Sebring 12 hour race 2012

The victorious Audi R18 TDI (start number 2) in the night

Butch Leitzinger in the Oreca FLM09 , also at night

The 60th Sebring 12 Hours Race , also the 60th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida for ALMS / FIA WEC, Sebring International Raceway , took place on March 17th, 2012 at the Sebring International Raceway and was the first race of the ALMS season and the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship .

Before the race

The sports car world championship , which was held for the first time in 1953, ended in 1992 . From 2012 there was a new world championship for sports cars and GT vehicles with the FIA World Endurance Championship . The World Championship is an endurance racing series for sports prototypes and Gran Turismos organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest , which is held according to the rules and guidelines of the 24 Hours of Le Mans . The series emerged from the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup , which the FIA awarded official World Cup status from 2012. The first race was the Sebring 12-hour race in 2012.

The race

Since both the vehicles registered in the World Endurance Championship and the teams from the American Le Mans Series were eligible to start at Sebring , there was a large field of 63 cars on the day of the race. After the Peugeot Board of Management announced the immediate withdrawal from sports car races at the beginning of the year and Toyota did not plan the debut of the TS030 Hybrid until the 6-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps , the three Audi R18 TDIs entered were the only works cars in the LMP1 class. In the race, it looked like a three-way victory for the Audis, until just before half-time the leading car of André Lotterer , Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler pitted slowly. The gears could no longer be changed. The car could only be sent back to the racetrack after changing the electrical switch unit, which left it 17 laps behind.

Nevertheless, there was a clear one-two Audi victory at the finish. The third-placed HPD ARX-03b driven by Enzo Potolicchio , Ryan Dalziel and Stéphane Sarrazin was already six laps behind the winning R18 TDI driven by Allan McNish , Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello .

