ALMS:No.1 Audi leads at quarter distance

[Plex]

Tom Kristensen holds a commanding lead in the #1 Audi after three hours of the Sebring 12 Hours, despite being given a penalty for making 'avoidable contact' in traffic.

The lead Audi has controlled the race from the start, with Rinaldo Capello initially edging away from teammate Frank Biela in an Audi R10 one-two.

But the second car soon ran into trouble - first when Biela was given a stop-go penalty because a crew member at his first stop had not been wearing gloves, then more dramatically when a left rear puncture after 90 minutes forced Biela to do a full lap on three wheels. Although the incident handily coincided with the car's second scheduled pit stop, Biela's co-driver Emanuele Pirro was still two laps down and in sixth overall by the time he was able to rejoin.

That elevated Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas to second overall in the LMP2-leading Penske Porsche, and the ability to go 15 minutes longer than the Audi between pit stops allowed the second division car to lead outright at the end of each hour.

Penske were then handed a boost when Kristensen (who took over from Capello for the third stint) was penalised for hitting the third-placed Dyson Porsche while lapping Butch Leitzinger after two and a half hours. But Dumas' period in the lead was short-lived, as the need to change the battery at his next scheduled stop put the Porsche a minute behind the Audi once again.

Before that delay, Dumas had held a one minute lead over the rest of the LMP2 field, but Andretti-Green's Tony Kanaan is now within 17 seconds of the Porsche. The AGR Acura had been involved in a frenetic battle for second in class with the Leitzinger/Andy Wallace Dyson Porsche and the Highcroft Acura until the latter slipped back in the third hour and the Dyson car lost five minutes in the pits while the sidepod damage sustained in the Kristensen incident was fixed.

"I don't know what the hell the Audis are doing, I continually question those guys," said Leitzinger's furious team owner Rob Dyson. "The series would be better off without them. But that's another story."

Two of the potential LMP2 winners already seem to be out of contention, with Sascha Maassen's Penske Porsche losing 24 minutes while brake problems were fixed in the first hour, and the second Dyson Lola having spent 43 minutes in the pits after Chris Dyson made contact with a GT2 Panoz.

The Corvettes have predictably dominated GT1, with the Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen car holding a narrow lead until the Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta/Max Papis sister car moved ahead in the third pit stops.

Their sole class rival the Modena Aston Martin had to start from the pit lane after a late gearbox change, and although Antonio Garcia made rapid progress through the GT2 cars, he could not get on terms with the Corvettes. The car was further delayed with a pit lane speeding penalty and is now three laps behind the class leaders.

The GT2 battle has been superbly entertaining so far. The polesitting Risi Ferrari dropped to the back of the field after making a pre-race tyre change, but tore through the traffic in Jamie Melo's hands, reaching second in class within an hour.

However Jorg Bergmeister's Flying Lizard Porsche proved harder to catch, and Risi only moved ahead by deciding not to change tyres or drivers at their first stop.

Flying Lizard fought back, and retook the lead during the second stops, with the cars running nose to tail throughout the third hour. Just before one-quarter distance, Risi's Mika Salo managed to slip past Flying Lizard's Marc Lieb on track and reclaim the GT2 lead at least for now.

Two of the pre-race GT2 favourites hit trouble on the opening lap, with early incidents delaying Wolf Henzler's Tafel Porsche and Tomas Enge's Petersen/White Lightning Ferrari. While Henzler quickly rejoined and recovered to third in class within two hours, Enge spent nearly 45 minutes in the pits receiving repairs.

Leading positions after three hours:

Pos Cl Driver -------------Make-----------------Laps/gap
1. P1 Tom Kristensen----Audi -------------------96 laps
2. P2 Romain Dumas----Penske Porsche -----+ 1:19.3
3. P2 Tony Kanaan-------AGR Acura ----------+ 1:36.6
4. P2 Stefan Johansson--Highcroft Acura -----+ 1 lap
5. P1 Emanuele Pirro-----Audi -----------------+ 1 lap
6. P2 Butch Leitzinger----Dyson Porsche----- + 2 laps
7. P2 Adrian Fernandez--Fernandez Lola-Acura-+ 2 laps
8. P2 Eric van de Poele--Horag-Hotz Lola -----+ 7 laps
9. GT1 Oliver Gavin-------Corvette ------------ + 8 laps
10. GT1 Ron Fellows-------Corvette ------------- + 8 laps

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