Sebring 12 Hours: Nasr holds off Taylor to win for AXR

The Whelen Engineering-backed #31 Cadillac DPi.V-R moved into the lead right at the end of the first hour in wet conditions, with the heavy rain ensuring the first 40 minutes were run under caution.

From there, despite several safety car periods bunching up the pack over the course of the race, Nasr, Derani and Curran were able to maintain their advantage at the head of the field throughout.

The penultimate caution period, which came with two hours to go, erased what had been a 47s advantage for Derani, who then had to survive one final restart in the final 15 minutes when the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 parked at Turn 3 with suspension problems.

Jordan Taylor had picked off Brendon Hartley's AXR Cadillac at the previous restart to move the Rolex 24-winning Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac up to second, but when the green flag was shown with seven minutes to run, Taylor was powerless to challenge Nasr.

The Brazilian eventually crossed the line 1.030 seconds ahead of Taylor, who sealed second place in the Cadillac he shared with Renger van der Zande and newcomer Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Hartley and the full-timers in the #5 Cadillac, Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque, completed the podium a further 2.9s behind.

IndyCar ace Alexander Rossi brought home the best of the Acura Team Penske entries fourth. Both Acura ARX-05s struggled badly early on when the conditions were at their worst, but the #7 car shared by Rossi and full-timers Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor was able to recover from losing a lap.

The sister #6 car lost more ground with an electrical problem and then two changes of the rear deck, meaning Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud ended up nine laps down.

Completing the top five was the CORE autosport Nissan DPi, ahead of the best of the Mazda Team Joest cars, the #55 RT24-P of Harry Tincknell, Olivier Pla and Jonathan Bomarito.

Mazda's victory hopes were all but extinguished when an off for Bomarito before half-distance cost the car three laps, although subsequent caution periods meant the #55 finished only a lap down.

The sister #77 car dropped more than 100 laps off the lead with a battery issue that caused Timo Bernhard to stop out on track with his car on fire early in the third hour.

GTLM: Porsche completes miracle comeback

Victory in GTLM went to the #911 Porsche 911 RSR shared by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki, which dropped off the lead lap in the wet early stages.

By half-distance, the trio had got back on to the lead lap, and after the penultimate caution Tandy vaulted from fourth to second in class behind the #67 Ford GT.

Ryan Briscoe was tasked with holding off Tandy, but the Australian slipped behind at the start of the final hour following their respective pitstops.

He had closed Tandy's lead from 4sec to 1sec before the final caution, but then spun trying to navigate traffic after the final restart, making contact with Andy Lally's Magnus Racing Lamborghini.

That promoted the #66 Ford GT of Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand to second at the finish, ahead of the #3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller, which was off-sequence and led before its final pitstop.

BMW's top finisher was the #24 car of John Edwards, Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng, ahead of the second of the Porsches, the #912, and the #67 Ford shared by Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook.

Corvette's #4 entry ended up nine laps down due to halfshaft and alternator problems.

GTD: Grasser Lamborghini doubles up

A thrilling scrap for GT Daytona honors was finally won by the #11 Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Rolex 24-winning trio Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen.

It means Breukers has a perfect win rate in IMSA, having made just three starts - two Rolex 24s and a Sebring 12 Hours - and won all three. All have been achieved with the Grasser team and Bortolotti and Ineichen.

Bortolotti was split from fellow Lamborghini driver Lally by less than three seconds at the finish, with Lally surviving his late brush with Briscoe's Ford to hold on to the runner-up spot in the Magnus Racing entry he shared with John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly.

Third place went to the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander, Cooper MacNeil and Jeff Westphal, ahead of the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS and the Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG-GT3.

A late drive-through penalty demoted the best of the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3s, the #86 car, to seventh ahead of the sister all-female car in eighth.

Class honors in LMP2 went to the Performance Tech Oreca crewed by Kyle Masson, Cameron Cassels and Andrew Evans, 13 laps up on its sole opponent, the PR1/Mathiasen Oreca.

