LIVE UPDATES: 2019 12 Hours of Sebring

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

SEBRING, Fla.– Cars are rolling off of pit lane so let’s start the live updates for the second round of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The race will start on time and more than likely will go under a yellow start behind the safety car. The rain came down heavy this morning but has tapered off. The No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi is on pole position, the No. 911 Porsche leads GT Le Mans (GTLM) while the No. 86 Meyer-Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 leads GT Daytona (GTD).

00:00- The clock started to count down but then got reset. Might be another lap before officially starting.

00:01- The clock jumped ahead a minute and 15 seconds to 11:58:45.

00:08- Jordan Taylor has pitted the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi.

00:09- The No. 47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 pitted, Don Yount gets in to get him some more driver time.

00:17- The No. 71 Mercedes AMG GT3 pits.

00:24- The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 machine have both pitted. Safety car is still out.

00:27- Random fun fact. The fastest lap of the race so far is from the No. 47 Precision Performance Motorsports car with a 2 minute, 51.514 second lap.

00:29- The No. 19 Moorespeed Audi R8 LMS GT3 and the No. 48 Lamborghini also pitted.

00:42- Green flag is in the air, racing has begun. Cameron has lost the lead to Tristan Nunez in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi and lost second place to Felipe Albuquerque in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi. He has now lost third place to the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi. The No. 29 Montaplast by Land Audi R8 LMS GT3 entry spun at Turn 10 and continued.

00:44- Albuquerque takes the lead aroudn the outside of the No. 77 Mazda. The No. 55 Mazda went around the No. 6 Acura. Both GTLM Porsches lost a ton of ground at the start and are curerently last in GTLM.

00:48- Currently it’s the 5 from the 31 from the 77 and 55. The 31 is 5.4 seconds behind the leader, the 77 is just behind the 31 and the 55 is 22 seconds off the lead. The No. 67 Ford GT leads GTLM while the No. 9 PFAFF Racing Porsche leads GTD.

00:53- The Penske Acura machines are not set up for the wet. Their fastest laps are slower than most of the GTD field right now.

00:58- Trent Hindman in the No. 86 Acura has taken the GTD class lead. Derani now leads overall over Albuquerque.

1:01- The No. 6 Penske Acura is in the pits again. The No. 52 LMP2 entry spun coming off the final corner but got going again.

1:03- The No. 6 Penske Acura got a pit road speeding penalty for going 8 mph over the speed limit. Will have to do a drive through penalty. The No. 19 Audi spun at Turn 17 and continued on.

1:10- The No. 84 JDC-Miller Cadillac spun but continued. The No. 7 Penske Acura is pitting and Castroneves is getting out.

1:18- The No. 4 Corvette missed its braking point at a corner and went off. Milner went back and continued.

1:29- The No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 has pitted, a dry line has started to barely appear around the track. The fastest lap of the race is a 2 minute, 11.168 second lap by Albuquerque. The No. 54 CORE Autosport Nissan DPi spun but has continued.

1:32- The No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT pits from a spot in the top five. Only the Nos. 3 and 54 have not made a pit stop.

1:36- Drive through penalty for the No. 10 Cadillac for going one mph over the pit road speed limit.

1:43- The No. 67 Ford just overtook the No. 25 BMW M8 for the GTLM class lead.

1:47- The No. 9 Porsche has overtaken the No. 86 Acura for the GTD class lead. Reminder, the No. 9 Porsche had a small incident in morning warmup.

1:54- The No. 54 Nissan DPi is turning laps faster than all other cars except the Cadillacs in first and second. The LMP2 battle is going to the No. 38 for now as the No. 6 is pitting.

1:57- The No. 6 car has put slick tires on. The No. 31 is also putting on slick tires. Risky gamble here as the times are dropping with the wet tires on.

2:00- Derani turned the second sector a half second quicker than Alboquerque and Montoya turned the fastest lap of the race on slick tires. More teams will be pitting soon.

2:04- More teams are pitting, Nos, 5, 85, 55, 10, 77, 25, 24, 3, 4, 11, 12  and 911 have pitted recently.

2:10- The fastest prototypes are now lapping under two minutes. Lap times are falling considerably. The 31 leads the 5 then the 85, 55 and 10 are the end of the top five. Westbrook in the No. 67 leads GTLM ahead of Bourdais in the No. 66. Also the No. 29 Montaplast by Land Audi spun but is going again.

2:13- In GTD, the No. 86 Acura leads over the No. 9 Porsche and No. 96 BMW. Up front, lap times are getting under two minutes for more prototypes as seven cars are now under two minutes for fastest laps.

2:20- The No. 77 Mazda has stopped. Full course yellow.

2:24- The fire was an electrical fire from a battery issue. Not sure if they will get that fixed.

