Dries Vanthoor got off to a fast start in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, earning the second consecutive pole position for BMW in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
For his qualifying debut at Sebring International Raceway, Vanthoor turned a 1 minute, 47.091-second lap in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 for Team RLL BMW and backed up the pole position that he won for the Rolex 24 at Daytona season opener.
After Daytona, we knew we had a good qualifying car, but it’s the first time here,” Vanthoor told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee on Peacock. “So it’s really cool to be on pole the first time here. The comeptition is very hard, so it’s never easy to do but very happy we got a lap in and get ourselves on pole.”
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to legendary Sebring International Raceway for the 73rd running of the famed event.
The No. 24 BMW, which is co-driven by Vanthoor, Philipp Eng and Kevin Magnussen, finished fourth at Daytona after leading 90 laps. The Sebring pole was another indicator that BMW is emerging as a premier class contender after winning only twice in the past two seasons of Grand Touring Prototype category.
“So far it’s looking quite good but still a long ways to go,” said Vanthroor, a 26-year-old from Belgium in his first season of full-time racing in IMSA’s top division. “It’s a long ways to go tomorrow, that’s first on our list, and we can see after that how it goes.”
Tom Blomqvist qualified second at 1:47.116 in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, coming up just 0.025 seconds short on his final qualifying lap of knocking Vanthoor off the pole.
The new addition to the Grand Touring Prototype category will pit a roaring engine against a field of hybrids as the prototype platform from the WEC Series makes its IMSA debut.
Felipe Nasr qualified third in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that opened the season with its second consecutive victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The GTP qualifying session was abbreviated by a 6-minute red flag after the No. 31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R stopped on track. That left Vanthoor and other drivers with one last shot at the bumpy and challenging 17-turn, 3.74-mile road course.
“On a normal qualifying session, you maybe get two chances, now you only had one,” said Vanthoor, whose car is sporting a special livery to celebrate the 50th anniversary of BMW North America and the automaker’s 1975 win at Sebring. “It makes a bit more pressure to get that lap together. It makes it a bit more difficult. But yeah, it makes me a bit fired up or nervous at the same time. Looks like it’s working.”
Here are the pole-sitters in other categories for the endurance race classic on the 17-turn, 3.74-mile road course:
LMP2: Steven Thomas, No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07, 1:51.804
GTD Pro: Albert Cotsa, No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3, 1:59.225
GTD: Alessandro Pier Guidi, No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, 1:59.131
SEBRING QUALIFYING ROUNDUP
Results
Results by class
Fastest lap by driver after qualifying
Fastest lap by driver and class after qualifying
Best sector times
Fastest lap sequence
Time cards
PRACTICE RESULTS: Session I l Session II l Session III
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