SEBRING, Fla.—The 59th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring lived up to not only the hype of the promoters but to the wildest expectations of the fans. With the largest field in the race’s recent history taking the green flag on a breezy mid-80s Florida Saturday on a track packed with spectators, even a dull runaway race would have been exciting.
The race was no runaway; the final three finishers fought it out until the last few minutes when it finally became clear that factory giants Audi and Peugeot would not rule the day; instead privateer Oreca Matmut’s year-old Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP took top honors followed by Highcroft Racing’s untested HPD-ARX01e. Peugeot managed to capture third and eighth with its 2011-spec 908, Audi’s updated 2010 R15++s finished fourth and fifth.
“It was a perfect job from the team and these three drivers,” Oreca Matmut owner Hughes de Chaunac said after the race. “We won because we did not make any mistakes. We won this, not because everyone else failed, but because we earned this victory.”
The Audis had bad luck from the start; Mike Rockenfeller suffered two left rear punctures in the first hour, both of which tore up the rear bodywork. The car spent time in the paddock while the team tried to figure out the problem.
The #2 car continued to carry the Audi banner into battle until the 4:22 mark, when Marc Gene in the #7 Peugeot tried a risky dive inside at the entrance to Turn 17. Gene and Audi driver Dindo Capello collided, rebounded and collided again. The resulting damage sent both cars to the paddock.
At this point the #8 Peugeot led the race, with the Highcroft HPD and the Matmut Peugeot right behind. While Peugeot’s Pedro Lamy was listening to the details of his teammate’s wreck on the radio, Highcroft’s Simon Pagenaud trapped the Peugeot behind a slower car coming through Turn 10 and took the overall lead—quite a feat in a car that hadn’t started its engine seven days earlier.
