Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
***Porsche claimed its record-extending 20th overall victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, in a 1-2 result led by the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Julian Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. It marked Nasr and the No. 7 crew’s second consecutive Sebring win and the first time that a team won the so-called ’36 Hours of Florida’ multiple times, and doing it in back-to-back years.
***The pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP entries combined to lead 273 out of 343 laps on Saturday, in what was one of the most dominant showings in the top class in the modern era. Coupled with its equally impressive run in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, Penske Porsche 963s have led 794 out of the 1,048 race laps completed so far this season, equating to 75 percent of the total race distance.
***It came as a double 1-2 finish as Manthey Racing led home AO Racing in the GTD Pro ranks to score a lockout of the top two positions in the top production-based ranks.
***Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach said: “We had the right packages with the Porsche 963 in the top GTP class and the 911 GT3 R in the leading GT category. We were fast, the drivers kept their cool, and the teams worked flawlessly, we couldn’t have asked for more. Congratulations to our customer teams, the works squad, and all our partners. We’re delighted with this successful start to the season and these major achievements as we celebrate 75 years of Porsche Motorsport.”
***Team Penske, in its 60th anniversary season, took its third overall Sebring win, with its first coming in 2008 with the Porsche RS Spyder, while it has two additional class wins (1966 GT+5.0, 1968 TA5.0). Roger Penske served as the event’s grand marshal.
***Top-ranking Porsche and Team Penske personnel, including Porsche’s Laudenbach, Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle and Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid, were not made available to the media post-race. It came in the wake of Kevin Estre’s accusations that race winner Nasr broke team orders.
***Nasr and new-for-2026 full season co-driver Andlauer now hold an 80-point lead over Action Express’ Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken and Fred Vesti, who were promoted to a third place finish after the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was found to have have exceeded IMSA and Michelin’s mandated camber and tire pressure limits in post-race inspection.
***Bamber will miss Long Beach due to prioritizing his FIA World Endurance Championship program with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, with Vesti set to sub in the No. 31 Cadillac, which appeared to be the closest car on pace to the pair of factory Porsches for the second consecutive race.
***Aitken said: “The team put us in a position to be up front and we had good work in pit lane. I think we had good strategy today but at the end of the day we just didn’t have the pace for whatever reason. We saw hints of it at the start of the race with dropping a couple of places off the bat, but it didn’t seem too bad, but then we weren’t able to make steps forward when the rest of the field increased the pace. We’ve got some work to do, but solid points and it could have been a lot worse.”
***Both of the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s received drive-through penalties for pit lane infractions (No. 93: run over hose/tool/part/person in own or other pit box) and (No. 60: not centered in pit box) in the final 90 minutes, which dropped them to eighth and ninth. A call to pit both cars for fresh Michelin tires on the second-to-last yellow paid off for the No. 60 car of Tom Blomqvist, who eventually finished fourth.
***Blomqvist said: “[There were] just so many small issues that put us on the back foot going into the last hour or so. We did well to recover there at the end. We were basically last [of the lead-lap cars], so we managed to work our way back up to P5 at the flag (and P4 after WTR penalty). But we needed more laps, because I think we had a lot of pace at the end.”
***The No. 24 Team WRT BMW of Sheldon van der Linde also pitted on the penultimate yellow, which team boss Vincent Vosse indicated the “gamble” didn’t pay off for the South African, who suffered a spin with 36 minutes to go.
***Van der Linde said: “I’m kind of happy to have fought back from P8 on the grid, but at the same time disappointed with not being able to get on the podium when we were third and fourth for a while. It’s still good points for the championship. I think these results are important on days where the car is maybe not the best, but we’re still scoring points in the top six.”
***Mikkel Jensen and Huter McElrea each scored their third LMP2 class win in the last four races, dating back to last year’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they teamed with Steven Thomas to take victories in the final two raced with TDS Racing. Both drivers made the off-season switch to United Autosports.
***Jensen, McElrea and FIA Bronze-rated driver Phil Fayer, in only his fourth WeatherTech Championship start, led home a first-ever 1-2 finish for the Anglo-American team in IMSA competition, although the newly signed McLaren Hypercar factory driver admitted it came after “a lot” of contact with other cars at times, including its sister entry.
***Paul di Resta took the No. 22 United Oreca 07 Gibson home to the finish, despite having had to replace the car’s rear wing on the final stop due to contact with Jensen. “I was unlucky with the GTs, catching them always in Turn 3,” Jensen explained. “The only way for me to protect myself was just slowing down in Turn 3 and 4 when nobody can pass you, then get my better run out of [Turn] 5. I got hit in the rear in turn three maybe three, four times.”
***When asked on the 1-2 achievement for the Richard Dean and Zak Brown-owned team, which will operate the factory McLaren Hypercars in the WEC next year, Jensen said: “It means a lot. I mean, it’s my second race with the team. Obviously we’ll be with them for the Hypercar project with McLaren. It’s a great start to the journey to already be winning my second race with them and to see the team perform with a 1-2 finish here. I’m really proud to see that because we had some issues in Daytona to be up front on the pace, and also here in practice we didn’t really look to be the strongest guys.”
***Di Resta, Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh have taken the lead of the LMP2 championship, three points ahead of Rolex 24 at Daytona class winners CrowdStrike by APR with drivers George Kurtz, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery. Bronze driver Goldburg leads Kurtz by the same margin in the Jim Trueman Award standings with two of seven races in the books.
