Heinrich: Sebring Win “Super Important” for Title Defense

AO Racing’s GTD Pro class victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is “super important” for the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title defense according to Laurin Heinrich, who made the race-winning move on Paul Miller Racing’s Max Hesse late in the race.

Heinrich fought his way past Hesse’s No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with just over an hour remaining in the 73rd running of the Florida endurance classic to win, capturing Porsche’s first GTD Pro win in the event since 2022.

As a result of the victory, Heinrich and co-drivers Klaus Bachler and Alessio Picariello climb to second in the GTD Pro standings and now sit only 17 points off the points-leading No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3.

Speaking after the race, Heinrich was quick to recognize the significance of the outcome in the context of a championship defense, especially in considering the team’s disappointing Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“It’s super important,” he said. “Daytona was a bit unfortunate. Obviously everyone comes to Daytona with zero points, more or less. After qualifying you already score some.

“You want to win Daytona. Most people go all in. I think that was not really our approach. In the end you fight with these people. It went wrong. We lost some points in Daytona, which is not great.

“Obviously we knew at some point if you want to defend the title, you have to catch [up]. The sooner the better.

“Now getting that win, also [Friday] second in qualifying, great points for the championship.

“A win in IMSA is always big points. You have 30-point gap between the winner and second place. We saw last year how tight it can be.

“In the end it can come down to the very last point. Getting a win is really something big.

“We still have eight races to go and we already have our first one. Last year we could win three.

“I think that was really important for us and gave us  some safety margin in case something goes wrong, like we saw at Petit last year.

“I hope we can carry that momentum into the next ones. Last year we managed to win back to back after our first win.

“Certainly going into Laguna, that was the track where we won our first race last year. Should be a good track for us, as well.

“I’m just happy. Certainly it’s all about the points. Just getting that win is incredibly special.”

Heinrich explained that he did not want to ‘wait too long’ passing Hesse’s No. 48 BMW once he had caught up with his compatriot, pointing towards the significance of the battle in terms of their shared background in their native Germany.

“To be honest, I had a bit of a different approach,” he said.

“I thought I was catching him. Both of us knew it would be a fuel race. Both of us were fuel saving. I like fuel saving. I think it suits my driving style.

“I was catching him. My approach was to not wait too long, maybe already take the first opportunity I get. Maybe catch him a bit off guard or by surprise.

“Also, I [had] the experience last year in the last hour of the race, many things can go wrong by taking too much risk or others just defending too hard.

“I didn’t want to spend too much time fighting because in the end it’s also a high risk. I think it worked quite well to just take the first opportunity I got.

“I have to give it to him. I mean, he played safe. We are both young Germans. We are both supported by the ADAC in Germany.

“It was cool to actually fight with him for the first time on the track between each other. I hope we are going to have some more fights in our career against each other.”

Hesse: Second Place “The Maximum” for BMW

Hesse, for his part, admitted that he ‘knew Heinrich would be quicker,’ hinting that it simply proved too much of a task to keep the Rexy-liveried Porsche 911 GT3 R at bay.

“We had that little advantage initially, so we tried to do something with the fuel as well, just because we knew that he would be quicker,” he told Sportscar365.

“That was our only chance. Then when the yellow came, obviously that restart was crucial.

“I tried everything. I was close, but it was honestly not enough today. I tried to keep him honest, but he also drove really well.

“There were no mistakes, so today second was the maximum. But really happy with the points we got today.

“I think in Daytona in the end, we didn’t get to show what we had but I think there were some sparks already.

“Now we’re excited to keep going and now heads down to Laguna.”