2021 12 Hours of Sebring

The 2021 12 Hours of Sebring (formally known as the 69th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts) was an endurance sports car race  held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 17 to 20 March 2021. It was the second round of both the 2021 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. Mazda Motorsports entered as the defending overall winners of the 12-hour event.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in September 2020. It was the eighth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC, and 69th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 12 Hours of Sebring was the second of twelve sports car endurance races of 2021 by IMSA, and the second of four races of the Michelin Endurance Cup (MEC). It was held at the 17-turn, 3.741-mile (6.021 km) Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 20, 2021.

After being postponed to November the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the race returned to its traditional March date for 2021. Originally, the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the FIA World Endurance Championship event run in conjunction with the 12 Hours in 2019, was slated to return, but was later cancelled due to international travel restrictions still imposed by the pandemic.

Supporting the race during the week were IMSA's Michelin Pilot Challenge series, Porsche Carrera Cup North America series, and Mazda MX-5 Cup series.

The race would see the debut of the new for 2021 GTD qualifying format, with two sessions for the category. The first session would mandate any bronze/silver driver to qualify their car and determine the starting lineup for the race. The second session would see each team allow to change tires and drivers, and championship points would be awarded.

Before the race, Filipe Albuquerque, Hélio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi, and Ricky Taylor led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 376 points, ahead of Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi, Simon Pagenaud, and Mike Rockenfeller in second with 345 points. Nicky Catsburg, Antonio García, and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 382 points, 27 points ahead of Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims, and Nick Tandy. With 376 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis, Maro Engel, and Russell Ward. Acura, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, Corvette Racing, and Winward Racing  each led their own Teams' Championships. LMP2 drivers and teams as well as LMP3 drivers and teams would be scoring their first championship points of the season due to Daytona only counting towards the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.

Entries 

A total of 37 cars took part in the event split across five classes. 7 cars were entered in DPi, 5 in LMP2, 7 in LMP3, 5 in GTLM, and 13 in GTD. In DPi, Action Express Racing confirmed their #48 entry would contest the remaining Michelin Endurance Cup events. In LMP2, High Class Racing, Racing Team Nederland, Cetilar Racing, RWR Eurasia, and DragonSpeed USA skipped the event. United Autosports made their first start in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2018. In LMP3, Mühlner Motorsports America were absent while WIN Autosport made their class debut. Oliver Askew and Stevan McAleer joined Austin McCusker in the Forty7 Motorsports entry. Dan Goldburg joined Mateo Llarena and Rasmus Lindh in the Performance Tech Motorsports entry. In GTLM, Risi Competizione were absent. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet joined Cooper MacNeil in the WeatherTech Racing entry. In GTD, AF Corse, NTE Sport, HTP Winward Motorsport, Scuderia Corsa, Team TGM, and TF Sport were absent while GRT Grasser Racing Team scaled down to one entry. Stephen Simpson subbed for Misha Goikhberg in the #19 GRT Grasser Racing Team entry. Michael de Quesada joined Daniel Morad and Billy Johnson in the Alegra Motorsports entry. Maro Engel joined Mikaël Grenier and Kenny Habul in the SunEnergy1 Racing entry. Trent Hindman subbed for Ryan Hardwick in the Wright Motorsports entry. Team Hardpoint EBM added a second entry featuring Earl Bamber,Trenton Estep, and Rob Ferriol.

Practice 
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, all three one on Thursday. The first session on Thursday morning lasted one hour. The second session on Thursday afternoon lasted 75 minutes. The final session on Thursday evening lasted 90 minutes.

Practice 1 
The first practice session took place at 9:05 am ET on Thursday and ended with Felipe Nasr topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:46.212, ahead of the #01 Cadillac of Renger van der Zande. Mikkel Jensen set the fastest time in LMP2. Jeroen Bleekemolen was fastest in LMP3 with a time of 1:56.917. The GTLM class was topped by the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor with a time of 1:56.715. Mathieu Jaminet was second fastest in the #79 WeatherTech Racing entry and Tommy Milner rounded out the top 3. Bill Auberlen set the fastest time in GTD.

