The 66th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts was an endurance sports car racing event held at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida from 15 to 17 March 2018. The race was the second round of the 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as the second round of the North American Endurance Cup.

The race was won by Tequila Patrón ESM's Nissan Onroak DPi driven by Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Nicolas Lapierre, ahead of the Cadillac DPi-V.R's of Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelen Engineering Racing. Porsche took GTLM honours with Nick Tandy, Frédéric Makowiecki, and Patrick Pilet behind the wheel of their 911 RSR. The GTD category was won by Paul Miller Racing's Corey Lewis, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in a GT3-spec Lamborghini Huracán.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017. It was the fifth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC, and the 66th 12 Hours of Sebring. The 24 Hours of Daytona was the second of twelve scheduled sports car endurance races of 2018 by IMSA, and the second of four races of the North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). It was held at the 17-turn, Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida on March 17, 2018.

On March 1, 2018, IMSA released a bulletin outlining the minimum refueling times for all the classes. All cars in the Prototype class were given 30 second minimum refueling time while GTLM and GTD were given times of 34 and 40 seconds, respectively. The times were made to override any refueling restrictor size following Montaplast by Land-Motorsport's penalty at Daytona.

After the 24 Hours of Daytona 7 weeks earlier, Filipe Albuquerque, João Barbosa, and Christian Fittipaldi were leading the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 35 points. GTLM was led by Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, and Scott Dixon with a three-point advantage over Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, and Sébastien Bourdais. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers, Rolf Ineichen, and Franck Perera with 35 points. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Mustang Sampling Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and GRT Grasser Racing Team each led their own Teams' Championships.

On March 7, 2018, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event. In the Prototype class, the Acura ARX-05 received a reduction of turbo boost and a fuel capacity reduction of 1 liter while the Nissan Onroak DPi got a turbo boost reduction between 6000-7600 rpm. The Cadillac DPi-V.R received a 10 kilogram weight increase while the Mazda RT24-P received a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters and adjustments to the cars rear wing. In the GTLM class, the BMW M8 GTE received a 20 kilogram weight reduction and increase of power between 5000-7500 rpm while the Porsche 911 RSR got a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters. In the GTD class, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 received a 20 kilogram weight increase and a 1mm air restrictor increase while the Lexus RC F GT3 received a 1mm air restrictor increase.

Entries A total of 43 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 16 cars were entered in P, 9 in GTLM, and 18 in GTD. In P, BAR1 Motorsports and Jackie Chan DCR JOTA were absent while United Autosports scaled down to 1 entry. Paul Di Resta joined Phil Hanson and Alex Brundle in the United Autosports #32 entry while Bruno Senna missed the event after having undergone a surgical procedure a few weeks earlier. In GTD, Grasser Racing Team and Manthey Racing skipped the event while Risi Competizione scaled down focussing on its GTLM effort. CJ Wilson Racing made their IMSA SportsCar Championship debut at this event. Dillon Machavern and Markus Palttala joined Don Yount in the Turner Motorsport entry. Following the retirement of Scott Pruett, Sean Rayhall joined 3GT Racing in the teams #15 entry. Corey Lewis joined Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in the Paul Miller Racing entry. Tom Dyer joined Ryan Eversley and Chad Gilsinger in the HART entry.

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 11:00 am ET on Thursday and ended with Hélio Castroneves topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:48.237. ClassTeamDriverTime1 P 7 Acura Team Penske Hélio Castroneves 1:48.237 _2 P 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Tristan Vautier 1:48.387 +0.1503 P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Renger van der Zande 1:48.415 +0.178Source:

Practice 2 The second practice session took place at 3:10 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Acura Team Pensken, with a lap time of 1:47.841. ClassTeamDriverTime1 P 7 Acura Team Penske Ricky Taylor 1:47.841 _2 P 55 Mazda Team Joest Jonathan Bomarito 1:48.753 +0.9123 P 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Filipe Albuquerque 1:48.805 +0.964Source:

Night Practice The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with René Rast topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:48.233. ClassTeamDriverTime1 P 77 Mazda Team Joest René Rast 1:48.233 _2 P 55 Mazda Team Joest Harry Tincknell 1:48.690 +0.4573 P 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Felipe Nasr 1:48.799 +0.566Source:

Final Practice The fourth and final practice session took place at 8:00 am ET on Friday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:47.076. ClassTeamDriverTime1 P 7 Acura Team Penske Ricky Taylor 1:47.076 _2 P 22 Tequila Patrón ESM Pipo Derani 1:47.512 +0.4363 P 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Patricio O'Ward 1:47.861 +0.785Source:

Qualifying

Friday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups. All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.

The first was for cars in GTD class. Daniel Serra qualified on pole for the class driving the #51 car for Spirit of Race, beating Christopher Mies in the #29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport car by over five tenths of a second.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Connor De Phillippi qualified on pole driving the #25 car for BMW Team RLL, beating James Calado in the #62 Risi Competizione car by less than one tenth of a second.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Tristan Vautier qualified on pole driving the #90 car for Spirit of Daytona Racing, besting Olivier Pla in the #2 Tequila Patrón ESM entry.

Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . ClassTeamDriverTime1 P 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Tristan Vautier 1:47.432 _ 12 P 2 Tequila Patrón ESM Olivier Pla 1:47.592 +0.160 23 P 7 Acura Team Penske Ricky Taylor 1:47.773 +0.341 34 P 22 Tequila Patrón ESM Pipo Derani 1:47.834 +0.402 45 P 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Felipe Nasr 1:47.853 +0.421 56 P 6 Acura Team Penske Juan Pablo Montoya 1:48.177 +0.745 67 P 77 Mazda Team Joest René Rast 1:48.192 +0.760 158 P 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Filipe Albuquerque 1:48.256 +0.824 79P55 Mazda Team Joest Jonathan Bomarito 1:48.279 +0.8471610 P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Renger van der Zande 1:48.370 +0.938 811 P 99 JDC-Miller MotorSports Stephen Simpson 1:48.742 +1.310 912 P 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Patricio O'Ward 1:49.068 +1.636 1013 P 54 CORE Autosport Colin Braun 1:49.158 +1.726 1114 P 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Simon Trummer 1:49.329 +1.897 1215 P 52 AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Sebastián Saavedra 1:49.423 +1.991 1316 P 32 United Autosports Paul di Resta 1:49.488 +2.056 1417 GTLM 25 BMW Team RLL Connor De Phillippi 1:55.839 +8.407 1718 GTLM 62 Risi Competizione James Calado 1:55.897 +8.465 1819 GTLM 24 BMW Team RLL Jesse Krohn 1:55.985 +8.553 1920 GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Richard Westbrook 1:56.098 +8.666 2021 GTLM 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand 1:56.191 +8.759 2122 GTLM 912 Porsche GT Team Laurens Vanthoor 1:56.251 +8.819 2223 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Antonio García 1:56.588 +9.156 2324 GTLM 911 Porsche GT Team Nick Tandy 1:56.626 +9.194 2425GTLM4 Corvette Racing Tommy Milner1:56.900 +9.4682526 GTD 51 Spirit of Race Daniel Serra 1:58.710 +11.278 2627 GTD 29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Christopher Mies 1:59.229 +11.797 2728 GTD 15 3GT Racing Jack Hawksworth 1:59.251 +11.819 2829GTD14 3GT Racing Dominik Baumann1:59.476 +12.0442930 GTD 48 Paul Miller Racing Madison Snow 1:59.489 +12.057 3031 GTD 63 Scuderia Corsa Gunnar Jeannette 1:59.609 +12.177 3132 GTD 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Thomas Jäger 1:59.952 +12.520 3233 GTD 69 HART Tom Dyer 2:00.069 +12.637 3334 GTD 64 Scuderia Corsa Frankie Montecalvo 2:00.080 +12.648 3435 GTD 86 Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Katherine Legge 2:00.198 +12.766 3536 GTD 58 Wright Motorsports Christina Nielsen 2:00.378 +12.946 3637 GTD 36 CJ Wilson Racing Marc Miller 2:00.686 +13.254 3738 GTD 71 P1 Motorsports Kenton Koch 2:00.717 +13.285 3839 GTD 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport Ben Keating 2:00.743 +13.311 3940 GTD 44 Magnus Racing John Potter 2:02.151 +14.719 4041 GTD 96 Turner Motorsport Dillon Machavern 2:03.227 +15.795 4142 GTD 73 Park Place Motorsports Tim Pappas 2:04.650 +17.218 4243 GTD 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajaniandid not participate 43Sources:

The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest entry was moved to the back of the P field after failing post qualifying technical inspection. The No. 55 Mazda Team Joest entry was moved to the back of the P field failing post qualifying technical inspection. The No. 32 United Autosports entry initially qualified sixteenth for the P class. However, the team changed engines after qualifying. By IMSA rules, the entry was moved to the rear of the P field on the starting grid. The No. 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.

Race

Start and early hours At the start of the race at turn 1, Vautier and Pla had a collision that led to Pla needing to pit during the next lap of the race. In addition to this, both Milner and Serra both got tire punctures and also needed to pit. Around twenty minutes into the race, Saavedra spun around the final corner and was hit by Montecalvo who was flipped over following a hit to the tirewall. Just before the four hour mark, an awning blew onto the track bringing out the yellow flag. Almost immediately after the caution ended however, Brundle spun during the final turn.

Afternoon At the beginning of the afternoon, a Lexus hit a wall which caused debris to spread onto the track. This led to a caution period which caused Derani to lose his seventeen second lead. Just after the restart, an Acura retired due to an oil pressure problem. Towards the six hour mark, Fittipaldi and Nasr were involved in a collision that sprung from Nasr diving towards Fittipaldi. The collision led to Fittipaldi being spun around but rejoining the track shortly after. Around the halfway mark, Vautier was given a drive through penalty after hitting Montoya which led to his retirement. Later, there was another collision between van der Zande and Curran which lead to tire debris being torn off and causing another yellow flag. Before the end of the afternoon, Barbosa and French had a collision that led to the two falling multiple laps behind the leader.

Sunset to finish