The 68th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring has seen drama take hold in the opening hours of the race as both championship contenders in the DPi class have hit trouble.
Moments before the green flag dropped, Van Der Zande dropped out of line to move behind the race leading #7 Team Penske Acura of Ricky Taylor which is a breach of Article 44.3.5 of the Sporting Regulations.
The #10 was handed a subsequent drive-through penalty which Van Der Zande took immediately in order to minimise the time lost in the overall race.
Further drama arose when after the first round of pitstops as Taylor’s #7 Penske Acura began to slow on its out lap, Taylor immediately brought the car back and crew began working on the car in the pitbox before it was decided by the team to take the car behind the wall.
As it stands, the #6 Acura Penske of Dane Cameron holds the race lead ahead of the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac which has Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel.
In LMP2 Patrick Kelly has been able to hold onto the class lead in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA 07, in second is the Inter Europol Competition machine of Naveen Rao which has fallen behind some of the GTLM cars led by Connor De Phillipi at the wheel of the #25 Rahal BMW.
John Farano in the Starworks ORECA also hit the wall at the exit of the final corner which has led to a full course yellow thanks to debris from his headlight assembly being left out on the racetrack as the first hour came to a close.
The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari with Cooper Macneil at the wheel currently holds the lead of the GTD class.
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