Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited by Owen Bradley
Porsche Penske Motorsport No.7 driven by Felipe Nasr, Laurens Vanthoor and Nick Tandy have won the 2025 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona after a late full course yellow prompted a grandstand finish that had fans on the edge of their seats.
The green flag fell for the Daytona 24 Hours at 1:40pm local time and it was the No.24 BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor lead the field away from the No.93 Acura and No.7 Porsche. Behind the GTP group the No.2 United Autosports LMP2 spun around on the exit of the first corner and dropped to the back.
Back at the front the No.24 led early pulling out a small gap over the chasing Acura and Porsche. In the other classes, the No.52 PR1 Mathiasen car led LMP2 with Ben Keating at the wheel, the No.9 Lamborghini driven by Andrea Caldarelli led GTD Pro and the No.120 Porsche led GTD with Erik Skeer piloting that car.
Strangely the LMP2 leader would go straight on at turn five two laps in a row, losing the lead to the No.99 AO Racing ‘Spike the Dragon’ car. There was also a battle for the lead in GTD Pro, with the gap consistently under half a second for a period of time.
Back at the head of the field, the No.60 Acura begins to close the lead gap as the leaders hit GTD traffic. About 45 minutes in the GTP field take their first stops, the leaders coming back out in the same order as before. At the end of the first hour the No.24 BMW would lead from the No.60 Acura by 14 seconds.
Meanwhile back in GTD Pro the No.48 BMW battled with the No.9 Lamborghini for the lead in that class, with the No.75 Mercedes soon joining the fight, while the No.78 Lamborghini and No.120 Porsche battled in GTD. In LMP2 No.99 pulled out a lead over the rest of the field.
Soon during the second hour of the race, disaster would strike for the sole Lamborghini GTP car, forcing them to retire back to the garage at a very early stage. Elsewhere in GTP, the No.24 BMW held the lead while the car chasing them went wide at turn six and lost multiple places. The No.31 Cadillac would inherit second, with the No.7 Porsche in third.
There’d be trouble for the No.75 Mercedes too, as they picked up a puncture and had to be taken back behind the pitwall for more extensive repairs, a major setback for the crew. With their troubles, the No.65 Mustang and the No.48 BMW would battle for the lead in GTP Pro.
After a brilliant first two stints from Vanthoor, he hit the pit wall pulling into his box, costing the BMW RLL team some valuable time. That wouldn't be all though, through the chaos of Vanthoor hitting the wall, the team made a crucial mistake and refuelled the car whilst on the jacks, which is against the rules, resulting in a drive through penalty.
With the seemingly dominant car taken out of the equation for now, the No.93 Acura took the lead from the No.31 Cadillac and the No.7 Porsche. The gaps that did exist here would disappear with the first appearance of the full course yellow (FCY) after the No.11 TDS Racing LMP2 slid off into the wall. This triggered a round of pit stops for most of the cars in the field and the wave by procedure.
As we went back to green, the No.7 Porsche took the lead from the No.31 Cadillac, as the Caddy driven by Frederick Vesti slid down the field to sixth after the first 15 minutes of green flag running. With this it would be an all German top 5, Porsche followed by the pair of BMWs and two more Porsches in fourth and fifth.
The reigning Daytona champions of the No.57 Winward Racing Mercedes would have to go back behind the pit wall due to an issue with the throttle sticking. Outside of a few mechanical black flags for tyre pressure and pit stop violations the GTDs had kept it very clean up until this point, the same can be said for the prototype classes.
The sun would set in Daytona to the tune of a Porsche Penske 1-2 as the No.6 jumps up to second and the duo would start to pull away from the field, but not for long as the No.93 Acura would suffer a technical issue bringing out another FCY.
As we went back to green the No.31 Cadillac driven by former Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich took the lead and began to extend his lead from the Porsche duo behind. Meanwhile, the No.40 Cadillac overtakes the No.7 for third, and would later follow the No.6 through to overtake the No.31 Cadillac. Eventually the No.40 would take the lead from Kevin Estre in the Porsche through some traffic.
After the next round of pit stops the No.6 Porsche would take back the lead from the No.40 Cadillac and the No.24 BMW. In the other classes, AO Racing No.99 led LMP2, the No.48 BMW led GTD Pro and the No.12 Chevrolet in GTD.
