Albuquerque of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 topped the opening practice session for the fourth round of the series, narrowly beating Philipp Eng of BMW and Mathieu Jaminet of Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Eng initially set the pace in his BMW M Hybrid V8, but Albuquerque managed to edge past with a faster lap time, attributing his success to feeling particularly connected with the car and noting the positive impact of the new asphalt on the track.
However, the session was not without incident as Jack Aitken, driving the #31 Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R, crashed heavily into the tire wall at Turn 4, resulting in a significant impact of 50g, according to IMSA radio. Despite Aitken briefly taking second place before the crash, he ended up being overtaken by Louis Deletraz in the sister #40 Acura, Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW, and others.
The #01 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac faced issues early on, being stranded in the garage due to a water leak, which limited its performance during the session. Meanwhile, Felipe Nasr in the #7 PPM Porsche secured eighth place, with Richard Westbrook and Gianmaria Bruni following in the JDC-Miller and Proton Porsches, respectively.
In the GTD class, Antonio Garcia led initially in his #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, but Seb Priaulx’s AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R ultimately claimed the top spot, with Nicky Catsburg in the second Corvette and Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes also posting competitive times. Practice two was scheduled to commence later on Saturday, followed by qualifying in the evening.
