The Brazilian turned a lap of 1m35.217s around Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course circuit for Action Express Racing.
The BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi led the majority of the session prior to being bumped by Derani. In the end, De Phillippi was a sizable 0.377s behind in second. A majority of that time was lost in the opening sector as Derani was the only driver to hit a sub-23s at 22.991s.
After topping the opening session with Nick Tandy, co-driver Laurens Vanthoor put the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 third, 0.504s behind the top spot.
It was an eventful time for Jordan Taylor, who spun the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 in Turn 1 with 30 minutes remaining before continuing on and the entry ending up seventh overall.
Indy NXT champion puts Era Motorsport tops in LMP2
Christian Rasmussen, the 2023 Indy NXT champion, vaulted the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA to the top of the LMP2 class after setting the fastest lap of 1m39.674s.
Nolan Siegel, one of Rasmussen’s challengers for the Indy NXT title last year, ended up 0.253s behind in the Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier.
There were two separate incidents that involved entries from LMP2, starting with the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA that spun in Turn 3 just 15 minutes into the session but continued on and ended up 0.353s behind in third.
Roughly 45 minutes into the session the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA spun in Turn 7 to bring out the first red flag. IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin set the quickest pace to put the team eighth in class, but 0.844s of the pace.
New Mustang GT3 paces GTD Pro
It was an impressive showing by Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Christopher Mies, who established the Ford Mustang GT3 fastest in GTD Pro with a 1m46.494s on just the fifth of its 38 logged laps.
The pace was 0.266s quicker than the time set by James Calado in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3.
Wright Motorsports’ Jan Heylen set the mark in GTD, with the No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R – which is to play a starring role in the new F1 movie – hitting a 1m46.741s lap.
