The two Porsche 963s fielded by Porsche Penske Motorsport will tackle the Long Beach Grand Prix from the second row of the grid. In qualifying for the 100-minute sprint race in California, Britain's Nick Tandy set the third-fastest time at the wheel of the No. 7 car in 1:11.989 minutes. Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet finished fourth in the sister car with a gap of 0.279 seconds. In the GTD class, Briton Jonny Edgar surprised with second place in his first qualifying session in the Porsche 911 GT3 R.

After thick fog in the early morning during the first free practice session, the Californian port city showed its best side for qualifying on the narrow street circuit: In bright sunshine and temperatures around 19 degrees Celsius, the drivers and teams found optimal conditions. Immediately after the qualifying of the top class GTP was released, the big time hunt began. While the entire competition repeatedly set new records, the two 496 kW (674 hp) Porsche 963 of the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team initially held back a bit.

Mathieu Jaminet at the wheel of the No. 6 car and Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Daytona and Sebring winning car initially completed five laps, the tyres were in the optimal operating window and then attacked. The Frenchman was initially able to maneuver his hybrid prototype into third place, but was caught by Tandy 90 seconds before the end of the 15-minute session. As a result, both Porsche 936s will start the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from the second row.

"In the upcoming sprint race in Long Beach, the starting position is particularly important. Congratulations to BMW, who delivered a strong qualifying today," said Urs Kuratle, Vice President Factory Motorsport LMDh. We are convinced that we will be able to drive a consistently fast pace over 100 minutes on Saturday. We won the first two races and we want to win this one as well."

"Third and fourth place was the maximum today," explains Jonathan Diuguid, Executive Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. Our drivers Nick and Mathieu did a great job. We start from the second row and should be able to show a good pace over the full distance in the race. We saved a few tyres in practice to be able to draw on the full range on race day. We were strategically strong at all times this year and our drivers were in top form. I don't expect anything else in tomorrow's competition."

In the JDC-Miller MotorSports customer 963, Tijmen van der Helm took on the big challenge on the narrow Long Beach Street Course. The Dutchman finished eighth at the end of the qualifying session.

GTD class: Best Porsche 911 GT3 R in second place on the grid

In the GTD class, Jonny Edgar put in a strong performance in his very first outing at the wheel of AO Racing's No. 177 car. The Briton qualified the 911 GT3 R known as the "Rexy" in second place – just 0.060 seconds off the best time. In the race, Edgar shares the crowd favourite with works driver Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium. The identical nine-eleven, with up to 416 kW (565 hp) from Wright Motorsports, will start the third round of the season from ninth place in the GTD class.

The Long Beach Grand Prix in the free livestream

The 100-minute sprint race in Long Beach starts on Saturday, April 12 at 2:05 p.m. local time (11:05 p.m. CEST). The website imsa.tv will broadcast the entire race outside the USA and Canada in a free live stream. The website scoring.imsa.com offers live timing.

Drivers' comments after qualifying

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): "Fourth place is okay, but I'm still a bit disappointed. After the two free practice sessions, I had expected a bit more. In qualifying, the car was no longer as nice on the road as before. The good balance from the training sessions was no longer there. In the end, I have to be satisfied with fourth place. During my fast laps I gave it my all and was very, very close to the walls at times. More was not possible today."

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #7): "We're on the second row with both cars. I think it's a good starting position for Saturday's race. Long Beach, along with Detroit, is the shortest race of the year. It's so different from what we recently had in our successful endurance races at Daytona and Sebring. However, there is the same number of points to be won here, so Long Beach has exactly the same importance in terms of the championship. We won in 2023 and were on 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 very satisfied with the fact that I'm driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R during a race weekend for the first time. I was in the car during a test at Sebring a few months ago, but I didn't do many laps. So it was a very good day for us. The nine-eleven immediately gave me great feedback, I was able to attack confidently and quickly got up to good speed. Second place is great. But when I see that in the end I was only 0.060 seconds short of pole, then I'm also a bit sad. I could have made up for this little time. Now I'm looking forward to my first IMSA race in a GT car."

Results Qualifying

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

All results and championship standings at https://results.imsa.com.