At the halfway point nothing has changed — it is still Peugeot

SEBRING, Fl — At the halfway point in the race, Peugeot is still one-two — and although the two French diesels have swapped the first and second place back and forth based mainly on pitstops. The Aston-Martin remains in third place and the Drayson Team Lola Judd had gamely tried to rally from being more than 10 laps early in the race when a recalcitrant alternator had to be replaced.

The GT2 race has provided the most excitement as the No. 62 Ferarri and the No. 45 Porsche have been dueling back and forth with the two white “Beamers” sandwiched jumping as high as second and third at one point in the race when the Porsche fell out of the top three. However, late in the fifth hour, the Porsche moved into the lead when the Ferarri pitted and then dropped back to second when it had to pit.

At 5:46 pm (7h 18m running), top three in class:.
(1) #07-P1 Marc Gene (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP) 226 laps (0.000-)
(2) #08-P1 Sebastien Bourdais (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP) 226 laps (6.633-)
(3) #007-P1 Stefan Mucke (Lola B09 60/Aston Martin) 222 laps (-4 Laps)

(4) #1-P2 Simon Pagenaud (HPD ARX-01c) 221 laps (-5 Laps)
(5) #6-P2 Greg Pickett (Porsche RS Spyder) 216 laps (-10 Laps)
(28) #16-P2 Chris Dyson (Lola B09 86/Mazda) 170 laps (-56 Laps)

(7) #62-GT2 Gianmaria Bruni (Ferrari 430 GT) 202 laps (-24 Laps)
(8) #45-GT2 Jorg Bergmeister (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) 202 laps (-24 Laps)
(9) #92-GT2 Tommy Milner (BMW E92 M3) 202 laps (-24 Laps)

(10) #55-LMPC Christophe Bouchut (Oreca FLM09) 201 laps (-25 Laps)
(17) #99-LMPC Gunnar Jeannette (Oreca FLM09) 194 laps (-32 Laps)
(27) #36-LMPC JR Hildebrand (Oreca FLM09) 176 laps (-50 Laps)

(20) #81-GTC Leh Keen (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 190 laps (-36 Laps)
(21) #23-GTC Romeo Kapudija (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 188 laps (-38 Laps)
(22) #40-GT2 David Robertson (Doran Design Ford GT) 188 laps (-38 Laps)

It’s still a Peugeot show

SEBRING, Fl — With four hours complete in the 58th annual Mobil 1 GTwelve Hours of Sebring, it is still the No.08 Peugeot (Lamy/ Bourdais/ Minassian) in the lead with the No. 7 Peugeot in second eight-and-a-half seconds off the pace. The two Peugeots are currently the only two cars that are on the same lap with the Aston Martin (Primat/ Mucke/ Fernandez) on lap down in third place.

Team Drayson, which had been running as high as second place behind the No. 08 Peugeot, has had a session in the pits for what has been termed “Percussive Maintenance” (meaning they are beating the living hell out of the car to make it perform better). The No. 45 Porsche GT3 (Bergmeisgter/ Lieb/ Long) is in third and the No. 90 BMW that started from the pits has moved to fourth overall in the GT2 class.

All four of these GT2 cars are on the same lap, 13 laps down to the leaders.

The LMP2 results have not changed, although the Acura now has a two lap lead on the Porsche.

GT2 continues to be a downright throwdown. The No. 62 Ferarri 430 GT (Melo/ Kaffer/ Bruni) has taken its turn at the front of the4 pack and is followed by the No. 92 E92 M3 BMW (Auberlen / Werner/ Milner).

Results after four hours:
(1) #07-P1 Anthony Davidson (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP) 122 laps (0.000-)
(2) #08-P1 Nicolas Minassian (Peugeot 908 HDI FAP) 122 laps (47.653-)
(3) #007-P1 Harold Primat (Lola B09 60/Aston Martin) 121 laps (-1 Laps)
(4) #1-P2 David Brabham (HPD ARX-01c) 119 laps (-3 Laps)
(5) #6-P2 Sascha Maassen (Porsche RS Spyder) 117 laps (-5 Laps)
(31) #16-P2 Andy Meyrick (Lola B09 86/Mazda) 78 laps (-44 Laps)
(7) #55-LMPC Mark Wilkins (Oreca FLM09) 110 laps (-12 Laps)
(12) #36-LMPC Tom Sutherland (Oreca FLM09) 108 laps (-14 Laps)
(18) #99-LMPC Elton Julian (Oreca FLM09) 105 laps (-17 Laps)
(8) #62-GT2 Gianmaria Bruni (Ferrari 430 GT) 109 laps (-13 Laps)
(9) #92-GT2 Dirk Werner (BMW E92 M3) 109 laps (-13 Laps)
(10) #45-GT2 Jorg Bergmeister (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) 109 laps (-13 Laps)
(20) #81-GTC Butch Leitzinger (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 102 laps (-20 Laps)
(21) #23-GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 102 laps (-20 Laps)
(22) #63-GTC Duncan Ende (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 101 laps (-21 Laps)

It’s Peugeot after one hour — but it’s a dogfight with the Drayson Team

Peugeot takes lead in the first turn.

SEBRING, Fl — As expected that No. 08 Peugeot (Lamy/Bordais/Minassian) jumped into the lead at the start of the 58th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh From Florida. What is a surprise is that the Drayson Lola Judd with Emmanuel Pirro at the wheel clawed his was into second place and at the end of the first hour was only 1.7 seconds off the pace set by the French Lion.

Using traffic to his advantage, Pirro , the former Audi works driver, used the ferocious GT2 battle to get round the Peugeot and into second place. Pirro’s experience is showing in the performance of the car and it will be interesting to see how the young Jony Cocker does in his turn along with car owner Paul Drayson. One ace up the Drayson team’s sleeve is Team Manager Dale White who has won the Sebring event on three other occasion in the GT2 class.

The second Peugeot is in third and the Aston Martin is off the pace about 18 second behind the leading Peugeot.

In LMP2 it is the Patron sponsored Acura (Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti) with a small lead over the Porsche R8 Spyder.

GT2 is the battle royale that was expected, as the CorvetteC6 R (Magnussen/O’Connell/ Garcia) have a sliver of lead over the Flying Lizards Porsche 911 GT3 (Bergmeister/ Lieb/ Long). The second Vette (Beretta/ Gavin/ Collard) is in third place a little more than a half second back.

There are a passle of other GT2s following closely behind.

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