The No.44 Aston Martin would stop in the infield causing a FCY and forcing the car to retire as well. At the end of this FCY the No.60 Acura would take the lead into turn one from the No.7 Porsche. The sister No.6 Porsche would soon receive a drive through penalty for the team working on the car outside the pit box.
Soon the No.40 Cadillac would take the lead from the No.60 Acura. Felipe Nasr in the No.7 Porsche Penske also overtakes the No.60 Acura at Turn 9. The next period of the race would be filled with intense battling in the GTP class, with the No.40 leading and the No.60 Acura dropping places, the places in between would be swapped back and forth.
At the top of the next hour though the No.40 Cadillac would still lead from the No.24 BMW, No.31 and No.10 Cadillacs and the No.7 Porsche in fifth. The No.04 Crowdstrike LMP2 leads that class, with the No.1 BMW ahead in GTD Pro and the No.120 Porsche in front in GTD.
The No.40 Cadillac would drop to third behind the No.24 BMW and No.31 Cadillac before another FCY for the stricken No.007 Aston Martin, which was missing a tyre. After the FCY pit stops the No.31 Caddy would jump the BMW to lead away on the green flag.
It wouldn’t be a very long green flag period however, with multiple cars involved in a pileup at turn two. The cars involved include the No.40 Cadillac, No.9 Lamborghini GTD PRO and multiple LMP2 cars.
After the incident, the race got back underway and the No.31 driven by Jack Aitken held the lead, ahead of a charging Brendan Hartley in the No.10 Cadillac. The No.25 BMW would be spun round by the No.5 Porsche, an incident for which the Porsche would receive a drive through penalty. The sister No.7 would have opposite fortunes, taking the lead with a move at turn three by Nick Tandy.
After a flurry of pit stops the No.60 Acura would end up in second, but not for long as they would drop down the order after a collision with the No.12 GTD. Soon Jack Aitken would go back to the lead with a move around the outside of the No.7 as they headed for the pits.
Not long after yet another FCY would come out due to the No.36 GTD stopping at the exit of the chicane after contact with the No.48. Strangely on the restart, Frederick Vesti failed to maintain pacing speed so race control decided to abort the restart. Second time around Vesti managed to take the green flag but failed to keep the lead, Phillip Eng down the inside to give the lead to the No.24. Vesti would further fall to fourth after starting the lap in the lead.
Soon after there would be more woes for Vesti and he goes into the wall at turn four, bringing out the FCY again. On the restart the No.10 overtakes the No.5 as once again the lead swaps on a race restart. Soon though the No.7 Porsche driven by Feliple Nasr stormed past to take the lead.
Disaster would strike for the No.5 Porsche as suspension failure hits the left-rear corner of the car. At the halfway point of the race the No.7 Porsche leads, from the sister No.6, with the No.60 Acura in third followed by the No.10 and the No.24.
Another FCY would be brought out when the No.36 GTD went up in smoke. Soon after the next green flags there would be a second soon after as the No.22 United Autosports car suffers a puncture, discarding the deflated tyre on the race track.
Soon after this the No.6 Porsche would take the lead from the No.60 Acura, and begin to pull away. After another set of pit stops the No.43 InterEuropol LMP2 would stop on track and bring yet another FCY out. The leaders in GTP would battle for P1, Porsche against BMW against Acura. Meanwhile a battle breaks out for the lead in GTD between Ford, Corvette and BMW.
With eight hours to go the No.6 led a Porsche 1-2 from the No.7, with the No.60 Acura with damage eventually being passed by Dries Vanthoor in the No.24 BMW for third. Soon later, as the sun rose above the Daytona circuit, the No.6 and No.7 would go wheel to wheel, but the No.6 fends the sister car off.
At this point No.8 Tower Motorsport leads LMP2, No.77 Porsche ‘Rexy’ leads GTD Pro and the No.120 Porsche leads GTD. Once again the leading Porsches would go wheel to wheel, but this time the No.7 would get ahead and take the lead. All this time the GTD Pro battle has been raging, a handful of seconds between the top three cars.
