2016 12 Hours Of Sebring

The 64th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 16 to 19 March 2016. The race was the second round of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup. It was the final time that the original Daytona Prototypes participated in the race, as, for 2017, they were replaced with the new DPi cars.

The race was won by Tequila Patrón ESM's Honda HPD-Ligier JS P2 driven by Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ed Brown, and Pipo Derani after completing a pass for the lead in the final moments of the race. It was the first overall 12 Hours of Sebring win for both ESM and Honda. The Prototype Challenge class was won by the No. 54 CORE Autosport entry driven by Colin Braun, Mark Wilkins, and Jon Bennett. GT Le Mans was won by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R from Corvette Racing, driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, and Marcel Fässler. The GT Daytona class was won by the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 from Scuderia Corsa, driven by Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan, and Jeff Segal. The race saw a stoppage of roughly two hours and 15 minutes due to heavy rain and lightning just before the halfway-point of the event.

Background

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the 64th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 12 Hours of Sebring was the second of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the second in the four round North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It was held at the 17-turn, Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 19, 2016.

Before the race, Ed Brown, Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Scott Sharp were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 36 points. With 36 points, Misha Goikhberg, Kenton Koch, Chris Miller, and Stephen Simpson led the PC Drivers' Championship. GTLM was led by Marcel Fässler, Oliver Gavin, and Tommy Milner with a three-point advantage over Antonio García, Jan Magnussen, and Mike Rockenfeller. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Andy Lally, John Potter, René Rast, and Marco Seefried with 36 points. Honda, Chevrolet, and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Tequila Patrón ESM, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Corvette Racing, Magnus Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

Practice

There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 10:00 am ET on Thursday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.447.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 2:25 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:53.850.

Night Practice

The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Filipe Albuquerque topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.832.

Final Practice

The fourth and final practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:52.135.

Qualifying

In Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . All Prototype and Prototype Challenge cars were grouped together on the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position.

Race

Start and early hours

Afternoon

Sunset to finish

Post-race

Race Results

Class winners are denoted in bold.

References

{{12 Hours of Sebring

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