Results

Final ranking

Item	Class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	2	Audi Sport Team Joest	Allan McNish Tom Kristensen Rinaldo Capello	Audi R18 TDI	325
2	LMP1	3	Audi Sport Team Joest	Timo Bernhard Romain Dumas Loïc Duval	Audi R18 TDI	321
3	LMP2	44	Starworks Motorsport	Vicente Potolicchio Ryan Dalziel Stéphane Sarrazin	HPD ARX-03b	319
4th	LMP2	055	Level 5 motorsports	Scott Tucker Christophe Bouchut João Barbosa	HPD ARX-03b	319
5	LMP2	24	OAK Racing	Matthieu Lahaye Olivier Pla Jacques Nicolet	Morgan LMP2	318
6th	LMP1	16	Pescarolo team	Emmanuel Collard Jean-Christophe Boullion Julien Jousse	Pescarolo 01	318
7th	LMP2	49	Pecom Racing	Luís Pérez Companc Pierre Kaffer Soheil Ayari	Oreca 03	317
8th	LMP1	016	Dyson Racing	Chris Dyson Guy Smith Steven Kane	Lola B12 / 60	317
9	LMP2	41	Greaves Motorsport	Christian Zugel Ricardo González Elton Julian	Zytek Z11SN	316
10	LMP1	21st	Strakka Racing	Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane	HPD ARX-03a	316
11	LMP2	25th	ADR delta	John Martin Tor Graves Robbie Kerr	Oreca 03	315
12	LMPC	06	Core autosport	Alex Popov E.J. Viso Burt Frisselle	Oreca FLM09	312
13	LMPC	52	PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	Butch Leitzinger Ken Dobson Rudy Junco	Oreca FLM09	311
14th	LMPC	05	Core autosport	Jon Bennett Colin Braun Éric Lux	Oreca FLM09	310
15th	LMP1	16	Audi Sport Team Joest	André Lotterer Benoît Tréluyer Marcel Fässler	Audi R18 TDI	310
16	LMP1	22nd	JRM	David Brabham Karun Chandhok Peter Dumbreck	HPD ARX-03a	309
17th	GT	56	BMW Team RLL	Joey Hand Dirk Müller Jonathan Summerton	BMW E92 M3	307
18th	GT	03	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen Antonio García Jordan Taylor	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1	307
19th	GTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Andrea Bertolini Olivier Beretta Marco Cioci	Ferrari 458 Italia	307
20th	GT	4th	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Richard Westbrook	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1	307
21st	GT	155	BMW Team RLL	Jörg Müller Bill Auberlen Uwe Alzen	BMW E92 M3	307
22nd	GTE Pro	77	Team Felbermayr Proton	Richard Lietz Marc Lieb Patrick Pilet	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	306
23	GT	48	Paul Miller Racing	Bryce Miller Sascha Maassen Rob Bell	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	303
24	LMPC	7th	Merchant Services Racing	Chapman Ducote Javier Echeverria Pablo Sánchez López	Oreca FLM09	303
25th	GT	044	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Darren Law Seth Neiman Andy Lally	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	303
26th	GT	02	Extreme speed motorsports	Ed Brown Jeff Segal Anthony Lazzaro	Ferrari 458 Italia	302
27	GTE Am	88	Team Felbermayr Proton	Christian Ried Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	298
28	LMP2	54	Black Swan Racing	Tim Pappas Bret Curtis Jon Fogarty	Lola B11 / 80	298
29	GTE Am	70	Larbre Compétition	Christophe Bourret Pascal Gibon Jean-Philippe Belloc	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1	297
30th	LMP1	12	Rebellion Racing	Nicolas Prost Neel Jani Nick Heidfeld	Lola B12 / 60	296
31	GTC	023	Alex Job Racing	Bill Sweedler Townsend Bell Dion von Moltke	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	292
32	GTE Pro	97	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Adrián Fernández Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage V8	292
33	GTC	022	Alex Job Racing	Cooper MacNeil Leh Keen Louis-Philippe Dumoulin	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	291
34	LMP1	13	Rebellion Racing	Andrea Belicchi Harold Primate Jeroen Bleekemolen	Lola B12 / 60	291
35	GTC	34	Green Hornet Racing	Peter LeSaffre Damien Faulkner Sebastiaan Bleekemolen	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	290
36	GT	17th	Team Falken Tire	Wolf Henzler Bryan Sellers Martin Ragginger	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	290
37	GTC	66	TRG	Spencer Pumpelly Emilio Di Guida Marc Bunting	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	287
38	GTE Am	61	AF Corse whale trip	Robert Kauffman Michael Waltrip Rui Águas	Ferrari 458 Italia	283
39	LMPC	5	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing	Mike Guasch memo Gidley Roger Wills	Oreca FLM09	282
40	GTC	11	JDX Racing	Chris Cumming Mark Bullit Kévin Estre	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	282
41	LMP2	37	Conquest Endurance	Martin Plowman David Heinemeier Hansson Jan Heylen	Morgan LMP2	281
42	GTC	024	Competition motorsports	Bob Faieta Michael Avenatti Cort Wagner	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	279
43	GT	01	Extreme speed motorsports	Scott Sharp Johannes van Overbeek Guy Cosmo	Ferrari 458 Italia	278
44	LMP2	28	Gulf Racing Middle East	Fabien Giroix Maxime Jousse Jan Charouz	Lola B12 / 80	277
45	GTC	32	GMG Racing	James Sofrona's Alex Welch René Villeneuve	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	276
46	LMPC	18th	Performance Tech Motorsports	Anthony Nicolosi Ricardo Vera Raphael Matos	Oreca FLM09	274
47	GTE Am	57	Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn Niclas Jönsson Michele Rugolo	Ferrari 458 Italia	265
48	LMPC	9	RSR Racing	Bruno Junqueira Tomy Drissi Roberto González junior	Oreca FLM09	255
49	GTE Am	55	JWA-Avila	Joël Camathias William Binnie Markus Palttala	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	252
50	GT	45	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Jörg Bergmeister Marco Holzer Patrick Long	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	251
Disqualified
51	GTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Giancarlo Fisichella Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander	Ferrari 458 Italia	215
Failed
52	LMP2	31	lotus	Thomas Holzer Mirco Schultis Luca Moro	Lola B12 / 80	310
53	LMP1	6th	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing	Klaus Count Simon Pagenaud Lucas Luhr	HPD ARX-03a	302
54	GTE Am	50	Larbre Compétition	Patrick Bornhauser Julien Canal Pedro Lamy	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1	288
55	GTC	031	NGT Motorsport	Angel Andres Benitez Angel Rafael Benitez Nicki Thiim	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	236
56	LMP1	15th	OAK Racing	Guillaume Moreau Dominik Kraihamer Bertrand Baguette	Pescarolo 01	233
57	GTC	30th	NGT Motorsport	Henrique Cisneros Sean Edwards Carlos Kauffmann	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	205
58	LMPC	025	Dempsey Racing	Henri Richard Duncan End Dane Cameron	Oreca FLM09	173
59	LMP2	95	Level 5 motorsports	Scott Tucker Luis Díaz Ryan Hunter-Reay	HPD ARX-03b	85
60	LMP2	23	Signatech Nissan	Jordan Tresson Franck Mailleux Olivier Lombard	Oreca 03	85
61	GTE Pro	59	Luxury racing	Frédéric Makowiecki Jaime Melo Jean Karl Vernay	Ferrari 458 Italia	83
62	LMPC	8th	Merchant Services Racing	Kyle Marcelli Lucas Downs Dean Stirling	Oreca FLM09	38
63	GTE Am	58	Luxury racing	Pierre Ehret Dominik Farnbacher François Jakubowski	Ferrari 458 Italia	1
Not started
64	LMP2	29	Gulf Racing Middle East	Frédéric Fatien Keiko Ihara Stefan Johansson	Lola B12 / 80	1

¹ No training time

Only in the entry list

No further reports are known for this race.

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Allan McNish	Tom Kristensen	Rinaldo Capello	Audi R18 TDI	Overall victory
LMP2	Enzo Potolicchio	Ryan Dalziel	Stéphane Sarrazin	HPD ARX-03b	Rank 3
LMPC	Alex Popov	EJ Viso	Burt Frisselle	Oreca FLM09	Rank 12
GT	Joey hand	Dirk Mueller	Jonathan Summerton	BMW E92 M3	Rank 18
GTE Am	Christian Ried	Gianluca Roda	Paolo Ruberti	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Rank 27
GTC	Bill Sweedler	Townsend Bell	Dion von Moltke	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	Rank 31st

Racing data

• Registered: 64
• Started: 63
• Rated: 50
• Race classes: 6
• Spectators: 90,000
• Race day weather: warm and dry
• Route length: 6.019 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 12:00: 12.191 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 325
• Total distance of the winning team: 1956.175 km
• Winner's average: unknown
• Pole position: André Lotterer - Audi R18 TDI (# 1) - 1: 45.820 = 204.700 km / h
• Fastest race lap: André Lotterer - Audi R18 TDI (# 1) - 1: 46.567 = 203.300 km / h
• Racing series: 1st run for the 2012 ALMS season
• Racing series: 1st round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship

Web links

Commons : 12 Hours of Sebring 2012  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Race results at Racing Sports Cars
• Race report

Previous race: None

FIA World Endurance Championship

Successor to the 6-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps 2012