With three hours to go, Porsche Penske still holds the cards at Sebring

Through nine hours of racing at Sebring International Raceway, Porsche Penske Motorsport still holds all the cards as the crucial final night-time hours are imminent.

Laurin Heinrich – who drove the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 from ninth to first earlier – reset the fastest lap of the race after a recent restart and opened up a six-second lead over Laurens Vanthoor in the trailing No. 6 Porsche. The GTP leaders made green flag pit stops moments ago, but it’s still a Porsche 1–2, as Julien Andlauer has now boarded the leading No. 7 Porsche and Matt Campbell the No. 6

The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 of Colin Braun, the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R of Filipe Albuquerque, and the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor complete the top five as they run at the interval.

Porsche’s hold on the race hasn’t broken despite the end of a long green flag run with a little over four and a half hours to go. That happened after the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 suffered a puncture and lost its left-front wheel coming out of Turn 7. The loose wheel brought out a full course yellow for the first time since the fifth hour of the race. At the time, Kyle Kirkwood was running fourth in the pole-sitting Lexus and spoiling Vasser Sullivan Racing’s chances of a second Sebring GTD Pro win in three years.

AO Racing continues to lead LMP2; Dane Cameron in the No. 99 ORECA 07-Gibson runs ahead of Hunter McElrea in the No. 2 United Autosports USA car in second, with a gap to Toby Sowery in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR car in third.

In GTD Pro, the No. 911 Manthey “Grello” car re-took the lead from the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche; “Roxy” was caught out by the full course yellow, took emergency service first, then had to return to the pits, where it underwent a brake change.

Alessio Picariello is on a rampage, though – he’s navigated “Roxy” back up to second behind race leader Ricardo Feller. Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO runs third, ahead of the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Antonio García.

And in GTD, the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has retaken the lead; Zacharie Robichon leads the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Callum Ilott in second, followed by the 13 Autosport Corvette of Lars Kern in third.

Elsewhere, the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, which has had a difficult week in GTD, officially retired after suffering an oil leak, later joined by the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari. And the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 (alternator) and No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG (fuel pump) have each spent significant time behind the wall for mechanical problems.

But all of this can change dramatically in the final three hours.