Practice 2 
The second practice session took place at 1:55 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Felipe Nasr topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:47.323, 0.181 seconds faster than Loïc Duval's #5 Cadillac. Mikkel Jensen set the fastest time in LMP2. Dylan Murry was fastest in LMP3 with a time of 1:57.371. The GTLM class was topped by the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Matt Campbell with a time of 1:56.891. Connor De Phillippi was second fastest in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry and Nick Tandy rounded out the top 3. Mikaël Grenier was fastest in GTD.

Practice 3 
The third and final practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Pipo Derani topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:46.898. Renger van der Zande's #01 Cadillac was second fastest followed by Ricky Taylor in the #10 Acura. Mikkel Jensen was fastest in LMP2 with a time of 1:50.270. Jeroen Bleekemolen set the fastest time in LMP3. The GTLM class was topped by the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Mathieu Jaminet with a time of 1:56.563. Antonio García was second fastest in the #3 Corvette Racing entry and Alexander Sims rounded out the top 3. Laurens Vanthoor was fastest in GTD.

Qualifying 
Qualifying was broken into four sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class. Tim Zimmermann set the fastest time driving the #19 car for GRT Grasser Racing Team. However, the team were sent to the back of the GTD grid after the team's Lamborghini was found to have a wifi hotspot onboard. As a result, Jan Heylen was promoted to pole position. Zacharie Robichon suffered an ABS failure on his #9 Porsche and touched the tire barrier at turn 13. Robichon went off at the same part of the track on his second lap and didn't set a competitive time.

The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Antonio García qualified on pole in GTLM driving the #3 car for Corvette Racing, beating teammate Tommy Milner in the sister #4 Corvette Racing entry by less than 0.050 seconds. Jack Hawksworth set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session and earned 35 championship points.

The third session was for cars in the LMP3 class. Rasmus Lindh qualified on pole for the class driving the #38 car for Performance Tech Motorsports, beating Oliver Askew in the Forty7 Motorsports entry by less than one-tenth of a second.

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi and LMP2 classes. Pipo Derani  took overall pole for the event driving the #31 car for Whelen Engineering Racing, besting Ricky Taylor in the WTR-Konica Minolta Acura entry. Steven Thomas qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the WIN Autosport Oreca. Jimmie Johnson, driving the #48 Ally Cadillac Racing entry, spun at turn 16 in the closing moments of the session and attempted to get one more lap in. However, Johnson crashed at turn 17 and the #48 Cadillac suffered extensive damage. Due to the damage from the accident, Ally Cadillac Racing would use a spare tub for the race. For causing a red flag, Johnson had his best two laps from the session deleted.

Qualifying results 
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .

  The No. 48 Ally Cadillac Racing entry had its two fastest laps deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
 The No. 19 GRT Grasser Racing Team entry entry initially qualified on pole position for the GTD class. However, the car was found to have a wifi hotspot onboard. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the GTD field on the starting grid.

Race

Start and early hours

Afternoon

Sunset to finish

Post-race 
The result kept Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi, and Ricky Taylor atop the DPi Drivers' Championship with 688 points. Bourdais, Duval, and Vautier advanced from sixth to second while Johnson, Kobayashi, and Pagenaud dropped from second to fifth. Bomarito, Jarvis, and Tincknell jumped from third to second. Since it was the season's first points paying race, Huffaker, Jensen, and Keating led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 382 points. Since it was the season's first points paying race, Bennett, Braun, and Kurtz  led the LMP3 Drivers' Championship with 378 points. As a result of winning the race, MacNeil advanced from sixth to second in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Milner, Sims, and Tandy dropped from second to fourth. As a result of winning the race, Long, Hindman, and Heylen advanced from fourth to first in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Grenier and Habul dropped from second to fifth while Kern, Robichon, and Vanthoor advanced from eleventh to fourth. Cadillac and Porsche took the lead in their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Chevrolet continued to top the GTLM Manufacturers' Championship. WTR-Konica Minolta Acura and Corvette Racing continued to top their respective Teams' Championships while Wright Motorsports took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and CORE Autosport became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships with ten rounds remaining in the season.

Race Results 
Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Standings after the race

 Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

 Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

 Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

External links

12 Hours of Sebring
12 Hours of Sebring
12 Hours of Sebring
12 Hours of Sebring