Felipe Nasr won the pole position for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta Friday afternoon, with a record-shattering lap of 1 minute, 8.457 seconds around the 2.54-mile, 12-Turn road course.
The former Formula One driver, who will share the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R with Eric Curran and last year’s pole sitter Pipo Derani, ousted Team Penske’s Ricky Taylor for P1 by 0.141 seconds.
The No. 7 Acura ARX-05 DPi, shared between Taylor, Helio Castroneves, and Graham Rahal will start Saturday’s race from the second position.
Filipe Albuquerque qualified third in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling entry, which he will share with Mike Conway and João Barbosa.
Masson wins LMP2 pole
Kyle Masson won the pole position in the LMP2 class, after defeating Matt McMurray in a fierce battle for the top spot that lasted the entire session.
In the end, Masson edged McMurray by 0.131 seconds to claim the pole.
The trio of Masson, Andrew Evans and Cameron Cassels look to bring the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson into victory lane for the first time since the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Calado on pole in GTLM
James Calado put the No. 62 Risi Competizione entry on the pole in GTLM, with his class record-breaking lap of 1 minute, 15.639 seconds.
The pole was the first of Calado’s IMSA career, which came in the Ferrari 488 GTE he will share with Daniel Serra and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the 10-hour endurance race.
Calado defeated Antonio Garcia, who qualified second in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, by 0.063 seconds.
Philipp Eng qualified third in the No. 24 Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M8 GTE.
Lewis wins GTD pole after Feller’s times disallowed
Corey Lewis may have not been the fastest driver in GTD qualifying, but he was awarded the class pole following a penalty issued by officials to the No. 29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo.
Ricardo Feller’s lap of 1 minute, 19.185 seconds in the No. 29 machine initially clinched the pole, but all of the team’s times were disallowed due to the team touching the car during a red flag period.
The times from the No. 47 PPM Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Shinya Michimi were also disallowed due to the same infraction. Michimi had previously qualified third.
With Lewis now on pole, Ben Keating’s lap of 1 minute, 19.665 seconds placed the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the second position.
Jeff Westphal’s 1:19.721 lap in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 was bumped up to third fastest following Michimi’s infraction.
Live coverage of the Motul Petit Le Mans begins Saturday at 12 p.m. ET on NBC.