Written by Aaron Carroll
Porsche Penske Motorsport No.7 driven by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor have won the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring after consistently being at the front during a hectic race.
The race began at 10:10am local time and Dries Vanthoor in the No.24 BMW led the field away, while behind him Felipe Nasr in the No.7 Porsche and Tom Blomqvist in the No.60 Acura battled for second with Nasr eventually making the move stick.
Back in the GT field, the No.13 Daytona winning AWA Corvette was spun around by the No.70 Ferrari. The Corvette dropped to the back of the pack but with no lasting damage. The No.70 would later receive a drive-through penalty for the incident.
It wouldn't be long before the first full course yellow (FCY) came out, with the No.18 and No.88 LMP2's colliding and both going into the wall. The No.88 would return to the track under its own steam, but the No.18 would need some assistance from the marshalls. The No.88 would have to serve a drive-through penalty for the incident.
During the FCY the leading No.24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor would get a drive-through penalty for a start infringement. When the green flag flew, Vanthoor brought the car in to the pits to pain stakingly serve the penalty and drop to the back of the field.
Soon after the green flag, the GTD leading No.21 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi would go off the track with what looked to be a brake issue, coming into the pits at the end of that lap for repairs.
More trouble in GTD, the No.32 GTD Mercedes spins the No.20 GTD PRO Porsche around, with the Porsche going off the track and dropping back in the field. Just 15 minutes later there would be another incident, this time between the No.66 Ford GTD and No.73 LMP2, an incident for which the Ford would get a penalty.
The second FCY would come out just before the one hour mark, with the No.023 Triarsi Ferrari going into the wall after being tapped by the No.10 Cadillac GTP which would receive a 60 second stop-go penalty for the hit.
In a strange run of events, the leading GTP's - No.7 and No.6 Porsche and No.60 Acura - would be forced to pit later than their counterparts and drop down the field after the pit lane entry light was red when they passed by the entrance.
After this the No.63 Lamborghini SC63 would lead the race, but on the green flag an issue meant that the car didn't accelerate off the line and dropped to the back of the GTP field. Jack Aitken would then lead in the No.31 Cadillac down to turn one.
Off of the green flag there would be a multi-car battle for the lead in GTD PRO between the No.77 Porsche, No.1 BMW, No.3 Corvette and No.4 Corvette. They would have to put their battle on pause however due to a big collision for the No.18 Era Motorsport LMP2, hitting the wall hard at the final corner.
After some barrier repairs we got back to green flag racing and Jack Aitken once again led the field away, but it wouldn't be long before we got yet another FCY for an incident involving multiple LMP2 cars.
The No.52 and No.99 collided at turn one, with the No.99 'Spike the Dragon' car taking heavy damage, losing the rear wing. The No.99 would get a penalty for the incident. Then the No.74 would hit the No.88 and the No.74 stops on track before getting going again.
With the FCY out, strategy would come into play in multiple classes, with different teams trying to out-strategize the competition. After a driver change, the No.31 still leads but this time with Frederick Vesti behind the wheel, followed by the No.93 Acura and No.7 Porsche.
The No.47 Ferrari GTD car would slow from fourth place in class and come to a halt on the backstraight, at the exit of the support pit lane, making it easily accessible by marshalls. The No.17 Lexus would also have an issue, with the front bumper of the car hanging off, coming in for a stop to repair the damage.
Vesti led the way in GTP for another stint, while in LMP2 there was a three way battle between the No.88, No.74 and No.73, with the No.88 coming out on top for fifth place in class.
With eight hours to go the race settled down quite a bit after the hectic start, the No.31 led the way from the pair of Acura's, No.60 ahead of No.93, followed by the No.7, No.6 and No.5 Porsches in fourth, fifth and sixth.
Just 20 minutes later though, Brendan Hartley in the No.40 Cadillac went into the wall at the final corner. He got moving again with the help of marshalls under FCY conditions, but having dropped off the lead lap. The crew would later get a penalty for having loose bodywork on the car, leaving them three laps off the lead.
There would be a lead change, with the No.60 Acura leading and then the No.31 would take the lead back with an on track pass from Earl Bamber. The No.60 Acura would struggle then, with Christian Braun dropping to fifth.
The No.45 Wayne Taylor Lamborghini GTD car would slow and stop on the back straight, while soon after the No.70 Inception Ferrari would suffer a left rear puncture, both incidents covered under local yellow flags. The No.78 Lamborghini would also have a puncture, discarding the tyre carcus off into the grass on the back straight.
The second placed overall No.93 Acura would get a drive through penalty for a pit stop infringement, dropping them down the order, before Renger Van Der Zande went on a charge to recover the position.
