Sebring Hour 4: Penalty Sets Back No. 1 Audi As Audi Still 1-2

Audi still leads the P1 class

While the rest of the competition has struggled to keep up with the pace of the Audi Sport R18 e-tron quattros this weekend, a penalty to race leader Allan McNish set one of the top two cars in the P1 class back at Sebring International Raceway. McNish made contact with Mirco Schultis in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Mishumotors close to the Hour 3 mark and was black flagged for incidental contact. The penalty (stop and go, plus 60 seconds) put the No. 2 Audi R18 at the end of the lead lap, behind the team’s No. 1 Audi R18, before retaking the lead on pit stops at the Hour 4 mark.

Extreme Speed Motorsports jumped to the lead in P2 in the team’s maiden voyage with its new HPD prototype. Guy Cosmo took the lead on Lap 103 in the No. 01 HPD ARX-03b and continues to hold onto the position after a sequence of yellow flag pit stops. The team’s No. 02 suffered minor body damage by a pair of spins, one of which brought out the caution to close out the race’s fourth hour.

The ultra-competitive Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire class has seen its share of lead changes through the race’s first four hours with the race’s current leader, Alex Popow, taking the top spot from David Cheng in Popow’s No. 9 RSR Racing ORECA prototype.

After pacing the GT field for much of the first part of the race the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette suffered electrical problems that set the team down one lap. SRT Motorsports and Dominik Farnbacher benefitted from Corvette’s misfortune taking the GT lead after a close battle with the Joey Hand and the No. 56 BMW Z4 of BMW Team RLL.

Alex Job Racing has led the majority of the race to this point in GT Challenge with starting driver Jeroen Bleekemolen back behind the wheel. Nelson Canache (No. 45) and Kuba Giermaziak (No. 31) round out the top 3 in the class.