On a beautiful, sunny day at Sebring International Raceway, in front of tens of thousands of hearty spectators, the 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring began with early fireworks.
Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 led the 56-car field to the green flag, but before he actually crossed the start/finish line, he moved over to the right, in front of the No. 60 MSR Acura of Tom Blomqvist.
Vanthoor received a drive-through penalty for his false start that put him down the order in GTP and created an early hole for the No. 24 team to dig out of.
That came after some early incidents in the first three laps. The No. 18 Era Motorsport and No. 88 AF Corse ORECAs collided at Turn 3, The stranded No. 18 of Tobi Lutke, and debris from the No. 88 of Luis Perez Companc, brought out the first full course yellow of the race.
Bob Akin Award contenders Brendon Iribe and Orey Fidani collided on the first lap – leading to a drive-through penalty for the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari for punting the No. 13 AWA Corvette.
Pfaff Motorsports’ No. 9 Lamborghini has been trying to fix issues with its torque sensor. Andrea Caldarelli dropped off the lead lap initially after having to serve a mechanical black flag, and the car has since been given a warning for not adhering to its powertrain parameters. That took Caldarelli from fighting for third, to two laps down.
20 minutes in, while leading GTD, polesitter Alessandro Pier Guidi spun off at turn 10 at very high speed, dropping the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari out of the lead and leading to additional work in the pits to fix the left-front brake — similar to the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini, the first car in GTD to pit for a left-rear brake issue of its own.
Ricky Taylor dropped down the order due to a throttle problem that seemed to resolve itself, putting the blue No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac in 12th behind the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, which is running a solid pace early on relative to expectations.