Daytona 24h: Porsche claims back-to-back wins after nail-biting finish

Porsche held on to victory within the 63rd operating of the Daytona 24 Hours after heading off late challenges from Acura and BMW.

Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor took high honours within the manufacturing facility #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh after Nasr handed the sister PPM entry of Matt Campbell on the Le Mans chicane with simply 22 minutes remaining.

Campbell regarded set to safe the runner-up spot in #6 963 LMDh he shared with Mathieu Jaminet and Kevin Estre, just for Tom Blomqvist within the #60 Meyer Shank Acura AR-06 to disclaim Porsche a 1-2 within the closing 10 minutes of the race.

Blomqvist then set after chasing Nasr for the lead, however the Brazilian held on to attain back-to-back wins for Porsche within the GTP class – and its twentieth outright success within the Floridian endurance basic.

Though Cadillac, Acura and BMW all led the opening spherical of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship in some unspecified time in the future, Porsche emerged because the producer to beat when the temperature dropped throughout the evening.

Porsche largely maintained its benefit on Sunday morning, however a Twenty second-hour warning interval introduced the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 and the #60 Meyer Shank Acura again into play.

#7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor

Picture by: Porsche

Because the full-course yellow flag was retreated, Nasr perfected the restart within the #7 Porsche to hold on to the lead – however Dries Vanthoor got here again at him within the BMW and took first into Flip 1.

Nevertheless, the Belgian had an enormous wobble popping out of Flip 2, permitting Nasr to strike again at Flip 4 and reinstate the established order.

Throughout the subsequent spherical of pitstops, the #6 Porsche moved into the lead of the race from third place after skipping a tyre change, whereas Nasr went within the different course within the sister automotive after finishing full service.

Vanthoor then tried to go the brand new race-leading #6 Porsche of Campbell, however he outbraked himself at Flip 1 and took a protracted journey by means of the grass.

The race was neutralised as soon as once more when a Lamborghini GT automotive stopped on observe, establishing a 38-dash to the end.

Vanthoor flippantly nudged Campbell’s Porsche because the race went again to inexperienced, however the contact was sufficient to break an already free nostril cone, inflicting him to drop a lap off the result in fourth.

BMW’s late troubles allowed Tom Blomqvist within the #60 Meyer Shank Acura to rise as much as third within the closing phases of the race, behind the 2 main Porsches.

#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963: Tijmen Van Der Helm, Gianmaria Bruni, Pascal Wehrlein, Bryce Aron

Picture by: Andreas Beil

As Nasr retook the lead within the #7 Porsche, Blomqvist continued his chase in direction of the entrance and demoted Campbell at Flip 1 to safe second place for Acura.

It marked a outstanding restoration for the #60 Acura shared by Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist, having dropped practically a lap down at one level.

An off for Rosenqvist throughout the evening required a nostril change, whereas additional time was misplaced on account of a drive by means of penalty for dashing within the pitlane.

Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen, Phillip Eng and Raffaele Marciello ended up a disillusioned fourth within the #24 BMW after a race through which the Munich-based producer was the closest to the tempo of the profitable Porsche.

Cadillac endured a torrid outing at Daytona Worldwide Speedway, with the perfect of its three LMDh vehicles ending a lap down in sixth place.

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Sequence shared by Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Will Stevens and Brendon Hartley dropped off the lead lap shortly after daybreak broke in Florida.

A drive-through penalty picked up by Albuquerque for locking up and crashing into the #25 BMW of Marco Wittmann within the nineteenth hour took away any remaining likelihood of a comeback.

#10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V- Sequence.R: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens, Brendon Hartley

Picture by: James Gilbert – Motorsport Photographs

The sister #40 WTR Cadillac loved a number of stints on the entrance early on with a speedy Kamui Kobayashi aboard, however the automotive sustained terminal harm within the eighth hour after Louis Deletraz took over the driving duties.

Deletraz went off at Flip 2 after a restart and smashed his Cadillac into the limitations, earlier than spinning again on observe and triggering a multi-car incident that caught out a number of LMP2 and GTD Professional runners.

The #31 Cadillac entered by Action Express Racing additionally shunted at evening, however that accident was brought on by a suspension failure and the group repaired its automotive simply earlier than the midway mark.

Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti completed 40 laps down in ninth place, behind the #25 BMW and the #93 Acura – each delayed by their very own points.

The second of the 2 Rahal-entered BMWs was already down in eighth when it was circled by the Proton Porsche of Neel Jani within the ninth hour.

An in a single day rear brake change dropped the automotive two laps, whereas a 3m12s penalty for an improper wave-by process and a puncture sustained in a collision brought on by Albuquerque additional dented the prospects of Marco Wittmann, Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijs and Rene Rast.

The #93 Acura engineered immediately by HRC USA misplaced an hour in repairs on Saturday night on account of a rear suspension failure, leaving Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou, Renger van der Zande and Kakunoshin Ohta out of rivalry.

Lamborghini’s maiden Daytona look within the GTP class barely lasted an hour, with Mirko Bortolotti pressured to carry the Italian marque’s SC63 LMDh into the pits on account of water stress points after simply 34 laps. 

Proton’s buyer Porsche joined the Lamborghini and the #40 Cadillac within the listing of retirements.

Tower claims LMP2 win after late drama 

#8 Tower Motorsports, ORECA LMP2 07: John Farano, Sebastian Alvarez, Sebastien Bourdais, Job Van Uitert

Picture by: Artwork Fleischmann

Tower Motorsports claimed victory within the LMP2 class, with Sebastien Bourdais taking the chequered flag by a mammoth margin of 45s within the #8 ORECA he shared with Job Van Uitert, Sebastian Alvarez and John Farano.

This was after the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca, which had taken the lead by short-fuelling below the ultimate FCY went off within the closing hour and slumped to fifth, probably on account of contact with a rival.

The #22 United Autosports Oreca shared by Paul di Resta, Daniel Goldburg, James Allen and Rasmus Lindh was battling with the Tower automotive for the lead within the closing hour, however a drive-through penalty for a pitlane infringement meant it needed to accept second.

Third went to the #74 Riley automotive of Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson, Josh Burdon and Felipe Massa after the order shook-up the other way up within the closing hour.

The #88 AF Corse ORECA was main the race by a wholesome margin when Matthieu Vaxiviere crawled to a halt on observe with mechanical issues within the Twenty second hour. 

AF Corse’s troubles handed the result in the AO Racing crew, however the group’s #99 ORECA failed to start out within the pits with mechanical troubles, leaving it out of the combat for victory within the closing hour.

One other front-running automotive to be eradicated from rivalry on Sunday morning was the #4 CrowdStrike by APR ORECA, which sustained heavy harm after IndyCar star Colton Herta crashed it rear-first into the wall within the nineteenth hour.

Ford beats BMW and Corvette in GTD Professional

#65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3: Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch, Dennis Olsen

Picture by: James Gilbert – Motorsport Photographs

Ford emerged on high in a dramatic three-way combat with BMW and Corvette to take victory within the GTD Professional class.

Following the late FCY intervention, Dennis Olsen held on to victory within the #65 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3 he shared with Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies.

This was after the erstwhile-leading #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 EVO pushed by Kelvin van der Linde spun within the closing phases of the race after making contact with the #3 Corvette Z06 GT3 of Alexander Sims.

Sims ended up 1.9s off the lead in second aboard the automotive he shared with Antonio Garcia and Daniel Juncadella, whereas the #1 BMW of van der Linde, Neil Verhagen and Connor de Phillippi dropped to fourth behind the opposite Ford of Sebastian Priaulx, Mike Rockenfeller and Austin Cindric.

BMW and Corvette had been already concerned in a bitter and controversial battle within the Twenty second hour of the race.

BMW driver Augusto Farfus was operating a number of laps down within the #44 BMW and the Brazilian appeared to carry up Corvette driver Tommy Milner to present De Phillippi an opportunity to take the lead.

Race management intervened and handed Farfus a drive-through penalty for blocking a rival, however simply as the choice was introduced Milner got here to blows with De Phillippi, taking some harm to the rear-left aspect of his #4 Corvette.

De Phillippi managed to grab the place after the subsequent spherical of pitstops, whereas Milner got here into the pitlane once more after being handed a mechanical black flag on account of flapping bodywork.

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