The Peugeots were faster through most of the race, but the Audis kept battling back, finally establishing dominance in the final hour of racing.
The new Audi, the R15 TDI, had never been severely tested prior to running at Sebring; bad weather frustrated endurance testing planned for earlier this year. Still, the car performed flawlessly, its brand-new V10 turbocharged diesel motor never missing a beat. The Peugeot was faster on the straights and got better tire wear, but somehow, in the final laps, the Audi was faster.
The Final Hour
With one hour to go, tires and fuel became key. The Audi probably didn’t have the fuel economy to race flat-out and also finish on one tank of fuel; it would need to come in for a splash of fuel. The Peugeot probably could finish on a single tank, and with soft-compound tires, should have grip equal to the Audi. There was no way ot predict who would win.
Franck Montagny was at the wheel of the leading Peugeot, 22 seconds ahead of Allan McNish in the Audi, with Luca Luhr’s Audi in third.
The battle for third place in GT2, between the Panoz Esperante and the Flying Lizard Porsche, generated quite a bit of excitement. The five-year-old Panoz held off the factory-supported Porsche for several laps, until Porsche driver Marl Lieb pushed his way abreast if Ian James in the Panoz. Lieb squeezed James into the wall, leaving James no choice but to turn into Lieb, spinning the Porsche across the nose of the Panoz and into the wall.
The Patron Highcroft P1 Acura retired with unspecified drivetrain problems, ending Acura’s P1 debut
McNish needed approximately fifteen seconds to get down pit lane, perhaps ten seconds for feuling, and another fifteen seconds to get back onto the track. Could McNish gain a forty-five second lead?
The Peugeot needed a couple of laps to get its tires heated up, but its were ten laps fresher than the Audi’s. McNish, was driving near to perfection, turning in blistering laps. McNish was adding one second to his lead on every lap.
Audi Unstoppable
With thirty minutes to go, the fourth-place Peugeot pulled off the track with a broken gearbox
Meanwhile, the second-place Peugeot’s lap time kept climbing. Franck Montagny had run off the track a bit right after the pit stop, overstressing cold tires, but did no obvious damage to the car. Still the question arose, was his car in trouble? (Peugeot driver Sebastien Bourdais said, after the race, that the tires could not get grip in the cool weather. Did Peugeot pick the wrong compound?)
With fourteen minutes to go, Allan McNish pulled into the pits to get enough fuel to finish. He pulled back onto the track with a 24-second lead over Montagny’s Peugeot.
Record-Setting Race
This was Allan McNish’s third overall Sebring win, Dindo Cappelo’s fourth, and Tom Kristensen’s fifth Sebring victory, setting the record for overall wins.
Audi has debuted three cars at Sebring, the R08, the R10, and now the R15, and all of them won. Of the eleven Sebring races Audi has entered, Audi has won nine.
Peugeot driver Sebastien Bourdain set the race lap record with a lap of 1:43.274.
Johnny O’Connell garnered his record-setting eighth Sebring win—one overall and seven in class—in the Corvette Racing CR-6, winning the GT1 class.
The Ferrari of Risi Competizione took the GT2 win, after leading for most of the race. Advanced Engineering’s Ferrari took second in class, while the Panoz Esperante held on for third. The #45 Flying Lizard Porsche, which tangled with the Panoz and hit the wall hard, still managed to hold on to finish fourth in class.
