Estre returns from probation to top first IMSA practice at IMS

On track in IMSA for the first time since his big dust-up with Jack Aitken at the end of Road America, Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Kévin Estre led the first practice session for this weekend’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis.

Late in Friday afternoon’s 90-minute practice, the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 set its best lap at 1m15.783s; Estre displaced Tom Blomqvist and the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 from the top spot and then improved further to a 1m15.764s.

The No. 60 Acura finished second on the timesheets with a 1m15.833s, but while one Meyer Shank Racing car was fast, the No. 93 MSR Acura ended up in the gravel a little over 30 minutes in. Renger van der Zande appeared to understeer off at turn four and got stuck, bringing out a brief red flag and resulting in the No. 93 losing its fastest lap in qualifying tomorrow.

Sheldon van der Linde was third-quickest in GTP aboard the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, ahead of Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Penske Porsche in fourth, Earl Bamber in the fifth-place No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.

Less than seven-tenths of a second covered the top ten cars in GTP. Meanwhile, not much separated those cars from the leading LMP2, the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson of Tom Dillmann who set a 1m16.545s. His time was nearly three-tenths better than the next car in class.

That would be Paul di Resta in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA in second, just ahead of Alex Quinn in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car and Mikkel Jensen in the No. 2 United Autosports USA machine.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports finished 1-2 in GTD, led by Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, who set a 1m23.567s. But Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette wasn’t far behind him on a 1m23.645s, timing in second place.

Max Esterson was third-quickest in the No. 59 RLL Team McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, then the two Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evos rounded out the top five in class – the No. 64 of Ben Barker and the No. 65 of Christopher Mies.

Trent Hindman’s best time in the GTD-leading No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 was a 1m23.630s, which split the two GTD Pro-leading Corvettes.

He was followed by Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO in second, Matt Bell in the 13 Autosport Corvette in third, and Albert Costa in the fourth-ranked No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

As it begins its penultimate IMSA race weekend, DragonSpeed’s event got off to a rocky start: The No. 81 Corvette did not turn a lap while sidelined with a gearbox issue. The team will be back on track for the start of Practice 2, starting tomorrow at 10:45 a.m. ET.

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