By alley - Sep 29, 2016, 12:37 PM ET

IMSA: Shank Ligier-Honda leads first Petit practice

Michael Shank Racing's Olivier Pla was the pacesetter during the opening practice session for Saturday's 10-hour Petit Le Mans season finale. The Frenchman topped the field under warm and blue skies in his No. 60 Ligier JS P2-Honda (1m14.157s) ahead of Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda Prototype (-0.539s) and Eric Curran in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP (-0.685s).

PC was led by championship leader Renger van der Zande in the No. 8 Starworks ORECA FLM09-Chevy (1m16.235s). JDC/Miller Motorsports' Stephen Simpson was second in the No. 85 PC (-0.419s) and Tom Kimber-Smith in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen PC (-0.643s).

A proper mix of GT Le Mans contenders filled the top three as Antonio Garcia topped the class in his No. 3 Corvette C7.R (1m18.840s) as Giancarlo Fisichella pursued in the No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE (-0.404) and Dirk Werner trailed in the No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM (-0.473s).

GT Daytona featured the closest margin from first to second as Alex Riberas pushed his No. 23 Alex Job Racing/Team Seattle Porsche 911 GT3 R (1m21.788s) to a slight advantage over Lawson Aschenbach's No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3 (-0.045) and Jorg Bergmeister's Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (-0.153).

Two red flags slowed the 60-minute session for minor excursions by the factory Porsche team and one of Starworks Motorsport's PC entries. Practice results can be found

here

UP NEXT: Practice 2, 3:25 p.m. ET