Lotterer keeps Audi on top

Andre Lotterer

Andre Lotterer kept Audi out front in practice for the 60tth Anniversary Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida on Thursday afternoon. The reigning Le Mans 24 Hours winner set a lap of 1:47.761 in the Audi R18 he shares with Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler for a 0.478-second gap back to Timo Bernhard in the second of the three Audis.

The German manufacturer is looking for its first Sebring victory since 2009. It will compete among a 64-car grid that marks the opening of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr¢n and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s Klaus Graf was the top ALMS runner with a lap of 1:49.921.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was the quickest driver in P2 with a 1:53.094 in one of Level 5 Motorsports’ two HPD ARX-03b prototypes. He was 0.322 seconds clear of teammate Christophe Bouchut and another 0.065 seconds ahead of Conquest Racing’s Martin Plowman in the team’s Morgan-Judd.

Gimmi Bruni set the best GT time in AF Corse’s Ferrari F458 Italia at 2:00.334, a lap that put him 0.557 seconds ahead of BMW Team RLL’s Bill Auberlen. Another ALMS entry – the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Jörg Bergmeister – was third in class at 2:01.251.

In Prototype Challenge, Pablo Sanchez set the best lap of the session for Merchant Services Racing at 1:55.573. Raphael Matos was second for Performance Tech Motorsports at 1:56.000.

Pedro Lamy, a podium finisher the last two years at Sebring with Peugeot, led GTE Am in a Larbre Racing Corvette C6.R. His lap of 2:02.747 placed him nearly a second quicker than Dominik Farnbacher in a Ferrari F458 Italia from Luxury Racing.

NGT Motorsport’s Sean Edwards led GT Challenge with a lap of 2:06.819 in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Damien Faulkner was next for Green Hornet Racing at 2:07.177.

The next practice at Sebring is set for 7:35 p.m. ET – an extended night session.