Porsche Penske Motorsport remain out front, with Laurin Heinrich’s #7 Porsche 963 leading Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 sister car after eight hours in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
An extended green run of over three hours saw the pair pull away from the field and cruise off to over 24s on the rest of the GTP rivals. However, the sixth caution has brought them together again around the 3.74-mile, 17-turn airfield circuit.
There have been 227 laps completed to this point.
Following Hour 4…
Julien Andlauer led Matt Campbell but 15 minutes later another full course caution came out after Inception Racing’s Brenden Iribe and van der Steur Racing’s Sebastien Baud got together, leading to the former spinning and hitting the #25 BMW M Hybrid (BMW M Team WRT) of Marco Wittman in Turn 13. Wittman ended up behind the wall, while Iribe’s Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO lost its hood.
Through pit stops, Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell kept Porsche Penske Motorsport 1-2 in their #7 and #6 machines, respectively.
Once things resumed, the race became relatively calm as Andlauer built up a lead of over 6.5s with seven hours to go.
With 6h45m to go, pit stops began for the GTP class and there was action between the #93 Acura ARX-06 and the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R as Nick Yelloly and Frederik Vesti made contact, with the former pulling ahead. Andlauer pitted moments later, with Felipe Nasr taking over the #7 Porsche 963. Estre swapped with Campbell in the #6 machine.
The halfway point continued to see Porsche Penske Motorsport in control, led by Nasr. In LMP2, AO Racing’s Dane Cameron held a 24s advantage over the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA of Paul Di Resta. AO Racing also led in GTD Pro with Nick Tandy up 12s on Manthey’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Thomas Preining. Charlie Eastwood (DXDT Racing) was 4s ahead of Manthey 1st Phorm’s Morris Schurring.
During the pit cycle stops with 5h40m left, the #24 BMW M Team WRT ran for a full hour on its stint and cycled up to third before stopping; short-fueling its energy replenishment to roughly 85 percent to strengthen its track position. The duo of Nasr and Estre pitted moments later and returned back to the track running 1-2.
Nasr continued to lead into the seventh hour, with Estre 4.2s behind. The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of van der Linde 12.2s back in third but also with 25 percent less energy to the frontrunners.
The #31 Whelen Cadillac of Jack Aitken spun off course in Turn 3 while running fourth. The incident happened five minutes after the 7hr mark. He was able to gather it back up and not bring out a caution, but dropped to seventh.
A run of pit stops began once more, with the #60 Acura ARX-06 coming in as Tom Blomqvist gave way to Scott Dixon. Additionally, the Acura Meyer Shank Racing squad replaced the front clip. Aitken pitted 10 minutes after his half-spin, with the crew doing its routine service before sending him back out into the fight. Nasr and Estre dove to pit lane 20 minutes past the seven-hour mark, with a driver change putting Heinrich in the #7 and Vanthoor in the #6. Heinrich led the pair back and held a 4.7s lead on his teammate. Frijns took over for van der Linde, running third at 21.9s behind and in a fight for fourth with van der Zande’s #93 Acura ARX-06.
And the sixth full course caution came out 22 minutes from the eight-hour mark after Kyle Kirkwood, running third in GTD Pro, suffered a left-front wheel coming off his #14 Lexus RC F GT3in Turn moments after pitting; ending a 3h,12m of green flag running. Kirkwood made it back around to the pits, but the Vasser Sullivan crew were struggling with the wheel for an extended amount of time before sending him back out.
The entire GTP field pitted. After full fill energy servicing, the running order was Heinrich in first, followed by Vanthoor, Bamer, van der Zande and Frijns in the top five.
There was also a rotor and pad change for AO Racing’s ‘Roxy’ in GTD Pro, with the pit crew seen bringing out the new parts for the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
The field after the rest of the field made pit stops saw LMP2 led by AO Racing’s Dane Cameron, followed by Crowdstrike Racing by APR’s Alex Quinn. James Calado had his #033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO ahead in GTD Pro, with Manthey’s 1st Phorm’s Riccardo Para in the #912 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
