Felipe Nasr of the #7 Porsche Penske 963 GTP led the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener, the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The most important hours of the 63rd running of the iconic event was when the gruelling endurance challenge became more of a sprint – as temperatures began to warm up.
Fatigue and reliability issues put drivers, teams including mechanics, and most notably, the cars, under a great deal of pressure during the night.
Whilst Porsche Penske settled at the front, the real drama was in the GTD Pro fight for the lead.
Corvette driver #4 Tommy Milner fought with the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO with even the other #48 BMW included, though under controversial circumstances.
Into the 21st racing hour, Connor de Phillippi held a 13-second lead on Milner’s #4 Z06 GT3.R, but that gap narrowed down in the following hour.
A battle between the pair ensued with gripping nose-to-tail and wheel-to-wheel racing.
Not only the forward slipstream kept the cars close on the speedway corners, but also door-to-door side-drafting.
Milner was under pressure for the lead from de Phillippi so Phillippi tried to slip it down the inside at Turn 6 but did not make it stick, and the same later at the Le Mans chicane.
One key fact was that the #48 BMW of Augusto Farfus was 57 laps down thus not involved in the fight.
Milner used Farfus’ slipstream with 2-hours and 50-minutes remaining. After supposedly blocking in the battle, Farfus was awarded a drive-through penalty and Milner’s rear-left bodywork was left hanging after contact with the #1 BMW at T3.
The Corvette mechanics added tape at two pit stops in order to keep the bodywork in place, having received a mechanical black flag during the latter instance.
LMP2 heartbreak as 13th caution called
In the LMP2 category, Matthieu Vaxiviere suffered heartbreak from the class lead after stopping at T3, so this triggered the 13th full-course-caution.
Jonny Edgar of the #99 AO Racing Oreca 07 inherited the lead as a result.
Paul di Resta was second for the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca ahead of Job van Uitert’s #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca and Ryan Dalziel’s #18 Era Motorsport Oreca.
Just as they seemed settled in 1-2 formation, the #6 Porsche Penske 963 was hectically worked upon by the mechanics, specifically the rear end.
Felipe Nasr led the way in the #7 Porsche Penske ahead of pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor in the #24 BMW RLL M Hybrid V8 GTP.
Kevin Estre, driving the #6 Porsche, was third in the order ahead of Tom Blomqvist’s #60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 and Filipe Albuquerque’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
In GTD Pro, de Phillippi was in the lead ahead of the two Ford Mustangs, Christopher Mies (#65) and Sebastien Priaulx (#64). Fabian Schiller held fourth for Getspeed’s #69 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, followed by the #91 Trackhouse by TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Connor Zilisch.
Matt Bell fronted the GTD category for the #13 AWA Corvette followed by Lucas Auer’s #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Elliott Skeer.
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