Porsche Penske led the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s 12 Hours of Sebring after one hour when Dries Vanthoor lost his lead to a penalty.
The second round of the 2025 IMSA schedule got underway at 09.10 local time at the Sebring International Raceway.
Dramatically, pole-sitter Dries Vanthoor incurred a drive-through penalty shortly after the start after moving lanes before the start-finish line for the 73rd edition of the historic race.
It was a less-than-ideal start for the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP team as Porsche Penske inherited the lead after Vanthoor’s drive-through penalty was served, Felipe Nasr (#7 Porsche 963) ahead of Mathieu Jaminet (#6 Porsche).
Race control called a short yellow caution period after Era Motorsport’s Tobias Lutke and AF Corse’s Luis Perez Companc came together.
The #18 and #88 Oreca 07s both continued with the former requiring assistance in doing so. Both seemingly incurred only front-end bodywork damage during their incident.
As the race resumed with 11-hours and 46-minutes remaining, the Porsche Penskes began to establish their lead with Nasr setting strong lap times early on.
D. Vanthoor dropped behind the entire GTP field – and some LMP2 – after serving his drive-through after the green flag, thus under circumstances when the pit lane was open.
Behind the two Porsche Penskes were the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s. Tom Blomqvist (#60 Acura) was ahead of the #93 Acura of Renger van der Zande.
Louis Deletraz of the #40 Cadillac V-Series.R completed the top-five in GTP although his #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac team-mate fell to the back of the field after suffering a brief throttle issue.
TDS leads LMP2, Triarsi Competizione fronts GT field
Meanwhile in LMP2, after the initial incident between Lutke and Perez Companc, Steven Thomas led in his #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 from United Autosports USA’s #22 of Daniel Goldburg.
Behind him was the AO Racing #99 Oreca of PJ Hyett followed by the other #2 United Oreca of Nick Boulle.
In the GTD Pro category, Albert Costa controlled the start in his #81 Dragonspeed Ferrari 296 GT3 ahead of reigning champions Laurin Heinrich and the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3.R.
Neil Verhagen in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 fell at the start from second down to P6, although his #48 BMW team-mate and reigning British GT champion Dan Harper kept the momentum going for the team.
After the opening hour, Costa led ahead of the #77 of Heinrich, followed by Tommy Milner’s #4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Verhagen who climbed into P4 after his team-mate was the first car of the category to perform a scheduled pit stop.
In GTD, it was seemingly smooth for pole-sitter Alessandrio Pier Guidi in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 until he suffered a brake failure into one of the corners.
Contact between Ricky Taylor’s #10 Cadillac on Charles Scardina’s #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari triggered a second caution, as the Cadillac tapped the Ferrari off at Turn 13 and into the wall.
After suffering a throttle issue early on, the #10 Cadillac set in for a stop-and-60 second penalty for causing the incident.
Sheena Monk led the class in the #021 Ferrari, followed by Russell Ward’s #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Zacharie Robichon’s #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
Misha Goikhberg held fourth for Forte Racing (#78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2) as Lorenzo Patrese rounded out the top-five in the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari.
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