Sheldon van der Linde, part of the BMW M Team RLL, made a striking performance in the second practice session of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Van der Linde, fueled by low fuel and fresh tires, surged to the top of the leaderboard, driving the No. 25 M Hybrid V8 and clocking in at 1m47.884s. This outstanding performance saw him snatch the lead from Tom Blomqvist, driving the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06, who had recorded a time of 1m47.998s.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 963s claimed the third and fourth spots, with Matt Campbell’s No. 6 leading the way and Daytona winner Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 following closely behind. Dries Vanthoor, driving the No. 24 RLL BMW, showed significant improvement and secured the fifth spot, before the session was brought to an abrupt halt due to a red flag. Vanthoor’s rise placed him ahead of Renger van der Zande in the No. 93 MSR Acura.
Ricky Taylor, driving the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, emerged as the fastest Cadillac driver, taking the seventh spot. He was followed by Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 Caddy and Romain Grosjean in the No. 63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63, who secured the ninth spot.
The Aston Martin Team THOR Valkyrie, despite being limited to just 17 laps, began to gather momentum as Ross Gunn clocked in at 1m50.113s towards the end of the session, showing a 1.2-second improvement from the first practice.
The session was prematurely terminated when Brendan Iribe, driving the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, clipped the dirt at the entrance to turn 13, and spun off into the tire barriers. In a surprising turn of events, Iribe managed to navigate his Ferrari back to the pits despite a significant broadside hit. This incident served as the only notable disruption during the afternoon session.
Mikkel Jensen, driving the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA 07, led the LMP2 category, clocking a best time of 1m50.961s. This was just two-tenths better than Kaku Ohta’s time in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA. Dane Cameron took the third spot, driving the No. 99 AO Racing “Spike” ORECA.
Laurin Heinrich and AO Racing were the first to break the two-minute barrier in a GT car that weekend. Heinrich, along with the No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R, set a time of 1m59.898s to lead the GTD PRO class. Albert Costa, driving the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari, claimed the second spot in the class, while Kyle Kirkwood, in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, secured the third spot.
In the GTD category, Kenton Koch, driving the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3, set the pace with a time of 2m00.300s. He was followed by Mike Skeen in the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. Ollie Millroy, before Iribe’s accident, clocked the third-fastest time in the GTD category, driving the No. 70 Ferrari.
The day’s third and final practice session is scheduled to commence at 7:45pm ET.
