Porsche wins both classes in the Long Beach street race

Long Beach, California. Sharing driving duties in the No. 7 cockpit, the pair from Brazil and Great Britain had already won the endurance races in Daytona and Sebring. In the No. 6 sister car, Matt Campbell from Australia and Mathieu Jaminet from France wrapped up round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season in second place. In the GTD class, the AO Racing customer team celebrated victory with the Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Porsche continued its stunning form at the first sprint event of the 2025 season. In sunny conditions and temperatures of around 66 degrees, the strategists and mechanics from the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team kept their cool: A quick pitstop for the two Porsche 963 during the first safety car phase decided the outcome. Both 496 kW (674 PS) hybrid prototypes beat their rivals out of the pit lane and swept into positions one and two. The two Porsche 963 held tight to the lead, spearheading the field over the finish line in a one-two win for the second time this season.

‟The Long Beach Grand Prix celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend – and we added another highlight to the festivities with a one-two finish,” explained Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. ‟The pitwork was decisive in our victory today. Thanks to skilful and quick handling, we got both our cars in the lead, which put us in a position to win. In the nail-biting finale, Felipe and Matt delivered superb performances. We’re performing at our peak right now and want to continue that way.”

Thanks to the third straight victory for Porsche and its second one-two finish since Sebring, the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer has pulled further ahead of the competition at the top of the championship rankings. In the manufacturers’ standings, the gap to its closest rivals now exceeds 100 points. In the drivers’ category, Nasr and Tandy rank first ahead of their fellow Porsche colleagues Campbell and Jaminet.

Bad luck for JDC-Miller MotorSports saw the customer team miss out on a top result in the Long Beach street race. At the halfway mark, fifth place looked possible for the yellow No. 85 Porsche 963, only to have an incident while lapping a slower GT car hamper its charge. Italy’s Gianmaria Bruni and the Dutchman Tijmen van der Helm ultimately finished in tenth place.

GTD class: Vanthoor continues winning streak in ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3 R

With the GTD-Pro class taking a temporary break in Long Beach, the AO Racing customer squad spontaneously switched to the GTD class with their 911 GT3 R dubbed ‟Rexy”. The temporary change was successful: the green, dinosaur-liveried fan favourite, driven by Briton Jonny Edgar and factory driver Laurens Vanthoor, triumphed on the streets of the Californian port city. Vanthoor extended a winning streak of his own after overall victories with Porsche Penske Motorsport, co-driving with Tandy and Nasr at Daytona and Sebring.

Wright Motorsports’ identical 416 kW (565 PS) Porsche concluded the race in seventh place after a fierce battle for co-drivers Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer. The duo leave the race in fourth-place in the drivers standings, 99 points behind the leader and just eight points from second place.

Porsche Also Tastes Victory at Formula E in Miami

Across the country, Porsche added to their strong performance in the United States on Saturday when Pascal Wehrlein and teammate António Félix da Costa finished first and third, respectively, in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Miami E-Prix.

The TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team excelled in a race where Attack Mode timings and a late red flag influenced the final positions. Wehrlein climbed from ninth on the grid to win, also claiming the point for the fastest race lap. Da Costa, who started from P3, was comfortably leading the race towards the end when a mid-field crash and the subsequent standing restart negated his advantage and leaving him in third place. Andretti Formula E’s Nico Müller finished fourth, having also led the race.

António Félix da Costa is now second in the Drivers’ Championship with Pascal Wehrlein in third. TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E has regained the lead in the team standings.

Drivers’ comments after the race

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): ‟Three races, three wins! Everyone in the team did an incredible job – and was rewarded with another one-two finish. Nick put in an inspired drive early on and stayed out of trouble. For me, it was all about keeping a good eye on the tires and fuel consumption. Everything ran beautifully. We got the reward we deserved.”

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #7): ‟It’s simply unbelievable! We won this race through strategy, good pitwork, and strong driver performances. Ultimately, our priority was to manage the available energy well to the flag. The car was super-fast over the distance – fantastic. I love winning races. It’s been an incredible start to the season so far.”

Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 #6): ‟We’re thrilled with another one-two finish for our team. After the outstanding results at Daytona and Sebring, this result is certainly worth its weight in gold. We’ve taken another step forward in the championship. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite able to bring home the big trophy in our No. 6 car but there are still more races to come this season.”

Gianmaria Bruni (Porsche 963 #85): ‟Our car was incredibly strong but unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we deserved. Entering turn six, I lapped a GT car. I’d already passed but it nudged my left rear end and sent me into a spin. The rear wing was damaged and had to be replaced. The pit stop for repairs cost us a lot of time. It’s such a shame because we could’ve done much better today.”

Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 911 GT3 R #177): ‟That was perfect! We’d put a plan in place before the race, which worked brilliantly. We didn’t mount new wheels during the pit stop, but we had the advantage of still-warm tires on the out lap, which meant we could fend off the competition. We led to the flag. It was huge fun achieving a class win with ‘Rexy’.”

Adam Adelson (Porsche 911 GT3 R #120): ‟Seventh isn’t exactly the result we had hoped for. We made a few minor mistakes during the race, causing us to lose a few positions. At least we got our car over the finish line unscathed and scored a relatively decent amount of championship points. Now we’re looking ahead to the next race at Laguna Seca.”

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Race results

GTP Class:
1. Nasr/Tandy (BRA/GBR), Porsche 963 #7, 75 laps
2. Campbell/Jaminet (AUS/FRA), Porsche 963 #6, + 3.058 seconds
3. Eng/D. Vanthoor (AUT/BEL), BMW #24, + 12.903 seconds
10. Bruni/Van der Helm (ITA/NLD), Porsche 963 #85, + 56.861 seconds

GTD Class:
1. Edgar/L. Vanthoor (GBR/BEL), Porsche 911 GT3 R #177, 71 laps
2. Hawksworth/Thompson (GBR/CAN), Lexus #12, + 2.378 seconds
3. Telitz/Montecalvo (USA/USA), Lexus #89, + 8.056 seconds
7. Adelson/Skeer (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 R #120, + 25.249 seconds

All results and championship standings are available at results.imsa.com.