It was Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Porsche Penske 963 who topped the charts in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s first practice session for this weekend’s 12 Hours of Sebring.

Vanthoor posted a 1:47.985 to set the pace in the GTP field. Behind him was Felipe Nasr in the sister No. 7 Porsche 963, who set a time of 1:48.011, while Jack Aitken slotted the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R into third in its first on-track running of the weekend with a 1:48.189.

In LMP2, Paul Di Resta led the class in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca with a 1:50.700. In GTD Pro, Alessio Picariello and AO Racing’s No. 77 “Roxy” Porsche 911 GT3 R set the fastest time with a 2:00.297, while Philip Ellis led GTD in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG with a 1:59.363.

The opening session was also highlighted by the global competition debut of the Lamborghini Temerario GT3, run by Pfaff Motorsports. In the team’s first official race weekend session, the No. 9 Temerario clocked in at 2:01.252 with Andrea Caldarelli behind the wheel.

The only red flag of the session came from an incident at Turn 17 involving PJ Hyett in the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca. The incident will result in the team forfeiting its top time for tomorrow’s qualifying session.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will return to the track later this afternoon for Practice 2 at 4 p.m. ET. The first 15 minutes of the session are allocated for Bronze-rated drivers only, while the track opens up at 4:15 p.m. ET for the rest of the field. The series will also feature a night session beginning at 7:45 p.m. ET.

 

Image Courtesy to Porsche

SEBRING CONTENT HUB: https://www.gt-report.com/2026/03/17/imsa-sebring-12-hours-content-hub/