Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais was the fastest driver in the second and final free practice session for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. This session, which lasted for 1 hour and 30 minutes, allowed teams to prepare for the upcoming qualifying session and gather more data for the first sprint race on the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar. Similar to the first practice, lap times were closely matched on the challenging street circuit.
During the session, Tijmen van der Helm briefly went off-track at Turn 1 in his #5 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963, testing the limits of his car. After 20 minutes, there was a supposed contact between Jesse Krohn’s #24 BMW RLL M Hybrid V8 and Loris Spinelli’s #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 at Turn 11, the iconic final corner hairpin. However, both drivers continued without any further issues.
Several other drivers also explored the run-off areas around the tight corners of the Long Beach circuit. They needed to find the optimal cornering speeds to achieve the fastest lap times. In the end, it was Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R who set the fastest lap time of 1.11.637, narrowly beating Nick Yelloly’s 1:12.121 in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8. Pipo Derani, Philipp Eng, and Nick Tandy completed the top five.
In the GTD category, Sheena Monk for Gradient Racing had some off-track moments at Turn 1 and Turn 6 in her #66 Acura NSX GT3, but she didn’t make any contact or sustain any damage. Her teammate Stevan McAleer topped the GTD category with a lap time of 1:18.259, followed by Danny Formal and Albert Costa.
Qualifying is scheduled to start at 5pm local time / 1am UK time, which will determine the starting grid for Saturday’s race. You can find the full classification of results from the second free practice session of the Grand Prix of Long Beach here.