There was chaos, cautions, team radio drama and late restarts, but Felipe Nasr held firm and guided Porsche Penske Motorsport to victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
A restart with less than 18 minutes to go saw the Brazilian fend off teammate Kevin Estre to take a 1.515s margin of victory on the 3.74-mile, 17-turn airfield circuit.
Ricky Taylor finished third to put Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing on the final step of the overall podium. Pole-sitter Jack Aitken took fourth behind the wheel of his #31 Whelen Cadillac, ahead of the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing machine of Tom Blomqvist in fifth.
The biggest drama late was in GTD, with Antonio Fuoco overcoming several penalties to pull off a last-lap pass on Tom Gamble and giving AF Corse USA the victory.
After Hour 8…
Laurin Heinrich held firm at the restart over Porsche teammate Laurens Vanthoor, but it was Whelen Cadillac’s Earl Bamber in third trying to apply the pressure.
An incident in GTD saw leader Antonio Fuoco (AF Corse USA) penalized with a drive-thru for an incident with the GTD Pro competitor Ben Barker (Ford Racing) with roughly 3h30m left, handing the GTD lead to Riccardo Pera in the #912 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) for Manthey 1st Phorm. Fuoco dropped to 10th in class, but was hit 15 minutes later with another drive-thru penalty for having too many crew members over the wall during his stop.
The Porsche Penske Motorsport duo were the last in a pit cycle to head to pit lane, doing so with 3h02m left, with Heinrich jumping out of the #7 Porsche 963 and Julien Andlauer sliding in; Matt Campbell replaced Vanthoor in the #6 sister car.
Colin Braun, in the #60 Acura ARX-06 for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, vaulted to third as a byproduct of a short-fill of energy, with the #10 Whelen Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque in fourth on a similar strategy. The two pitted with 2h33m remaining, which elevated Dries Vanthoor’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 (BMW M Team WRT) to third temporarily before pitting two minutes later.
The run of off-strategy stops by the three GTP entries allowed four-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou to rise to third in the #93 Acura ARX-06 for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, on the same strategy – but 18s behind – the two Penske Porsches.
The battle for third in GTD Pro took another turn as Nico Varrone (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) hit the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Max Hesse in Turn 16 with 2h6m left. The contact drew a drive-thru penalty for Varrone.
With two hours to go, GTD Pro had a pair of Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) entries running 1-2, led by AO Racing’s Alessio Picariello followed by Klaus Bachler for Manthey. Hesse was third.
The Penske pair pitted moments later, with Nasr taking over the #7 and Estre in the #6. The race off pit road saw Estre get the edge and take the overall race lead. The two were thrust into a tense moment as Estre went off trying to maintain the lead, with Nasr pressing behind. It only took a minute later for Estre to build a gap of 1.5s over Nasr as the two went into a conservative strategy in hopes of making just one more stop.
Jonny Edgar (AO Racing) led LMP2 with just under two hours to play, with Hunter McElrea (United Autosports USA) in second at 3.4s back. Lorenzo Patrese (Conquest Racing) held a 13s lead in GTD over Lone Star Racing’s Lin Hodenius.
Harry Tincknell (Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiesen) just came out of the pits when the right-rear wheel of his LMP2 machine came off and brought out a full course caution with 1h49m left. The caution negated the massive lead Penske Porsche Motorsport held over the competition, with the #24 BMW of van der Linde in third.
Pit stops saw a split strategy between the Penske Porsches, with Nasr only replenishing and taking the lead, while Estre took on a fresh set of tires.
The running order for GTP after the pit stops were Nasr in first, followed by Estre, Jack Aitken (Whelen Cadillac), Nick Yelloly (Acura Meyer Shank Racing), Sheldon van der Linde (BMW M Team WRT) rounding out the rest of the top five.
#93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou
Photo by: IMSA
The restart with 1h31m to go saw Jack Aitken pressure Estre for second as Nasr made a clean getaway. Moments later, Yelloly ended up getting penalized for running over pit equipment during his pit stop, while Tom Blomqvist in the sister #60 Acura ARX-06 also hit for not being centered during his pit stop. Both were handed drive-thru penalties.
