Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing has won the 70th running of the Twelve Hours of Sebring with the #02 Cadillac DPi-VR of Neel Jani, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, with the latter sealing the win with a stunning final stint.
Bamber himself laid the foundation for the win with a strong stint into the darkness, before handing over to Lynn who did a double stint.
When Bamber then took the car back over, he made contact with the AWA Duqueine LMP3 car and had to serve a drivethrough penalty.
This promoted the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac of Richard Westbrook to the lead.
The two-time Le Mans winner then chased down Westbrook and retook the lead, only to relinquish it again when he spun after making contact with Simon Mann’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari.
Once again, Bamber chased, caught and passed Westbrook for the race lead out of turn 16 when the Briton got caught in traffic and raced to the chequered flag from there.
Westbrook, Tristan Vautier and Loic Duval finished second, ahead of the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez and Mike Conway.
Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens finished fourth for Wayne Taylor Racing, seeing a potential win fall away when Stevens had to serve a drivethrough for missing the RFID reader at the end of the pit lane.
The top five was rounded out by the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 of Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Stoffel Vandoorne.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports took a dominant race win in the LMP2 class.
Ben Keating, Scott Huffaker and Mikkel Jensen started the race from pole in the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson and remained largely unchallenged throughout.
They lost the lead for a spell in the early stage of the race to the father-and-son duo of Juan Pablo and Sebastian Montoya, until the elder Montoya crashed out in a multi-car crash triggered by a spinning LMP3 contender.
From there, the #52 crew controlled the race and won, finishing a lap ahead of the second-placed #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA of Frits van Eerd, Giedo van der Garde and Dylan Murry.
Ryan Dalziel, Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley completed the podium in the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA.
The LMP3 class win went to the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320-Nissan of Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa and Malthe Jakobsen.
The team cruised to the race win once the polesitting #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 retired with radiator damage.
Garett Grist,Ari Balogh and Dakota Dickerson finished second in the #30 JrIII Racing Ligier, with Rasmus Lindh, Dan Goldburg and Cameron Shields third for Performance Tech Motorsports.
Corvette Racing won the race in GTD Pro with a dominant display, sealed with a pass from Nick Catsburg on Pfaff Motorsports’ Matt Campbell.
Catsburg wrestled his #3 Corvette C8.R past Campbell’s #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R after a restart in the second half of the race and remained unchallenged from there.
The #63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli finished second, ahead of the #97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Cooper MacNeil, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel after the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 stopped on the final lap.
Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Roberto Lacorte have taken the GTD class win in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, finishing ahead of the 32 Gilbert/Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driven by Mike Skeen, Stevan McAleer and Daniel Juncadella.
The podium was completed by the #21 AF Corse Ferrari of Simon Mann, Luiz Perez Companc and Toni Vilander.
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