The R15s already faster

The new Audi R15 and the Peugeot 908 were faced on track for the first time today, during preparatory testing for the 12 Hours of Sebring which will take place this weekend. In terms of times recorded, the situation seems to have been reversed compared to last season, since the German prototype proved to be much faster than its great rival.

The crew of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello set a best time of 1:43:596, while the other R15, that of Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller, finished the day just behind , just over half a second.

The performances of the Audi have therefore swept away the last doubts weighing on them, it is clear that the R15 is a well-made car, fast and reliable to boot. The new rules aimed at reducing performance have already been offset by the work of engineers it seems.

The first Peugeot is the number 8, that of Stéphane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Sébastien Bourdais, but it is 1??406 behind the leading Audi. The crew of Christian Klien, Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy find themselves in fourth place, 1 behind.

Ten thousandths behind, we find the Acura ARX-02A from the De Ferran Motorsports team, then that of Highcroft Racing. There is no need to carefully study the timesheet to understand that the fastest person behind the wheel of the Acura is a certain simon pagenaud, the latter even approaching to a tenth of the best Peugeot and only a hundredth of the second, closely followed by David Brabham.

The Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda was the only LMP2 on track today, since Fernandez Racing and its Acura ARX-01B have still not taken part in these tests.

In GT1, the two Corvettes were on track, while in the GT2 category, three Ferrari dominate the rankings at the moment, with Advanced Engineering at the top.

In GT1, the Corvettes have accumulated laps, 35 each, and it is the C6.R. n°3 who finally got the best time, while in GT2, it was the Ferraris who took power. Indeed, three F430s are among the first four, Gimmi Bruni and Advanced Engineering are 408 thousandths ahead of the Porsche 911 RSR from Farnbacher-Loles Racing. The two Risi Competizione cars follow, even if the latter will have only completed eight laps in total. The BMW M3s were in ambush in fifth and sixth place, just ahead of the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche which finished in seventh place following a slow puncture on the left front.