SEBRING, Fla.—Audi’s R18 e-tron quattros were the quickest cars on track at Friday morning’s practice session for the American Le Mans Series Twelve Hours of Sebring, the final session before qualifying Friday afternoon. Marcel Fässler in the 2012-vintage #1 e-tron turned in the best lap at 1:44.315, .35 seconds quicker than Allan McNish in the #2 car.
Romain Dumas in the #6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Hpd-Honda was third, 2.42 of the leading pace—a huge margin, but not necessarily indicative off the best speeds of both cars. Qualifying should show how the two really compare.
Rebellion came closer to the Muscle Milk car in the final session. Andrea Belicchi in the #13 Lola-Toyota trailed Dumas by only seven-hundredths of a second, while Nick Heidfeld in the #12 was seven tenths of his team mate’s pace.
Greaves Motorsports edged the two Level 5 cars in P2, with Tom Kimber-Smith in his #41 Zytek Z11SN-Nissan lapping the 17-turn Sebring course in 1:51.621, eight-tenths faster than Ryan Briscoe in the #551 Level 5 HPD-Honda. Ryan Hunter-Reay in the #552 finished .12 seconds behind his team mate.
Gianmaria Bruni put the #62 Risi Ferrari F458 Italia at the head of the GTE class with a lap of 1:59.024, .3 and .5 seconds ahead of the #4 and #3 Corvettes, driven by Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia.
Pierre Kaffer in the #81 DragonSpeed Mishumotor Oreca was the quickest PC car; Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #22 AJR Porsche, quickest in GTC.
Qualifying starts at 1:30 p.m. and will be streamed live on SPEED2, with commentary by Rob Hindhaugh and the Radio Le Mans crew.
The 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring—the last one sanctioned by ALMS and featuring the best and fastest ACO/FIA compliant sports cars from around the world—takes the green flag at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 16.
This is a race every sports car fan will want to see—a race people will talk about for years to come, as the last of a very good era. Don’t miss the chance.
Tickets can be purchased at the gate or online at Sebring Raceway.com.
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