GTD and GTLM final stops came around the 50 minutes to go mark.
Richie Stanaway out, Lamy in, Mario Farnbacher stays aboard the #23 and retakes the position.
Maro Engel is the latest of the PC pack to have an incident, he puts the #88 Starworks PC Oreca off the circuit and makes a bad choice of route to rejoin, bogging the car down.
The Ganassi Racing crew turn Richard Westbrook around quickly enough to gain third in GTLM just before the latest Full Course yellow for recovery of the stranded #88 PC car.
Under yellow, and with their final stops to go, the Turner BMWs hold a 1,2 in GTD with the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 third.
36 minutes left and the whole leading pack pit together, though Pla seems to have lost a place under caution out on track to Lapierre, Derani takes tyres as well as fuel, the Action Express cars fuel only. No driver changes for the leaders.
Behind Safety Car Dane Cameron leads in the #31 from Albuquerque Pla, Derani and Lapierre, 20 led changes to this point. The DeltaWing is back on the lead lap with Andy Meyrick at the wheel.
30 minutes left and we’re about to go green again.
Kimber Smith grabs the PC lead at the restart.
Lapierre up to second at he restart but then relegated to third by Albuquerque.
In GTLM Westbrook loses third to Werner.
23 minutes left and the #50 Highway to Help Riley is off course and into the tyre wall at Tower Turn.
Braun back to the lead in PC.
Full Course Yellow number 13 comes with 21 minutes remaining.
Andy Meyrick is off too in the DeltaWing, broken steering, so close to a finish!
Just before the FCY John Edwards passed Richard Westbrook for fourth in GTLM and Alessandro Balzan was up to second in GTD ahed of Jesse Krohn, Jens Klingmann leading the class in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.
Back to Green, 13 minutes remain.
Derani grabs third around the outside of Lapierre into T1.
Mario Farnbacher passes Jesse Krohn for third in GTD, Werner passes Bamber for second in GTLM.
John Edwards drops back a couple of places, Westbrook into fourth in GTLM.
9 minutes left.
Stunning move up the inside of Albuquerque by Derani grabs second.
Westbrook runs wide at T1, Rigon up to 4th in the Risi Ferrari.
Balzan meanwhile grabs the GTD lead from Klingmann, 6 minutes left.
Derani repeats the move up the inside on the leader, the #2 into the lead and pulls away with seeming ease.
Pla pits, he’s out of it and behind the wall with broken rear suspension.
Tequila Patron ESM win the 2016 12 Hours of Sebring by just 2.9 seconds and complete a famous ’36 Hours of Florida’ double with the Rolex 24.
Pipo Derani completes another breakthrough drive alongside Johannes van Overbeek, Scott Sharp and Ed Brown. “I have no emotions. I really don’t know what to say.”
Also winners are Corvette Racing, Tommy Milner brings the #4 car home with Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler ahead of a tightly fought GTLM class.
Colin Braun takes PC for Core autosports with Mark Wilkins and Jon Bennett, 9th overall just 1.2 secs ahead of Tom Kimber Smith in a race where the remainder of the class field suffered incidents aplenty.
In GTD it was the debuting Ferrari 488 GT3 of Scuderia Corsa, Alessandro Balzan bringing it home, Christina Nielsen and Jeff Segal share the spoils.
Completing the podiums were:
In Prototype and overall the #31 Action Express Corvette DP, Dane Cameron unable to fend off the charging Ligier at the end, Eric Curran and Scott Pruett shared the #31 car.
In the #5 car Joao Barbosa, Felipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi complete the podium with their #5 Action Express Corvette DP, the Dragonspeed Oreca made a fine debut with fourth overall.
A distant third in a troubled PC class was the #8 Starworks Oreca of Renger van der Zander, Alex Popow and David Heinemeier Hansson.
GTLM was a topsy turvy affair almost throughout, second went to the #25 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM of Bruno Spengler, Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen with the #912 Porsche North America 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki completing the podium.
GTD saw the #96 Turner BMW lose the lead in the closing minutes, Bret Curtis, Ashley Freiberg and Jens Klingmann claimed second place ahead of the 2016 Roles 24 wining Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS of Andy Lally John Potter and Marco Seefried.