Outside of a lock-up for the No.6, the Porsches dominated the next period of the race holding first and second outside of pit stop sequences. FCY would be called again soon as Colton Herta crashed the No.04 LMP2 at turn six. On the restart a trio of GTD cars would come together at turn one, ending a short lived green flag period.
Soon after the ensuing restart, the Porsche duo would battle with the No.24 BMW driven by Kevin Magnussen for the lead. There was also a battle between the No.88 and No.99 cars for the LMP2 lead, and the same GTD battle heating up.
The No.99 ‘Spike’ LMP2 would have to bow out of the LMP2 battle due to a drive through penalty for a tyre pressure infringement. In the GTD lead battle, the No.1 BMWs sister car - No.48 - would hold up the No.4 Corvette to help his teammate. This move would bring a drive through for the No.48 and a vulgar gesture towards the driver from Tommy Milner out of the window of the No.4.
As the clock ticked down, battles were fought in all of the classes with just over two hours to go. The No.88 class leading LMP2 would suffer a mechanical failure and stop at the side of the track, bringing out a FCY.
We would go green again with just under 2 hours left to race, the No.7 Porsche leading the No.24 BMW. The two would battle on the first lap after green but the No.7 would gap the BMW and the No.24 would drop into the clutches of the No.6 Porsche. The Porsche would try a move on the BMW but would be forced to give the place back after a track limit infringement.
All the while the GTD battle has still been going on, Corvette vs Ford vs BMW as they approached their final pit stops. Then disaster would strike for the No.24 BMW driven by Dries Vanthoor, who made contact with a GTD leading to front damage for the GTP which caused severe bouncing at high speeds around the banking,
They would get a chance to repair the damage though, as the No.45 Lamborghini stopped on track bringing out the final FCY of the race. The No.6 Porsche led, from the BMW, the No.7 in third and the No.60 Acura in fourth, all on the lead lap. All was not well for the BMW however, as the green flag flew, smoke poured from the damaged section of the car forcing the car to slow and pit out of contention.
The No.77 GTD Pro ‘Rexy’ Porsche would fall to a similar fate, front bumper damage from contact sending them plummeting down the field. The No.65 Ford Mustang lead this class and attempted to pull away from the fierce battling pack behind.
Back out front in GTP, the two leading Porsches battle hard for the win, but the No.7 comes out on top, the pair of Porsches being caught by the No.60 Acura behind. With under 15 minutes remaining in the race, no class was close to being decided as everyone raced for the checkered flag.
In GTD it was a race between the No.27 Aston Martin and the No.13 Corvette, with Mattia Drudi in the Aston Martin winning out in the end and taking the class win in GTD.
GTD Pro wouldn’t be so simple, after the green flag the leaders went three wide spraying bits of carbon fibre all over the circuit. The No.3 Corvette, No.1 BMW and the No.65 Ford all went wheel to wheel, each trying to outpace the other to win. The Corvette and BMW would make contact, leaving the No.65 Ford Mustang a clear path to victory.
In LMP2 the No.18 ERA Motorsports leading car spun at turn one after contact with the No.52 in second, who was given a penalty for the contact giving Sebastian Bourdais in the No.8 Tower Motorsport car an open road to victory at Daytona.
In GTP the No.6 Porsche and the No.60 Acura battled for second, with the Acura winning out and given the chance to chase down the leading No.7 Porsche with just five minutes remaining. After every ounce of effort from Tom Blomqvist to close the gap, it wasn’t enough and Felipe Nasr would cross the line in the No.7 Porsche Penske Motorsport car to win the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
24 Hours of Daytona - Results
GTP - Top 5
1st No.7 Porsche Penske
2nd No.60 Acura
3rd No.6 Porsche Penske
4th No.24 BMW
5th No.10 Cadillac
LMP2 - Top 5
1st No.8 Tower Motorsports
2nd No.22 United Autosports
3rd No.74 Riley
4th No.52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports
5th No.18 Era Motorsport
GTD Pro - Top 5
1st No.65 Ford Mustang
2nd No.3 Corvette
3rd No.64 Ford Mustang
4th No.1 BMW
5th No.69 Mercedes
GTD - Top 5
1st No.13 Chevrolet
2nd No.120 Porsche
3rd No.27 Aston Martin
4th No.57 Mercedes
5th No.96 BMW
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