Nasr, Derani, Curran Dominate 12H Sebring

Photo: Scott LePage/IMSA

Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran secured victory in the 67th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring after a dominant run that saw Whelen Engineering Racing lead almost the entire race on Saturday.

Driving the No. 31 Action Express Racing-run Cadillac DPi-V.R, Nasr survived a late-race restart with six minutes to go to keep his lead despite pressure from Jordan Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi.

Nasr, the reigning IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Champion, shared the Whelen-backed car with Derani and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver Curran.

The two Brazilian drivers did the majority of driving, with Curran completing a 85-minute stint midway through the raced.

It marked Derani’s third Sebring win in four years, having scored victories at the central Florida circuit with Tequila Patron ESM in 2016 and 2018. 

Taylor was unable to take his second consecutive win in the No. 10 WTR entry despite repeated attempts to get through during the final stint.

It meant that he, Renger van der Zande and IMSA debutant Matthieu Vaxiviere had to settle for runner-up spot. 

Filipe Albuquerque crossed the line third in the Mustang Sampling Racing entry, ensuring both Action Express cars made it onto the podium and giving Cadillac a 1-2-3 podium sweep.

The fourth and final car to finish on the final lap was the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05, classified 11 seconds behind the leader.

The sister Acura DPi of Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud and Juan Pablo Montoya started from pole but dropped down the order with several dramas in the opening hours.

It included electrical issues, a change of steering wheel and a drive-through penalty, which ended up pushing the car down to ninth in class, nine laps down.

CORE autosport completed the top-five with its Nissan DPi, while Olivier Pla brought the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P to sixth after another difficult race for the Team Joest operation.

A mid-race crash for Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 car brought out one of the race’s five full course cautions while its sister No. 77 entry stopped on track with a cockpit fire in the second hour.

Performance Tech Motorsports, meanwhile, took the LMP2 class win with a 13-lap lead.

Cameron Cassels, Kyle Masson and Andrew Evans combined in the team’s No. 38 Oreca 07 Gibson for the class win in the two-car field, finishing 17th overall and behind the GT Le Mans class runners.

RESULTS: Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.