2:26- The Nos. 31, 5 and 85 have pitted, they were the only three cars on the lead lap. There will be a wave-around for the Nos. 55, 10, 50 and 84. Not sure who else will be waved around.

2:53- The No. 86 Acura spun but kept going.

2:54- The No. 4 Corvette is in the pits with the gearbox cover off of it.

3:00- The No. 67 Ford GT still leads GTLM over the Nos. 24, 66 and 25. The No. 9 PFAFF Motorsports Porsche leads GTLM over the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

3:13- The top four have pitted. Nos. 31, 5, 84 and 10.

3:22- The No. 4 Corvette lost the braking point heading to Turn 10. Car is back on track, they lost a few lap changing some a halfshaft and some alternator belts.

3:26- The No. 55 Mazda pits for a driver change, Olivier Pla gets in to replace Harry Tincknell. They were second overall.

3:32- Brendon Hartley is stalking Misha Goikhberg for second place. They are 35 seconds behind the leading No. 31 of Felipe Nasr.

3:41- Hartley gets around Goikhberg for the lead after Nasr pitted.

3:46- Goikhberg pits from second place. Ford are 1-2 in GTLM with the 67 ahead of the 66. The top six in GTD are from six different manufacturers.

3:51- Hartley pitted, Nasr takes the lead.

4:07- Nasr pits from the lead, it is misting down around parts of the circuit.

4:54- Ben Keating leads GTD in the No. 33 Mercedes with the No. 11 GRT Lamborghini in second and Scott Hargrove is third in the No. 9 Porsche. The No. 86 Acura pits, Hindman gets out, Justin Marks gets in the car.

4:58- The No. 85 Cadillac pits, Goikhberg was dragging something from the rear of the car. Looks like a long cable of some sort.

5:12- John Bennett has pitted the CORE Autosport No. 54 and handed the car off to Colin Braun. Bennett’s time in the car is more than likely done.

5:27- Ford are still 1-2 in GTLM with Dixon leading Hand by 9.5 seconds. John Edwards is third, 58 seconds off the GTLM lead. Mike Rockenfeller is 6.7 seconds behind Edwards, Conor De Phillippi is 28.2 seconds behind Rockenfeller, or 93.1 seconds behind Dixon. Eric Curran pits from the overall race lead.

5:34- Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi is only 13.8 seconds behind Joao Barbosa in the lead. Barbosa hasn’t pitted in over a half hour, Bomarito pitted 12 minutes sooner so both still owe a pit stop to Derani in third. Stephen Simpson turned the 84 car’s fastest lap of the race on his previous lap.

5:40- Rain has returned to the front straight area.

5:50- Bomarito has crashed in the No. 55 Mazda, he locked up and went off at Turn 13. Full course yellow.

5:58- Bomarito brought the car back to the pits, has new slick tires on the car. Track is a bit damp so everyone will have to be careful. Current top five is 31, 5, 10, 84 and 7. The 7 Acura is one lap down. In GTLM, Dixon in the No. 67 leads the 66, 24, 3 and 25. All five cars are on the same lap. In GTD, the 33 Mercedes leads ahead of the No. 11, 86, 57 and 9.

6:03- Race is going green this time by. Lights are out on the safety car.

6:05- Race went green, top five are all Cadillacs.

6:24- The top 11 cars in GTD are all on the same lap, from first to 11th is 83.7 seconds.

6:30- Barbosa brings the leading No. 5 Cadillac in, he is getting out of the car for a driver change to Albuquerque.

6:41- The 10, 84, 54 and 7 were all in the pits at once. First, second, fifth and sixth.

6:53- The battle for second in GTD was broken off as the No. 33 Mercedes pitted after trying to pass the No. 96 for a few laps. Meanwhile the No. 19 Audi is going slowly around the track.

7:35- The author will be going around Sebring shortly and will be back for the end. As it stands now, the leading No. 31 Cadillac has pitted with the No. 5 taking over the lead. The No. 67 Ford GT leads GTLM, the No. 38 leads LMP2 and the No. 9 Porsche leads GTD by almost 10 seconds over the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

11:52- After a narrow escape from weather including packing away some lodging, we are back for the last seven and a half minutes. There is a short yellow for the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW that went off and the field is going back to green. Nasr leads Jordan Taylor and Albuquerque. Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 Acura DPi is fourth on the lead lap. The No. 911 Porsche is leading GTLM over the Nos. 67 and 66 Ford GTs by about a second and a half. Mirko Bortolotti leads Andy Lally in GTD with the No. 11 Lamborghini over the No. 44 Lamborghini.

11:54- The No. 67 Ford GT spins trying to go around a GTD car to get closer to Tandy. It was trying to go around Lally but the gap was not there.

11:58- White flag

12:00- Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran and Pipo Derani win the 2019 Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. Performance Tech Motorsports wins LMP2, the No. 911 Porsche of Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki win GTLM while the No. 11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen win GTD.