The lead battle continued with the No.31 Cadillac and No.7 Porsche, with Nasr in the Porsche pulling off a move around the outside of Bamber to take the lead. Nasr would hold the lead for the next few hours, save for pit stop cycles.
There would be a collision between the No.11 and No.88 LMP2's where the No.11 spun after being hit by the No.88, which hit a bump sending them into the side of the TDS racing car. The collision was deemed a racing incident.
Disaster struck for the No.32 class lead GTD Mercedes, as driver Kenton Koch pulled off to the side of the road with a major mechanical failure. This retirement meant that the GTD lead was to be contested by the No.27 Aston Martin, No.57 Mercedes and No.21 Ferrari.
With three hours to go there would be a FCY for the No.27 Aston Martin, which came to a stop in the middle of the road in the final corner after a spin, with multiple cars narrowly avoiding a collision.
During this FCY, the No.31 Cadillac would take the lead through pit stops, from the No.7 and No.6 Porsches in second and third. But we wouldn't even go green for a full minute as the No.88 AF Corse LMP2 hit the wall hard, bringing out yet another FCY.
On the restart it would be elbows out from the front three, with the sun setting on the horizon, however they would hold positions. No.31 Cadillac driven by Frederick Vesti led with two and a half hours remaining.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie, No.23, would get a drive through for breaching powertrain parameters, meaning they dropped out of eighth place. At the same time there was a four way battle in GTD PRO for second in class, between Ford, Porsche and BMW.
The No.7 would briefly take the lead from Vesti in the No.31, but Vesti would take the lead back and set the fastest lap of the race and began to build a lead on the pair of Porsches.
Nick Tandy in the No.7 went for a move on Vesti for the lead and this time he made it stick, and then managed to pull a small gap to the No.31 Cadillac with the fastest lap of the race.
A pitstop cycle with 2 hours remaining put the No.31 and No.6 together on track to battle for second, with the Cadillac originally coming out on top, before Jaminet in the No.6 took the position back to solidify a Porsche 1-2 with just under two hours remaining.
Meanwhile there was a battle brewing in LMP2 between Sebastian Bourdais in the No.8 and Toby Sowery in the No.04, the car which has dominated most of this race in LMP2.
Strategy began to play out in all classes after the recent stops. In GTP, the Cadillac was slightly offset meaning they wouldn’t be able to make the flag without a FCY or a massive fuel saving effort from Earl Bamber, the two Porsches did not have this problem.
But that wouldn’t matter in the end, a FCY for a discarded tyre carcus on the back straight gave the No.31 Cadillac and No.25 BMW a free pitstop to bring them back into the race.
This also mixed up LMP2 where Tower Motorsports timed the pit stop perfectly to keep them in the fight. Both of the GTD classes were wide open at this point too.
On the green flag, the No.22 United Autosports LMP2 would get turned around and receive significant damage putting them out of contention.
Out front, Nasr would lead away and create a gap between himself and his teammate, Jaminet, behind.
In GTD PRO Laurin Heinrich attempted to run away, breaking the class race lap record in the process. In GTD it was Lexus versus Mercedes as the No.12 and No.57 dueled side by side multiple times, but the No.12 Lexus stayed ahead.
Eventually the No.57 would squeeze through with a bit of contact to take the lead and then Phil Ellis would not look back as he went on to win the Sebring 12 Hours in GTD
In GTD PRO 'Rexy' held onto his lead, with Laurin Heinrich closing out the race in supreme fashion to win in GTD PRO.
In LMP2 Inter Europol would pick up the pieces from the damaged United Autosports No.22 and the No.43 green and yellow car would win the 12 Hours of Sebring.
In the top class, GTP, Felipe Nasr would hold his lead and win the 12 Hours of Sebring 2025 with a dominant finish from both Porsches.
Results
GTP
1st No.7 Porsche, Nasr, Tandy, Vanthoor
2nd No.6 Porsche, Jaminet, Estre, Campbell
3rd No.93 Acura, Yelloly, Palou, Van Der Zande
4th No.31 Cadillac, Vesti, Bamber, Aitken
5th No.25 BMW, Van Der Linde, Frijns, Wittmann
LMP2
1st No.43 Inter Europol, Dillmann, Clark, Garg
2nd No.8 Tower Motorsports, Bourdais, Farano, Alvarez
3rd No.11 TDS Racing, Jensen, Thomas, McElrea
GTD PRO
1st No.77 Porsche, Picariello, Bachler, Heinrich
2nd No.48 BMW, Hesse, Harper, Krohn
3rd No.1 BMW, De Phillippi, Verhagen, Snow
GTD
1st No.57 Mercedes, Ellis, Ward, Dontje
2nd No.12 Lexus, Hawksworth, Montecalvo, Thompson
3rd No.27 Aston Martin, Gamble, Robichon, Stevenson
