Christian Fittipaldi wins pole in Detroit despite spin


Christian Fittipaldi will start Saturday's Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit's Belle Isle from the pole, having led a Corvette DP 1-2-3-4 sweep in qualifying for the fifth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Fittipaldi reeled off a best lap of 1:23.815 in his No. 5 Action Express Racing entry, edging out the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing entry of Marc Goossens by just 0.048 seconds.
Goossens made a late improvement and put the pressure on the Brazilian, enough for Fittipaldi to spin his Corvette DP with just seconds left on the 15-minute session.
It marked the team's second pole of the season as Fititpaldi and co-driver Joao Barbosa seek their first win of 2016 in Saturday's 100-minute shootout.
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor will roll off third, followed by Eric Curran's No. 31 Whelen-backed entry in fourth.
Katherine Legge, in her LMP2 debut, completed the top-five in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda.
Both of the Mazdas struggled in the session, with Tristan Nunez sixth, ahead of Tom Long in seventh, after the No. 70 underwent an engine change between practice sessions.
Robert Alon scored his second consecutive pole in Prototype Challenge, taking his PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry to the top qualifying spot.
Alon laid down a 1:27.571 in his No. 52 Oreca FLM09, outpacing the No. 38 Performance Tech entry of James French by 0.280 seconds in the heated 15-minute session.
It marked back-to-back poles for Alon after his run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where he teamed with Tom Kimber-Smith for victory.
The No. 8 Starworks Motorsport entry of Alex Popow will roll off third, with Mikhail Goikhberg (JDC/Miller Motorsports) and Jon Bennett (CORE autosport) completing the top-five.
Bryan Sellers has claimed GT Daytona pole, giving Lamborghini its first top qualifying run in the WeatherTech Championship and second consecutive for Paul Miller Racing in Detroit.
Sellers reeled off a best lap of 1:31.340 in his No. 48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to edge out the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Lindsey by just 0.011 seconds.
It marked Sellers' first career pole as he and Madison Snow seek their breakthrough first class win in Saturday's 100-minute race.
Robin Liddell made it three different manufacturers in the top-three, with the Scot putting the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS third on the grid with a 1:31.637.
The No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini of Spencer Pumpelly was fourth, with Matt Bell completing the top-five in the class in his No. 9 Stevenson Audi.
Ben Keating was sixth in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R.
In an interesting mix, some teams opted to qualify their Gold/Platinum-rated driver, as in the case of Sellers and Pumpelly, who will both now have to start tomorrow's 100-minute race.
The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic gets underway Saturday at 12:40 p.m. ET, with live coverage on FS1.