Porsche Penske Motorsport became one of the few teams in history to win the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring in the same year, as #7 driver Nick Tandy secured the prestigious Triple Crown achievement.
The team scored a 1-2 in Sunday’s 12 Hours of Sebring with the #7 line-up of Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor maintaining a 100% record in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after their Daytona win last month.
The #6 crew of Matt Campbell, Kévin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet finished second in a stellar 1-2 for the team.
Tandy had become the first driver to win the 24-hour races at Le Mans (2015), the Nürburgring (2018), Spa (2020) and Daytona (2025), and now he becomes the 10th driver to win sportscar racing’s ‘Triple Crown’ of Daytona, Le Mans and Sebring. He also includes Petit Le Mans (2015) to make it a ‘Big Six’.
For the Porsche 963, it is the car’s first win at Sebring since its introduction in 2023, and the first win for Porsche at the event since 2008 - including a long gap of not competing at the event - when it also scored a 1-2.
There was another victory for Porsche, as the #77 AO Racing car returned to winning ways in the GTD Pro class. The team’s 911 GT3 R (992) won last year’s GTD Pro championship and scored a breakthrough first win of the year at Sebring.
Story of the race
Both Porsche Penske Motorsport cars had strong starts from third and fourth on the grid, and it didn’t take long before the #7 took the lead of the race, establishing a 1-2 ahead of the #6 car.
However, still inside the first hour, the Porsche Penske Motorsport cars wanted to pit but as they peeled off to head for service, the pitlane entry light remained red. It stayed red for the leading Porsche machines but then went green for cars behind, meaning they had an advantage and the #7 and #6 had to pit a few laps later and go to the back of the pack.
Strong driving in both cars put them back in the top five, as teams started to experiment on different strategies and with some ‘double stinting’ of the tyres - the process of not changing tyres for two stints in order to guarantee fresh tyres for later in the race.
It took hours to work back into the lead, but just before the halfway point - in combination with misfortune and incidents for others, and an incredible stint by Nasr - the #7 assumed the lead from the #31 Cadillac, using traffic to make the overtake.
It took so long to get back to the front in part due to a lack of cautions. After they came thick and fast at the start of the race, there was four hours between stoppages, which allowed the field to spread out and made it more difficult for cars to gain back time in big chunks through the field being bunched back together, as is the case when there are cautions.
That ended with three hours and 17 minutes to go, with a GTD car spinning at the final corner, resetting the field which both erased the #7's lead but also brought the #6 back into contention having been 18 seconds behind in third.
After another caution immediately after, the action got underway with the sun setting. Shortly after, the #7 of Tandy used traffic to pass the #31 Cadillac again to take the lead. The #31 pitted just after, and the #7 and #6 worked together to stay out and push hard to extend their lead and look to shorten the final stop.
After pitting for fresh tyres and a driver swap, Nasr emerged in the lead. The #6 came out in third, but closer to the #31 than before, and with more energy to use.
Jaminet, now driving the #6, delivered a brilliant move at Turn 10 to take second with 1h45 to go.
Everything was going to plan when both cars stopped just inside an hour to go, but then a caution with 47 minutes left eliminated the lead gap the cars had built at the front.
Luckily, the cars managed the restart perfectly and Nasr - who incredibly set the fastest lap of the race just four laps from the end - led Jaminet home by 2.239s at the end as the pair remained relatively unchallenged through the final stint.
It was Nasr’s second win at the event, and Vanthoor’s first overall, although he won GTD in 2021 and GTD Pro in 2023 there.
The #7 crew leads the championship with 760 points, 91 points ahead of the #6 team.
It is the first team, car, and driver lineup in the GTP era to win back-to-back IMSA endurance races.
Customer racing
Proton Competition pulled off a brilliant comeback to finish the race in sixth position.
Despite suffering a puncture, the car driven by Neel Jani, Nico Pino and Tristan Vautier had run fourth until the closing stages, before stopping for a splash and dash to make it to the end.
The #85 JDC Miller MotorSports car also had bright moments, but sadly it needed a lengthy stop for front-left brake issues, with rubber clogging the bodywork around the brakes which impacted the cooling.
Gianmaria Bruni, Tijmen Van der Helm and Nico Mueller finished eighth overall.
Another Porsche win in GTD Pro
The #77 AO Racing team of Klaus Bachler, Laurin Heinrich and Alessio Picariello jumped to second in the GTD Pro championship with its first win of the season.
The car started on the front row and was in contention throughout the race, even when it was slightly off-strategy earlier on via pitting earlier than some of the car’s rivals.
The car, nicknamed Rexy, has a dinosaur livery including giant teeth at the front, which the team had given braces in a light-hearted joke highlighting a bruising finish to Daytona where the car took a few punches.
However, there would be no repeat, with Laurin Heinrich making a decisive move at Turns 4 and 5 on the #48 BMW to claim the lead, and he proceeded to build up a seven-second margin.
It was erased by the last caution, but Heinrich held on at the restart and stretched his advantage further to secure the team’s fourth win and its first in a major endurance event like Sebring.
Heinrich also bagged the fastest lap, meaning Porsche won and took the fastest lap in both the GTP and GTD Pro classes.
Elsewhere in GTD Pro, the #20 Proton Competition car was pushed off the track at the start of the race and never really recovered, fighting back to eighth in class.
In the GTD class, the #120 Wright Motorsports car was the main challenger and regularly ran in the top five, but two separate penalties for pit infringements decimated the team’s chances. It still did well to come back and finish fifth.
Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer and Tom Sargent now sit third in the championship after their second place at Daytona.
The #83 Iron Dames car finished 11th in class.
Porsche Penske Motorsport is back in action next at Long Beach on April 12, where the #6 Porsche 963 won in 2023 and the #7 car finished third last year.
