The expected epic battle between the diesel-powered Audis and Peugeots for the overall win at the 57th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race Saturday came down to the last lap, with Allan McNish’s Audi R15 TDI leading the Peugeot 908 HDI of Franck Montagny across the finish line by 22.279 seconds. Third was the other Audi, driven by a team led by Lucas Luhr, two laps behind.
Despite mechanical limitations enacted to slow the Audi and Peugeot diesels, they dominated, especially given the mechanical problems suffered by their main competition, the pair of brand-new gasoline-powered Acura ARX-02s, one of which was the fastest qualifier.
In all, the winner completed 382 laps, which not only was the most in the American LeMans Series, but also in the history of all of the configurations of the Sebring race track.
Peugeot driver Sebastian Bourdais put it all up to the Audi driver that finished the race and took the checkered flag.
McNish’s co-driver, Tom Kristensen becomes the winningest driver at Sebring, grabbing his fifth overall win at the 12 Hours. Italian Rindaldo Capello joined McNish and Kristensen in the cockpit of the winning car.
The 100th American LeMans Series race started with warm temperatures and bright sunny skies.
Alan McNish in the No. 2 Audi R15 TDI jumped past pole-sitter Scott Dixon’s Acura at Turn 1 and parlayed that into a commanding lead which he held for 45 minutes, when he pitted and the No. 08 Peugeot 908 HDI of Franck Montagny took the point.
In addition to winning the 12 Hours, the No. 2 Audi also captured the Michelin Green X Challenge. The system ranks all cars in the race according to average speed and distance covered along with the amount of energy used, greenhouse gasses emitted and petroleum displaced.
Audi has won nine of the last 10 races here, losing to a Porsche Spyder last year, which did not return to defend the win. For many of the teams, Sebring is a warm-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, and both the Audis and the Peugeots are new models developed for Le Mans that likely will not return to competition in the U.S. this year.
“Peugeot pushed us hard,” said Tom Kristensen, co-driver of the winning Audi, who has now won Sebring five times, which is more than any other driver. “It was a fantastic race.”
It was one of the cleanest races here in history, with only three caution flags, and no crash serious enough for the cars involved being unable to drive away under their own power.
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