Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Louis Deletraz ran down and passed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais for the lead with six minutes to go Saturday night (March 16). From there, Deletraz held on to win the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring for him, Colton Herta and Jordan Taylor.
“I can’t believe it,” Deletraz said after the race. “I caught [Bourdais], but I know that he’s a fast racer. I saw the gap [at the hairpin] and I went for it. We had [a little contact], but we won. That’s what matters.”
Deletraz, Herta and Jordan Taylor’s margin of victory was .891 seconds over Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Matt Campbell, Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr were third, then BMW M Team RLL’s Connor de Phillippi, Maxime Martin and Nick Yelloly. The second WTRAndretti Acura of Filipe Albuquerque, Brendon Hartley and Ricky Taylor was fifth.
Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani started on the overall pole and led early. Bourdais gave chase, resulting in the first segment looking like practice as the two Cadillacs fought among themselves.
Following a debris caution and the first round of stops, Bourdais was able to take the overall lead in the second hour. Pit strategies shuffled the running order as Cameron and Martin took the lead in the third and fourth hours.
As the race continued on, the Cadillacs moved back into position to win. But in the eighth hour, Derani’s chances for victory came to an end. While leading, he collided with AF Corse’s Miguel Molina in turn 9 and went head-on into the tires. The Cadillac climbed the tire barrier and ended up on his roof.
It took a couple of minutes for the AMR Safety Team to partially right the Cadillac as Derani was stuck in the car. Once it was lifted slightly, Derani was able to get out of the car and walk away. Molina’s Ferrari was also out.
The lead eventually rotated to Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Frederic Makowiecki in the No. 6. He was up front when he had contact with Gradient Racing’s Katherine Legge in Sunset Bend, which sent Legge hard into the wall and out of the race.
A couple of laps after the restart from that crash, Makowiecki blew his left rear tire and…
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