SEBRING, Fla. — The 2026 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring put the “1-2” in 12.
Porsche Penske Motorsport went 1-2 in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). Porsche also went 1-2 in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) with the Manthey and AO Racing teams. And United Autosports USA went 1-2 in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2).
It was only in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) where the 1-2 came from different brands but featured the race’s most exciting final crescendo. Antonio Fuoco’s ferocious charge through the field netted him a win in his No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO over Tom Gamble in his No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
Definitions of Teamwork
No single driver wins an endurance race. At Sebring, it takes three drivers to hustle a car around the brutal road course for 12 hours, finding the right balance between speed and aggression, patience and wisdom to keep the car in sound mechanical condition as well as in contention for the win.
Moreover, it requires an extraordinary effort by a tireless squad of mechanics, engineers, strategists and other support personnel – in other words, a team – to provide those drivers with everything they need to contend for victory.
And no doubt, Porsche Penske Motorsport did that for its No. 6 and 7 Porsche 963 cars, which combined to lead 273 of 343 laps. The intra-team squabble for the win occurred due to split strategies, with radio messages and differences of opinion then leading to a series of passes between finishing drivers Kevin Estre (No. 6) and Felipe Nasr (No. 7). Both drivers offered divergent opinions about the sequence of events.
“We were back and forth but at some point, there was a call from the pit stand that was not respected,” said Estre, who still remains in search of his first IMSA victory. “I was driving the car, respecting what we were saying, trying to optimize our strategy, trying to get to the end ‘cause we needed to save some fuel. That’s what I did.
“I think we both had to do the same but somehow Felipe did something else … something happened which was not fair from my side … Felipe can say what he feels. I just know what I felt, what was the rule, what was the communication. I think it was quite clear from both sides from what I understood. But in the end, it didn’t happen that way, so that’s the way it is.”
Nasr noted: “There’s always going to be different versions, right? My version, the team’s versions and the other drivers’ versions. I stand for the (win). It’s what I’m here for. I sign up for this program because I believe I can win for this program. I can win for the team . . . I love winning for Roger. I love winning for Penske, to our sponsors and that’s what I’m here for.”
There were no such issues in LMP2 where the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 of Phil Fayer, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea took the final restart just ahead of the sister No. 22 United ORECA of Daniel Goldburg, Paul Di Resta and Rasmus Lindh. The two raced hard but fair and Jensen ended half a second clear of Di Resta.
“It’s a great start to the journey to already be winning my second race with (United Autosports USA) and to see the team perform with a 1-2 finish here,” said Jensen. “In practice we didn’t really look to be the strongest guys (so) I think we were surprised about our pace throughout the whole race. We had a fast car. The sister car was fast. Just super happy for the package that the team put together and made us able to be one-two today.
One other bit of unusual “teammate” action came in GTD. Fuoco was assessed a drive-through penalty for contact with the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO driven by Miguel Molina. Fuoco has shared the same Af Corse Ferrari 499P in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Molina in the past, including an overall win at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, and is slated to share the same car again in 2026 with Nicklas Nielsen.
European Team Impact
Underscoring the WeatherTech Championship’s increasingly international footprint is the fact that Sebring saw the GTD PRO and GTD categories both won by European-based teams.
Known for its successes in the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (aka DTM, aka German touring car championship) Manthey Racing is contesting the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup this year, fielding Porsche 911 GT3 Rs in both GTD PRO and GTD. Having gotten off to a solid start with a fifth-place finish in GTD PRO at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Thomas Preining, Klaus Bachler, Ricardo Feller and the No. 911 Manthey “Grello” Porsche edged AO Racing’s No. 77 “Roxy” Porsche for the class win at Sebring. Bachler, coincidentally, was a winner in 2025 at Sebring with AO in what was then “Rexy.”
Did someone mention “teamwork?”
“Obviously it’s been a Herculean effort coming all the way from Europe to be able to drive in the first place at all, and to drive well and quick and at the front,” said Preining. “Pulling it off to win the second race is really special. Big, big teamwork was necessary today – it was a very difficult race. Difficult to always have the right strategy and position yourself at the end when it counts and have the car quick when it counts.”
“This is the beginning of a new chapter for the ‘Grello’ in the U.S. That’s the first victory. I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last,” said Feller. “It’s not so easy for a German team to get all the people here, to get all the equipment here, to compete against teams that know the structure in IMSA, which is kind of very different to what we’re used to Europe. It’s not so easy to compete against them. I think we, or the team, did a great job with that.”
Of course, Af Corse is no stranger to IMSA, witness their GTD class win in the 2025 Motul Petit Le Mans and last year’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD title. But the fact remains the Piacenza, Italy-based team made its name on the European sports car stage dating back to the mid-1990s with a record that includes nearly two dozen FIA GT2, GT3, WEC and DTM team and drivers’ championships, plus the aforementioned collaboration with the Ferrari Hypercar team that has produced three consecutive victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
And lest we forget, although Sebring’s LMP2-winning United Autosports USA is based in Mooresville, North Carolina the organization’s roots lead back to its mothership in Wakefield, England where it was founded by 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning driver Richard Dean and Zak Brown, chief executive officer of McLaren Racing, in 2010. The team adds a Sebring win to past IMSA triumphs at Road America in 2024 and the Rolex 24 and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in 2025. The team is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 and twice LMP2 champions of the European Le Mans Series, and fields a pair of McLaren GT3 EVOs in the WEC.
The Points Are Mostly Close
Two races and 36 hours into the 2026 WeatherTech Championship and some good points battles are already shaping up in the manufacturer, team and driver championships. In GTP, Porsche Penske Motorsport and drivers Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich lead Cadillac Whelen and Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and Jack Aitken by 80 points in the wake of back-to-back wins at Daytona and Sebring.
LMP2 finds United Autosports USA and CrowdStrike Racing by APR separated by just three points, with United Autosports’ Goldburg, Di Resta and Lindh “enjoying” a similarly slim lead over CrowdStrike’s Alex Quinn, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery. In GTD PRO, the points lead is a dead heat between Paul Miller Racing and Manthey, with Paul Miller Racing’s Connor De Philippi, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen tied with Manthey’s Bechler, Feller and Preining for the top spots in the driver standings, although BMW has 21 and 23-point advantages over Porsche and Corvette respectively in the manufacturers points. Corvette’s Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone are “net” second, 30 points back, as the Manthey team races an endurance-only schedule.
As for GTD, while Af Corse may have won the battle of Sebring, the Heart of Racing Team finds itself leading the season-long war for team honors with a 29-point margin over the Mobil 1 Twelve Hour-winning squad. Likewise, Heart of Racing Team’s Gamble, Dudu Barrichello and Zacharie Robichon enjoy a 29-point advantage over Af Corse’s Fuoco, Lilou Wadoux and Simon Mann. On the manufacturers front it’s Aston Martin ahead of Mercedes-AMG by 16 points with Ferrari an additional 10 points in arrears.
