It is a good evening to be a Porsche driver, particularly Nick Tandy. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 1-2 end general on the 12 Hours of Sebring additionally earned Tandy, now often known as “Mr. 24,” the Triple Crown of endurance — having accomplished a set of victories on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours at Daytona (profitable in January), and right now, the 12 Hours of Sebring. Tandy’s the tenth particular person to ever full the Triple Crown of endurance racing — becoming a member of the ranks of greats like Hurley Haywood, Hans Herrmann, and A.J. Foyt.
However it’s not only a large celebration for Tandy’s feat, or the 1-2 win at Porsche. The #7 Porsche Penske automobile had simply accomplished a flawless back-to-back win of Daytona and Sebring.
“You not often see… one thing… do a single occasion with none faults or errors or something like this,” Tandy instructed media within the post-race press convention. “We have simply been celebrating with 24 folks that have simply flawlessly run a automobile for 36 hours — clearly Daytona and Sebring mixed — and it is only a testomony to what Porsche and Porsche Penske has put collectively as a bunch of individuals. They permit us to go racing and have the success with out a mistake. As a result of the simplest factor on this planet to do in racing is make a mistake, whether or not you are in there driving, or whether or not you’ve got been making a technique name or something.”
Begin motion GTD
Picture by: Andreas Beil
Incomes one other win for Porsche was Laurin Heinrich and the #77 AO Racing Porsche (Rexy), (who will probably achieve one other gold tooth for this one) for the GTD Professional class. The 23-year-old German driver additionally managed to interrupt an IMSA GTD Professional race-lap document at Sebring, and instantly broke it once more throughout the last minutes of the race, posting a lap time of two:00.451.
Rexy’s win places the #77 second within the factors for the class, second to the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang, who gained the class on the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Within the LMP2 class, whereas the #8 Turner Motorsport tried to take care of the lead for the ultimate hour, the #43 Inter Europol Competitors was in a position to slide previous for the class win.
And eventually — a nail-biting race for the primary a part of the final inexperienced part of the race for the GTD class because the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus (Jack Hawksworth) and #57 Workforce Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG (Philip Ellis) put up a formidable struggle. A too-close for consolation go, within the midst of impatient site visitors from the GTP class, allowed the #57 to steal the lead from the #12 Lexus, in the end claiming the general win.
#57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje
Picture by: IMSA
Earlier than we shut the ebook on this 12 hours of racing, a take a look at what occurred within the last third of the race:
Hour 9: The GTD class-leader, #21 AF Corse, kicks issues off with a driver change — Lilou Wadoux changing Alessandro Pier Guidi — and a problem that stopped the Ferrari along with Flip 6. The race remained inexperienced briefly till crews are launched to retrieve the stopped #21.
The solar, on its approach to sundown, has now grow to be a evident drawback for drivers going into Flip 7. In different “7”-related information, there are solely seven vehicles presently on the lead lap.
In the course of the full course yellow, simply earlier than the tip of the hour, an incident in the course of the hybrid class pit cycle between the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian and #24 BWM M Workforce RLL ends in minor chaos within the pits. The #60 was launched unsafely when it made contact with the #24. Unable to maneuver, the Acura remained in place till pitting was accomplished. It’s ultimately wheeled again to its pit field to repair the numerous injury that was stopping it from transferring. The #24 suffers injury and is pulled behind the wall for repairs. The #60 is issued a drive by penalty for the unsafe launch.
#48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO: Max Hesse, Dan Harper, Jesse Krohn
Picture by: IMSA
Hour 10: 5 minutes at the beginning of the tenth hour, racing returns to inexperienced, briefly, till the #88 AF Corse LMP2 made contact with the wall in Flip 17. It seems to have simply missed the flip or a possible problem with the automobile despatched it straight. However the contact causes vital injury. A “brief yellow” is issued, that means there might be no pit cycles throughout this warning. Driver Matias Perez Companc is reported to be okay and out of the automobile.
The #63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse GTP, having gone behind the wall in the course of the full course yellow, formally retires as a result of a compromised ground. AF Corse retires each its #21 Ferrari GTD and #88 LMP2.
Huge lead change as Nick Tandy, brings the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche to the entrance of the sector.
Hour 11: Again in motion and now 31 laps down, is the #24 BMW with pole-setting driver Dries Vanthoor behind the wheel — returning to the observe after the unlucky pit incident the hour prior with the #60 Acura. Even 31 laps down, it is nonetheless forward of the retired #63 Lamborghini GTP.
The previous couple of minutes of the penultimate hour, and the #021 Triarsi Competizione is having a tough go of it. It went off at Flip 8 and has been slowly make its approach across the course to the pit, having recorded over 100-second occasions in every sector. It retired shortly after.
#023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3: Onofrio Triarsi, Charles Scardina, Alessio Rovera
Picture by: IMSA
Ultimate Hour: With an hour to go, Porsche practically guidelines all of the lessons. The general lead belongs to the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche with Felipe Nasr on the wheel. Sébastien Bourdais pilots the #8 LMP2 class-leading Tower Motorsports automobile — the one non-Porsche main its respective class. Laurin Heinrich continues to impress together with his capability to deal with a automobile, driving the #77 AO Racing Porsche (Rexy) on the entrance of the GTD Professional discipline, and the ultimate Porsche, is the #120 of Wright Motorsports, with Elliott Skeer.
#80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG (GTD) limps by Flip 16 with a flat tire — its shredded stays left behind within the heart of a darkish portion of the observe. Race management points a full course yellow with 46 minutes left of the race with pit cycles for prototype and GT vehicles — presumably the final of the evening.
The course returns to inexperienced with simply over a half hour left of the race and instantly the #22 United Autosports USA LMP2 automobile spins in Flip 1 — simply out of harms approach, however makes an attempt to get itself out of the barrier to rejoin the sector. It proceeds with injury to rear wing, and a warning is averted in the meanwhile. It is a Porsche 1-2-4 within the GTP class with Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #7 (Felipe Nasr) and #6 (Mathieu Jaminet), and #5 Proton Competitors (Neel Jani). One lonely Acura, the #93 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian sits amongst them in third. LMP2 chief is Maithe Jakobsen within the #04 Crowdstrike automobile. Within the GTs, Laurin Heinrich once more takes the lead with #77 AO Racing Porsche for GTD Professional, and the #12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus piloted by Jack Hawksworth for GTD.
Heinrich, sustaining his lead of the GTD Professional discipline breaks the IMSA GTD Professional race-lap document at Sebring, posting a 2:00.500 within the #77 automobile. With lower than 5 minutes left within the race, he then breaks his personal document he had simply set — posting a 2:00.451.
Hold an eye fixed out for all the remainder of our race protection of the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring on Motorsport.com’s IMSA hub.
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