[h=2]Taylor tops final Sebring practice[/h] Friday, 16 March 2018
J.J. O'Malley / Image by Galstad/IMSA
Competitors in all three classes turned in the fastest laps of the weekend in Friday's fourth and final practice session for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Ricky Taylor was fastest, running 1m47.076s in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 DPi, cutting through the early-morning mist and smoke that delayed the start of the one-hour session by seven minutes.
Johannes van Overbeek was second at 1m47.512s in the No. 22 Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi, followed by Pato O'Ward's 1m47.861s in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson.
While Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs led all three Thursday sessions in GTLM, BMW and Porsche took the top four slots on Friday. BMW Team RLL ran 1-2, with Connor De Phillippi's 1m56.566s in the No. 25 BMW M8 GTLM followed by Jesse Krohn, 1m56.805s in the No. 24.
Next was the Porsche GT team, with Laurens Vanthoor's 1m56.959s in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR followed by teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 911, 1m57.031. Sebastien Bourdais – who missed Thursday's practice due to an IndyCar test in Texas – was fifth with a lap of 1m57.125s in the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT.
Three GTD competitors broke two minutes for the first time this weekend. Christopher Mies led the session, 1m59.130s in the No. 29 Montaplast Audi R8 LMS GT3. He was followed by Daniel Serra, 1m59.130s in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3, and Trent Hindman, 1m59.889s in the No. 86 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.