The R15 TDI has won the the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. The winning R15 driven by Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen set all time Sebring records for distance covered, average speed and laps completed. To top off the day the R15 also won the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge.
# AN EPIC VICTORY FOR AUDI AT SEBRING
# Capello, Kristensen, McNish debut R15 TDI in winning style
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Audi scored a debut victory for its new Audi R15 TDI as Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen teamed to win the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday night. McNish crossed the finish line 22.279 ahead of Peugeot’s Franck Montagny in an epic battle between sports car racing’s two diesel powers.
McNish took the lead at the 42-minute mark when Montagny made his final fuel-only stop. McNish clicked off fast lap after fast lap to build up enough of a gap to make a late splash for fuel with 14 minutes remaining and maintain his lead.
McNish re-entered the track while Montagny was just entering the backstretch. Montagny drove with fellow Frenchmen Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin.
The second Audi of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner finished third.
Lowe’s Fernandez Racing captured its long-awaited first LMP2 victory for Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz. The pairing’s Acura ARX-01b ran a strong and consistent race while Dyson Racing’s two Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes struggled with mechanical issues.
It was Acura’s second P2 victory in three years at Sebring. Fernandez and Diaz placed second in class behind the winning Andretti Green Racing trio of Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan in its inaugural run in 2007.
Corvette Racing’s Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen scored their second straight GT1 victory as they teamed with Antonio Garcia in the final race for the GT1 version of the Corvette C6.R at Sebring. Magnussen crossed the finish line a lap ahead of Oliver Gavin, who teamed with Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fässler.
Risi Competizione won in GT2 for the second time in three years, this time much easier than the team’s epic 2007 victory which it won in class by a race-record 0.202 seconds. Mika Salo took the checkered flag in Risi’s Ferrari F430 GT that he drove with Pierre Kaffer and Jaime Melo.
Saturday’s winning margin was two laps over the Advanced Engineering Pecom Racing Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni, Mathias Russo and Luis Companc. Panoz Team PTG’s Panoz Esperante GTLM of Dominik Farnbacher and Ian James was third in class following a hard-fought battle with one of Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Porsches late in the race.
In the first race of the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge, the Corvette C6.R of Magnussen, O’Connell and Garcia was the top scoring car using a combination of overall performance, fuel efficiency and environmental impact. The sister Corvette was second among GT entries followed by the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek.
The race-winning Audi was the top scoring prototype in the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge while also setting records for distance covered, average speed and laps completed - a picture of performance and efficiency. The sister Audi placed second in the prototype standings with the Peugeot 908 HDi of Pedro Lamy, Nic Minassian and Christian Klien.
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