Sebring Hour 2: Mazdas rise to the top
Saturday, 17 March 2018
J.J. O'Malley / Image by Marshall Pruett
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Mazda driver Spencer Pigot held the lead two hours into the running of Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, running under sunny skies with the temperature nearing the 80-degree mark.
Pigot, piloting the No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT-24-P, took the lead midway through a round of green-flag pit stops after Felipe Nasr pitted in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. At the two-hour mark, Pigot led teammate Oliver Jarvis in the No. 77 Team Joest Mazda and Curran, who had taken over from Nasr.
Team Penske pitted both of its cars 10 minutes before the two-hour mark. Graham Rahal took over for Ricky Taylor in the No. 7 Acura ARX-05, which had been running in the top three. Taylor had a close call during the hour, brushing the lapped No. 54 Core autosport ORECA 07-Gibson while overtaking Jon Bennett in Turn 17. Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud replaced Juan Pablo Montoya in the No. 6, with the team losing time to change rear wings, opting for a different wing angle.
James Calado led GTLM for much of the hour in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE prior to a pit stop. At the end of the hour, Richard Westbrook led the class in the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, followed by Toni Vilander in the No. 62 Ferrari and Joey Hand in the No. 66 Ford.
GTD leader David Heinemeier was penalized for running over an air hose during a pit stop for the No. 15 3GT Racing RC F GT3. That moved Sheldon van der Linde into the lead in the No. 29 Montaplast Audi R8 LMS GT3, followed by Corey Lewis in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Kyle Marcelli in the No. 14 GT3 Racing Lexus.
Kenny Habul had a close call in the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 when he had an off-course excursion and nosed into a tire barrier while running 12th in GTD. He was able to continue, with the race remaining under green-flag conditions throughout the hour.
Antonio Garcia took the 2017 GTLM-winning No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R24 to the paddock 90 minutes into the race. The team changed batteries, losing six laps before Jan Magnussen took over and returned to the event.
The late-starting No. 99 JDC-Miller Motorsports Gainsco ORECA 07-Gibson also needed an extra stop when Chris Miller could not secure the door following a pit stop.
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[h=1]Sebring 12 Hours: Hour 2 – Nasr leads after action-packed start[/h]
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By:
Charles Bradley, Global Editor-in-Chief
2018-03-17
[h=2]Felipe Nasr led the Sebring 12 Hours after the second hour of the event in his Action Express-run Cadillac DPi, following a wild start to the race that saw the front row starters collide and a Ferrari on its roof.[/h] There was drama right from the green, as pole man Tristan Vautier and Olivier Pla collided at Turn 1, sending Pla sliding off into the grass. He rejoined but would pit immediately and the ESM team retired the Nissan DPi citing too much damage to fix in time.
Also in trouble was the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner, which sustained a left-rear puncture, and the GTD pole-sitting
Ferrari of Daniel Serra also got a puncture after a clash with the #15 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth.
Vautier’s Spirit of Daytona Cadillac led Ricky Taylor (Penske-Acura) and Nasr (Action Express Cadillac) in the early going, before the race’s first full-course yellow that was required when Sebastian Saavedra spun his Ligier at the final corner, and the following Frankie Montecalvo hit him and flipped over his
Ferrari 488 against the tirewall.
#64 Scuderia Corsa
Ferrari 488 GT3, GTD: Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Frankie Montecalvo upside down after crash
Photo by: YouTube screen grab
After the ensuing first round of pitstops, Taylor rejoined in the lead from Nasr, with Vautier dropping to third. Vautier lost another two places in the second stint, with Pipo Derani (ESM Nissan) and Filipe Albuquerque (Action Express Cadillac) both getting past him.
At the second round of stops in hour two, Nasr took over at the front – undercutting ahead of Taylor by pitting earlier. Johannes van Overbeek was running third, after taking over from Derani in the ESM Nissan. Vautier moved back to fourth, with Renger van der Zande moving up to fifth in Wayne Taylor Racing’s Caddy.
[h=3]BMW out front in GT Le Mans[/h] BMW held an early 1-2 in GT Le Mans, with Jesse Krohn out front in the #24 car, but his tail gunner Connor de Phillippi slumped back to eighth from second in the #25 sister car after the first round of pitstops.
The chasing Ford GT challenge almost expired in comic fashion when Joey Hand and Richard Westbrook collided exiting their pit boxes after the first round of stops, but they run second and third in class, ahead of the Risi
Ferrari and two works Porsches.
Corvette’s dreadful start to the race was compounded when the #3 car went behind the wall in the second hour.
David Heinemeier Hansson took over the leading GT Daytona Lexus from Hawksworth, with Sheldon van der Linde running second in the #29 Audi, ahead of Corey Lewis in the #48 Lamborghini.