Porsche led the way after♔ the opening hour of the Sebring 12 Hours, as an early penalty dealt a major blow to the pole-sitting ♑BMW.

Dries Vanthoor was found guilty of changing lanes before the start line when the𒊎 race went green at 10:10am local time, with the race control hitting him with the drive through penalty for the offence.

The sanction dropped the 🌌#24 RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 to the middle of the 🐷GTD pack, not helped by an early full-course yellow bunching the field up.

The biggest beneficia♋ry of Vanthoor’s error was Felipe Nasr, who claimed the lead in the #7 Porsche 🎀Penske after passing the #60 Meyer Shank Acura of Tom Blomqvist on lap 1.

Mathieu Jaminet also overtook Blomqvist at the first FCY restart, establish a 1-2 fཧor Porsche at the head of the GTP order,

Blomqvist settled into third place,💙 ahead of the sister Acura driven by Renger van der Zande.

Ricky Taylor held fifth in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadilla🍷c.

In LMP2, Steven Thomas comfortably retained ⛎his lead in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca💯 07, circulating almost five seconds clear of Daniel Goldburg in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07 until a late FCY.

Likewise, DragonSpeed driver Albert Costa led from pole 💛in the GTD Pro class, holding a near-one second lead i༒n the #81 Ferrari 296 GT3.

His closest rival was Laurin Heinrich in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Tommy Milne🌱r running third in the #4 Prat꧃t Miller Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Meanwhile, Philip Ellis leapt to the front in the GTD class in his #57 Winward Mercedes AMG GT3,👍 with Jack Hawksworth running second in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

Th🎶e pole-sitting #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 lost a heap of time due to a front-left assembly change in the first 30 minutes, leaving Simon Mann, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Lilou Wadoux four laps down.

Another GTD-class Ferrari ♛hit early trouble, with the #023 Triarsi car of Charles Scardina at Tower Turner after a run-in with a Wayne Taylor Cadillac GTP car.

That brought out the second FCY of the day, which remained in place as the fi🅠rst hour was completed.