The Alpine Elf Team won the 1000 Miles of Sebring, despite the race being cut short by thirty minutes owing to lightning and thunderstorms in the region.
Alpine won the 1000 Miles of Sebring for the first time, despite the race being three times red flagged due to a massive Toyota Hypercar crash and localized thunderstorms.
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson, driven by Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Nicolas Lapierre, began on pole and was never seriously challenged throughout the race.
When heavy weather crept into the region in the final hour, the scheduled eight-hour race turned into a letdown.
Jose Maria Lopez, driving the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, hit the tire barrier with a damaged front end and rolled over, which was aided by a first red flag.
With the two Toyotas in front of them having retired, the French team was able to claim its first overall victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi, and Ryo Hirakawa finished second, with Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla, and Ryan Briscoe completing the podium in the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH.
The #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa was leading at the time, but had to pit for emergency service to avoid running out of fuel, and then pitted again on the next lap.
The Signatech-run Alpine led Glickenhaus by a lap at the restart, with the remaining Toyota sliding to third. However, before the restart, Ryan Briscoe in the Glickenhaus passed the sole Corvette C8.R GTE Pro vehicle, earning him a penalty.
The race was set to continue with a 36-minute dash to the finish after a second red flag for electrical storms in the vicinity, despite the fact that no rain had fallen. When fresh lightning was reported close, the field was getting ready to restart after more electrical activity.
With 14 minutes left on the clock, the chequered flag was raised as the rain started falling. The Alpine won by 9.2 seconds over the #8 Toyota and the Glickenhaus Briscoe, which was shared by Olivier Pla and Romain Dumas.
Paul di Resta, Josh Pierson, and Oliver Jarvis won LMP2 in the #23 United Autosports ORECA 07-Gibson. Pierson, who is 16 years, becomes the championship’s youngest race winner.
The Anglo-American team took the lead and drove one-two for a while before the #22 sister vehicle broke down due to an unscheduled pit stop.
Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, and Rene Rast of Team WRT finished second, with Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Norman Nato of Team WRT completing the podium in the #41 sister vehicle.
The first GTE Pro race of the season was won by Porsche. In the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen began from the pole position. To win, the pair started from pole position and held off a challenge from Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy’s #64 Corvette C8.R.
Tandy and Milner were second, with Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche completing the podium.
In GTE Am, NorthWest AMR came out on top. Ben Keating was passed by Paul Dalla Lana in turn 1 and the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR took the lead a few laps later.
The Canadian never looked back after that, and he won the race alongside Nicki Thiim and David Pittard.
The #33 TF Sport Vantage of Keating, Florian Latorre, and Marco Sorensen won the race, with the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy, and Ben Barnicoat rounding out the podium.
