SEBRING, Fl — Although there may have been some doubt whether Audi could recover from its racetrack gaffe of Thursday evening, when Marcel Fassler rammed teammate Loic Duval,  the vaunted German team left no doubt as they qualified one, two, and three, led by the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans winning team of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, and Benoît Tréluyer. It was Lotterer who was at the wheel of the R18 TDI that earned the honors for the fast lap when he pushed the diesel-powered Audi around the track .751 seconds faster than last year’s top time (1m 45.820s). The drive is even more remarkable when one considers the additional restrictions to the diesel-powered cars in 2012.

This is the 10th time an Audi will enter the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance classic race in Florida from the pole position. Tom Kristensen took position two and Romain Dumas earned the third spot on the grid, giving the Audi the top three spots.

The three Audis led a field of 64 cars that qualified for the 60th running of the race. The race this year is also the kick-off of the FIA’s World Endurance Championship which has brought additional notoriety to a race that already has a strong cache of interest among car racing enthusiasts.

After the three Audis, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s Klaus Graf was the fastest non-diesel entry at 1:47.536 (125.205 mph). Pickett drives the team’s HPD ARX-03a with Lucas Luhr and Simon Pagenaud. Graf was the quickest qualifier from the ALMS, and his performance was remarkable given that the Muscle Milk got its car less than two months ago.

Oak Racing’s Morgan-Judd was the fastest of the P2 cars with Olivier Pla doing the driving honors. He was 0.356 seconds clear of ex-Peugeot factory driver Stephane Sarrazin in Starworks Motorsports’ HPD ARX-03b. Elton Julian, a regular last year in the ALMS’ Prototype Challenge class, was third in P2 qualifying Friday at 1:51.809 (120.420 mph).

Gimmi Bruni was the fastest GTE Pro driver with a lap of 1:58.427 (113.690 mph) for AF Corse as Ferrari F458 Italias took the top two spots in the GT class. The Italian was the pole-winner last year in the a Ferarri F430 GT – also for AF Corse. Bruni finished 0.296 seconds clear of Luxury Racing’s Jaime Melo.

Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen qualified third in class and was the ALMS’ fastest driver in the production-based class. He set a lap of 1:58.996 (113.147 mph) in the Corvette C6.R that he is sharing with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor. Magnussen was just 0.011 seconds clear of Oliver Gavin in the sister Corvette.

Top 10 qualifiers:

1. Andre Lotterer, Duisburg, DE (DE); Benoit Treluyer, Alencon, FR (FR); Marcel Fassler, Switzerland (SWI); Audi R18 (P1), 1:45.820, 125.874
2. Allan McNish, Scotland (SCO); Tom Kristensen, Denmark (DEN); Dindo Capello, Italy (ITA); Audi R18 (P1), 1:46.215, 125.406
3. Timo Bernhard, Germany (GER); Romain Dumas, France (FRA); Loic Duval, France (FR); Audi R18 (P1), 1:46.935, 124.562
4. Lucas Luhr, Germany (GER); Klaus Graf, Germany (GER); Simon Pagenaud, France (FRA); HPD ARX-03a (P1), 1:47.536, 123.865
5. Guillaume Moreau, FRA (FRA); Bertrand Baguette, BEL (BEL); Dominik Kraihamer, AUT (AUT); Oak Pescarolo Judd (P1), 1:48.319, 122.970
6. David Brabham, Australia (AUS); Karun Chandhok, IND (IND); Peter Dumbreck, Scotland (SCO); HPD ARX-03a Honda (P1), 1:48.439, 122.834
7. Nick Leventis, GBR (GBR); Danny Watts, UK (UK); Jonny Kane, Ireland (IRE); HPD ARX-03a Honda (P1), 1:48.590, 122.663
8. Nicolas Prost (FR); Neel Jani (FR); Nick Heidfeld (DEU); Lola B12/60 Coupe Toyota (P1), 1:48.630, 122.618
9. Andrea Belicchi, Itally (IT); Harold Primat, Switzerland (SWI); Joeren Bleekemolen, Netherlands (NED); Lola B12/60 Coupe Toyota (P1), 1:48.956, 122.251
10. Emmanuel Collard, France (FRA); Jean-Christophe Boullion, Plaisir, France (FRA); Julien Jousse, FRA (FRA); Pescarolo Judd (P1), 1:50.200, 120.871

SEBRING, FL — While it is not quite clear at this writing just how extensive damage to any of the Audi cars due to a shunt during evening practice, one thing is clear: the R18s are very quick and will head into the qualifying session this afternoon as the favorite based on their one, two, three performance in last night’s practice session.

Although the three Audis performed well under the lights last night, there was an incident involving the No 1 and No 3 cars about halfway through the session. The drama happened when Nick Heidfeld’s Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota stopped to avoid another spinning in front of him. Loic Duval in the No. 3 Audi ran into the back of the Toyota and then was summarily drilled by teammate Marcel Fassler in the No.1 Audi. Loic was unable to restart and had to be assisted back to the pits.

Although it appeared if the damage to Fassler’s R18 would have grounded him too, he was able to restart and return to the pits. Loic was not as fortunate. While it was reported earlier that the No 2 Audi with Alan McNish at the wheel also had a shunt, that report was not accurate. The No. 2 Audi skated to a clean session in the Thursday evening session.

In the morning’s test session only the number three R18 was out running with the Audi PR team noting that the morning session was “just a roll-out of the No. 3 R18 TDI”. It did lay down one lap that was the fastest of the test session.

The Audi team had the top three times during the evening session led by Tom Kristensen’s lap of 1:47.09. The other two R18s were less than second off the pace set by the No. 2 R18.  Other LMP1 cars were 1.5 to three seconds behind the Audis.

The Starworks Motorsports Honda with former Peugeot driver Stephane Sarrazin was the top LMP2 car more than three seconds behind the fastest Audi time.

In the GT class, it was Joey Hand turning top time in for  BMW Team RLL. It was the first time during the week that the BMW brand has been on the top rung of the speed ladder. Hand turned a quick lap of 2:00.258 besting the American led AF Corse’s Gimmi Bruni by 0.065 seconds Thursday night. Hand and Dirk Mueller were part of the BMW’s class win in last year’s race are looking for a repeat performance on Saturday. The GTE AM top time went to the Luxury Ferrari 458 with Dominik Farnbacher at the wheel.

SEBRING, FL — All three Audi R18s which to this point in time had been fastest cars in test sessions, were involved in shunts during the night practice this evening (Thursday).

At this writing it is not clear the extent of the damage to any of the cars, but two of the cars had to be loaded on flatbed trailers to be taken to their pit area.

According to officials at the track, one of the Audis had slowed for another issue in front of it and the second Audi then ran into the back of the first. The third Audi was involved in a separate accident.

More information when it is available.