Audi R15 TDI Wins 12 Hours of Sebring

Audi's diesel sports car R15 TDI won the 12 Hours of Sebring (US state of Florida) after the three drivers, Dindo Capello (Italy), Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Allan McNish (Scotland), completed a total of 383 laps in 12h 00m 38.638 seconds. The Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais team driving for Peugeot came 22.279 seconds behind while the Luhr/Rockenfeller/Werner trio competing on the same Audi R15 TDI rounded out the podium in third place.

However, Audi's second team mostly relied on Luhr and Rockenfeller as Marco Werner had to be sidelined due to a rib injury. Nevertheless, they managed to stay close to the leading team for the most part of the race until a pick-up on the front right tire pushed Lurh towards an unscheduled pit stop.

"This was a tough day for us. Marco (Werner) had to stop because of his injury. This meant we had to complete the race with two drivers. Of course we had preferred winning the race or completing a 1-2 for Audi. But we had strong competition. And our sister car was a little bit faster, that’s why they deserved to win. We just couldn’t make it. Despite the personal disappointment we can be content: Everybody at Audi Sport and Team Joest can be proud of coming through a Sebring race with two new cars without any major problems," Luhr said.

Obviously, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Motorsport, was delighted with the result and explained that the team could have got an even greater result if the second team had completed the race without being force to enter the pits.

"This is a great result for a brand new car which came to Sebring with less mileage under its wheels than we had planned. We’ve seen not only the fastest 12-hour race in Sebring history, but also one of the most exciting with so many lead changes and a very tight battle between Audi and Peugeot – and this in the 100th ALMS race since 1999. I can remember that four cars have been setting almost identical lap times at Sebring for such a long time," he said.

Here are the full results of the 12 Hours of Sebring race:

1. Capello/Kristensen/McNish (Audi R15 TDI) 383 laps in 12h 00m 38.638s
2. Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais (Peugeot) + 22.279s
3. Luhr/Rockenfeller/Werner (Audi R15 TDI) - 2 laps
4. Fernandez/Diaz (Acura/Honda) - 23 laps
5. Minassian/Klien/Lamy (Peugeot) - 27 laps
6. Magnussen/O’Connell/Garcia (Chevrolet) - 34 laps
7. Beretta/Gavin/Fässler (Chevrolet) - 35 laps
8. Melo/Kaffer/Salo (Ferrari) - 51 laps
9. Companc/Russo/Bruni (Ferrari) - 53 laps
10. Farnbacher/James (Panoz) - 54 laps