Nasr, Andlauer, Heinrich go back to back in IMSA to win thrilling 12 Hours of Sebring in Porsche 1-2
- DIVEBOMB Sportscars Team
- 1 minute ago
- 8 min read
Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich have won the 12 Hours of Sebring after Porsche dominate the race, despite some team order difficulties in the closing stages.
The No.2 United Autosports car led a United 1-2 in LMP2, while Porsche dominated GTD Pro too. The No.911 Manthey car led home 'Roxy', the No.77 AO Racing car. Antonio Fuoco made a last lap pass on Tom Gamble in the No.27 Aston Martin to seal the win in GTD in the No.21 Ferrari.
Read about the first six hours of the race here.
Not long after the six hour mark, the GTPs began to make another round of pit stops. The two Porsches were the last to take to the pits, a lap longer than anyone else in the field. Nasr and Estre retained their first and second place. They led the rest of the pack by 10 seconds.
Dane Cameron in the No.99 AO Racing car led LMP2, while the No.77 and No.912 Porsches led both GTD classes as they entered into pit stop time.
The No.9 Pfaff Lamborghini Temerario had a brief off in the grass, but got back going again, the last of the GTD Pro cars still running.
After the stops, it emerged a Porsche 1-2 in GTD Pro, just like GTP. Nick Tandy in the No.77 AO car led the way from the No.911 Manthey car of Ricardo Feller. In GTD Charlie Eastwood led the way in the No.36 DXDT Corvette, from yet another Porsche in second. The No.912 Manthey 1st Phorm car of Ricciardo Pera was just a second off the Irishman in the lead of the class.
With five hours to go in the race, everyone was fully settled into a rhythm. But just 10 minutes later, Jack Aitken in the No.31 Whelen Cadillac had a massive snap, and lost the car. He managed to keep it out of the wall though, and had enough of a gap behind not to lose any positions.
During the next set of pit stops, the No.60 Acura took a new nose during its scheduled stop. The No.48 Mercedes also had a similar moment to earlier, when it began moving slowly before the driver recycled the engine and got going again.
The No.14 Lexus caused the sixth FCY of the day, when its rear left tyre came loose. Most the field took the opportunity to pit, and the GTP Porsches put their foot down when green flag running returned.
The No.93 Acura and No.31 Cadillac battle continued, ending up under investigation when van der Zande pushed Bamber onto the grass. The stewards decided no further action was required, so the duo were allowed to continue to race.
Having lost the lead during a poorly timed pitstop in the FCY, Picariello charged back through the field, getting the No.77 'Roxy' back to second in no time.
The sun began to set just before 3 hours to go in Sebring, signalling the start of the final portion of the race.
Frederick Vesti in the No.31 Cadillac made a mistake coming out of turn 1, bouncing over the grass and sand, but rejoining safely.
Lorenzo Patrese in the No.34 GTD leading Ferrari had a massive moment on the exit of turn 1. He was almost fully sideway coming out of the corner, but full 180 degree opposite lock kept him on the black stuff.
With two and a half hours to go, the top three in GTD Pro were split by just three quarters of a second. The No.77 led from the No.911 and the No.1.
Max Hesse in the No.1 BMW tried a move on the No.911 of Klaus Bachler, but nothing stuck. The battling allowed Picariello to pull away slightly, and get Nico Varrone in the No.4 Corvette involved.
Bachler got caught out by GTP traffic, being pushed wide by the No.5 Porsche, allowing Hesse through into second.
Bachler made a move back up the inside, and Varrone tried to follow him through, but the Corvette made contact and spun Hesse around. The No.4 driver got a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Meanwhile at the front, the No.6 Porsche of Matt Campbell had closed the gap to the sister No.7 to under a second.
In their pit stops with almost exactly two hours to go, the two Penskes pit. The No.6 got the jump in the stops taking the lead, now with Kevin Estre at the helm. Felipe Nasr took over the No.7.
Estre locked up into turn 7, giving Nasr a look into the next corner, but he couldn't get far enough alongside.
The Bryan Herta No.52 LMP2 that was in contention for a decent result lost it's rear left tyre after a pit stop. The loose tyre brought out the first FCY in awhile.
The No.99 AO Racing LMP2 that was also a contender had to pit for emergency fuel too, putting them on the back foot.
Crucially during these stops, the No.6 took tyres, while the No.7 didn't. Both were fully fuelled, and were in a position to do the race on one more stop, as were the rest of the GTPs behind.
In GTD Pro, everyone except the Porsches came into the pits, along with the No.912, No.27, No.13 and No.96 from GTD. All of those cars were guaranteed to make it to the end with only one more stop regardless of any yellows.
On the restart it was the No.7 ahead of the No.6, with the No.31 of Jack Aitken in third. Yelloly in the No.93 Acura was fourth, with the No.24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde in fifth.
