PRO

Credit: Dominic Loyer

We got underway with the GTD class, with the cars heading out onto a track that had cooled slightly from the temperatures experienced in practice. Getting tyre temperature in the session would prove crucial for all of the teams and drivers.

Many of the cars were very tightly packed together around the short circuit early on. Cars nose to tail around the 2.6 km (1.6 mile) circuit.

The No.9 Lamborghini would need three quick lap times in the session, with the quickest two being deleted since that car was the cause of a red flag in practice earlier in the day.

With the tyres slowly coming into the optimum temperature window for hot laps, the lap times began to fall. At the halfway point of the session it was the No.14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth at the top, with a time of 1:12.4, which was quickly displaced by the No.64 Ford.

The aforementioned No.9 car had a slight tap against the wall, just before the No.81 Ferrari did the same, but broke the suspension and spun around into he wall on the other side. Rasmus Lindh's incident brought out the red flag, and deleted that cars lap times.

Despite the timer running out under the red flag, race control made the decision to let the session run for an extra minute, so that the qualifying session could be considered 'legitimate' by the IMSA regulations.

So it was Sebastian Priaulx on pole in the No.64 Ford, leading a Ford 1-2 ahead of the sister No.65. The No.14 Lexus was third, with the No.1 and No.48 BMW's rounding out the top five.

Then came the No.4 Corvette, the No.9 Lamborghini, No.77 Porsche, No.3 Corvette, No.15 Lexus, with the crashed No.81 Ferrari rounding off the grid.

GTP

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Soon after the GTP prototypes took their chance to set their best laps, with a similar story to the GTDs, slowly building up to the quickest times.

Similarly to the No.9 in the previous session, the No..7 Porsche and No.40 Cadillac would lose their best laps for causing red flags in practice.

Early on in the session, it looked to be the two BMWs and the No.7 Porsche with the pace in hand. It looked to be advantage BMW with the No.7 having the previously mentioned setback.

Dries Vanthoor - who had taken pole in every IMSA qualifying so far this season - went deep into the runoff in his No.24 BMW. He reversed back out and continued on his way.

Gianmaria Bruni in the No.85 Porsche made the same mistake a few minutes later, as Nick Yelloly in the No.93 Acura shot to the top of the timing sheets. All of the GTPs seemed to be struggling under braking, with the No.23 Aston Martin going deep too.

As the final runs began it was the No.93 at the top, followed by the No.25 and the No.60 Acura. The Aston Martin Valkyrie pit, ending its session early. Roman de Angelis clearly thinking he had extracted the most from his V12 machine.

When the final lap times came in, the No.93 remained at the top with a 1:05.7 from Yelloly. Behind it was the sister No.60 Acura, with the No.25 BMW rounding out the top three. The top five was completed by the No.24 BMW and the No.6 Porsche.

The No.7 Porsche was sixth, leading a trio of Cadillacs - No.31, No.10 and No.40. The No.85 Porsche and the No.23 Aston Martin finished off the grid.

The race gets underway tomorrow at 3:40pm local time.