Race results:

Pos.	Class	No.	Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Time
1	DPi	31	Pipo Derani Eric Curran Felipe Nasr	Cadillac DPi	348
2	DPi	10	Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande Matthieu Vaxiviere	Cadillac DPi	348	1.030
3	DPi	5	Brendon Hartley Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa	Cadillac DPi	348	4.023
4	DPi	7	Alexander Rossi Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor	Acura DPi	348	11.331
5	DPi	54	Romain Dumas Jon Bennett Colin Braun	Nissan DPi	347	1 lap
6	DPi	55	Harry Tincknell Olivier Pla Jonathan Bomarito	Mazda DPi	346	2 laps
7	DPi	85	Juan Piedrahita Mikhail Goikhberg Tristan Vautier	Cadillac DPi	346	2 laps
8	DPi	84	Simon Trummer Chris Miller Stephen Simpson	Cadillac DPi	345	3 laps
9	DPi	6	Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud Dane Cameron	Acura DPi	339	9 laps
10	GTLM	911	Nick Tandy Patrick Pilet Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	330	18 laps
11	GTLM	66	Sébastien Bourdais Joey Hand Dirk Muller	Ford GT	330	18 laps
12	GTLM	3	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Mike Rockenfeller	Corvette C7.R	330	18 laps
13	GTLM	24	John Edwards Jesse Krohn Philipp Eng	BMW M8 GTE	330	18 laps
14	GTLM	912	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 911 RSR	330	18 laps
15	GTLM	67	Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon Richard Westbrook	Ford GT	330	18 laps
16	GTLM	25	Connor de Phillippi Tom Blomqvist Colton Herta	BMW M8 GTE	329	19 laps
17	LMP2	38	Kyle Masson Cameron Cassels Andrew Evans	ORECA LMP2	322	26 laps
18	GTLM	4	Marcel Fassler Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	Corvette C7.R	321	27 laps
19	GTD	11	Rolf Ineichen Mirko Bortolotti Rik Breukers	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	320	28 laps
20	GTD	44	Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly John Potter	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	320	28 laps
21	GTD	63	Toni Vilander Cooper MacNeil Jeff Westphal	Ferrari 488 GT3	320	28 laps
22	GTD	29	Daniel Morad Christopher Mies Richard Feller	Audi R8 LMS GT3	320	28 laps
23	GTD	33	Jeroen Bleekemolen  Ben Keating Felipe Fraga	Mercedes-AMG GT3	320	28 laps
24	GTD	73	Patrick Long Patrick Lindsey Nicholas Boulle	Porsche 911 GT3 R	320	28 laps
25	GTD	86	Justin Marks Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman	Acura NSX GT3	320	28 laps
26	GTD	57	Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen Ana Beatriz	Acura NSX GT3	320	28 laps
27	GTD	12	Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	318	30 laps
28	GTD	9	Scott Hargrove Lars Kern Zacharie Robichon	Porsche 911 GT3 R	318	30 laps
29	GTD	71	Fabian Schiller Maximilian Buhk JC Perez	Mercedes-AMG GT3	315	33 laps
30	GTD	47	Brandon Gdovic Lawson Aschenbach Don Yount	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	311	37 laps
31	GTD	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Dillon Machavern	BMW M6 GT3	309	39 laps
32	LMP2	52	Matt McMurry Anders Fjordbach Gabriel Aubry	ORECA LMP2	309	39 laps
33	DPi	50	Rene Binder Will Owen Agustin Canapino	Cadillac DPi	305	43 laps
34	GTD	8	Ryan Dalziel Parker Chase Ezequiel Perez Companc	Audi R8 LMS GT3	292	56 laps
35	GTD	14	Jack Hawksworth Philipp Frommenwiler Richard Heistand	Lexus RC F GT3	262	86 laps
36	GTD	48	Corey Lewis Bryan Sellers Ryan Hardwick	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	249	99 laps
37	DPi	77	Oliver Jarvis Timo Bernhard Tristan Nunez	Mazda DPi	233	115 laps
38	GTD	19	Andrew Davis Will Hardeman Alex Riberas	Audi R8 LMS GT3	174	174 laps