Porsche Penske Motorsport took its second consecutive win in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on Sunday, taking the top spot overall in the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series opener.
The #7 factory Porsche 963 and drivers Felipe Nasr (Brazil), Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) passed their sister #6 Porsche 963 with just more than 20 minutes remaining in the race to take the victory. The #6 Porsche, co-driven by Mathieu Jaminet (France), Matt Campbell (Australia) and Kévin Estre (France), also earned a podium finish in third. The win is the 20th overall for Porsche in the endurance classic.
For more than 23 hours, BMW M Team RLL had their sights set on victory, but Dries Vanthoor (Belgium), who had secured pole position in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8, collided with Campbell’s Porsche while fighting for second place and fell to fourth due to the subsequent repairs.
Vanthoor, starting as the lead driver for the #24 from pole position, built a 25-second lead in his first double-stint, though this was levelled by numerous yellow flag periods. The fastest race lap was set by SA’s Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 who fell back due to several incidents, finishing seventh with co-drivers Robin Frijns and Rene Rast.
The GTD-Pro class for production-based cars was won by the #65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports car driven by Dennis Olsen (Norway), Frederic Vervisch (Germany) and Christopher Mies (Germany). SA’s Kelvin van der Linde in the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, who had been contending for the win with co-drivers Neil Verhagen (US) and Connor de Phillippi (US), had to settle for fourth after spinning in the closing stages of the race after making contact with the #3 Corvette of Alexander Sims (UK).
The next round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 15.
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