Porsche wins an historic double at Sebring 2025

Porsche No7
Sebring 12 Hours
15/3/25

Just seven weeks after they had conquered the Daytona 24 Hours, Porsche Penske Motorsport triumvirate Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor scooped  a historic double to lead a resounding team 1-2 at the Sebring 12 Hours, the older of sports car racing’s two American classics. Or to put it another way, they had kicked off the IMSA season in perfect fashion by claiming the Florida 36 Hours.

The difference this time compared to Daytona was that the factory Porsche 963s were clearly the class of the field – even if a BMW started from pole position just as it had at Daytona. The closest challenger in the race was the Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R shared by Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti, although on a divergent pitstop strategy the Whelen-backed car faded to an eventual fourth as the day-into-night race concluded. However, Tandy still had to pass Vesti, with a strong move into the final Turn 17, to secure the decisive lead, before Nasr brought the Porsche home just 2.2sec ahead of the sister 963 driven by Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Kévin Estre.

The victory was particularly sweet for Tandy. At Daytona, he’d made history by becoming the first driver to sweep all four of the world’s major 24-hour races, adding to his overall wins at Le Mans in 2015, the Nürburgring in 2018 and Spa in 2020. Now the 40-year-old joined an elite list that includes the likes of AJ Foyt, Hurley Haywood and Phil Hill as one of 10 who have claimed sports car racing’s Triple Crown of Endurance Racing: Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring. The only other Brits in the club are Jackie Oliver and Andy Wallace.

“The Triple Crown is probably one of the more historic accomplishments or accolades,” said Tandy, who was quick to credit Porsche Penske for “flawlessly” running a car over 36 hours combined.  “I never realised how big a thing it would be winning all the four 24 Hours. It went global and my team-mates are tired of hearing about it. But I’m not! And now this is another unbelievable thing.”

Driver briefing notes

Overpowering the elements in F2, F3 and WRC

• Formula 2 travelled all the way to Albert Park in Australia for its season opener, but only managed a sprint race as the feature was cancelled due to heavy rain. Paraguay’s Joshua Dürksen, below, scored his third F2 win for AIX Racing. Britain’s Luke Browning was third for Hitech TGR.

• At least the trip Down Under was worthwhile for Formula 3. Mexican Santiago Ramos won the dry sprint for Van Amersfoort, with Trident’s Rafael Câmara
  an emphatic winner in the wet feature, which was stopped two laps early after DAMS driver Christian Ho crashed heavily.
• Two wins from three rallies has left Elfyn Evans with a record lead of 36 points at this stage of a World Rally Championship season. The Welshman survived torrential rain, punctures, spins and electrical gremlins to win the Safari Rally, his Toyota finishing more than a minute up the road from Hyundai’s Ott Tänak.