Porsche back in lead after a long stint at the front from Cadillac
Porsche back 💯in le♛ad after a long stint at the front from Cadillac
Porsche overtook Cadillac shortly before the halfway 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 minutes 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 Full Course Yellow ca🐷ught out two factory Penske cars, who found the pitlane to be closed as they approached the end of the lap.
The AXR Ca🎐ddy benefitted from the same caut🌟ion period and took 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 d🍃ropping to second when the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura benefitted from a fifth-hour caution to leap to the front.
That was until Nasr closed in a five-second gap and ℱpassed the AXR Cadillac to put 🐬Porsche back in front at the Florida-based venue.
Mathieu𒆙 Jaminet made it a 1-3 for Porsche, although the #6 Porsche then driven by Kevin Estre briefly dropp⛄ed behind the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marco 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 se🅘venth after its pitstop, as Sheldon van deꦐr Linde took over from Wittmann.
The two BMWs were separated by the Meyer Shank Acuras, with Renge꧟r van der Zande in the #93 A♋RX-06 running 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 pena💛lty for a pitlane infringement.
In the LMP2 class, Malthe🦩 Jakobsen held the lead in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca 07, ahead of Tom Dillmann in the #43 InterEuropol Orec🧸a.
🐲The #11 TDS Racing car that led early on dropped to thir🐠d, with Hunter McElrea now at the wheel.
Meanwhile, ꦏMike Rockenfeller drove the #64 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 to the lead of the GTD Pro class, but was having to fend off the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 of Connor de Phillippi as the race reached the halfway point.
Nicky Catsburg held third in the #4 Pratt Miller Corvet꧑te Z06.R, while Laurin Heinrich provisionally dropped outside the podium spots in the #77✨ 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 cautꦫion periods, mostly due to incidents ⛦in LMP2 and GTD classes.
However, the most recent FCY was deployed when Brendon Hartley locke🍬d up the front-right tyre of his #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and went straight into 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 of🅠f the lead.