Bourdais Sets Second Practice Pace In #01 Cadillac

Sébastien Bourdais set the fastest time in second practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, just moments after the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R spun in the first corner.

26 cars collided as they raced around the roundabout in a non-stop 90-minute period. The only one missing was the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, which was still in the pits following its practice run in Practice 1 that morning.

Throughout the 90 minutes, the #25 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 Team topped the timesheets, with Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly setting the fastest times. Yelloly took the top time after 50 minutes with a 1:12.552, then improved to 1:12.121 with 30 minutes remaining, with two second and third Cadillacs behind him.

The #01 Cadillac of Bourdais made a late improvement to a 1:12.359 but spun in turn one. The Frenchman was able to get his car out of danger, and on his next flying lap, he went fastest in all three sectors and set a 1:11.637 at the checkered flag to take first place.

Yelloly finished second, followed by Pipo Derani’s #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac in third. Cadillacs and BMWs alternated the top four spots with the #24 RLL BMW of Philipp Eng in fourth.

Then it was the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s fifth and sixth, led by the #6 of Nick Tandy ahead of the #7 of Dane Cameron. Tijmen van der Helm was seventh fastest in the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, ahead of two Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Acura ARX-06es.

Jordan Taylor was the fastest of the two WTRAndretti Acuras, finishing eighth fastest in the #40.

In GTD, it was the #45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal leading the way. Officially he went first with 1:18.546, and for the next two laps he went up to 1:18.361. That put the Costa Rican driver within six-tenths of the GTD course record set last year by Marco Sørensen.

But a last-minute flyer from new full-time driver Stevan McAleer gave the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 first time – a 1:18.259 in the revived white and green Acura.

Behind Official, Albert Costa was third fastest in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Matthew Bell continued his form from Practice 1 and was fourth fastest in the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Loris Spinelli completed the top five in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini.

The new #28 Flying Lizard Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has made solid progress in two practice sessions. Andy Lee’s best lap of 1:19.311 still put him last of the 16 GTD cars that ran, but he and Elias Sabo managed to get plenty of practice under their belts.

RESULTS OF EXERCISE 2 >>

Qualifying will begin tonight at 5:00 PM PDT (local time).

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