Filipe Albuquerque has dominated hours three and four of the 2017 Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring after a spin eliminated Eric Curran.
Albuquerque in the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac took the lead from Curran at the start of the third hour and managed to build a small gap before Curran was involved in a incident.
While following the #22 ESM Ligier of Johannes Van Overbeek into the final corner, the Ligier suddenly swerved across the Cadillac’s path to enter the pits.
The two made contact, putting the Cadillac into a spin and ending up right in the middle of the racing line.
The #31 was unable to restart which brought out the race’s second caution.
Curran lost four laps trying to restart the engine and received two drive-thru penalties for entering and working on a car in a closed pit lane.
This left Albuquerque in a clear lead as he achieved maximum endurance trophy points at the end of the fourth hour.
Behind him Chris Miller in the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA gave a good performance as he held second and managed to hold off Alex Lynn in #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac for a few laps before ending the fourth hour in third place.
Lynn on his first appearance with the Wayne Taylor Racing outfit was thoroughly enjoying his first time out in Sebring, despite losing 25 seconds to Albuquerque in the stint.
Kyle Masson leads PC in the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports after problems hit both BAR1 Motorsports cars.
The #8 Starworks Motorsports car of Maxwell Hanratty took up the chase but is nearly a lap behind.
Richard Westbrook in the #67 Ford GT leads GTLM ahead of team-mate Sebastien Bourdais in the #66 machine.
While Mike Rockenfeller’s #3 Corvette provides the main opposition to the Blue Oval racers, the third hour saw the #25 BMW come to the fore after a slow start to the race.
Jeroem Bleekemolen in the #33 Riley Motorsports continues to lead GTD from #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan, the team hoping to make up for the disappointment of Daytona where the engine let go late in the race.
Bleekemolen’s Riley team-mate current Virgin Australia Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen rounds out the podium in the #50 machine.
Boris Said in the #75 SunEngery1 Mercedes was unsettled by the bumps in the final corner and tapped Emmanuel Anassis #18 Lamborghini into a terrifying spin. Said got a drive-thru for that incident and then another one for contact with the #23 Alex Job Audi.
Top 3 after 4 Hours
P
5 Mustang Sampling Racing – Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi
10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta – Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Alex Lynn
85 JDC-Miller Motorsports – Chris Miller, Stephen Simpson, Misha Goikhberg
PC
38 Performance Tech Motorsports – James French, Patricio O’Ward, Kyle Masson
8 Starworks Motorsports – Maxwell Hanratty, James Dayson
26 BAR1 Motorsports – Chapman Ducote,Gustavo Yacaman, Colin Thompson, Marc Drumwright
GTLM
67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Scott Dixon
66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand, Sebastien Bourdais
3 Corvette Racing – Jan Magnusson, Antonio Garcia, Mike Rockenfeller
GTD
33 Riley Motorsports – Ben Keating, Jeroem Bleekemolen, Mario Farnbacher
63 Scuderia Corsa – Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan,
50 Riley Motorsports – Cooper MacNeil, Shane Van Gisbergen, Gunnar Jeanette