Audi
Audi on Tuesday answered Peugeot's challenge in testing for the 59th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, which takes place on Saturday. Audi Sport Team Joest's R15 “Plus Plus” prototype driven by Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller posted a lap time of 1 minute, 48.450 seconds (122.822 mph) in the morning session, more than a second better than the closest challenge from Peugeot Sport. The two turbodiesel powers are set to renew their rivalry in the opening round of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.
However, Peugeot still holds the quickest lap of the week so far, as neither team went quicker than Monday's 1:49.615 (121.516 mph) set by the Peugeot 908 of Franck Montagny, Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin. But the No. 1 Audi put its stamp on Tuesday with the quickest time in both sessions. The Montagny/Lamy/Sarrazin Peugeot was second at 1:49.506 (121.637 mph), with the sister car of defending race winners Anthony Davidson, Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz 0.063 second back in third. Both Peugeots set their quickest laps in the afternoon.
The GT category remained incredibly tight as the top seven cars were separated by just 0.418 second and the top nine were within a single second. AF Corse's Ferrari F430 GT of Gianmaria Bruni, Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella led the way with a time of 2:01.873 (109.294 mph) in the afternoon, just 0.17 second clear of Corvette Racing's C6.R driven by Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook; their car set its fastest lap in the morning.
BMW Motorsport's trio of Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner--quickest in Monday's test--had the third-fastest lap at 2:02.65 (109.122 mph) with their BMW M3 GT; its best time came in the morning as well
In LMP2, the Signatech Nissan ORECA 03 of Franck Mailleux, Lucas Ordonez and Soheil Ayari led the way in for the second straight day. The Nissan-powered prototype set a best lap of 1:55.627 (115.198 mph) in the morning session and backed that up with a 1:57.207 (113.645 mph) in the afternoon. Level 5 Motorsports, last year's Sebring winner in LMP Challenge, sat second in P2 with a best effort of 1:58.043 (112.840 mph) for the open-top Lola-Honda of team owner/driver Scott Tucker and Luis Diaz.
Level 5's second entry--a Honda-powered Lola coupe--was third quickest in class with a lap of 1:58.294 (112.601 mph) in the afternoon. Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Joao Barbosa are sharing the car, which will also run this year in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.
In LMP Challenge, Core Autosport held down the top spots for the second straight day as the entry of Jon Bennett, Frankie Montecalvo and Ryan Dalziel turned a 1:55.852 (114.974 mph), followed closely by the sister ORECA FLM09 of Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Rudy Junco with a 1:56.364 (114.468 mph). Not far behind was PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' entry of Ken Dobson, Ryan Lewis and Henri Richard, which turned in a best run of 1:56.545 (114.291 mph). All three of the class' fastest times were in the morning session.
In the GT Amateur class, Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Michele Rugolo led the way with a 2:04.631 (106.875 mph) in the Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, followed by Pierre Ehert, Shaun Lynn and Roger Willis at a 2:07.561(104.421 mph) in the CRS Racing Ferrari F430.
In GT Challenge, Bill Sweedler, Leh Keen and Brian Wong were the early leaders on Tuesday after turning a 2:06.645 (105.176 mph) in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry. The time held up through the afternoon, which saw NGT Motorsport's Porsche of Henrique Cisneros, Carlos Kauffmann and Sean Edwards set the day's second-quickest time at 2:06.700 (105.130 mph). GMG Racing's Porsche of Bret Curtis, Jan Seyffarth and James Sofronas was third quickest a 2:07.374 (104.574 mph).
The first official practice session for the 12 Hours of Sebring is set for 10:15 a.m. Eastern on Thursday.
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