Porsche Penske Motorsport won a second consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona with the #7 car, as the #6 also made the podium to finish third in a stunning start to the season for the reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champions.
Felipe Nasr also won the race last year in the #7 and his second career win here came with Laurens Vanthoor, joining to win the race for the first time.
A huge congratulations goes to Nick Tandy, who joined the #7 line-up from the sister car for this year and who needed to win this race overall to complete his grand slam sweep of all of sportscars’ major 24 hour races. In an incredible achievement, the British driver has now won the Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa 24 Hour races.
The #6 and #7 crews needed some time to adapt the setup of the Porsche 963 in the early running, but the two cars spent almost the whole night portion of the race in the lead before coming under pressure from the #24 BMW and #60 Acura late on.
Matt Campbell, Kévin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 took third in a hotly contested battle and can be incredibly proud of their performance.
Such was the dominance of the team that it led for 66.2% of the race laps, leading for 517 of the 781 laps in total.
In the classes, late contact for the GTD Pro #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) robbed it of a podium challenge, but in the GTD class, the Wright Motorsports #120 took second place having spent almost the whole race in the top three in its class.
Story of the race
A reshuffle in the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver line-up means the winning car from 2024, still with Felipe Nasr, is now joined by Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor.
Matt Campbell has joined Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 with Kévin Estre joining for the endurance races. Nasr put the #7 third in qualifying, while Campbell struggled to get a clean lap and started 10th in the #6.
A really strong headwind massively impacted the handling of the cars in the early running, and both Porsche 963s initially struggled for grip and understeer, falling back slightly in the opening phase. The extremely low temperatures certainly impacted getting tyres up to temperature, too.
But there was nothing to fear as the drivers remained patient, stayed out of trouble - as is so important early on in the race - and worked on their cars through the pitstops to get the tyre pressures correct and tweak set-ups to get the cars in the right window.
Also early in the race, it’s common for teams to do extended periods without changing tyres in order to save sets for later in the race. Teams don’t have enough tyres to have fresh ones each time they pit, so there’s always disparity in pace between cars early on as some save and some get fresh tyres.
As sunset approached and then darkness fell, the cars really came alive. In the third hour the #7 car led for the first time, and after this, the 963 was a perennial challenger for the lead.
While the #7 did the early challenging, an excellent stint by Estre in hour six announced that car into the battle, shortly before a penalty for the car being worked on outside of the pitbox in the seventh hour dropped it to the back of the pack.
Taking over the car, Matt Campbell did an excellent job of keeping the #6 on the lead lap - this could have been a critical blow - despite the penalty, and slowly worked its way back into contention by the ninth hour of the race.
With the sun down and the traditional Daytona fireworks complete, the excitement was not over as the #6 and #7 spent large portions of the race leading and often in 1-2 formation.
The #6 remained the star of the night, as Porsche maintained a 1-2 for hours - paused only for pitstops - and it also led the GTD Pro and GTD classes making it all Porsche at the top of the leaderboard for much of the running under the floodlights.
As the sun rose, the #7, now driven by Tandy, took the lead briefly via a pitstop shuffle, but got a taste for being out front and worked hard to establish a lead as the headlights were turned off and daylight resumed. Only two other cars joined the Porsches on the lead lap showing both the pace of the 963 and the attrition and difficulty for teams in staying up front in this race.
There was some opposition, firstly between the two cars as they battled hard but fair through hours 17 and 18, with the #7 again establishing the lead seemingly as the generally stronger car in the daylight after the #6s night-time dominance.
A lockup in the 19th hour compromised Campbell’s #6, allowing the #24 BMW through, and so started a huge battle with the pair as the #7 extended its lead into the distance.
With less than four hours to go, Jaminet took over the #6 and immediately went after the #24, passing it into Turn 2 with a late but fair dive that secured the position and allowed him to build a big lead.
Again, the #6 and #7 looked strong at the front but a caution with two hours to go warranted a trip to the pits for the #6 - the #7 had just pitted and stayed out to take the lead - but the #24 jumped ahead of the #6 in the pits splitting the Porsche Penske Motorsport duo inside the final two hours.
Due to lapped cars in the line, Estre in the #6 also had to overtake lapped cars before being able to attack the #24 for position.
Shortly after the restart the #24 made a move on Nasr’s #7 into Turn 1 and completed the overtake, but ran wide and Nasr fought back in dramatic fashion, refusing to give up the lead of the race with typical Porsche resilience.
This allowed the #6 to close in, and after going off track at the Le Mans Chicane during one overtake, Estre gave the position back and then re-passed the #24 to take second.
