Sebring 12 Hours: Diesels Top the Timing Sheet at Sebring Practic

By James Fish
Epoch Times Staff Created: Mar 15, 2011 Last Updated: Mar 15, 2011

Tom Kristensen's Audi might have been the slowest of the factory cars but was still .867 faster than the fastest gasoline car. (American Le Mans Series)

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Despite the best efforts of the ACO (Automobile Club de L'ouest, the rulemaking body) to equalize the performance of gasoline- and diesel-powered prototypes, the diesels are still the fastest so far after the final Tuesday practice for the 59th running of the Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The #1 Audi Sport Team Joest R15++TDI of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, and Mike Rockenfeller topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:49.271, beating the #8 Peugeot Sport Total 908 of Stephane Sarrazin, Frank Montagny, and Pedro Lamy by .235 seconds.

The #8 Peugeot Sport Total 908 was .235 seconds off the leader's pace. (American Le Mans Series.)

Marc Gene in the other factory Peugeot, turned in the third best time at 1:49.569, followed by Le Mans vet Tom Kristensen in the other Audi at 1:49.607.

Of course, these are not just diesel-powered cars. They are factory-supported diesels. As much advantage as huge low-end torque might provide, cubic dollars is an even bigger advantage.

It is probable that both factory teams are hiding their true speeds a bit. Even so, the factory Peugeots and Audis are nearly a second faster than the fastest gasoline car. The ACO has reserved the right to adjust boost levels and restrictor diameters if the diesels are uncatchable.

David Brabham drives the brand-new Highcroft HPD-ARX01e, fastest of the gasoline cars. (American Le Mans Series)

Highcroft, which showed up at Sebring with a totally new and untested car, is fastest of the gasoline entries. Simon Pagenaud pushed the brand-new #01 HPD ARX-01e to a lap of 1:50.138, .867 off the leader’s pace and .531 slower than the slowest factory diesel. This is an impressive performance considering neither driver had sat in the car before Monday.

The slowest diesel in the field was the outdated #10 Team Oreca Matmut Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP. Olivier Panis brought the big (5.5 liter versus 3.7 liters for the other diesels) Peugeot around in 1:51.444, more than two seconds off the leader’s pace.

Greg Pickett in the #06 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing Lola/AMR finished seventh, second fastest of the gasoline cars. Apparently Pickett has fully recovered from last year’s injury and is driving better than ever.

The gorgeous Rebellion Lola/Toyota, driven by Neel Jani and the two Oak Racing Oak Pescarolo/Judds rounded out the LMP1 field.

The Rest of the Field

At the end of the day it was the #26 Signtech Oreca 03/Nissan driven by Lucas Ordonez atop the LMP2 field at 1:57:207, followed by the two Level 5 Lola/Hondas, eight-tenths and a full second behind. Signatech’s Nissan engineseems to be working perfectly, while Scott Tucker’s team might be finding the new chassis and Honda powerplant a bit of a handful to learn all at once.

Frankie Montecalvo in the #005 CORE Oreca leads Tom Kristensen's Audi. The LMPCs are on par with the LMP2s so far. (American Le Mans Series)

In another result which might invite the rulemakers to consider performance adjustments, the LMPC #006 CORE Autosport Oreca of Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez, and Rudy Junco was faster than both Level 5 Lola P2s, with a 1:57.614.

The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni, and Pierre Kaffer was the fastest GT (hardly surprising with that driver lineup) at 2:01.873, sixth-tenths ahead of the #045 Flying Lizard Porsche of Jörg Bermeister, Patrick Long, and Mark Lieb. In GTC, Henrique Cisneros put the #030 NGT Motorsports Porsche at the top of the class with a lap of 2:06.7. This team is new to GTC but has not wasted any time, beating Leh Keen the
#023 Alex Job Porsche by .13. Alex Job Racing swept the GTC podium at last year’s Sebring 12 Hour.
The 59th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 19. Tickets are available online at the Sebring International Raceway website and at the box office.

Watch the racet on the web at ESPN3.com and see the highlights on ABC at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, March 20.