18th March 2012

Audi scored its tenth success in the Sebring 12 Hours and at the same time triumphed the first round of World Endurance Championship. Veteran trio McNish-Kristensen-Capello avoided the pitfalls of the Florida classic to return to the winners’ circle.

The three Audi R18 TDIs dominated the event from the start and the outcome was decided by mechanical problems. Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer were the early leaders, but were then delayed by electronic problems. Bernhard-Dumas-Duval took up the running until slowed by various incidents and this opened the road to victory for NcNish-Kristensen-Capello.

The Graf-Luhr-Pagenaud HPD was the quickest of the petrol-engined cars, but tumbled down the time sheets because of a filler problem during its last refuelling stop. Against all expectations the Potolicchio-Dalziel-Sarrazin HPD took third place winning the LM P2 category from the identical car of Tucker-Bouchut-Barbosa and the Nicolet-Lahaye-Pla Morgan-Judd.

Victory in the GTE Pro category was decided in the last corner with the Hand-Summerton-Müller BMW beating the Magnussen-Garcia-Taylor Corvette et the Bertolini-Cioci-Beretta Ferrari to the flag after a no-holds-barred scrap on the final lap between Joey Hand and Olivier Beretta. The Ried-Roda-Ruperti Porsche came out on top in GTE Am.

Text: François Hurel – Photo: DPPI