Aitken tried a move on Estre into turn 1 on the restart, but couldn't get far enough alongside the Frenchman. Estre was however given a warning for his robust defence.
Yelloly was given a drive-through in the No.93, and the other Acura was also given a drive-through, both for pit stop infringements in the last stops. They ran fourth and sixth at the time.
In GTD Pro, Thomas Preining in the No.911 Manthey car sent it around the outside of the No.77 for the lead in turn 1. He got the move done, even with two wheels on the dirt.
Jenson Altzman in the No.16 Ford GTD had a massive accident out of turn 1. He lost it on the bump that had so nearly caught out so many other drivers today.
He got out of the car by himself, albeit a bit shaken by the big impact. The front and rear of the car were massively damaged, spelling the end of their race.
On the restart, Estre had to back out of a move into turn 1 as his teammate held the line. At this stage, it was believed that Penske had told Nasr to let Estre go, since he was on fresher tyres.
Nasr had been ignoring the radio calls to let Estre go, despite the fact Nasr had been allowed by during the pit stops to have easier access to his pit box.
The Brazilian did eventually give in though with 70 minutes to go, falling into second place. Once that was sorted though, it was gloves off at Penske. Nasr was right back on Estre's rear end, looking for a way past.
He sent the No.7 back into the lead with a send down into the final corner, Estre unable to respond. The Penske infighting had dragged Aitken and van der Linde into the fight too.
The No.6 car was on edge, Estre almost losing it in GTD traffic, just holding on despite a brief off track excursion.
That proved costly because - despite losing time off track - race control told Estre to give Aitken the place.
He gave the place, but quickly sent it back down the inside of Le Mans corner with a bit of wheel banging on the way by. Van der Linde tried to make it three wide on the Ulmann straight, but there wasn't move. Estre made it stick and Aitken slotted back into third.
Meanwhile, Nasr was running away at the front to the tune of five seconds.
Behind all of the action for the GTPs, the window was open for the GTDs final stops.
Not too long afterwards it was the GTPs turn too, Aitken pit for Cadillac to try an undercut. The Whelen Engineering crew told him he needed the out lap of his life.
Unfortunately for him, Estre pit on the next lap and was able to hold on to position. Aitken was closer than he was, as they both gave chase to Nasr who pit another lap later.
In LMP2 there was a battle for the lead too, it was the No.2 and No.22 United Autosports machines fighting for first and second, with the No.8 Tower Motorsports Oreca in third keeping an eye on those two.
That trio pit with 45 minutes to go. It was unclear at the time if they'd be able to make it to the end of the race with a full tank of fuel.
The No.22 of Paul Di Resta needed a rear wing change, putting it on the back foot. The team also sent the car out trailing what looked to be a strip of tape, but that was quickly discarded.
The No.033 GTD Pro Ferrari of Miguel Molina was taken out by his factory teammate in the No.21 GTD of Antonio Fuoco. The No.21 was given a penalty for the incident, ruining their chances of a win in a race they could have been considered favourites up until this point.
The No.24 BMW also had it's own spin, getting going again unscathed. Van der Linde simply lost it on his own.
The No.912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche of Riccardo Pera pulled off the track with a mechanical issue. They had leaked some sort of fluid in the pits not too long beforehand.
The Porsches stoppage was enough to bring the FCY out with just over half an hour left.
With less than 20 minutes to go on the restart, the No.7 would lead away the No.6 and No.31 from the front. The No.2 United car led LMP2, No.911 Porsche led GTD Pro and the No.66 led GTD.
That No.66 Ford needed a mega fuel save to make it to the end, it was unlikely, but became ever more likely with each lap behind the safety car.
Just before we went green, the senior engineers at Porsche told Nasr and Estre to get a gap, and then they'd tell them what to do. Nasr had a three second gap after a handful of laps, leaving Estre in the dust.
The No.033 was hit by the No.65 Ford, both cars ending up off the road in GTD Pro.
In GTD the No.66 Ford finally gave in and came into the pits, giving Tom Gamble the lead in the No.27, but he had a rapid Antonio Fuoco bearing down on him, despite the No.21 having had multiple penalties during the race.
Ricky Taylor in the No.10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac got past Aitken for the final podium spot, that battle letting Estre edge away by a couple of seconds.
Nasr held on to win, ahead of Estre and Taylor in third.
In LMP2 it was the No.2 car leading a United Autosports 1-2, with the No.8 Tower Motorsports car in third.
The No.911 Manthey Porsche won GTD Pro honours, ahead of the No.77 Porsche and the No.4 Corvette.
Fuoco caught Gamble on the last lap, and made the pass to win the race with no time on the clock. So his No.21 Ferrari won, ahead of the No.27 Aston Martin with the No.120 Porsche in third.
