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Sebring 12 Hours: Nasr, Derani, Curran win for Action Express

Action Express Racing trio Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran enjoyed a near-faultless run to secure Sebring 12 Hours victory and lead home an all-Cadillac IMSA SportsCar Championship podium

The #31 Cadillac DPi.V-R moved into the lead right at the end of the first hour in wet conditions, with the heavy rain ensuring the first 40 minutes were run under caution.

From there, despite several safety car periods bunching up the pack over the course of the race, Nasr, Derani and Curran were able to maintain their advantage at the head of the field throughout.

The penultimate caution period, which came with two hours to go, erased what had been a 47 second advantage for Derani, who then had to survive one final restart in the final 15 minutes when the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 went off at Turn 3.

Jordan Taylor had picked off Brendon Hartley's AXR Cadillac at the previous restart to move the Daytona 24 Hours winning Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac up to second, but when the green flag was shown with seven minutes to run Taylor was powerless to challenge Nasr.

The Brazilian eventually crossed the line 1.030s ahead of Taylor, who sealed second place in the Cadillac he shared with Renger van der Zande and newcomer Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Hartley and the full-timers in the #5 Cadillac, Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque, completed the podium a further 2.9s behind.

IndyCar frontrunner Alexander Rossi brought home of the best of the Acura Team Penske entries fourth.

Both Acura ARX-05s struggled badly early on when the conditions were at their worst, but the #7 car shared by Rossi, Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor was able to recover from losing a lap.

The sister #6 car lost more ground with an electrical problem and then two changes of the rear deck, meaning Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud ended up nine laps down.

Completing the top five was the CORE autosport Nissan DPi, ahead of the best of the Mazda Team Joest cars - the #55 RT24-P of Harry Tincknell, Olivier Pla and Jonathan Bomarito.

Mazda's victory hopes were all but extinguished when an off for Bomarito before half-distance cost the car three laps, although subsequent caution periods meant the #55 finished only a lap down.

The sister #77 car dropped more than 100 laps off the lead with a battery issue that caused Timo Bernhard to stop out on track early in the third hour.

GTLM: Porsche completes miracle comeback

Victory in GTLM went to the #911 Porsche 911 RSR shared by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki, which dropped off the lead lap in the wet early stages.

By half-distance, the trio had got back onto the lead lap, and after the penultimate caution Tandy vaulted from fourth to second in class behind the #67 Ford GT.

Ryan Briscoe was tasked with holding off Tandy, but the Australian slipped behind at the start of the final hour and then spun trying to navigate traffic after the final restart, making contact with Andy Lally's Magnus Racing Lamborghini.

That promoted the #66 Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand to second at the finish, ahead of the #3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller.

BMW's top finisher was the #24 car of John Edwards, Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng, ahead of the second of the Porsches, the #912, and the #67 Ford shared by Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook.

Corvette's #4 entry ended up nine laps down due to halfshaft and alternator problems.

GTD: Grasser Lamborghini doubles up

A thrilling scrap for GT Daytona honours was finally won by the #11 Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Daytona-winning trio Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen.

Bortolotti was split from fellow Lamborghini driver Lally by fewer than three seconds at the finish, with Lally surviving his late brush with Briscoe's Ford to hold on to the runner-up spot in the entry he shared with John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly.

Third place went to the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander, Cooper MacNeil and Jeff Westphal, ahead of the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS and the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG-GT3.

Class honours in LMP2 went to the Performance Tech ORECA crewed by Kyle Masson, Cameron Cassels and Andrew Evans, 13 laps up on its sole class opponent, the PR1/Mathiasen ORECA.

Race result

Pos Class Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 DPi F.Nasr, E.Curran, P.Derani Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 348 12h00m15.925s
2 DPi R.van der Zande, J.Taylor, M.Vaxiviere Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 348 1.030s
3 DPi J.Barbosa, B.Hartley, F.Albuquerque Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 348 4.023s
4 DPi R.Taylor, H.Castroneves, A.Rossi Acura Team Penske Acura 348 11.331s
5 DPi J.Bennett, C.Braun, R.Dumas CORE Autosport Nissan 347 1 Lap
6 DPi J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, O.Pla Mazda Team Joest Mazda 346 2 Laps
7 DPi M.Goikhberg, T.Vautier, J.Piedrahita JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 346 2 Laps
8 DPi S.Trummer, S.Simpson, C.Miller JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 345 3 Laps
9 DPi D.Cameron, J.P.Montoya, S.Pagenaud Acura Team Penske Acura 339 9 Laps
10 GTLM P.Pilet, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 330 18 Laps
11 GTLM J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 330 18 Laps
12 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing Chevrolet 330 18 Laps
13 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, P.Eng BMW Team RLL BMW 330 18 Laps
14 GTLM E.Bamber, L.Vanthoor, M.Jaminet Porsche GT Team Porsche 330 18 Laps
15 GTLM R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 330 18 Laps
16 GTLM T.Blomqvist, C.De Phillippi, C.Herta BMW Team RLL BMW 329 19 Laps
17 LMP2 K.Masson, C.Cassels, A.Evans Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 322 26 Laps
18 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing Chevrolet 321 27 Laps
19 GTD R.Ineichen, M.Bortolotti, R.Breukers GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini 320 28 Laps
20 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, S.Pumpelly Magnus Racing Lamborghini 320 28 Laps
21 GTD C.MacNeil, T.Vilander, J.Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 320 28 Laps
22 GTD D.Morad, C.Mies, R.Feller Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi 320 28 Laps
23 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, F.Fraga Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes 320 28 Laps
24 GTD P.Lindsey, P.Long, N.Boulle Park Place Motorsports Porsche 320 28 Laps
25 GTD M.Farnbacher, T.Hindman, J.Marks Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 320 28 Laps
26 GTD K.Legge, A.Beatriz, C.Nielsen Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing Acura 320 28 Laps
27 GTD F.Montecalvo, T.Bell, A.Telitz AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 318 30 Laps
28 GTD S.Hargrove, Z.Robichon, L.Kern Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 318 30 Laps
29 GTD J.Perez, M.Buhk, F.Schiller P1 Motorsports Mercedes 315 33 Laps
30 GTD B.Gdovic, D.Yount, L.Aschenbach Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini 311 37 Laps
31 GTD B.Auberlen, R.Foley, D.Machavern Turner Motorsport BMW 309 Not running
32 LMP2 M.McMurry, G.Aubry, A.Fjordbach PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 309 39 Laps
33 DPi W.Owen, R.Binder, A.Canapino Juncos Racing Cadillac 305 43 Laps
34 GTD P.Chase, R.Dalziel, E.P.Companc Starworks Motorsport Audi 292 56 Laps
35 GTD R.Heistand, J.Hawksworth, P.Frommenwiler AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 262 Not running
36 GTD B.Sellers, R.Hardwick, C.Lewis Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 249 99 Laps
37 DPi O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, T.Bernhard Mazda Team Joest Mazda 233 115 Laps
38 GTD A.Davis, A.Riberas, W.Hardeman Moorespeed Audi 174 Not running


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