Porsche led the way⛄ af♎ter the opening hour of the Sebring 12 Hours, as an early penalty dealt a major blow to the pole-sitting BMW.

Dries Vanthoor was found guilty of changing lanes before the start line when the race went green at 10:10am local time, with the race 💫control hitting🔴 him with the drive through penalty for the offence.

The sanction dropped the #24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 to the middle of the GTD pack,𒈔 not helped by an early full-course yellow bunching the field up.

The biggest beneficiary of Vanthoor’s error was Felipe Nasr, who claimed the lead in the #7 Porsche Penske🐻 after passing the #60 Meyer Shank Acura of Tom Blomqvist on lap 1.

Mathieu Jaminet also overtook Blomqvist at the first FCY restart, establish a 1-2 for Porsche 🎉at the head of the G꧅TP order,

Blomqvist settled in🦩to third place, ahead of the sister Acura driven by Renger van der Zande.

Ricky Taylor held f๊ifth in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cad൲illac.

In LMP2, Steven Thomas comfortably retained his lead in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07, circulating almost five seconds clear of Daniel Goldb๊urg in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07 until a late FCY.

Likewise, DragonSpeed driver Albert Costa led from pole in the GTD Pro class, hoဣlding a near-one second🐻 lead in the #81 Ferrari 296 GT3.

His closest rival was Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Tommy Milner running third in the #4 Prat🌟t Miller Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Meanwhile, Philip Ellis leapt to the front in the GTD class in his #🐠57 Winward Mercedes AMG GT3, with Jack Hawksworth running second in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

The pole-sitting #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 lost a heap of time due to a front-left assembly change in the first 30 minutes, leaving ꦯSimon Mann, Alessandro Pier Gꩲuidi and Lilou Wadoux four laps down.

Another GTD-class Ferrari hit early trouble, with the #023 Triarsi car of 𒉰Charles Scardina at Tower Turner after a run-in with a Wayne Taylor Cadillac GTP car.

That brought out the second FCY of the day, which remained in place as❀ the first hour was completed.