SEBRING, Fla. – Most of the first third of the 67th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts was all about the pair of Action Express Racing Cadillac DPis, which occupied the first two positions at the four-hour mark.
Felipe Nasr led the way in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering machine by 53.503 seconds over Brendon Hartley in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac. Nasr and the No. 31 team are the defending champions of both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
By leading at the four-hour mark, the No. 31 team moved to within two points of the Michelin Endurance Cup DPi class points lead behind the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi squad. The No. 10 – which won January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona – battled early brake cooling issues and also incurred a drive-through penalty in the first four hours, but Matthieu Vaxiviere had the car on the lead lap in fifth place. Olivier Pla was third in DPi at four hours in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi machine.
While the race started as scheduled shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET, steady rains and excessively wet track conditions kept the field behind the Corvette safety car for the first 40 minutes before conditions improved enough for green flag running.
In the LMP2 class, Cameron Cassels held a substantial, 22-lap lead in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA over the No. 52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA. Anders Fjorback was driving the No. 52 at four hours, but the car spent considerable time behind the wall for repairs due to a mechanical problem.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Ryan Briscoe and Sebastien Bourdais ran 1-2 in the GT Le Mans class. Driving the No. 67 Ford GT, Briscoe was 13.619 seconds ahead of Bourdais in the No. 66 entry. Both of the Ganassi cars now have 13 points toward the Michelin Endurance Cup, pulling them to within two of the effective GTLM class leader, the No. 912 Porsche GT Team entry shared by Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet.
The No. 912 was running seventh at the four-hour mark, two laps behind the leader and actually is one point out of the Michelin Endurance Cup lead, 16-15, behind the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari team that is not competing at Sebring.
In the GT Daytona (GTD) class, the No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG trio of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga extended their lead in the Michelin Endurance Cup standings as Bleekemolen led the race at four hours.
Bleekemolen was 8.296 seconds ahead of the Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning No. 11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 driven at the time by Mirko Bortolotti. The No. 33 team leads the Michelin Endurance Cup standings by three points, 19-16.