Nasr Passes Bamber for Lead at Halfway in Sebring

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Felipe Nasr powered his way past Earl Bamber to take the lead of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring just moments prior to the race’s halfway mark.

Nasr, in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963, held a 1.959-second lead over Bamber’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which led the majority of the last few hours, which has run caution-free.

The Brazilian took over second from the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande, who was assessed a drive-through penalty for having an unattended tire during a pit stop.

It dropped the Dutchman to seventh in overall and GTP running order before working his way up to fifth.

Bamber, meanwhile, took over the lead from the No. 60 MSR Acura of Colin Braun on Lap 136, with Braun having slowly dropped down the running order.

His co-driver Tom Blomqvist ran sixth at halfway.

Mathieu Jaminet was third in the No. 6 Penske Porsche, with the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Kevin Magnussen fourth ahead of the pair of MSR Acuras.

The race’s fifth full course caution came out in the fifth hour when Brendon Hartley’s No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac nosed into the Turn 16 barriers.

The car later received a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for entering a closed pit for what was initially believed to have been emergency service.

The race has run caution-free since the race’s restart with 7 hours and 28 minutes to go.

LMP2 was led by the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of Malthe Jakobsen, ahead of the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition and No. 11 TDS Racing entries.

Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Mike Rockenfeller lost the GTD Pro class lead to Connor De Phillippi in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO just at the six-hour point, in what’s been a closely fought race in the top production-based class.

Nicky Catsburg ran third in GTD Pro the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

GTD was paced by the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kenton Koch, who was ahead of Tom Gamble’s No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Among the GT cars to hit trouble in recent hours included the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 due to a puncture and No. 19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin, which went behind the wall with a fuel-related issue.