SEBRING, Fla. — Porsche Penske Motorsport wins again.
It’s certainly become an enduring refrain at IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races for IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship fans in recent seasons with the legendary make and famous Penske Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) team claiming its second consecutive Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring race victory Saturday – its third overall at the historic track (2008, 2025).
The only real question on this warm, sunny, Florida spring day was which of the Penske team’s two Porsche 963s would take the checkered flag first at the venerable Sebring International Raceway. And that wasn’t fully settled until the dramatic final hour of the day-long race.
Together the two Penske team cars combined to lead for all but 60 of the 343 laps.
Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche 963 came out first following a pit stop with just over 40 minutes remaining in the 12-hour race. But he had to hold off his teammate No. 6 Porsche Penske driver Kevin Estre on a pair of late race restarts before ultimately taking the checkered flag 1.515 seconds ahead of Estre to claim the hard-fought win.
It marks the third Sebring 12-hour overall win for the Brazilian Nasr, who co-drove with Frenchman Julien Andlauer and German Laurin Heinrich, who with the team’s win in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in February is now two-for-two in his first two IMSA GTP starts.
The two teammates certainly made the outcome interesting among themselves. Nasr and Estre each took turns at the head of the field over the final couple of hours in the race, but the two drivers had differing post-race opinions on whether or not team orders were followed.
Nasr led the final 22 laps to give the team its second consecutive victory in the “36 Hours of Florida” – the season-opening Rolex 24 and 12 Hours of Sebring. It was Porsche’s 20th overall win at Sebring.
“The first hour was rough, I just wanted a clean start but other competitors had a different idea,” said a smiling Nasr.
“There were 12 hours to go and I just wanted to keep the car in one piece because the last hour is what really matters,” he continued. “Going through the day my teammates did phenomenal work, no mistakes, kept the car in one piece and it was fast all day and winning for that guy [team owner Roger Penske], that’s what I’m here for.”
Tight competition among the 11-car GTP field – and especially tight competition between the two Porsche team cars in the final hours – characterized the entire race from green to checkered.
The drivers from the No. 6 car conceded it was a tricky defeat, while Nasr was adamant the finish was a full team victory.
“I think the best way to describe it is we had to make some difficult decisions today, but we made the right decisions to make sure we finished one-two,” Team Penske President Jonathan Diuguid told IMSA Radio at the checkered flag. “That was the goal, to make sure a Porsche finished first and if we could finish one-two, that’s what we did.”
Nasr added, “Like Sebring usually is, it’s a pretty intense race and that’s exactly what we found out today from beginning to the end. There’s always going to be all the versions – my version, the team versions and the other drivers’ version.
“But I signed up for this program because I believe I can win for the program, win for the team. My teammates did everything perfectly today. We did everything we needed to do to be up front at all times.
“I’m here to race and that’s what I did today. That’s what we should be celebrating today. It’s a victory. …What matters is today we came out winning, winning for the team and the brand. That’s what we do our jobs for.”
Equally pleased with the team’s trophy hoists, the No. 6 team nobly explained they understand the rules of belonging to a team that is so talented either car could win any race. Even if Saturday’s runner-up was a little tough to swallow for Estre and co-drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell.
“We were fighting the whole race being 1-2, we were ahead so we were always knowing this could happen and that’s always the case when teammates are fighting and we have the same car,” Estre said. “We have the same weaknesses and we have the same strengths, so it’s always difficult to fight and we also have to think about Porsche which is paying us and Penske and respect what they have to say.’’
Added Vanthoor, “I think it’s a great organization, what we drive for, and we’re all privileged to drive for them, and we are clearly the strongest in the last 36 hours. That’s why we’re all sitting here.
“It’s a great organization which has rules and things in place for us to be the most successful. That’s why we swap on pit lane. That’s why we do (it). There’s certain rules connected to that. It only works if we all play the same card. Obviously, yeah, that’s where some frustration now is created.”
In the final half hour, several GTP cars from three brands ran three-wide competing for that third place. It appeared as though the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R would prevail for the final podium position.
However, during post-race technical inspection the No. 10 car was found to have camber in excess of the permitted tire pressure limit, thus moving it to the back of the class. That promoted the polesitting No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti to third for their second podium of the year.
It was a similar one-two team sweep in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class with United Autosports USA claiming the top positions. The No. 2 ORECA LMP2 07 finished first in class as Mikkel Jensen won by 0.510 of a second over the team’s No. 22 ORECA LMP2 07, whose last stint was handled by driver Paul Di Resta.
It marked the first Sebring victory for the team’s No. 2 car, which also included Phil Fayer and Hunter McElrea on its driver lineup. It was the first time the United Autosports team earned a one-two finish in IMSA and it marked the first Sebring victory for both the New Zealander McElrea and the Canadian Fayer.
McElrea and Jensen have now won three of the class’ last four races, dating back to the 2025 season when they raced for TDS Racing. Both switched to United in 2026 through separate opportunities.
“You come back every year, you want to repeat this thing,” said Jensen, who has three Sebring class wins in seven starts. “It’s an amazing race. There’s so much going on out there.
“It’s unbelievable how the GTs are trying to use us to play their game against the competitors. It’s actually the hardest thing here I would say.
“Then the track just gets different every year, more bumps arriving. It gets fixed in places, some not. You always experience new bumps when you go off the line passing a GT. It’s always a challenge at night at the end when you have to find your way through traffic and find your competitors at the same time.
“Winning Sebring is amazing, to be with Hunter, we did it in the past years together, but now we’re here with Phil. It’s just a good win on top of a tough Daytona.
The Tower Motorsports No. 8 ORECA LMP2 07 of Tristan Vautier, John Farano and Sebastian Alvarez rounded out the class podium after running top five for most of the event.
