61st 12 Hours of Sebring

The German manufacturer took its pair of R18 e-tron quattros, making their U.S. race debuts, to a convincing 1-2 sweep in the final outing for P1 cars in America’s oldest endurance race.

Up front, Benoit Treluyer took the No. 1 Audi to the win, overcoming a broken floor for his 2012-spec Audi, to edge out a 7.679-second margin over six-time Sebring overall winner Tom Kristensen at the line.

Treluyer shared the wheel of his 2012-spec R18 e-tron quattro with Oliver Jarvis and pole-sitter Marcel Fassler.

It marked Audi’s 11th overall victory at Sebring, in it’s likely final race as a factory prototype entrant in the famed Florida event.

Audi’s No. 2 entry of Kristensen, Allan McNish and Lucas Di Grassi completed the Audi sweep, in a race that saw more than 20 lead changes.

The No. 12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 Toyota of Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost completed the overall podium in third, but a hefty five laps behind the winning Audi.

However, with the factory diesel-powered entries not a registered full-season entrant, the result gives the Anglo-Swiss squad an early lead in the ALMS P1 championship race.

Defending series champions Muscle Milk Pickett Racing overcame a dislodged wheel in the second hour and two costly penalties for avoidable contact for a fourth place overall finish for its HPD ARX-03a of Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas,

Rebellion’s No. 13 Lola-Toyota completed the top-five overall and in P1, which saw early retirements for the Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 Mazda (electrical) and the DeltaWing (engine), the latter which lasted only 10 laps.

The P2 class saw an equally impressive performance from Level 5 Motorsports, which scored a 1-2 in class with its pair of HPD ARX-03bs.

The No. 551 car of Ryan Briscoe, Marino Franchitti and team owner Scott Tucker took a one-lap victory over the sister No. 552 machine of Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud, which took over the class lead in the sixth hour when the No. 01 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD of David Brabham stopped on-track with gearbox issues.

From there, it gave clear sailing for Level 5, which claimed its fourth straight class victory at Sebring, tying Alex Job Racing (2001-04) for all-time consecutive wins in the American Le Mans Series season-opener.

Additionally, Tucker tied legendary Porsche drivers Bob Holbert (1961-64) and Sascha Maassen (2001-04) as a four-time consecutive Sebring class winner.

The No. 41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN Nissan of Tom Kimber-Smith, Eric Lux and Christian Zugel came home three laps behind in third after briefly leading, but never playing a factor in the outcome.

P2 debutants ESM got both of its HPDs to the finish, although its class-contending No. 01 machine of Brabham, Scott Sharp and Guy Cosmo were more than 80 laps behind after mid-race gearbox problems.

As it has become in recent years, the battle for top honors in GT was some of the most entertaining, especially mid-race, which saw a four-way battle between Corvette, Ferrari, Viper and BMW for the lead.

In the end, Corvette Racing broke through to take its first Sebring class victory in the GT(2) division, following an impressive late-race charge by Tommy Milner.

The defending series champion passed the No. 62 Risi Competizone Ferrari F458 Italia of Matteo Malucelli with 15 minutes remaining after the Italian ventured off-course.

ALMS rookie Malucelli, who was brought in to relieve the leg-cramped Gianmaria Bruni for the final stint, crossed the line 2.702 seconds behind Milner, denying the Houston-based team a fairytale-like class win in its comeback race.

Instead, top honors went to the No. 4 Corvette C6.R of Milner, Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook, which overcame a one-lap deficit after suffering electrical issues in the fourth hour.

Team Falken Tire’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Bryan Sellers, Wolf Henzler and Nick Tandy came home third in class following a steady and relatively trouble-free run. It marked the team’s first podium finish that did not result in class victory.

BMW’s race debut of the Z4 GTE ended with a fourth place class finish for the No. 55 machine of Bill Auberlen, Maxime Martin and Joerg Mueller. Team RLL’s No. 56 car led early but lost nearly 10 laps due to a broken shock.

The surprise of the race came from the strong performance by SRT Motorsports, which saw its No. 91 Viper GTS-R lead on multiple occasions and in contention for the class win. However, electrical gremlins saw the Ryan Dalziel, Marc Goossens and Dominik Farnbacher-driven car drop four laps behind in the final quarter of the race.