Porsche’s Nasr Tops Practice 2 at Sebring

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Porsche Penske Motorsport continued its strong form in practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, with one of its factory Porsche 963s topping the time charts in Thursday afternoon’s session.

Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche reeled off a best lap of 1:47.043, edging out the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist by 0.259 seconds.

It broke up a Porsche Penske 1-2 stranglehold for much of the session, in what appeared to have been qualifying sim runs for the Porsches early on.

Jack Aitken also made a late-session improvement in his No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to make it three different GTP manufacturers in the top-three.

Kevin Estre’s 1:47.461 lap time set early on, saw the No. 6 Porsche drop to fourth, but still ahead of the pair of Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs, which completed the top six with Filipe Albuquerque and Louis Deletraz, respectively.

Renger van der Zande was seventh in the No. 93 MSR Acura, ahead of Kaylen Frederik in the 2025-spec JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche.

The two Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s and lone Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie brought up the rear of the 11-car class.

The LMP2 class saw early dramas during the FIA Bronze-rated driver-only start to the session, when the No. 18 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Tobi Lutke picked up a WeatherTech banner on track.

It was followed by fuel cell issues to the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports entry and a 60-minute stop-and-hold penalty for the No. 79 JDC-Miller Motorsports entry for technical non-compliance.

The No. 99 AO Racing Oreca of Dane Cameron, which was repaired following PJ Hyett’s heavy accident in opening practice, wound up quickest in class.

Eduardo Barrichello led the way in the production-based ranks, with the Silver-rated Brazilian ending up quickest out of all GTD and GTD Pro machinery in his No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Barrichello’s 2:00.029 was 0.041 seconds quicker than GTD Pro pace-setter Harry King in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.

Dean MacDonald put the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo third quickest and second in GTD Pro.

The 90-minute session, which was hampered by high winds, did not see any red flags or major incidents.

Night practice, the final session prior to tomorrow’s qualifying, is set to run from 7:45-9:15 p.m. EST.

RESULTS: Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John