Porsche Penske completes another Florida sweep with Sebring win

Just like last year, everyone else in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has left the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring asking one of two questions: Can anyone stop Porsche Penske Motorsport? Can anyone stop Felipe Nasr?

Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich followed up their victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona win two months ago with a victory at this year’s 74th annual edition of the fabled Twelve Hours, replicating what Porsche, Penske, and Nasr achieved last year when they last swept the so-called “36 Hours of Florida.”

It’s Porsche’s 20th overall win at Sebring, a milestone which extends the German brand’s record of Sebring success, and it came with Roger Penske serving as the race’s grand marshal.

Only in the first couple of hours did their chances of victory seem as if they were at risk; Nasr picked up an early drive-through penalty for an incident with the privateer No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche. Mired down in last place after an hour and 30 minutes, it only took one spark to turn things around.

That spark was a spirited charge from Heinrich – in only his second IMSA GTP start for Porsche Penske – to go from ninth on a restart to the lead in less than 20 minutes. Nasr, Heinrich and Andlauer would then go on to lead 241 out of the race’s 343 laps.

The No. 6 car of Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matt Campbell was never far behind and even took the lead late, finishing a close second to complete a 1-2 finish for Porsche Penske. Both factory cars wore special liveries in homage to the 1996 Porsche 911 GT1, a car that also brought about the first collaboration between Porsche factory sports car racing and Mobil 1.

With 65 minutes to go, Nasr and Estre had swapped the lead a few times in the final few hours, on track and in the pits – but it was a high-risk pass from Nasr up the inside of Sunset Bend (Turn 17) that ultimately gave the No. 7 car the lead for good. He’d hold on after a final restart with 17 minutes left to secure the win by 1.515s.

With Heinrich parting ways with the No. 7 Porsche until Motul Petit Le Mans in October, Nasr and Andlauer will carry a 100-point lead in the GTP championship into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 17–18.

Once again, Cadillac would breach the podium – this time, after a gutting DNF at Daytona, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens got to third place after Taylor overtook Cadillac Whelen’s Jack Aitken with a little over 10 minutes left. (UPDATE: The No. 10 was disqualified after the race when it failed technical inspection.)

Aitken led the first hour, but the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac would take fourth place on the road after spending most of the race as Porsche’s strongest challenger. The team's early challenge was blighted by a pit-lane collision between Vanthoor and Bamber that left the Cadillac worse off than the Porsche.

Acura and BMW each had muted days; fifth- and seventh-place finishes for the No. 60 and No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06es respectively, and a sixth place for the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8, despite a late spin into the tire barrier. WRT’s second car, the No. 25, was taken out of contention after a sketchy rejoin from the GTD No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari left Marco Wittmann with nowhere to go early on.

Aitken and Bamber sit second in GTP points, followed by Porsche’s Estre and Vanthoor (-101), and BMW’s Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 car. But Bamber will have to miss Long Beach due to his WEC commitments in Imola, leaving Aitken to carry the Cadillac Whelen challenge in his absence.

REVISED RESULTS