***AO Racing led a race-high 192 laps (LMP2) and 130 laps (GTD Pro) but lost out on victories in both classes. It came after Jonny Edgar was forced to make an emergency service pit stop while under the race’s seventh full course caution with 1 hour and 48 minutes to go, which saw the No. 99 LMP2 entry not recover, even with Dane Cameron behind the wheel.
***The team’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, meanwhile, underwent a full front brake change with just over three hours to go and saw 25-year-old IMSA rookie Harry King installed in the car for the finish, after Nick Tandy handled the bulk of the daytime hours despite feeling under the weather.
***Tandy said: “Our Porsche ran really well and the team did an immaculate job. We had a bit of bad luck during a yellow phase, but we made the most of it with a bold strategy – and it paid off. Congratulations to the Manthey team on the win. We’re thrilled to take the points for our podium finish and are delighted with this strong result. After the disappointment in Daytona, this feels great.”
***With a fifth place class finish on Saturday, Paul Miller Racing’s Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen are now tied for the lead of the GTD Pro points lead with Manthey’s Klaus Bachler, Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining, who claimed the German squad’s first-ever win on U.S. soil with the iconic ‘Grello’ livery.
***However, the No. 911 Porsche is currently only entered for the Michelin Endurance Cup races, with an expansion to a full-season program understood to be unlikely due to the team’s existing WEC and DTM commitments.
***Porsche appeared to be potentially on track to win all three classes it had cars in, which would have marked the first manufacturer three-peat in IMSA competition since the 1998 Petit Le Mans, until a radiator leak for the No. 912 Manthey Porsche resulted in retirement with 35 minutes to go, after the car had led for 34 laps.
***The GTD Pro class pole-sitting No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3’s race unraveled with less than four-and-a-half hours to go when the left-front wheel fell off the car while Kyle Kirkwood was at the wheel. It resulted in a much-needed yellow for many competitors, following a three hour and 12-minute green flag run.
***Kirkwood said: “We had something happen to the car that we can’t really understand at this time and unfortunately it cost us the race. But, nonetheless, the team did a phenomenal job. The car preparation was incredible. Our car itself had phenomenal pace and was probably one of the best cars we’ve had at Sebring.”
***Vasser Sullivan’s GTD class Lexus, meanwhile, went behind the wall in the second hour with an overheating gearbox, although the car later returned to action and rejoined the race more than 50 laps behind.
***Lilou Wadoux became the first female driver to win the Twelve Hours of Sebring since Christina Nielsen scored top class honors, also in the GTD class, in 2016, at the wheel of a Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3. Wadoux’s last WeatherTech Championship win came in the 2025 season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, also at the wheel of an AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
***The class win for Wadoux, Simon Mann and Ferrari Hypercar star Antonio Fuoco, who overcame three drive-through penalties for an impressive comeback drive, marked the first win for the 296 GT3 Evo, which debuted at the Rolex 24.
***Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta said: “We achieved a remarkable result at Sebring in the competitive GTD class, where our drivers put in an extraordinary performance right up to the final stages to reach this milestone. Congratulations to AF Corse USA, the drivers, and the entire team that worked to maximize the potential of the car.”
***Joey Hand, in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, emerged as the class leader going into the final phase of the race, as the team made a gamble on fuel to stay out on track, with the hope of having at least 15 minutes of safety car time in the final hour, which did not materialize. Hand and co-drivers Jake Walker and Till Bechtolsheimer finished eighth in class.
***Hand said: “We got what we could get. We managed the car well the entire race and executed in the pits. We don’t lose spots in the pits and we don’t get penalties. That’s what we need to continue to do. I’m looking forward to coming back for Watkins Glen (as the Endurance Cup driver).”
***The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Eduaro Barrichello and Tom Gamble, which along with Endurance Cup pilot Zach Robichon, finished second, effectively hold a 131-point lead in the GTD standings, with both the second and third-placed No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo entries only entered for the five long-distance races.
***It means the fourth-placed 13 Autosport Corvette of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell are Barrichello’s closest competitor in the title race, following the team’s sixth place class finish on Saturday. As is the case with Bamber, Gamble is set to miss the next race at Long Beach due to his full-season WEC commitments.
***Fidani, who won the last two Bob Akin Awards, now effectively holds a 130-point lead over the next closest full season driver, Brendan Iribe, with newly confirmed full-time driver Sheena Monk a further ten points behind and tied with DragonSpeed’s Henrik Hedman in what’s shaping up to be the most competitive battle for best GTD Bronze driver in recent years.
***A total of 54 cars took the start of the race following the last-minute withdrawal of the No. 79 JDC-Miller Motorsports LMP2 entry due to personal reasons for its Bronze-rated driver Gerry Kraut. It came after the car was handed a 60-minute stop-and-hold penalty in practice for using un-homolgated components on the car, which were believed to have been ride height sensors.
***Saturday delivered an all-time single-day attendance record at Sebring International Raceway. An official attendance number is expected to be announced later this week according to an IMSA spokesperson.
***Tickets are already on sale for the 75th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, which is set for March 20, 2027. IMSA President John Doonan revealed in an extended interview with IMSA Radio’s John Hindhaugh that Sebring will nominate its 75 best drivers as part of next year’s race celebrations.
***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a GTP and GTD-only 100-minute sprint race on April 18. The GTD Pro class will return to action in the following round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 3, while LMP2 takes a break until the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on June 28, which is the next Endurance Cup race.
John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John
