no images were found

The winning No. 2 Audi  R-15, shown in this photo in second place.

SEBRING, Fl — Alan McNish, Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and the entire Audi team fought off repeated challenges from feisty Peugeot team through 12 rugged hours of racing to capture the 57th running of the Mobile 1 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. The No 8. Peugeot was second and the No. 1 Audi finished third overall.

The final 90 minutes of America’s oldest endurance race came down to a strategic contest between two evenly matched teams and this time — again — it was the Audi team earning the victory.

After 10.5 hours of hard back and forth racing, the final 90 minutes came down to this. At 9:43 the No. 8 Peugeot driven by Franck Montagny had a 21 second lead over the No. 2 Audi with McNish in the driver’s seat.  Two minutes later it was Montagny who came in for a full pit stop — but he stayed in the car as the driver.

That gave McNish and the Audi team the opening that they needed. McNish vaulted into the lead with the Peugeot in the pits and went from minus 21 seconds in second place to the lead with 36 seconds and change. McNish lead-footed the Audi around the 3.77 mile course with a vengence, increasing the lead first to 41 seconds.

Around 10 pm he turned a blistering fast 1:44.909 second lap while Montagny was nearly three seconds slower on this lap — and McNish had a 48 second lead — giving the Audi team the breathing room it needed for him to do a fuel only pit stop. McNish, the Scotsman, was anything but stingy with the Ingolstadt stallion as the lead grew to more than a minute with 15 minutes left in the race.

no images were found

McNish pitted for the gas-only stop and made it out of the stop before the Peugeot was able to reel him in. At 10:19 he had a near 25 second lead on the second place Peugeot. He also had his partner in crime, the No. 1 Audi with Lucas Luhr at the wheel covering his backside — in the event that the Peugeot was able to mount a challenge.

It was the 10th straight win for Audi in the LMP1 class at Sebring and the team also broke the record it held for the most number of laps on the 3.77 mile course with 383 laps completed. It was also McNish’s 27th American Le Mans Series (ALMS) win and his fourth at Sebring. Rinaldo Capello earned is 34th ALMS victory and fifth at Sebring. But it was Kristensen who earned his sixth win at Sebring and his 12th ALMS victory.

While the Peugeot team was second to the Audi again, it could take some consolation in the fact that Sebastian Bordais turned the fastest lap of the day in the No. 8 Peugeot with a blistering 1:43.274, also a new track record in competition.

In the LMP2 class it was the Lowe’s Acura with Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz sharing the driving chores that was victorious. The twosome lead from start-to-finish and were never really headed, setting top time in qualifying and  virtually running the rest of the LMP2 field into the ground. Their nearest challenger, one of the new Lola  B09 86 Mazdas was more than 200 laps behind the winners in second place and there was no third place finisher.

no images were found

In the GT1 class it was the No.3 Corvette C6R that was the victor finishing a lap ahead of its teammate in second place, the No. 4 C6R. Driven by Johnny O’Connell, Antonio Garcia, and Jan Magnussen, it was another team that had a great start and was never really headed during the 12 hours.

no images were found

In GT2 the No. 62 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT was victorious defeating a passel of Porsches as it came from near the rear of the grid for the win. It was driven to the win by Pierre Kaffer, Mika Salo, and Jaime Mello. Second place in the GT2 class was another Ferrari 430 while third place was a Ford-powered Panoz Esperante.

no images were found

The next test for many of these teams, and certainly the Audi and Peugeot will be the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Lessons learned in this race will certainly come into play.