Sebring 12 Hours: Porsche retakes lead at halfway mark

Porsche overtook Cadillac shortly before the halfway point to grab the overall lead in the Sebring 12 Hours.

Felipe Nasr passed the long-time leading #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Earl Bamber with just five minutes to go in hour six to put the #7 Porsche Penske at the head of the order.

Porsche led the race after the opening hour but an ill-timed Full Course Yellow caught out two factory Penske cars, who found the pitlane to be closed as they approached the end of the lap.

The AXR Caddy benefitted from the same caution period and took the lead immediately at the restart, as Bamber’s teammate Jack Aitken breezed past the Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean, who tumbled to the back of the GTP pack with a sluggish getaway.

The #31 Cadillac enjoyed a near-uninterrupted run at the front from thereon, only dropping to second when the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura benefitted from a fifth-hour caution to leap to the front.

That was until Nasr closed in a five-second gap and passed the AXR Cadillac to put Porsche back in front at the Florida-based venue.

Mathieu Jaminet made it a 1-3 for Porsche, although the #6 Porsche then driven by Kevin Estre briefly dropped behind the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marco Wittmann in the sixth hour.

The #24 RLL-entered factory BMW of former Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen ran fourth, while the sister #25 entry slipped to seventh after its pitstop, as Sheldon van der Linde took over from Wittmann.

The two BMWs were separated by the Meyer Shank Acuras, with Renger van der Zande in the #93 ARX-06 running ahead of Tom Blomqvist in the #60 car - the two battling hard for fifth position.

Van der Zande had fought back after the #93 Acura was given a drive through penalty for a pitlane infringement.

In the LMP2 class, Malthe Jakobsen held the lead in the #04 Crowdstrike by APR Oreca 07, ahead of Tom Dillmann in the #43 InterEuropol Oreca.

The #11 TDS Racing car that led early on dropped to third, with Hunter McElrea now at the wheel.

Meanwhile, Mike Rockenfeller drove the #64 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 to the lead of the GTD Pro class, but was having to fend off the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 of Connor de Phillippi as the race reached the halfway point.

Nicky Catsburg held third in the #4 Pratt Miller Corvette Z06.R, while Laurin Heinrich provisionally dropped outside the podium spots in the #77 AO Racing Porsche.

In the pro-am GTD class, Kenton Coch put the #32 Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3 in the lead in the sixth hour after a hard-fought battle with Tom Gamble in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

The first half of the race featured several caution periods, mostly due to incidents in LMP2 and GTD classes.

However, the most recent FCY was deployed when Brendon Hartley locked up the front-right tyre of his #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and went straight into the wall at Turn 17.

He was able to nurse the car back to the pits, but the #40 Cadillac is now circulating four laps off the lead.