Porsche Penske lead after 6 hours in Sebring
- DIVEBOMB Sportscars Team
- 3 hours ago
- 8 min read
The No.7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr leads a Porsche 1-2 at the way at the halfway mark of the 2026 12 Hours of Sebring, in an opening half dominated by Porsche, but pace shown by Cadillac and Acura in parts.
The No.99 AO Racing car leads LMP2, the No.77 AO Racing Porsche leads GTD Pro and the No.36 DXDT Corvette leads GTD.
In a sunny and hot Sebring, 54 cars took to the track in order to start in the 74th edition of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The 55th car, Intersport Racing's No. 79 LMP2 entry, failed to do so due to ''personal reasons" for one of their drivers.
At the start not much changed, as polesitter Jack Aitken led the way in the No. 31 Cadillac, with Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura and Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of the No. 10 Cadillac following suit.
Further back Misha Goikhberg led the way in LMP2, as did Jack Hawksworth and Eduardo Barrichello in GTD Pro and GTD respectively. Early on there were some minor contact and door banging throughout the field, notably between Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Penske Porsche and Renger Van der Zande in the No. 93 Acura.
The Dutchman was the standout in the early stages of the race, climbing from ninth to fifth, though he was subsequently given a team radio call to back it down a bit.
In GTD Pro, Dean McDonald driving the No. 59 McLaren for the opening stint was doing wonders, as in only his second IMSA race - having qualified in fifth - he climbed up to second in quick succession, showing remarkable pace.
The same can be said of Antonio Fuoco in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari, as the Italian made rapid progress from fifth on the GTD class, eventually passing Dudu Barrichello for the lead before even fifteen minutes had elapsed.
Fuoco went on to create a gap of six seconds to the Brazilian in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, but around 39 minutes in, a full-course yellow was called due to debris on turn five, with every gap diminishing, as every car dived into the pits.
This sequence proved to be the undoing for the No. 7 Porsche's race, as a second unscheduled stop was needed, dropping Nasr down the GTP order. Around half an hour later he also received a drive-through penalty for causing contact with the No. 5 JDM Porsche driven by Kaylen Frederick.
This was not the only penalty though, as the No. 2 United Autosports LMP2 car received a combined penalty of a stop + 60s for an improperly served emergency pitstop.
After around 20 minutes racing resumed, with Aitken leading the way from now second-placed Van der Zande, with the Acura crew doing a spectacular job in the pits.
Further down the order John Farano, driving the No. 8 Tower Oreca bizarrely spun twice in consecutive corners (Turns 15 and 16), possibly due to cold tires, safely re-joining in last place.
Aitken started building a gap to Van der Zande, the Dutchman clearly struggling for pace in that stage of the race, the Acura seemingly uneasy over the bumps and not as stable as he would like, with a queue of five cars quickly forming behind.
Eventually he succumbed to pressure from Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche, the Frenchman getting past in Turn 1, though worse came shortly after as Van der Zande rode wide over the kerbs at Turn 16 and suffered a spin, falling down to 11th and last in the GTP class.
Estre then quickly set his sights on Aitken, rapidly closing a near three-second gap between them and snatching the lead with a smart move exiting the last corner, around one hour and 17 minutes in. Despite getting a BoP hit after Daytona, the Porsche in Estre's hands seemed to come alive.
The same could not be said about the No. 31 Cadillac in Aitken's hands, as he struggled to find pace in this part of the race, eventually losing second to Tom Blomqvist, right before a second full-course yellow halted all action and triggered another round of pit-stops.
The cause for the FCY was GTD driver Hendrik Hedman crashing his No. 81 Corvette after being pushed out of the track by the faster No. 52 Era Oreca LMP2 car of Parker Thompson, in a rather careless move, the Briton receiving a five-minute stop & go penalty for the altercation.
The second FCY of the race proved to be marvellous timing-wise for Louis Deletraz and the No. 40 Cadillac, as the team had made a stop just before it came out, subsequently jumping into the GTP lead, while the rest of the field took the opportunity for new tyres and more fuel, as the two-hour mark loomed. The No. 31 Cadillac also came in for a second time during the FCY for a rear-wing change, with damage to the left-rear, falling down to sixth place.
As the field stabilized during the FCY, the aforementioned Delatraz lead the way overall and in the GTP class, with PJ Hyett, Sebastian Priaulx and Zacharie Robichon leading in LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD respectively, the latter taking the reins from Dudu Barrichello, who had retaken the class lead from the - now Simon Mann driven - No. 21 Ferrari.
Roughly 20 minutes after the FCY came out, the green flag fell and Laurens Vanthoor in his No. 6 Porsche wasted no time in snatching second from Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Cadillac. Meanwhile the sister No. 7 car, having had a troubled race thus far, came alive in the hands of Laurin Heinrich, the German making his way from sixth all the way to the lead of the race in the span of only 20 minutes!
