BMW dominates the 12 Hours of Sebring practice

In its special livery celebrating the 50th anniversary of its North American branch, BMW stood out with the best time in the three practice sessions of the 12 Hours of Sebring, the second meeting of the season in IMSA after the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Sheldon van der Linde was the fastest of the three sessions combined, setting a best lap of 1:47.884 in Thursday afternoon's session in the No. 8 BMW M Hybrid V25. The South African finished the day just 06 seconds ahead of Tom Blomqvist (No. 60 Acura ARX-0.114). The Briton also set this time in Free Practice 2.

Reference time of the morning, Nick Tandy completed the podium of this first day at 0.767 seconds with the Porsche 963 No. 7. Jack Aitken set the fastest time of the night session in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R in 1:49.125, well off the best time of the day (eighth time of the three sessions combined).

Aston Martin more than two seconds behind BMW

For its first in IMSA, theAston Martin Valkyrie is the only prototype in the GTP category not to have dropped below one minute and fifty seconds during these three sessions. Ross Gunn set the fastest lap of the Gaydon LMH in 1:50.113, that is to say with a loss of 2.229 seconds compared to Van der Linde… and barely three tenths better than the first LM P2.

In this category, the title holder of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ferrari Nicklas Nielsen set the fastest time of the day in Free Practice 1 with a lap of 1:50.403 at the wheel of the No. 07 AF Corse Oreca 88. The Dane finished ahead of his compatriot Mikkel Jensen (No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca) and Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais (Oreca n°8 Tower Motorsports).

In Grand Touring, only one car went under two minutes: the #77 Porsche from the AO Racing team and its famous T-Rex livery, thanks to Laurin Heinrich, who set a lap of 1:59.898. A time set during Free Practice 2. Kenton Koch set the GTD reference time of 2:00.300 on the Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°32 from Korthoff Competition Motors.

Next meeting at 16:25 p.m. (French time) for qualifying for the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The combined classification of the first three Free Practice sessions of the 12 Hours of Sebring HERE

The 12 2025 Hours of Sebring program