Sebastien Bourdais knows a thing or two about getting around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’s completed nine Indianapolis 500’s with turning 1,687 laps on Memorial Day weekend here. He’s also turned 685 laps in 10 races around the 2.439-mile road course layout in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES too.

On Friday, he got behind the wheel in a different beast. The Frenchman tested his No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-LMDh entry alongside seatmate Renger van der Zande in an IMSA test session on a rather hot and steamy summer day in Indianapolis.

“Obviously it’s great to be back here at the speedway,” Bourdais said. “It’s going to be a great event for IMSA and something that everybody wants to be part of. Indianapolis is a great motor racing town and it was very much desired by the crowd to put something together here.”

While this wasn’t the first time that he’s turned laps around here in a sports car, this was the first time that he’s done so in 10 years. The last time was with the old F1 style road course to where they used all of the south end oval to scream down the front stretch clockwise.

This time, he’s in a GTP car on a somewhat different layout for which he said that didn’t take him much time to get used to it.

Bourdais and van der Zande turned 71 laps around the famed track with a top lap being fifth overall 1:15.537-seconds.

Bourdais said that one of the difficulties between an IMSA car here and an Indy Car is that you don’t have the braking and downforce levels that the open wheel car has. You have to brake much further back in order to get the car now slowed down enough to make the corners.

“It’s a very different era for the cars,” Bourdais told a group of reporters on the fourth floor of the IMS Media Center between sessions on Friday. “The biggest difference is actually the layout of the track. I actually really liked that track (the old layout), but this one is a completely different challenge, but the feel is quite similar.”

Bourdais is hopeful to become the first winner back here since the inaugural sports car race back in 2012. He led 24 laps that day.

“Everybody wants to kiss the bricks, right?” he said.

If he’s going to do so, he’s going to have a fight on his hands with the Porsche’s. They went 1-2 with Tijmen van der Helm of the Netherlands being the quickest overall and in the premier Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course with a lap of 1 minute, 15.244 seconds in the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 prototype.

“It feels good but for me, I don’t try to be at the top,” van der Helm said. “I just want a consistent car for the race for the next time. If we can battle with the rest, I think that’s the goal for us.

van der Helm’s quickest lap was recorded during the second of two sessions for the five classes that comprise the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which returns to IMS for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sept. 15-17. The start of the morning session was delayed by about two hours due to heavy rain.

“From the first laps we had a good car, so we were able to try some stuff, and now we know a bit more what works and what doesn’t,” van der Helm said. “I think it worked pretty well. We got a lot of laps done compared to the rest, and I think that’s also what we’re going to try for tomorrow.” van der Helm and co-driver Mike Rockenfeller of Germany teamed up to complete 43 laps in the first session and 82 in the second, more than any other GTP driving duo.

The Porsche Penske Motorsports tandem of Matt Campbell of Australia and Felipe Nasr of Brazil were second overall Friday at 1:15.312 in the No. 7 Porsche 963. Campbell and Nasr led the morning session at 1:15.636. They finished the day just .068-seconds odd pace.

What a story that would be if a Penske Porsche could win in September a few months after Penske won the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500.

Campbell and Nasr are winless this season with a best finish of third this past April in Long Beach.

Points leaders Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims (1:15.442-seconds) were P3 in their No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-LMDh. Indy Car driver, Colton Herta, was a part of a trio of drivers behind the wheel of the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry that produced the fourth quickest time at 1:15.498-seconds.

The winners of the last race at CTMP, Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Acura ARX-06 was seventh fastest with Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun .455-seconds behind.

In the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP3) class, Indianapolis 500 veteran Ben Hanley was quickest at 1:17.416 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR car. Matthew Bell led the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class at 1:21.401 in the No. 13 AWA machine.

Former INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone driver Jack Hawksworth led the GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) class with a best lap of 1:24.898 in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 co-owned by former INDYCAR SERIES team owners Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan.

Mikael Grenier paced the GT Daytona (GTD) class at 1:24.916 in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 car.

All five classes will compete simultaneously during the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, with the nearly 10-second gap (13 mph) in lap times between the GTP and GTD cars ensuring plenty of action and drama as quicker prototypes navigate lapped traffic of the production-appearing GTD classes.

Bourdais says that’s going to make this September’s race a tricky, yet thrilling one. With so many cars around here, there’s going to be traffic and going to be plenty of times with that gap in a speed differential to have the GTP cars catching the others. However, you can’t just pass as easily as you’d like and if you catch a slower car in the wrong place, it could be a massive loss of time which could make for a race to where no one is going to get too far ahead.

Plus, the braking zones here will make for a lot of moves too.

While Friday saw temps soar into the 90s with a heat index pushing 100, conditions could be far different when they’re back in a couple of months. In saying that, Bourdais said the tire fall off is pretty big and that in traffic in what should be cooler conditions, simulating tire fall off in the heat could in directly translate over to data that they could use.

In testing for the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, which showcases the latest high-performance production sports cars, coupes, hatchbacks and sedans, the pairing of Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss were quickest in both sessions Friday in the No. 56 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 fielded in the Grand Sport (GS) class by Murillo Racing.

Foss turned the top lap of 1:31.865 in the second session. Teammates Kenny Murillo and Christian Szymczak were second overall, right behind at 1:31.959 in the team’s No. 72 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 machine. A familiar name to NTT INDYCAR SERIES fans led the Touring Car Racing (TCR) class, as series and Indianapolis 500 veteran Robert Wickens was quickest overall at 1:33.315 in the No. 33 Hyundai Elantra N TCR fielded by Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian. The team owned by INDYCAR SERIES veteran and current Andretti Autosport strategist Bryan Herta also was second on the TCR time sheets, with Mark Wilkins and Mason Filippi at 1:33.634 in the team’s No. 98 Hyundai Elantra N.

Testing will continue from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday at IMS.