Vanthoor, having lost out to his teammate, then also got past Delatraz, with the Porsches now 1-2, although nearly six seconds now separated them. In the following laps however, Deletraz lost lots of ground rapidly, falling all the way down to ninth, a whole 17 seconds behind leader Heinrich.
Further down the order a nice battle for the GTD lead was occuring, with Robichon holding on despite pressure from Lilou Wadoux in the No. 21 Ferrari and Russell Ward in the No. 57 Mercedes.
Other than that the order looked set pretty much throughout the field, up until a three-car accident involving Seb Priaulx's No. 65 Ford, Alessandro Pier Guidi's No. 62 Ferrari and Russell Ward's No.57 Mercedes, brought out a third full-course yellow and the safety car, since the latter two were left stranded in the middle of the track and retired.
Replays showed the Ford and the Ferrari spinning simultaneously exiting the final corner, with Ward having no time to react and crashing into Pier Guidi's Ferrari. Priaulx's Ford was undamaged and able to continue. This incident was the end for the No.62, officially retiring not long after the incident.
That brought with it another round of pit stops for all four classes. When we got back to green flag racing it was Jordan Taylor in the No.40 Cadillac that led away, from the resurgent No.7 Porsche and the sister No.6. That trio pulled away from the rest of the pack as the stint went on.
Down in GTD Pro, the No.59 McLaren which had been going very well until this point had a fuel pressure issue, losing about 5 seconds down the Ullmann straight. However, they did get going again, just at the back of the class field.
Callum Illot had a very hairy moment in the No.120 Porsche, going very wide out of the final corner, missing the tyre barrier by just centimeters.
With eight hours and 20 minutes to go on the clock, race control pulled out the FCY yellow again for debris at Turn 3. The pitstops here would be crucial, with Endurance Cup points being handed out just 15 minutes later.
All the GTPs pit despite this, with the Porsches coming out on top. The No.7 led from the No.6, with the No.10 in third. All the LMP2s on the lead lap also pit, with the No.99 taking the lead from the No.8 which dropped to third. The No.22 split them both.
In the GTD classes, everyone but the No.033, No.1, No.21 and No.4 came into the pits. Those four were the only ones in the field to focus on Endurance Cup points.
On the restart Andlauer, Campbell and Stevens all got away well in their respective cars. The two Acuras in fourth and fifth swapped positions though, Scott Dixon in the No.60 getting caught out by Nick Yelloly in the No.93.
Just 30 seconds before the eight hour mark, Toby Sowery in the No.04 Crowdstrike had a scary high speed spin exiting turn 1. He spun by himself on the bumps at high speed, narrowly avoiding the wall and getting moving again. Before the spin he was in third.
The No.70 Inception Racing Ferrari went for a spin too, it was three wide with two other cars when the No.19 Aston Martin behind of Sebastian Baud misjudged it's braking point and pit maneuvered the Ferrari. Brendon Iribe however, did get going again.
Just over 10 minutes later, Iribe spun on his own towards the end of sector 2. But as he tried to move back in haste, he caught the corner of the No.25 BMW GTP, giving Marco Wittmann bad damage on the rear corner. Iribe came away missing the front bonnet too. The BMW went straight behind the wall for repairs.
The pits opened again, and all the GTPs pit again. Porsche once again emerged at the head of the field, followed by the No.10 Cadillac and the No.31 which had jumped both the Acuras.
Everyone in LMP2 pit except the No.22 and No.37. They assumed first and second places, with the No.99 of Jonny Edgar leading the pitters.
All of the GTD Pros pit, while the No.28, No.45 and No.21 were the only ones to avoid pit lane in GTD.
When we went to green, Scott Dixon was the big mover in GTP. He got a good launch and flew around the outside of Nico Pino in the No.5 Porsche at turn 1 to take fifth. Pino wasn't taking no for answer though, throwing it down the inside at the same corner on the next lap to regain the place.
The No.13 Corvette of Matt Bell was spun around while fighting with a big group of cars in GTD. He tagged the wall, but got moving again with no visible damage.
The race finally settled down for awhile, with plenty of cars in close proximity but no major battles or incidents.
With seven hours to go, the No.37 LMP2 had a spin on it's own, but got going again. At a similar time, the No.48 Mercedes had a mechanical issue. Luca Stolz however didn't take to pit lane, he recycled the engine on the start/finish straight and got going again. Just a handful of laps later, he set that cars best lap of the race.
There was a strange issue for the No.10 Cadillac of Will Stevens in third place. The wiper arm came lose, just hanging on by the attachment point.
We had some green flag GTP pit stops then, the No.60, No.5, No.23 and No.40 all took to the pit lane for scheduled stops.
Fred Vesti in the No.31 Cadillac was putting up a robust defense for third place as Nick Yelloly tried to go around the outside. They made side by side contact, but Yelloly made it stick in the Acura.
Once again we entered a period of settled down racing. Felipe Nasr had a somewhat fluctuating gap over teammate Kevin Estre, the No.7 leading the No.6.
