American Le Mans Series

Audi quickest in Free Practice on Wednesday

© American Le Mans Series

The first official practice sessions were held today at the Sebring International Raceway. Peugeot and Audi continued their battle and after the two sessions ended it was the #1 Audi Sport North America Audi R10 that was the quickest. Second fastest today was the #07 Peugeot Sport Peugeot 908 with the #15 Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura as unexpected third fastest of the day.

During the test sessions on Monday and Tuesday the LMP1 cars were in the lower 1:43s, but today only Audi managed to get below the 1:45.5 mark. Peugeot was 0.017s behind, with the second Audi over half a second behind. The older LMP1 cars were even further down the order. The Intersport Racing Lola B06/10 set its fastest lap in the second session, a 1:48.150 put them in between the LMP2 cars. Autocon Motorsports’ Creation clocked a 1:55.216, which meant it was five seconds behind the slowest LMP2 car.

Fernandez Racing topped the LMP2 chart, their lead over the second LMP2 car, the Andretti Green Racing Acura, was six tenths of a second. Third and fourth fastest in LMP2 were the Team Penske Spyders. The #7 Spyder clocked a 1:46.978 in the first session, its sister car was very close behind with a 1:46.988. One second behind the two Penske cars was the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura (1:47.449), which was followed by three other Porsches again (#20 Dyson, #16 Dyson and #27 Horag Racing). B-K Motorsports and Barazi-Epsilon closed the LMP2 ranks, both teams staying in the 1:50s.

In GT1 only the two Corvettes went out on track. After two sessions it was the #4 Corvette C6.R that was the quickest of the two, setting a lap time of 1:57.674 vs. a 1:57.965 of the #3 Corvette.

Flying Lizard Motorsports saw its #45 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR being the fastest GT2 car today, although the gap to the opposition was very small. The #45 recorded a 2:02.402, the #71 Tafel Racing Ferrari 430 GT2 was second in 2:02.421. Third fastest was the Farnbacher Loles Porsche, in 2:02.594.
The rest of the GT2 order was: #62 Risi Ferrari, #46 Lizards Porsche, #73 Tafel Ferrari, #44 Lizards Porsche, #61 Risi Ferrari, #21 PTG Panoz, #28 LG Corvette, #48 Corsa Ferrari, #11 Primetime Viper, #5 VICI Porsche, #007 Drayson Aston, #40 Robertson Ford GT-R and finally the #77 ARC Bratislava Porsche.

Two cars did not get out on the track. The #008 Bell Motorsports Aston Martin has suffered a problem and reports from the track suggest they are waiting for assistance from the UK, while the #10 ECO Racing is at Sebring but will not compete this weekend. The car will be flown back to the UK after the Sebring weekend and hopes to make its ALMS debut in Long Beach.