The Porsche GT Team started the new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season with a win at Sebring International Raceway. Michael Christensen from Denmark and Frenchman Kévin Estre won the GTE-Pro classification at the 1000-mile race in the US state of Florida ahead of Nick Tandy's (Great Britain) and American Tommy Milner's Corvette. Richard Lietz from Austria and Italy's Gianmaria Bruni finished third with their 378 kW (515 hp) 911 RSR. The WEC race, which was scheduled to last eight hours, had to be interrupted and then completely canceled a good 60 minutes before the end of the race due to a thunderstorm warning.
As starting drivers, Kévin Estre and Gianmaria Bruni initially took the double lead in the eight-hour race. After a good 30 minutes, however, the Italian had to let Nick Tandy's Corvette pass in lapping traffic. While both works Porsches changed two tires and the drivers at the first pit stop, Tandy only let them refuel. Thanks to the downtime saved as a result, the Brit moved up to first place. In addition, because of rule violations in the formation lap shortly before the start, the race directors had imposed a 15-second time penalty on each of the two 911 RSR in the GTE Pro category, which they had to serve out at the second service stop. Nevertheless, both nine-elevens were still ahead of the Ferraris of the AF Corse factory team.
