Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pursuit of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring prize is off to a good start this morning: Nick Tandy set the fastest time in the opening practice session aboard the No. 7 Porsche 963 which he shares with fellow Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor.
Tandy led the GTP class with his best lap time of 1m48.651s on a warm, sunny morning.
AF Corse’s Nicklas Nielsen set the pace in LMP2 with a best time of 1m50.403s in the No. 88 ORECA 07.
In GTD PRO, Davide Rigon led the way in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 (2m00.866s), but the fastest GT time was set by GTD leaders, Winward Racing and Russell Ward in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 (2m00.787s).
Today’s 90-minute practice session began with some software-related troubles for the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, as Mathieu Jaminet stopped coming around Turn 6 into Turn 7. The Frenchman was able to get his car going again but not before bringing out the first red flag.
A second, longer red flag was waved 26 minutes into the session when the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal crashed into the barriers. Formal dropped a wheel on the exit of Turn 2 and spun off to the drivers’ left-hand side into the wall. The Costa Rican driver was checked and released from the circuit care center with no significant injuries. But the chrome silver Lamborghini suffered heavy rear-end damage that may take some time to repair.
IMSA’s newest LMP2 bronze driver, Jeremy Clarke, went off at Turn 5 in his No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA to bring out the third red flag with less than 15 minutes to go.
Behind the No. 7 Porsche, second and third place in GTP were the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06es. It was the red and white No. 93 ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly in second with a 1m48.796s, followed by the blue and white No. 60 of Colin Braun in third (1m48.832s). Jaminet ended up setting the fourth-fastest time in the No. 6 Porsche with a 1m49.006s.
