BMW Team RLL will start tomorrow’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Twelve Hours of Sebring from the second row of the GTLM grid following third and fourth place qualifying efforts from Connor De Phillippi and Jesse Krohn this afternoon. De Phillippi qualified the No. 25 MOTUL BMW M8 GTE third with a time of 1:55.062 minutes around the Sebring International Raceway, 0.219 seconds ahead of Jesse Krohn’s 1:55.251-minute lap in the No. 24 MOTUL BMW M8 GTE. Both BMWs were within only 0.317 seconds of the pole-winning Corvette. De Phillippi will co-drive with Bruno Spengler and Philipp Eng tomorrow, while Krohn will share the No. 24 M8 with John Edwards and Augusto Farfus.
“I was remarking to our engineers that as I watched our cars from trackside, they looked very stable over the Sebring bumps,” commented Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “I believe that will pay dividends during a long, twelve hours tomorrow. Sure, we’d love to be on pole, but it’s all about tomorrow.”
The 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season will be the fourth for the BMW M8 GTE, with the 2020 season having been the most successful to-date. This season, BMW Team RLL is focusing exclusively on the four races that compose the Michelin Endurance Cup and began the season with a third-place finish at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Bill Auberlen, the BMW race veteran and all-time IMSA win leader, Robby Foley and Australian Aidan Read will co-drive the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 in the GT Daytona class. In today’s two-part GTD qualifying session, Foley set the sixth fastest time to gain the sixth place starting position and Auberlen equaled Foley’s effort to gain sixth-place qualifying points.
Connor De Phillippi, driver No. 25 BMW M8 GTE (P3): “P3 is the good result for a very good effort so far this week. Possibly we can find a bit of improvement when we look over the car this evening, but I’m confident we are ready to race.”
Jesse Krohn, driver No. 24 BMW M8 GTE (P4): “The No. 24 M8 feels good. While we are a bit behind the Corvettes in qualifying, I believe we are in a good window for the race tomorrow.”
Source. BMW
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