A colossal wreck happened with 1h29s left as Jenson Altzman (Myers Riley Motorsports) appeared to hit a bump wrong, which sent his #16 Ford Mustang GT3 across the track and hard into the Turn 1 tire barrier, bringing out another full course caution.
The quick cleanup allowed for a restart with 1h19m to go as Estre turned up the heat on Nasr but did not get by. Shortly after, Race Control gave Estre a warning for blocking Aitken on the previous restart.
A 0.6s gap developed between Nasr and Estre, with Aitken fading to 3s back with 1h15m later. Meanwhile, the two Acuras served their respective drive-thru penalties.
And team orders saw Estre go by Nasr just three minutes later. However, the two started to navigate traffic, which allowed Nasr breathing down the neck of Estre for the lead. The battle allowed Aitken to close, but not before Nasr made a late diving move into Turn 17 to make an inside pass on his teammate with 1h04m to go.
Estre tried to get around traffic but then went off course briefly before gathering it back up and holding second, but 0.7s behind Nasr. Aitken started to apply the pressure on Estre as they inched closer to the final hour. However, the off-course incident by Estre drew the ire of Race Control, who deemed it an advantage and penalized him by dropping behind Aitken.
Aitken got around AO Racing’s Harry King (GTD Pro), but it brought Estre back to him as the two battled once more, with BMW’s van der Linde joining the fray and nearly taking it three-wide. Estre was able to secure the spot ahead of Aitken, though, but they lost significant ground to Nasr, who built a 4.9s lead.
Aitken made his final pit stop with 52m left, which included fresh tires and energy replenishment. Estre was brought in the following lap, opting for fresh tires and energy replenishment. Nasr dove to pit lane with 49m left, also taking fresh tires and full energy.
Through the cycle, Nasr maintained his advantage over Estre and Aitken. The gap between Nasr and Estre was 1.2s with 44m left, with Aitken 4.4s back.
In LMP2, Edgar pitted his #99 AO Racing ORECA machine, which featured a quick front clip change while taking fuel and a driver change with Mikkel Jensen taking over. Moments later the #21 of Fuoco, running second in GTD, received a drive-thru penalty after colliding with the #033 Ferrari of Miguel Molina from the GTD Pro class.
A caution waved with 33m remaining after the #912 Manthey 1st Phorm of Riccardo Pera was temporarily stopped just off track in Turn 8. He got it going again without assistance.
The caution helped Gradient Racing’s Joey Hand, who led GTD but trying to extend his fuel run to the finish.
Final dash to the finish
#7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer, Laurin Heinrich
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
With 20m left, the top five for GTD was Nasr, Estre, Aitken, and the Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Ricky Taylor and Louis Deletraz.
After an extended caution for debris, the race restarted with 16m left and saw Nasr and Estre pull a gap on Aitken.
Hand’s hope for a GTD win faded as Tom Gamble (Heart of Racing Team) took the lead after the restart. Despite the run of penalties, Fuoco once again rose to second and 2s behind Gamble.
Nasr extended the gap to 3.2s over Estre. The fight for the final step on the podium was on as Ricky Taylor got by Aitken, with both over 5s back of Nasr with 10m left.
The closest battle with less than eight minutes to go was between Gamble and Fuoco, with just 1.1s separating the two. Fuoco closed with less than two minutes to go, but was unable to pull off a move as the GTP leaders sliced through and disrupted the battle. On the final lap, though, a bobble by Gamble was all that Fuoco needed to rip by and take the lead en route to victory by 0.824s. Costa took third.
Thomas Preining (Manthey) delivered a comfortable drive to the finish in his #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), capturing the GTD Pro win over AO Racing’s Harry King. Nick Catsburg (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) took third.
The fight for LMP2 was close as Mikkel Jensen held off United Autosport USA teammate Paul Di Resta, while Tristian Vautier putting Tower on the final spot on the podium.
Nasr skated away for a comfortable overall victory, his third in the 12-hour event (2019, 2025).
Full results to follow…
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