WeatherTech Mercedes Leads By Millimetres After Practice 2
Just one-tenth of a second separated the top four cars in Practice 2 today for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
At the top of the pile was the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon, thanks to a last-lap flyer from Juncadella. As usual with the second practice session, the GTD Pro class had the final 15 minutes of track time to themselves.
It was right after the chequered flag that Juncadella set his best time of 1:44.539, a seven-tenths improvement over the best time from Practice 1 yesterday.
Juncadella took the top time from Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, the quickest car from Practice 1. Hawksworth ended up second, just 30 milliseconds behind Juncadella, and ahead of the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Antonio Garcia which went third-fastest, less than a tenth of a second back of his countryman.
The remaining GTD Pro cars finished ninth and tenth in the overall order, the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn followed by the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Pilet.
There were a few minor incidents throughout the one-hour, 45-minute session: Alan Brynjolfsson and Misha Goikhberg spun, while the likes of Alec Udell, PJ Hyett, and Loris Spinelli went off course momentarily. Nothing was serious enough to stop the session and all 19 cars were able to log significant track time.
At the head of the GTD class was the championship-leading #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow which timed in with a 1:44.642, good for fourth overall, 0.103 seconds off the overall lead.
Patrick Gallagher made it a BMW 1-2 aboard the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW, continuing his great form from the prior day. Mikaël Grenier was third-fastest in class in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes, followed by Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes.
Despite a small stumble from each of its drivers, the #78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 ended up fifth in GTD courtesy of Spinelli.
Qualifying starts later today at 3:45 ET (local time).
Images courtesy of IMSA
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