Pipo Derani won the fourth Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday night, their Saturday night event with co-drivers Jack Aitken and Alexander Sims inheriting the victory with Action Express Racing. After the crash in the top three with less than 20 minutes left.
The No. The 31 Cadillac started from the pole but found itself in the GTP field in the 12 Hours of Attrition race at Sebring International Raceway.
Aitken, the Endurance Action Express driver, was running fourth with Wayne Taylor Racing crashing out with both Penske Motorsport Porsche entries.
WTR Acura driver Filipe Albuquerque tried to squeeze inside Mathieu Jaminet’s lead, but Jaminet swerved low to avoid traffic, and contact with Albuquerque’s Acura knocked him off the track.
Results: Click here for the final overall finishing order l Click here for the class breakdown.
Albuquerque stretched across the grass and returned to the running surface, only to slam directly into Jaminet. It caused a multi-car commotion that collected Felipe Nasr, running third in the second entry of Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Aitken, a British racer and reserve driver in Formula One, closed out the victory over Action Express in his second IMSA career in the sports car.
Clearly, it was quite tricky in the end. There’s a lot going on there,” Aitken said. “We struggled a lot with the top at the end, and it’s not the way you want to win the race, but we were there when we needed to be and we saved the world.”
Derani who won the pole in the Cadillac V-Series.R, he was forced to claim a fourth win after crashing early in the race when he was caught behind the LMP3 car with nowhere to go. After managing to stay in the lead lap despite significant front wing damage requiring a change, Derani and No. 31 remained in the hunt and the comrades were in first place with less than five hours remaining in a fast pit stop.
Derani felt the leaders, who were in a three-car battle until the crash in the race, in the last few minutes of the race.
“I’m sorry for the guys who crashed, they did an amazing race, but, you know, you get a little lucky in motorsports,” Brasil said. “We had an immaculate race after the incident at the start, we recovered well, so it’s fantastic to be here at number four.”
Lanigan Racing’s Rahal Letterman finished second in the BMW M Hybrid V8 with a lineup of Connor Phillippi, Nick Yelloly and Sheldon Van Der Linde.
Such was the attrition at the top of the GTP class that third place overall went to Citadel Motorsports LMP2, which included IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske in just his second IMSA sports car class.
Tower No. ORECA LMP2 07, which also includes John Farano, came back to win after Kyffin Simpson, an advanced driver in IndyCar, crashed earlier in the race.
“Young bloke Kyffin drove well, so did John, but our team really put us on the right track to get our car together behind our little guy’s offense,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll let him off the hook now that we’re in victory lane.”
Second class winners:
LMP3: 74 Leo Motorsports Ligier JS P320 with Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon.
GTD Pro: No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor.
GTD: No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 with Corey Lewis, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow
STATS package for MOBIL I 12 HOURS OF SEBRING:
He licks off the driver very quickly
Fastest laps from the driver after the race (over the weekend)
The fastest laps from driver and race after race
THEN: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will resume with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, April 14-15.
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Final 2023 Twelve Hours of Sebring event: No. 31 Cadillac rebounds for bond after accident first appeared in NBCSports.com