BMW’s van der Linde tops second Sebring practice

BMW M Team RLL’s Sheldon van der Linde took the top spot in this afternoon’s second practice session for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

With low fuel and fresh tires, van der Linde leapt to the top of the board in the No. 25 M Hybrid V8 with a 1m47.884s. That took the top spot from the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist on a 1m47.998s.

The two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s were third and fourth, led by the No. 6 of Matt Campbell, then the No. 7 of Daytona winner Felipe Nasr.

Dries Vanthoor improved to fifth in the No. 24 RLL BMW just before the session was stopped due to a red flag, putting him ahead of the No. 93 MSR Acura of Renger van der Zande.

Ricky Taylor was the fastest Cadillac driver, in seventh driving the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, ahead of the No. 40 Caddy of Louis Deletraz, and the No. 63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63 of Romain Grosjean in ninth.

The No. 23 Aston Martin Team THOR Valkyrie was limited to just 17 laps but did start to find more of its pace — Ross Gunn set a 1m50.113s near the end, a 1.2 second improvement from Practice 1.

The session was stopped prematurely when Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 clipped the dirt at the entrance to turn 13, then spun off into the tire barriers. Remarkably, despite a significant broadside hit, Iribe drove his yellow and black Ferrari back to the pits. It was the only incident of note in the afternoon session.

Mikkel Jensen led LMP2 in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA 07. Jensen’s best time was a 1m50.961s, two-tenths better than Kaku Ohta’s best time in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA in second, with Dane Cameron in third aboard the No. 99 AO Racing “Spike” ORECA.

Laurin Heinrich and AO Racing were the first to break the two-minute barrier in a GT car this weekend: Heinrich and the No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R set a 1m59.898s to lead the GTD PRO class.

Heinrich put four-tenths to the second-placed No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari of Albert Costa, who was second in class. Then it was another second to the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in third, driven to its best time by Kyle Kirkwood.

In GTD, Kenton Koch set the pace in the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3. He set a 2m00.300s to lead the way, followed by the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of his former Korthoff co-driver Mike Skeen.

Before Iribe’s accident, Ollie Millroy set the third-quickest time in GTD aboard the No. 70 Ferrari.

Tonight, the third and final practice session of the day begins at 7:45pm ET.