IMSA News: Porsche’s Nasr Tops Practice 2 at Sebring
Porsche Penske Motorsport maintained its impressive form during Thursday afternoon practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring Raceway, with one of its factory Porsche 963s topping the GTP time sheets.
Felipe Nasr (pictured) posted the fastest lap of the session in the No. 7 Porsche, clocking a 1:47.043 to edge out Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 by 0.259 seconds.
The result ended a Porsche Penske 1-2 lockout that had dominated much of the session, which featured what appeared to be early qualifying simulation runs from the Porsches.
Jack Aitken delivered a strong late improvement in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, securing third place and giving three different GTP manufacturers a presence in the top three.
Kevin Estre’s earlier 1:47.461 in the No. 6 Porsche dropped to fourth, but the Penske cars still finished ahead of both Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs. Filipe Albuquerque and Louis Deletraz completed the top six in fifth and sixth, respectively.
Renger van der Zande placed seventh in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura, followed by Kaylen Frederik in the 2025-spec JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche. The two Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s and the lone Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie rounded out the 11-car GTP field.
LMP2
The class faced early drama during the Bronze-rated driver-only opening segment. Tobi Lutke’s No. 18 TDS Racing Oreca 07 picked up a WeatherTech banner on track, while the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports entry suffered fuel-cell problems and the No. 79 JDC-Miller Motorsports car received a 60-minute stop-and-hold penalty for technical non-compliance.
Once the issues cleared, Dane Cameron set the pace in the repaired No. 99 AO Racing Oreca—the same car that had been heavily damaged in PJ Hyett’s opening-practice crash.
GTD and GTD Pro
Eduardo Barrichello dominated the production-based categories, with the Silver-rated Brazilian driver posting a 2:00.029 in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to finish quickest overall among GTD and GTD Pro entries.
That time was just 0.041 seconds faster than GTD Pro pacesetter Harry King in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo. Dean MacDonald slotted into third overall (and second in GTD Pro) aboard the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
The 90-minute session was affected by high winds but ran without red flags or major incidents.
Night practice—the final session before Friday’s qualifying—will run from 7:45–9:15 p.m. EST.