Heinrich stars again for Porsche in second Petit Le Mans practice

In second practice from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, longshot GTP championship contender Laurin Heinrich paced the field aboard the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, ahead of teammate Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Porsche.

After an early red flag, the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 was the car that set the initial high benchmark. Sheldon van der Linde’s lap of 1m10.727s was the fastest time of the day so far, the first under the 1m11s range. Minutes later, Vanthoor in the No. 6 Penske Porsche surpassed him with a 1m10.683s.

But with less than 10 minutes left, Heinrich jumped to the top with a 1m10.639s, making it a Porsche Penske 1-2 finish in a session which had three red flag interventions.

Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 brought out the first red in the final minutes of a 15-minute partition for Bronze drivers only; Goldburg went off at Turn 5 and hit head-on into the tire barrier, burying the nose of the car deep. Goldburg was uninjured, but the car’s front-end damage was too great for the No. 22 to continue.

Thomas Preining in the blood orange No. 911 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R came to a stop at the bottom of the Esses to bring out the second red flag with around 30 minutes left, and then with six minutes to go, Chris Cumming in the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA shot off into turn six and was stranded in the gravel. That effectively ended the session as the remaining 2m30s of run time allowed for no other improvements.

Further down the GTP running order, van der Linde was third in the No. 24 BMW, ahead of the sister No. 25 BMW of Marco Wittmann (1m11.052s) in fourth. Only the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie (Ross Gunn, 1m11.069s) broke up another batch of “formation flying” down the running order with the two Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 entries in sixth and seventh, followed by all three Cadillac V-Series.Rs; the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen car was only ninth.

The championship-leading No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA 07-Gibson led LMP2 for the second consecutive session. Its best time wasn’t set by Tom Dillmann, rather, by Inter Europol’s rapid Bronze Jeremy Clarke who turned in a 1m12.732s early on to pace the class.

Clarke wasn’t alone as PJ Hyett set the second-fastest time in his No. 99 AO Racing ORECA at 1m12.815s, and both were ahead of the fastest Pro driver – that being Alex Quinn in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, who was third fastest with a 1m13.032s.

The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA (Mathias Beche) was fourth fastest, ahead of the No. 22 United Autosports car in fifth.

Serra showed the way in GTD Pro with his Risi Ferrari. Jake Galstad/IMSA

Ferrari specialists Risi Competizione led GTD Pro thanks to GT ace Daniel Serra, who turned in the No. 62 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo’s best lap at 1m19.271s. That was enough to put him ahead of the No. 64 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 Evo by less than a tenth; Ben Barker set the Ford’s best lap of 1m19.334s.

Championship-leading driver Nicky Catsburg was third in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, ahead of Neil Verhagen – number two in points, in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The No. 65 Ford (Christopher Mies) was fifth fastest in class.

But the fastest GT time was set in GTD, a 1m18.930s from the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 – driven by Aaron Telitz. The Lexus was two tenths up on the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari (Lorenzo Patrese, 1m19.122s) in second, then the No. 21 AF Corse USA Ferrari (Antonio Fuoco) in third, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo (Zacharie Robichon), and the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford (Felipe Fraga) in third through fifth.

Winward Racing, meanwhile, faced significant strife in Practice 2. The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO was limited to just nine laps as the team chased a mechanical issue, not what the team needed as it prepares for a tight battle for the GTD crown on Saturday.

Night practice at Road Atlanta starts at 7:30pm ET.

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