Porsche back in lead after a long stint at the front from Cadillac
Porsche back in lead afte🌟r a long🌳 stint at the front from Cadillac
Porsche overtook Cadillac shortly before the halfwa♍y point to grab the overall lead in the Sebring 12 Hours.
Felipe Nasr passed the long-time leading #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Earl Bamber with just five minute👍s to go in hour six to put the #7 Porsche Penske at the head of the order.
Porsche led the race after the opening hour but an ill-timed Ful🧔l Course Yellow caught out two facto🅠ry Penske cars, who found the pitlane to be closed as they approached the end of the lap.
The AXR Caddy benefitted from the same caution period and toꦕok the lead immediately at the restart, as Bamber’s teammate Jack Aitken breezed past the Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean, who tumbled 🐷to the back of the GTP pack with a sluggish getaway.
The #31 Cadillac enjoyed a near-uninterrupted run at the front from thereon, only dropping to second when the #60 Me🍃yer Shank Racing Acura benefitted from a fifth-hour caution to leap to the front.
That was until Nasr closed i𓂃n a five-second gap and passed the AXR Cadillac to put Porsche back in front at the Florida🥂-based venue.
Mathieu Jaminet made it a 1-3 for Porsche, although the #6 Porsche then driven by Kevin Estre briefly dropped behind the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marc𓆏o Wittmann in the sixth hour.
The #24 RLL-entered factory BMW of former Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen ran fourth, while the sister #25 entry slipped to seventh after its pitstop, as Sheldon van der Lin🔥de took over from Wittmann.
The two BMWs were separated by the Meyer Shank Acuras, with Renger van der Zande in the #93 ARX-06 run🦋ning ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the #60 car - the two battling hard for fifth position.
Van🐈 der Zande had fought back💝 after the #93 Acura was given a drive through penalty for a pitlane infringement.
In the LMP2 class, Malthe Jakobsen held the lead in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca 0🃏7, ahead of Tom Dillmann in the #43 InterEuropol Oreca.
The #11 TDS R♉acing car that led 🐟early on dropped to third, with Hunter McElrea now at the wheel.
Meanwhile, Mike Rockenfeller drove the #64 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 to the lead of the GTD ܫPro class, but was having to fend off the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 of Connor de Phillippi as the race rea🔴ched the halfway point.
Nicky Catsburg held third in the #4 Pratt Miller Corvette Z06.R, while Laurin Heinrich provisionally dropped outside the podium spots in the #ꦓ77 AO Racing Porsche.
In the pro-am GTD class, Kenton Coch put the #32 Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3 in the lead in the sixth hour after a hard-fought battle with Tom Gamble in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3♐.
The first half of the race featured several caution periods🍷, mostly due to incidents in LMP2 and GTD classes.
However, the most recent FCY was deployed when Brendon Hartley locked up the front-right tyre of his #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and went straight int🐈o the wall at Turn 17.
He was able to nurse the♛ car back to the pits, but the #40 Cadillac is now circulating four laps off the lead.