Minassian tops Sebring Practice 2 times

For the second straight session, Team Peugeot Total’s No. 08 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP was the quickest car in practice for the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. Nic Minassian turned in the fastest lap around 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring International Raceway at 1:45.371. Minassian is driving with Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdias, who was quickest in the morning practice for the opening round of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n.

The 908 HDi is a new car – or at least a new tub. The crew replaced the monocoque overnight after discovering a small crack in the flooring during a routine maintenance inspection.

Minassian was 0.808 seconds clear of fellow Peugeot pilot Alexander Wurz, who turned a lap of 1:46.539. Wurz and teammate Marc Gene won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year and are teaming with Anthony Davidson at Sebring.

Emanuele Pirro was 0.914 seconds behind the leading Peugeot in Drayson Racing’s Judd-powered Lola B09/60 that he will drive with Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker. The Italian’s best lap was a 1:46.645.

After Aston Martin Racing’s Adrian Fernandez (fourth overall), Muscle Milk Team Cytosport’s Porsche RS Spyder sat fifth and first in LMP2. Sascha Maassen, driving with Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf, turned a lap of 1:49.894.

Gunnar Jeannette was the quickest driver in the new LMP Challenge class with a lap of 1:56.118 in Green Earth Team Gunnar’s ORECA FLM09 that he will share with Christian Zugel and Elton Julian.

Jeannette was 0.482 seconds quicker than JR Hildebrand in the Genoa Racing prototype that he will drive with Andy Wallace and Tom Sutherland.

In GT2, BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s two BMW M3s were fastest. Dirk Werner’s lap of 2:01.256 was good enough for a 0.551-second gap back to Joey Hand. Werner is driving with Bill Auberlen and Tommy Milner. Hand is with Dirk Mueller and Andy Priaulx.

Oliver Gavin sat third in class for Corvette Racing. His best lap was a 2:01.852 in the Corvette C6.R that he will drive with Olivier Beretta and Emmanuel Collard.

Lawson Aschenbach went fastest in GT Challenge for Velox Motorsports in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that he will drive with Jerry Vento and Shane Lewis. Aschenbach was 0.574 seconds better than Andy Pilgrim in the GMG Porsche; he will team with James Sofronas and Bret Curtis.

The next practice is the 7:15 p.m. night session, lasting until 9 p.m.

Results

Pos	Car	Cls	Cls	Drivers	Team	Car	Time	Gap	to 1st	Speed
1.	08	P1	1	N.Minassian, P.Lamy, S.Bourdais	Team Peugeot Total	Peugeot 908 HDI FAP	1:45.731			125.980
2.	07	P1	2	M.Gene, A.Wurz, A.Davidson	Team Peugeot Total	Peugeot 908 HDI FAP	1:46.539	0.808	0.808	125.025
3.	8	P1	3	P.Drayson, J.Cocker, E.Pirro	Drayson Racing	Lola B09/60 Judd	1:46.645	0.106	0.914	124.900
4.	007	P1	4	S.Mucke, H.Primat, A.Fernandez	Aston Martin Racing	Lola B09/60 Aston Mart	1:49.824	3.179	4.093	121.285
5.	6	P2	1	G.Pickett, K.Graf, S.Maassen	Team Cytosport	Porsche RS Spyder	1:49.894	0.070	4.163	121.208
6.	12	P1	5	B.Willman, T.Burgess, P.Ehret	Autocon Motorsports	Lola B06/10-AER	1:53.521	3.627	7.790	117.335
7.	99	PC	1	C.Zugel, G.Jeannette, E.Julian	Green Earth Team Gunner	Oreca FLM09	1:56.118	2.597	10.387	114.711
8.	36	PC	2	A.Wallace, JR.Hildebrand, T.Sutherland	Genoa Racing	Oreca FLM09	1:56.600	0.482	10.869	114.237
9.	55	PC	3	S.Tucker, C.Bouchut, M.Wilkins	Level 5 Motorsports	Oreca FLM09	1:57.344	0.744	11.613	113.512
10.	11	PC	4	J.Feinberg, K.Marcelli	Primetime Race Group	Oreca FLM09	1:57.427	0.083	11.696	113.432
11.	95	PC	5	S.Tucker, R.Hunter-Reay, J.Gue	Level 5 Motorsports	Oreca FLM09	2:00.392	2.965	14.661	110.639
12.	92	GT2	1	B.Auberlen, T.Milner, D.Werner	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	BMW E92 M3	2:01.256	0.864	15.525	109.850
13.	90	GT2	2	J.Hand, D.Mueller, A.Priaulx	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	BMW E92 M3	2:01.807	0.551	16.076	109.353
14.	4	GT2	3	O.Beretta, O.Gavin, E.Collard	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette ZR1	2:01.852	0.045	16.121	109.313
15.	45	GT2	4	J.Bergmeister, P.Long, M.Lieb	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	2:01.953	0.101	16.222	109.222
16.	02	GT2	5	E.Brown, G.Cosmo, J.Barbosa	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ferrari 430 GT	2:02.232	0.279	16.501	108.973
17.	3	GT2	6	J.Magnussen, J.O'Connell, A.Garcia	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette ZR1	2:02.250	0.018	16.519	108.957
18.	44	GT2	7	D.Law, S.Neiman, J.Lietz	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	2:02.879	0.629	17.148	108.399
19.	01	GT2	8	S.Sharp, J.van Overbeek, D.Farnbacher	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ferrari 430 GT	2:03.281	0.402	17.550	108.046
20.	40	GT2	9	D.Robertson, A.Robertson, D.Murry	Robertson Racing	Doran Design Ford GT	2:04.274	0.993	18.543	107.183
21.	17	GT2	10	B.Sellers, W.Henzler, P.Pilet	Team Falken Tire	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	2:04.675	0.401	18.944	106.838
22.	61	GT2	11	T.Krohn, N.Jonsson, E.van de Poele	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 430 GT	2:05.334	0.659	19.603	106.276
23.	75	GT2	12	P.Gentilozzi, M.Goossens, R.Dalziel	JaguarRSR	Jaguar XKRS	2:06.752	1.418	21.021	105.087
24.	88	GTC	1	S.Lewis, J.Vento, L.Aschenbach	Velox Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	2:08.040	1.288	22.309	104.030
25.	32	GTC	2	B.Curtis, J.Sofronas, A.Pilgrim	GMG Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	2:08.614	0.574	22.883	103.566
26.	63	GTC	3	H.Richard, D.Ende, A.Lally	TRG	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	2:09.978	1.364	24.247	102.479
27.	23	GTC	4	B.Sweedler, R.Kapudija, J-D.Lueders	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	2:09.999	0.021	24.268	102.462
28.	69	GTC	5	R.Rodriguez, G.Bieker, C.Friedman	WERKS II Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	2:11.378	1.379	25.647	101.387
29.	89	PC	6	M.Pagerey, B.Wong, D.Ducote	Intersport Racing	Oreca FLM09	2:16.677	5.299	30.946	97.456
30.	1	P2	2	D.Brabham, S.Pagenaud, M.Franchitti	Patron Highcroft Racing	HPD ARX-01c Honda	-.—
31.	16	P2	3	C.Dyson, G.Smith, A.Meyrick	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B09/86 Mazda	-.—
32.	62	GT2	13	J.Melo, P.Kaffer, G.Bruni	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 430 GT	-.—
33.	80	GTC	6	R.Gonzalez, L.Diaz, P.Kelly	Car Amigo – AJR	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	-.—	– –	– –	– –
34.	81	GTC	7	J.Gonzalez, B.Leitzinger, L.Keen	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	-.—	–	–	–