Peugeot Dominates First Half at Sebring

Nicolas Minassian in the #07 Team Peugeot 908 leads Allan McNish in the #2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R15 and Jonny Cocker in the #007 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage out of turn five during the 57th Annual Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring Intern Doug Benc/Getty Images

FLORIDA—With seven hours of racing done at the Mobil 1 Sebring 12 Hours Peugeot led Audi in a very tight race, with five seconds covering the top three cars.

The 57th running of the Mobil Sebring 12 Hour ALMS race at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring Florida, is the first race of the american Le Mans racing sdeason and the first oportunity for Le Mans series cars from around the world to test their cars in a long and gruelling endurance race.

Peugeot led Audi after six hours of racing, taking the lead from Audi after a pistop. Peugeot driver Frack Montagny in the #08 Peugeot led Allan MacNish in the #2 Audi by ten seconds, with Mike Rockenfeller in the #1 Audi a lap down. Three laps back was Gil de Ferran in the best-placed Acura, with David Brabham another lap behind in the Highcroft Patron Acura.   

Pedro Lamy had the second Peugeot in sixth spot, nine laps down, while the Lowes Fernandez class-leading P2 Acura, driven by Luiz Diaz, was eleven laps behind the leader. The two Dyson Racing Mazda-Lolas retired with mechanical probelms.

At 6:30, David Brabhama’s Patron Highcroft P1 Acura got stuck between gears, spinning into the wall and bringing out a full-course caution, only the third of the race. Brabham was able yto get the car roiling, but he damaged the left-rear bodywork.

The leaders took this opportunity to swap drivers, with Stephane Sarrazin taking over in the leading Peugeot, and Rinaldo Capello and Lucas Luhr moving into the two Audis. Scott Sharp replaced David Brabham in the Acura.

On the restart, Sarrazin’s Peugeot pulled away from the pursuing Audis by almost a second per lap.

Johnny O'Connell in the Corvette Racing CR-6 led in GT1.

In GT2, Ferrari held the top two spots, with Pierre Kaffer in the Risi Competizione car leading Luis Companc in the Advanced Engineering Ferrari. Somewhat surprising was the Panoz Esperante, driven by Dominik Farnbacher, running third in class. The highest-placed Porsche was the Flying Lizard car of Marc Lieb.