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Stephen Kilbey 20 hours ago Cars from BMW, Ford, Ferrari and Porsche were all in the running for the GTE Pro win throughout the race, and after hours of clean, hard racing, the No. 91 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took the win ahead of the No. 81 MTEK BMW.The win was secured for Porsche by quick pit work when it mattered most, the No. 91 911 of Gianmaria Bruni leapfrogging the No. 82 BMW of Nicky Catsburg at the final set of stops to take the lead when much of the field came in to change from slicks to wets.
Once Bruni and Catsburg rejoined, they were together on track, just a second apart, but there was no time for Catsburg to reclaim the lead. The TDS Racing ORECA of Loic Duval brought out a safety car with just over 10 minutes to go, after hitting the barriers at Turn 10 hard, which would last until the end of the race, making it a slightly anti-climactic finale.“It was a difficult decision for everyone to change tires because you didn’t want to lose time,” said Patrick Pilet. “But there was too much water so it was the correct choice — the boys changed the tires so quick and we were able to get past the BMW in the pits.”At the Rolex 24 back in January BMW took a dramatic and somewhat lucky win in GTLM when the rain came down at the end; this time the Bavarian brand was on the other end of late-race confusion and a drastic change of weather.The No. 67 Ganassi UK Ford, which led the class for two-thirds of the race, before being passed on track by the aforementioned BMW and Porsche finished third, ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 which narrowly missed out on a podium.No. 67 drivers Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito will head home from Florida wanting more after looking so strong early, the trio despite their best efforts falling back as the temperature dropped and the night hours wore on.The two factories that faded into obscurity, interestingly, were the two that opted to sit out the pre-event test. Corvette Racing’s guest-entered C7.R finished eighth, and the pair of Aston Martin Vantage AMRs crossed the line a distant ninth and 10th. It was a deflating performance for the British team especially, after showing such promise with a breakthrough win last time out at Shanghai.
GTE Am was won by the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche, Matt Campbell, Christian Reid and Julian Andlauer rising to the top after a race-long battle with the Spirit of Race Ferrari and Team Project 1 Porsche that finished second and third respectively.Spirit of Race’s Ferrari at times looked the class of the field, fighting for the lead early in the race. But it wouldn’t recover after a penalty was handed to the team for Giancarlo Fisichella punting Jorg Bergmeister’s Project 1 Porsche off at Turn 1 in a scrap for the top spot.Project 1, too, was unable to regain control of the class fully after Bergmeister’s off into the barriers. Third is nevertheless a well-deserved result for the crew, who had to overcome real adversity during race week when its original 911 burned to the ground in the pre-event test.The mechanics worked overtime throughout the opening days of the meeting prepping a brand-new 911 RSR that was shipped to the USA from Europe on short notice. A podium will, therefore, serve as a welcome reward for all the effort put in behind the scenes. Next up on the schedule is the second 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps of the 2018/19 ‘Super Season’ in May.