The #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 topped Practice 2 of the Twelve Hours of Sebring thanks to a late flying lap from Phil Hanson.
Phil Hanson dominated the timesheets with JDC-Miller Motorsports during Practice 2 ahead of the 72nd edition of Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Cadillac which will take place on March 16th.
The British driver’s late 1:48.149 flier placed the No. 85 Porsche 963 0.236 seconds ahead of Sebastien Bourdais’s No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. This was the best time of the day so far, surpassing Renger van der Zande’s mark from Practice 1.
That eclipsed reigning Sebring winner and four-time winner Pipo Derani aboard the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R which had initially led the session with a 1:48.483 and eventually settled for third place.
Louis Deletraz drove the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti ARX-06 to fourth place with Mathieu Jaminet rounding out the overall top five for Porsche Penske Motorsport. Sixth place went to Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8.
The No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr was seventh fastest ahead of the sister BMW M Hybrid V8 driven by Philipp Eng.
Meanwhile, the new Lamborghini SC63 is beginning to exhibit real competitive speed. After a challenging first session, Matteo Cairoli’s 1:49.493, 1.5 seconds faster than its best time from earlier in the day, helped the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 make a significant gain finishing ninth.
The 90-minute session on Thursday afternoon saw the Iron Lynx-run car complete 30 laps; but, with 40 minutes remaining, Romain Grosjean’s off-track incident somewhat affected its performance. However, the car rejoined the session shortly after the Frenchman’s brief contact with the tire wall at Tower.
Josh Burdon topped the LMP2 class aboard the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson with a time of 1:52.078 ahead of both Toby Sowery of CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Tom Dillmann of Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Each set identical times of 1:52.214.
Ferrari Hypercar driver Nicklas Nielsen finished fourth aboard the Richard Mille AF Corse #88.
The two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s lead their respective GTD classes, carrying over a their impressive performance from Practice 1. This time, however, their positions on the overall ranking were reversed: Parker Thompson of GTD class #12 actually outpaced Jack Hawksworth of GTD Pro class #14 in terms of speed!
Parker Thompson recorded the quickest time in all GT classes with a timing of 2:00.337 while running the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3.
The only red flag of the practice was actually triggered by Rigon when the #62 Ferrari stopped at turn one but immediately resumed the charge. Thank goodness, it was lifted fast.
However, the two Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3s, which did not record a time during this session, did not appear on the timesheets.
In GTD, Loris Spinelli was second fastest in the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 while Mikaël Grenier in the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Elliott Skeer in the green and yellow #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R finished third and fourth, respectively.
