Photo by: Michael L. Levitt
The second hour of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring began with almost a full half hour of yellow flag pitstops and slow laps around the ionic Sebring International Raceway. The hour also ended with a yellow following an incident between Pipo Derani and an LMP3 machine.
The yellow was brought out by George Kurtz after a spin beached his #04 CrowdStrike LMP2 machine, requiring a tow to get back on track. The yellow was then extended by the #17 AWA racing LMP3 machine with Anthony Mantella in the driver’s seat, after the Daytona class winner slowed and stopped on track, requiring a tow.
The yellow period saw the majority of the field pit for the frist time and shook up the standings at the top of the field in GTP. Pole sitter Derani in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac cycled down the field and was quickly passed by both Acura machines with little resistance when the green flag flew.
Derani was passed by Farfus near the end of the hour and right as the clock ticked over to hour three, Derani was involved in an incident with Robert Mau in the #38 Performance Tech LMP3 machine. Mau spun on his own in front of Derani and Derani left the incident with broken front-end bodywork and a damaged tire. The team kept him out to try and build a gap to the safety car while Derani trundled around the circuit trying his best to limit the damage.
Sebastian Bourdais leads the field in the #01 Cadillac with a five-second gap back to Tom Blomqvist in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura, followed closely behind by the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Ricky Taylor behind the wheel.
John Farrano leads LMP2 in the #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca and Matthew Bell leads LMP3 in the #13 AWA entry.
In GT Kenton Koch leads the GT ranks in earnest despite the GTD badge on the #32 Korthoff Mercades. GTD Pro lead is held by Daniel Juncadella in the Daytona class winner #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercades, who runs P3 in GT overall.
Keyword: A damaged Derani brings out the third yellow of the day to close out hour two