Estre set about reeling in Nasr who had extended a lead, and Estre closed in to within a second before the #7 pitted with 1 hour and 10 minutes to go shortly followed by the #6 which Campbell took over for the last stint.
Campbell also took the lead with the #7 falling behind the #24 BMW into third, creating another showdown with the same car.
But Nasr had to take avoiding action for an incident between an LMP2 and GTD Pro car, running wide at Turn 1 leaving it six seconds behind.
However, as the clock ticked into the final hour a caution neutralised the field and erased the gaps between the cars, with the top four remaining in the same order with a straight fight to the finish with no more pitstops.
On the restart with 38 minutes to go, the #24 clipped the leading #6 car and received damage which took it out of contention, putting the #6 and #7 in a 1-2 position with only the #60 Acura remaining on the lead lap.
Initially the #6 claimed a good lead but Nasr closed back in with 22 minutes to go and moved to the front of the field with a daring move on Campbell at the Le Mans chicane, with Campbell desperately trying to immediately retake the position without success.
Nasr was able to consolidate the lead with Campbell as his wingman, crucially holding the #60 at bay until the #60 was able to overtake inside the last four minutes.
But thanks to excellent teamwork, Nasr was too far ahead for the #60 to catch after it had been held up by the #6, and that ensured the victory for Porsche Penske Motorsport.
As this was the first round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the #7 now leads the championship heading into another prestigious long-distance race, the 12 Hours of Sebring, on March 15.
Customer racing
GTP
The #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963, driven by reigning Formula E world champion Pascal Wehrlein, Gianmaria Bruni, Tijmen van der Helm and Bryce Aron, secured a sixth-place overall finish.
Lining up fifth, it was running eighth in the early stages, but was up to third by hour 10 with Wehrlein at the wheel.
Unlucky pitstop timing as a full course yellow ended in hour 19 meant the #85 lost time to the field, putting it a lap down.
More poor luck came in the closing stages, with a black flag for a tyre pressure infringement forcing the car to pit immediately while running in fifth.
However, the team were able to fight back, and finished sixth overall.
The #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 sadly had its race ended in the early hours of the morning after being forced to retire with suspension damage.
Shared by Porsche factory driver Julien Andlauer, Neel Jani, Nico Pino and Tristan Vautier, the customer car had to sit out qualifying due to damage sustained in practice, forcing them to start from the back of the GTP field.
Despite its starting position, the #5 crew quickly fought back, running fourth by the end of the second hour.
Minor contact with the #25 BMW as night fell resulted in a drive-through penalty, dropping the car back to the bottom of the class.
Hard work from the drivers, including a stellar stint from Andlauer, put the car briefly in the lead after midnight, before its retirement soon after. The cause is currently under investigation.
GTD Pro
The reigning champion GTD Pro champion #77 AO Racing entry, known as Rexy, finished eighth in class after late contact scuppered its chances of victory.
Klaus Bachler, Laurin Heinrich and Alessio Picariello started seventh on Saturday, but quickly made their way to the front of the field in the first few hours.
The trio were forced to stop to check a possible issue with the fueling software and then needed an emergency stop. But they were penalised for an improperly served emergency service obligation, dropping them to 14th in class.
They fought back, and though they were involved in multi-car contact on a restart in hour eight, the trio were soon back to the lead of the class.
Unfortunately, contact in hour 18 with the #1 BMW lost it the lead, dropping it back to eighth before further contact with another car late on forced it to stop once more and finish eighth.
The #20 Proton Competition entry finished 10th, having started 14th.
Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, Thomas Preining and Richard Lietz fought hard, but two early penalties made it a challenging race.
GTD
The #120 Wright Motorsports crew, piloting a Porsche 911 GT3 R, overcame a challenging race and fought back in style to finish second in the GTD class.
The car, shared by Adam Adelson, Ayhancan Güven, Elliott Skeer and Tom Sargent, started Saturday’s race on pole after a stellar effort in Thursday’s qualifying session.
Leading the entire first stint, pitstops dropped them to third, and a further setback came during a restart in the eighth hour which pushed the team down to 10th. But the team battled hard and was back in the lead of the class by the halfway point.
The #120 car had contact with the #57 into the International Horseshoe as the pair fought for second, but a strong defence from Güven held control.
Soon after, though, the car was forced to make an emergency stop due to running low on fuel under caution, coming into a closed pit which earned the team a penalty and dropped it to ninth.
Once more, a valiant effort from the team meant it climbed back up the order, breaking back into the top three with 15 minutes remaining before claiming second in the final moments.
The Iron Dames #83 Porsche made its debut in Daytona, with the all-female team rejoining the marque for the 2025 season.
Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Karen Gaillard fought hard in the GTD class to finish eighth.
