12H of Sebring – The halfway point

The sun slowly begins to fall from the Florida sky as the halfway point of the 61st edition of the 12 hours from Sebring has just been exceeded. At the top of the LM P1 category, we are witnessing a real duel between the two Audi R18 e-tron quattros which did not stop passing one in front of the other during these first six hours of racing.

Starting in pole position with Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer at the wheel, the No. 1, also driven by Marcel Fässler and Olivier Jarvis, retained the lead until the second hour of the race. Then overtaken by sister car No. 2, then entrusted to Allan McNish, the No. 1 would soon regain its possession. At issue: a severe and questionable penalty imposed on the Scot for having come into contact with the No. 09 Orea 60 FLM. But while the Swiss Marcel Fässler, behind the wheel of the No. 1 Audi, was now almost a lap ahead of the sister car of the brand with the rings, an event was going to redistribute the cards again.

Immobilized on the track after a spin, Ed Brown on his No. 03 Extreme Speed ​​Motorsports HPD ARX-02B would bring out a new yellow flag. Taking advantage of this interruption to stop in the pits, Lucas Di Grassi, behind the wheel of the No. 18 R2 e-tron quattro, then made up a large part of his gap. Shortly before the 5-hour mark of the race, the Brazilian, continuing his comeback, took the advantage over Olivier Jarvis after an extremely muscular overtake, where the two cars touched at turn 17, and which could have been costly at the ring mark.

At mid-race, the battle is still extremely close between the two Audis. The No. 2, now driven by Tom Kristensen, was only 5,6 seconds ahead of the No. 1, again at the controls of Benoît Tréluyer. At the controls of the Lola Rebellion n°12, Nicolas Cheers has just given up third place to the HPD ARX-03c Muscle Milk Pickett Racing of Klaus Graf.

The LM P2 category lost one of its contenders for victory, the Extreme Speed ​​Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of David Brabham having been brought back to its stand pulled by a tow truck. Currently, the HPD ARX-03b Level 5 Motorsports No. 551 is in the lead. Marino Franchitti has a lead of almost a minute over the sister car currently driven by boss Scott Tucker. Note that the new DeltaWing will have experienced a rather short Florida clock tour. Even before the second hour, the Mazda engine of Andy Meyrick and Olivier Pla's prototype went up in smoke. The Frenchman was not even able to take the wheel in the race.

The GT category offers a magnificent spectacle. At the wheel of the Ferrari 458 Italia #62, Olivier Beretta is in the lead and is just four seconds ahead of the #4 BMW Z56 of John Edwards. And again the latter is followed like his shadow by the Porsche Nick Tandy's Falken Tires, Richard Westbrook's Corvette C6 ZR1 and Marc Goosens' Viper GTS-R SRT.

The LM PC and GTC categories are respectively dominated by Kyle Marcelli (No. 09 Oreca 1 FLM BAR8Motorsports) and John Fogarty (No. 911 Porsche 3 GT11 Cup JDX Racing).