Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited by Sasha Macmillen
The BMW M Team RLL No.24 driven by Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen and Phillip Eng have taken pole for the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring after a lap from Vanthoor put them at the front of the grid for tomorrow's race by just 0.025s.
All of the teams in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar championship took to the track late on Friday morning in four sessions of 15 minutes, one for each class (GTP, LMP2, GTD and GTD PRO), setting the grid for tomorrow's 12 hour spectacle at the 3.7 mile (6 km) track.
GTD
The session began with the GTD cars coming out to complete their laps to set the grid for the race. The teams were out pushing straight away, with the No.12 Lexus of Jack Hawkworth brushing the barrier on entry into turn one, but it proved to be worth it as he went top early with that lap, before lap times began to be traded between them and a number of cars.
Eventually it would be the No.21 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi who would take pole position with a time of 1:59.1, four tenths quicker than the No.32 Mercedes driven by Kenton Koch, with Jack Hawksworth in third. The latter two in second and third only separated by 0.005s.
GTD PRO
Next up was the second of the two GT classes with GTD PRO coming out of their 15 minute session. The No.81 DragonSpeed Ferrari driven by Albert Costa was the early pacesetter, with a time one tenth slower than the GTD pole.
No one would be able to challenge that time of 1:59.2 either, as Costa and DragonSpeed would take the pole position despite the best efforts of Laurin Heinrich in the ‘Rexy the Dinosaur’ Porsche from AO Racing. Neil Verhagen was in third, another three tenths back.
Strangely the GTD PRO times were all slower than Pier Guidi’s time in GTD, however due to the class split, the GTD PRO cars will start ahead of the GTD’s.
LMP2
The penultimate class to take the track was the LMP2s, which features 12 Oreca 07s. George Kurtz in the No.04 Crowdstrike car lost the rear and spun off the track with 10 minutes remaining in the session, but got going again after the scare. There was also an off for the No.43 Inter Europol car driven by Jeremy Clarke at turn 15, after losing the rear and narrowly avoided the barrier on his way to a stop, before he too got going again.
About halfway through the session the No.11 TDS Racing car driven by Steven Thomas went quickest, but was quickly displaced by Daniel Goldburg in the No.22 and again by PJ Hyett in the No.99 AO Racing car. Hyett’s time was half a second quicker than anyone else. Thomas in the No.11 went quicker again, with Hyett improving to just a tenth behind with five minutes remaining.
Thomas in the No.11 TDS Racing car would take pole then with that time of 1:51.8, a tenth ahead of Hyett in the No.99 AO Racing ‘Spike the Dragon’ car. The pair would be half a second ahead of Nick Boulle in the No.2 United Autosports car. With times not too far away from that of the GTP’s, LMP2 will likely be an interesting class to watch during the race.
GTP
Finally it was the premier class, who fought for overall pole position in their 15 minute session. The GTPs came out fighting from the moment the green flag dropped, with the cars fighting for track position on the out laps.
An issue arose for the No.31 Whelen Cadillac, with the engine cutting out as he pulled out of the pit lane. The engine kept turning off and back on again, with Aitken moving mere metres in between each stop. Eventually he would come to a stop on the side of the track, bringing out the red flag.
The green flag flew again with just a few minutes left in the session, drivers will only have time to set a couple of lap times, without the ideal tyre warm-up. Cars again battled for track position, with a Porsche and a BMW almost coming together on the back straight.
The No.25 BMW of Sheldon Van Der Linde would have an off at turn one clipping the barrier and suffering front right damage, while Felipe Nasr went quickest in the No.7 Porsche Penske car. Soon after though, Nasr would come into the pits after only one flying lap. He would then fall down the order as Tom Blomqvist in the No.60 Acura went quicker, followed by Dries Vanthoor in the No.24 BMW.
In the end the 1:47.0 lap time from Dries Vanthoor in the No.24 BMW would be good enough to take pole, despite the best efforts of Tom Blomqvist who put the No.60 Acura in second place just 0.025s behind Vanthoor. Nasr’s sole flying lap would be good for third with Mathieu Jaminet in the No.6 in fourth. Neel Jani in the No.5 Porsche was fifth, with Renger Van Der Zande in sixth in the No.93 Acura.
With qualifying finished, all eyes look forward to the race. Can BMW win from pole, will Acura go back-to-back in Sebring or can Porsche keep up their winning ways from Daytona? Only time will tell, but one thing is for certain, it’s sure to be a brilliant race.
Qualifying top 10
1st No.24 BMW M Team RLL
2nd No.60 Acura MSR
3rd No.7 Porsche Penske
4th No.6 Porsche Penske
5th No.5 Porsche Proton Competition
6th No.93 Acura MSR
7th No.40 Cadillac WTR
8th No.10 Cadillac WTR
9th No.85 Porsche JDC Miller
10th No.25 BMW M Team RLL
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