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Sebring 12 Hours: #22 ESM Nissan squad wins close-fought race

The Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan squad claimed victory in a close-fought Sebring 12 Hours

The #22 ESM Onroak-Nissan DPi driven by Pipo Derani, Nicolas Lapierre and Johannes van Overbeek completed a 12-second victory in the second round of the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Derani was at the front of the safety car queue when the race went green with just over an hour of the race to run.

After a demon restart, he was able to pull a clear gap over Felipe Nasr in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Brazilian Derani was six seconds up on Harry Tincknell in the best of the Joest Racing Mazda RT24-P Daytona Prototype internationals going into the final round of pitstops with 40 minutes left to run.

But he emerged with a nine-second lead over the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac driven by Renger van der Zande and was able to control the gap to the chequered flag.

The Mazda, which Tincknell shared with Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot, failed to restart at its final stop and needed a push to get going, dropping the car to sixth position.

The Action Express entry of Nasr, Eric Curran and Mike Conway lost out to Tincknell after the final restart and then fell behind van der Zande just before the stops.

Nasr faded to a distant third over the final hour, but was still nearly half a minute up on the CORE Autosport ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Colin Braun, Romain Dumas and Jon Bennett at the chequered flag.

The CORE entry jumped to fourth as the first LMP2 car home with 10 minutes to go when Paul di Resta made a splash and dash fuel stop in the United Autosports Ligier-Gibson JSP217 he shared with Alex Brundle and Phil Hanson.

Both Penske Acura were in contention until their respective retirements.

Ricky Taylor stopped the #7 car with engine problems shortly after half distance, while Juan Pablo Montoya retired the sister car just over an hour later after a clash with Tristan Vautier in the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac.

The #5 Action Express Cadillac driven by Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi, winner of the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA opener in January, dropped out of contention in the eighth hour with a long stop for suspension repairs.

Porsche took GT Le Mans honours with the CORE-run Porsche 911 RSR shared by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.

Pilet came out on top in a thrilling battle with Toni Vilander in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE at the end of the 10th hour.

Tandy took over for the run to the flag and proved equal to the challenge of Alexander Sims's Rahal BMW M8 GTE to secure a six-second class victory.

The BMW, in which Sims was joined by Connor De Phillippi and Bill Auberlen, came back from a lap down after a mid-race brake change.

Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Corey Lewis took GT Daytona honours in their Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Sellers led into the final round of pitstops, but then had to pass Jeroen Bleekemolen's Riley-run Mercedes-AMG GT3 to seal the victory.

Result - 344 laps

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 P J.van Overbeek, P.Derani, N.Lapierre Tequila Patron ESM Nissan 12h00m34.369s
2 P J.Taylor, R.van der Zande, R.H.-Reay Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 12.427s
3 P F.Nasr, E.Curran, M.Conway Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 53.075s
4 P J.Bennett, C.Braun, R.Dumas CORE Autosport ORECA/Gibson 1m16.328s
5 P P.Hanson, A.Brundle, P.Di Resta United Autosports Ligier/Gibson 1m30.732s
6 P J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, S.Pigot Mazda Team Joest Mazda 1 Lap
7 P C.Miller, S.Simpson, M.Goikhberg JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 6 Laps
8 P O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, R.Rast Mazda Team Joest Mazda 10 Laps
9 P S.Trummer, R.Alon, N.Panciatici JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 13 Laps
10 GTLM P.Pilet, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 16 Laps
11 GTLM A.Sims, C.De Phillippi, B.Auberlen BMW Team RLL BMW 16 Laps
12 GTLM L.Vanthoor, E.Bamber, G.Bruni Porsche GT Team Porsche 16 Laps
13 GTLM R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 16 Laps
14 GTLM T.Vilander, J.Calado, A.P.Guidi Risi Competizione Ferrari 16 Laps
15 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing Chevrolet 17 Laps
16 P F.Albuquerque, J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 20 Laps
17 GTD B.Sellers, M.Snow, C.Lewis Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 23 Laps
18 GTD C.MacNeil, A.Balzan, G.Jeannette Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 23 Laps
19 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, L.Stolz Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes 23 Laps
20 GTD S.van der Linde, C.Mies, A.Picariello Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi 23 Laps
21 GTD J.Hawksworth, D.H.Hansson, S.Rayhall 3GT Racing Lexus 23 Laps
22 GTD P.Long, C.Nielsen, R.Renauer, M.Jaminet Wright Motorsports Porsche 23 Laps
23 GTD J.Marks, L.Aschenbach, M.Farnbacher Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 23 Laps
24 GTD K.Legge, A.Parente, T.Hindman Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 23 Laps
25 GTD P.Lindsey, J.Bergmeister, T.Pappas Park Place Motorsports Porsche 23 Laps
26 GTD K.Habul, T.Jager, M.Grenier SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes 23 Laps
27 GTD D.Yount, D.Machavern, M.Palttala Turner Motorsport BMW 24 Laps
28 GTD P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda, D.Serra Spirit of Race Ferrari 24 Laps
29 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, A.Davis Magnus Racing Audi 25 Laps
30 GTD D.Baumann, K.Marcelli, P.Frommenwiler 3GT Racing Lexus 28 Laps
31 P S.Saavedra, G.Yacaman, R.Gonzalez AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier/Gibson 29 Laps
32 GTD C.Gilsinger, R.Eversley, T.Dyer HART Acura 32 Laps
33 GTD M.Miller, T.Bechtolsheimer, K.Wittmer CJ Wilson Racing Acura 35 Laps
34 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, N.Catsburg BMW Team RLL BMW Not running
35 P M.McMurry, T.Vautier, E.Cheever Spirit of Daytona Racing Cadillac Not running
36 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing Chevrolet 61 Laps
37 GTLM J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford Not running
38 P J.French, K.Masson, P.O'Ward Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson Not running
39 P D.Cameron, J.P.Montoya, S.Pagenaud Acura Team Penske Acura Not running
40 P H.Castroneves, R.Taylor, G.Rahal Acura Team Penske Acura Not running
41 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell, F.Montecalvo Scuderia Corsa Ferrari Not running
42 GTD K.Koch, L.Spinelli, J.Perez P1 Motorsports Mercedes 335 Laps
43 P S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, O.Pla Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Not started


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