The 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

The traditional Le Mans 24 Hours curtain-raiser, the 12 Hours of Sebring, took place in Florida on Saturday (20th March 2010). Alexander Wurz brought the Peugeot 908 diesel home for overall victory. Team-mates Marc Gene & Anthony Davidson were relatively untroubled with only the second Peugeot piloted by Sebastian Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian and Pedro Lamy pushing them close near the end. Gene and Wurz were teammates for Peugeot’s historic victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours last June.

The two Lolas of Aston Martin Racing and Drayson Racing provided Peugeot’s biggest challenge in the early stages. The Drayson Lola proved quick early on with Emanuele Pirro producing a magnificent passing manoeuvre to split the 2 Peugeots in the early stages . Sadly time in the pits with alternator issues curtailed the Drayson team challenge, but Aston Martin with drivers Adrian Fernandez, Harold Primat and Stefan Mücke continued to take third place.

Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen won the LMP2 class for Muscle Milk Team CytoSport. Their Porsche RS Spyder won by three laps from Patrón Highcroft Racing (drivers David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti) which had held the lead until an electrical problem meant they were overtaken whilst in the pit lane. Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Andy Meyrick finished a creditable third place in LMP2 with their isobutanol-powered Lola B09/86-Mazda. Their race was hampered by technical problems in the first few hours but finished strongly.

The red Ferrari F430 GT of Risi Competizione, driven by Jaime Melo, Gimmi Bruni and Pierre Kaffer, won in the GT2 class. Risi took a one-lap victory ahead of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing’s two BMW M3s. The GT2 class was action packed throughout the 12 hours. The Team Falken Porsche started at the front but managed to lose two wheels around the track on consecutive laps. The second lost wheel made impact with the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche, who were running second at the time, causing them to pit and lose three laps to the rest of the competition. Elsewhere the two Corvettes managed to commit racing suicide by colliding in the pit lane.

The Sebring circuit was packed with spectators on the infield throughout the 12 hours, enjoying the unbroken Florida sunshine and the excellent commentary provided by the team at Radio Le Mans. Podcasts are available to download atwww.radiolemans.com. Travel & tickets for next year’s 12 hours of Sebring will be offered via the Radio Le Mans Travel Club on this website. For more details please click on the Radio Le Mans logo above, or register your details with info@traveldestinations.co.uk