ALMS: Peugeot fastest in Sebring morning test

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC
The Peugeot 908--driven by Franck Montagny (shown), Staphane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy--was quickest in testing on Monday.

Published on 3/14/2011

Peugeot Sport on Monday picked up where it left off last year with the fastest time in the 12 Hours of Sebring's opening test session at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway. One of two new factory Peugeot 908s--driven by Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy--turned a best lap of 1 minute, 47.678 seconds during the four-hour session in the lead-up to the opening round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.

The 2011-spec 908s will make their racing debut this weekend, and Peugeot enters the ALMS season opener as the defending Sebring race winner. However, times were incredibly close in the first test session, with the top six cars within 0.629 second of each other. The first of Audi Sport Team Joest's Audi R15 “Plus Plus” prototypes was second quickest at 1:48.025. The car is driven by reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans champions Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller.

Next up was defending ALMS prototype champion Highcroft Racing and its new HPD ARX-01e of David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti. It was the only nondiesel-powered car among the top five runners.

The GT battle was just as close, with the four fastest cars within 0.519 second of each other. The first of BMW Motorsport's M3 GT of Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner set a lap of 2:01.911 for a 0.152-second gap over the first of Flying Lizard Motorsports' Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. The lead Porsche is driven by Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and Marc Lieb.

Next up was the first of Corvette Racing's two Corvette C6.Rs, a 2:01.909 for the car of Olivier Beretta, Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia. It was just 0.172 second better than the second BMW entry.

Krohn Racing's Ferrari F430 GT was the quickest of the GTE “Amateur” entries. Nic Jonsson, driving with Tracy Krohn and Michele Rugolo, set a lap of 2:03.217. The Krohn entry was 1.021 seconds clear of Larbre Competition's Corvette C6.R of Julien Canal, Gabrielle Gardel and Patrick Bornhauser.

In LMP2, Signatech Nissan's Oreca-Nissan of Franck Mailleux and Lucas Ordóñez was quickest in class at 1:56.590. The car, which will make its first start this weekend, was 3.848 seconds ahead of Level 5 Motorsports' new Lola-Honda coupe. Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and João Barbosa are splitting driving duties for Level 5.

Core Autosport's two Oreca FLM09s were quickest in LMP Challenge in the team's first weekend of ALMS competition. The first car of Ryan Dalziel, Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo set the fastest time at 1:55.060, good enough for a 0.323-second cushion over the sister car of Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Rudy Junco. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' entry of Ken Dobson, Ryan Lewis and Henri Richard was third in class at 1:56.195.

In the GT Challenge class, TRG held the top two spots, led by the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry of Duncan Ende, Spencer Pumpelly and Alain Li. The second entry of Dion von Moltke was second, just 0.479 second back. Magus Racing's Porsche of Matthew Marsh, John Potter and Craig Stanton was third at 2:06.366.