BMW M Motorsport experienced a typically eventful 12 Hours of Sebring in round 2 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship last weekend. The second longest race of the season is typically a bruising encounter with a reputation for dramatic finishes and so proved to be the case once again in the 2026 season.
Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and Dries Vanthoor completed 343 laps and crossed the line 13 seconds behind the winning #7 Porsche. Starting from 8th on the grid after another difficult qualifying session, the trio in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 fought their way back up the field and were in contention for podium positions for long periods of the race. However, during a turbulent closing phase the car spun and dropped from 4th to 6th position. Following a post-race disqualification for a competing car, the team went on to officially finish in 5th in class.
“I think a P6 is the maximum we could have got out of the car today,” said Sheldon van der Linde. “We struggled a lot in qualifying to get the car to work. The same issue we had in Daytona, but we proved that we have a much better race car over a longer distance. I’m kind of happy to have fought back from P8 on the grid, but at the same time disappointed with not being able to get on the podium when we were third and fourth for a while. It’s still good points for the championship. Execution was phenomenal today, but we just need to find pace in the car.”
The second BMW M Team WRT piloted by Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Kevin Magnussen suffered an early setback at Sebring International Raceway. Wittmann was at the wheel when, early in the fifth hour, the #25 car was hit through no fault of its own by another vehicle that had previously spun. The resulting repairs cost the team more than half an hour and 15 laps. As a consequence, the #25 car finished 10th in class.
Next up is the Acrura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a dramatically different 100 minute race that takes place on Saturday April 18th.