Sebring Day 3 PM: Werner and Audi out front

The times at the top of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring results sheet are starting to get closer and closer. As was the case Tuesday and in Wednesday’s morning practice, Audi Sport North America’s R10 TDI led the way. But the German marque, unbeaten at Sebring since 2000, doesn’t have to look very far to find its closest rivals.

Marco Werner posted the afternoon session’s best time at 1:46.270 in the diesel-powered prototype he will share with Frank Biela and Marco Werner. The German, looking for his third Sebring win, was 0.557 seconds ahead of Penske Racing’s first Porsche RS Spyder from the LMP2 class. Timo Bernhard turned a lap of 1:46.827, the best P2 time of the weekend and nearly a full second under the track record set last year.

Bernhard was 0.024 seconds ahead of the sister car driven by Emmanuel Collard. Porsche held the top three spots with Andy Wallace in a Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder a 1:47.421. All three cars were under the existing class qualifying record.

Corvette Racing’s first time on the track Wednesday resulted in a 1-2 position in GT1. Olivier Beretta’s time of 1:57.361 led the pack in the Corvette C6.R he will share with Oliver Gavin and Max Papis. Johnny O’Connell in the sister Corvette was second quickest at 1:57.421.

Ferraris were first and second in GT2. Tomas Enge led all drivers with a 2:02.694 lap in Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing’s F430 GT. The Czech driver, teaming with Tim Bergmeister and Memo Gidley, was 0.25 seconds ahead of the lead Ferrari from Risi Competizione. Both cars were under the class qualifying record.

Tafel Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was third fastest and quickest of all the GT2 Porsche entries. Dominik Farnbacher’s time of 2:03.931 was the team’s best.