Once the heavy fog lifted after the first free practice in the early morning, the Californian port city showed its best side for the qualifying session on the narrow street circuit: Bright sunshine and temperatures around 19 degrees Celsius offered the drivers and teams ideal conditions. As soon as the session got the green light in the top GTP class, the battle for top grid spots began. While the rest of the field set one new fastest lap after the other, the two 496 kW (674 PS) Porsche 963 racing cars fielded by the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team initially held back.
Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 car and Nick Tandy helming the No. 7 Daytona and Sebring winning car spent the first five laps getting the tyres into the ideal operating window before making their first attempt at a flying lap. The Frenchman managed to manoeuvre his hybrid prototype into third place but was overtaken by Tandy with just 90 seconds left in the 15-minute session. This put both Porsche 936 contenders on the second grid row for round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
‟The grid position is particularly critical for tomorrow’s sprint race in Long Beach. Congratulations to BMW on their strong qualifying performance today,” stated Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. ‟Our second-row starting positions are okay. We’re confident we can maintain a consistently fast pace over Saturday’s 100-minute race. We won the first two races, and we’re keen to win this one as well.”
‟Third and fourth place were the best we could do today,” explains Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. ‟Our drivers Nick and Mathieu did a great job. We’re starting from the second row and should be able to maintain a steady pace over the entire race distance. We saved some tyres in practice, so we have those up our sleeves for race day. Our strategy has been consistently strong this year, and our drivers are in top form. I expect nothing less in tomorrow’s event.”
Tijmen van der Helm took on the tough challenge on the narrow Long Beach street circuit at the wheel of JDC-Miller MotorSports’ customer 963, with the Dutchman qualifying on P8.
GTD class: Best Porsche 911 GT3 R second on the grid
In the GTD class, Jonny Edgar delivered a strong performance in his very first outing at the wheel of AO Racing’s No. 177 car. The UK driver planted the ‟Rexy” 911 GT3 R on P2, just 0.060 seconds off the class pole-setting time. In the race, Edgar shares the fan favourite with factory driver Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium. The identical up to 416 kW (565 PS) strong 911 from Wright Motorsports will tackle round three of the season from position nine in the GTD class.
Free live stream of the Long Beach Grand Prix
The 100-minute sprint race gets the green light on Saturday, 12 April, at 2:05 pm local time (11:05 pm CEST). The website imsa.tv broadcasts the entire race in a free live stream outside the US and Canada. The website scoring.imsa.com offers live timing.
Drivers’ quotes after the qualifying
Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): ‟Fourth is okay, but I’m still a bit disappointed. After the two free practice sessions, I expected a little more. In qualifying, the car didn’t feel as good as during the free practice. It no longer had the good balance from the earlier session. At the end of the day, I have to accept fourth place. During my hot laps, I pulled out all stops and was very, very close to the walls at times. More wasn’t possible today.”
Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #7): ‟Both cars on the second row - I think that’s a good starting position for Saturday’s race. Long Beach and Detroit are the shortest races of the year. Long Beach is completely different from what we’ve experienced recently at our successful long-distance races in Daytona and Sebring. Still, this event offers the same points, so it’s just as significant for the championship. We won in 2023 and climbed the podium last year – we feel very comfortable here with the Porsche 963 and are looking forward to the race.”
Jonny Edgar (Porsche 911 GT3 R #177): ‟I’m delighted to be driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R for the first time during a race weekend. I got a taste of the car during a test at Sebring a few months ago, but I didn’t get a lot of track time. So, today was a very good day for us. The 911 instantly gave me great feedback, which gave me the confidence to attack and quickly build up a decent pace. Second place is fantastic. But seeing that I was only 0.060 seconds off pole position makes me a little sad. I could’ve made up that little bit of time. Now I’m looking forward to my first IMSA race in a GT car.”
Qualifying result
GTP class:
1. Eng/D. Vanthoor (AUT/BEL), BMW #24, 1:11.539 minutes
2. Van der Linde/Wittmann (ZAF/DEU), BMW #25, 1:11.789 minutes
3. Nasr/Tandy (BRA/GBR), Porsche 963 #7, 1:11.989 minutes
4. Campbell/Jaminet (AUS/FRA), Porsche 963 #6, 1:12.268 minutes
8. Bruni/Van der Helm (ITA/NLD), Porsche 963 #85, 1:13.001 minutes
GTD class:
1. Thompson/Hawksworth (CAN/GBR), Lexus #12, 1:17.877 minutes
2. Edgar/L. Vanthoor (GBR/BEL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #177, 1:17.937 minutes
3. Gamble/Stevenson (GBR/GBR), Aston Martin #27, 1:17.939 minutes
9. Adelson/Skeer (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #120, 1:18.592 minutes
Full results and championship standings: https://results.imsa.com.
