Porsche Penske Motorsport team wins 12 Hours of Sebring, sweeping IMSA's first 2 races

Team Porsche Penske driver Felipe Nasr, shown celebrating the team's victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International in January, was in the winning car again Saturday night in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

SEBRING — The checkered flag running order in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Saturday night looked a lot like the green flag grid Saturday morning– with the Porsche Penske Motorsport team earning a 1-2 finish in the esteemed IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series race – its second sweep in the season’s two endurance contests.

The GTP prototype-class winning No. 7 Penske Porsche first took the lead of the race five minutes into the round-the-clock event when the race pole-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 was penalized for illegally changing lanes just before the green flag dropped to begin the race.

Although there were times during the 12 hours that the Porsches dropped slightly back in the running order – during pit stops and caution periods - they were consistently strong and able to power home producing the team’s 22^nd 1-2 finish. And it’s been eight years (2017) since a team (Wayne Taylor Racing) last swept the first two races of the season.

Ultimately Brazilian Felipe Nasr, Britain’s Nick Tandy and Belgian Laurens Vanthoor claimed Penske’s second overall Sebring win by a slight 2.239-seconds over their team’s No. 6 car co-driven by France’s Mathieu Jaminet, Austrialian Matt Campbell and France’s Kevin Estre.

The No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 – whose team part-owner is Miami’s four-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves - finished third to round out the podium. The Acura was co-driven by Netherlands’ Renger van der Zande, Britian’s Nick Yelloly and Spain’s Alex Palou – who is the reigning IndyCar Series champion, moonlighting in the IMSA endurance races.

“It was incredible to get the job done once again,’’ said Nasr, who helped the team lead nearly a full third of the race (166 of 353 laps). “After the win in the 24 Hours of Daytona, we spoke between us, like, what a dream would be to win Sebring if we can. And here we are. It's just hard to sink it in and understand what we just accomplished here.

“As a team, it was a perfect race today from beginning to the end. I think there was just one time we cycled through the back very early on when I was in the car. After that, we made our way to the front. The team did a perfect execution along the race. Nick and Laurens as well, watching them drive it was like, man, those guys are doing a superb job.”

Inter Europol Competition wins LMP2 class with 2 American drivers

The No. 43 Inter Europol Competition team claimed top honors in the LMP2 class with American drivers Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke, who earned the win in his first series start. Frenchman Tom Dillmann completed the driver lineup.

The two production based GT-classes provided much of the closing laps thrills. The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R edged a pair of Paul Miller Motorsports’ BMW M4 GT3s for the win in one of the perennially most competitive classes on the grid.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 made the boldest move to the front of the race, tapping the leading No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus from behind and pulling off a NASCAR-style pass on Turn 5 of the 3.74-mile road course with about 15 minutes remaining.

Winward Racing driver Phillip Ellis conceded afterward, “I wouldn’t be happy if I lost first place either, but to be honest I just gave him back what he gave me a couple laps earlier in turn seven,’’ said Ellis, whose aggressive - but fair - move helped the team to its second consecutive Sebring win.

Having collected victories at the Daytona 24-hour race and the Sebring 12-hour classic, the Porsche Penske Motorsport team now has a chance this summer to become the first car in history to win Daytona, Sebring and the Le Mans, France 24-hour race all in the same calendar year.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now moves to the “sprint” race portion of the schedule with the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 11-12.

Sebring’s winning trio of Nasr, Vanthoor and Tandy hold a 91-point championship lead over their teammates Estre, Jaminet and Campbell in the GTP prototype class.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Porsche Penske Motorsport team earns 1-2 finish at 12 Hours of Sebring

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