Porsche takes an early lead at Sebring after penalty for polesitting BMW

On a beautiful, sunny day at Sebring International Raceway, in front of tens of thousands of hearty spectators, the 73rd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring began with early fireworks.

Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 led the 56-car field to the green flag, but before he actually crossed the start/finish line, he moved over to the right, in front of the No. 60 MSR Acura of Tom Blomqvist.

Vanthoor received a drive-through penalty for his false start that put him down the order in GTP and created an early hole for the No. 24 team to dig out of.

That came after some early incidents in the first three laps. The No. 18 Era Motorsport and No. 88 AF Corse ORECAs collided at Turn 3, The stranded No. 18 of Tobi Lutke, and debris from the No. 88 of Luis Perez Companc, brought out the first full course yellow of the race.

Bob Akin Award contenders Brendon Iribe and Orey Fidani collided on the first lap – leading to a drive-through penalty for the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari for punting the No. 13 AWA Corvette.

Pfaff Motorsports’ No. 9 Lamborghini has been trying to fix issues with its torque sensor. Andrea Caldarelli dropped off the lead lap initially after having to serve a mechanical black flag, and the car has since been given a warning for not adhering to its powertrain parameters. That took Caldarelli from fighting for third, to two laps down.

20 minutes in, while leading GTD, polesitter Alessandro Pier Guidi spun off at turn 10 at very high speed, dropping the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari out of the lead and leading to additional work in the pits to fix the left-front brake — similar to the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini, the first car in GTD to pit for a left-rear brake issue of its own.

Ricky Taylor dropped down the order due to a throttle problem that seemed to resolve itself, putting the blue No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac in 12th behind the Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie, which is running a solid pace early on relative to expectations.

There was also a clash between the No. 66 Gradient Racing Mustang of Till Bechtolsheimer and the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports ORECA of Chris Cumming which sent the latter for a spin, and the former to serve a drive-through penalty.

And just minutes ago, a cross-class collision between Taylor’s No. 10 Cadillac and the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of Charles Scardina has led to a second full course yellow. Scardina was spun around and he hit the barriers at Turn 13 head on. Scardina was, thankfully, able to walk away after a vicious hit.

Felipe Nasr, who took second place on the initial race start, leads a Porsche Penske 1-2 in GTP, with his No. 7 Porsche 963 ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6. The two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06es are third and fourth, with Blomqvist leading the No. 93 of Renger van der Zande. Louis Deletraz is fifth in the No. 40 WTR Cadillac V-Series.R.

In LMP2, polesitter Steven Thomas has set the pace among his Bronze peers and the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA 07 leads from the No. 22 United Autosports USA machine of Daniel Goldburg.

DragonSpeed’s Ferrari and AO Racing’s “Rexy” Porsche have been the class of GTD PRO in the first hour. Polesitter Albert Costa has led virtually since the start in the No. 81 296 GT3, with Laurin Heinrich running second in the No. 77 911 GT3 R. Tommy Milner is third in the No. 4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Philip Ellis and Winward Racing inherited the lead in GTD after Pier Guidi’s spin and brake issues, and the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 holds the advantage over the hard-charging Jack Hawksworth in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

HOUR 1 STANDINGS