Sebring Qualifying and Race Preview: Audi Takes 1,2, and 3

There are 64 cars among six classes entered into the 60th running of 12 Hours of Sebring this year. The race begins both the World Endurance Championship (WEC) season and American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season with a 12 hour race around a 3.7 mile long road course on an old Air Force training base in southern Florida. 

There is some disappointment in the LMP1 class this year, despite the 11 car field. Audi decided to bring last year's Le Mans-winning R18 instead of the new R18 Ultra or E-tron Quattro. Although, the FIA has forced changes to the car that will slow it down including tighter air restrictors, lower fuel capacity and 15kg extra ballast. Audi seems to have taken these changes in stride. In the eight practice sessions, its cars have been first, second and third in five of them.

They qualified in order of car number in first, second and third. With André Lotterer setting a fastest qualifying time of 1:45.820, which is about half a second faster than last year's qualifying time from Peugeot. 

Among the petrol-fueled LMP1 cars, the new HPD ARX-03a and Lola B12/60 have both put in strong performances. The Muscle Milk team that uses an ARX-03a was the second fastest car in Thursday's first practice and fourth fastest in Monday's second practice. The Mazda-powered Lola B12/60 campaigned by Dyson Racing has also been quite quick. 

The fastest petrol-fueled LMP1 car in qualifying was the #6 Muscle Milk PIckett Racing HPD ARX-03a driven by Lucas Luhr. 

The LMP2 class is where real race fans should keep watch this race. The practice times among the cars have been very close, and the LMP2 cars have beat last year's 1:53.815 LMP2 qualifying time in every practice session. The Level 5 Motorsport HPD ARX-03b  and the ADR-Delta Oreca Nissan seem to be the major contenders. However, the Morgans must have found a good setup on Thursday because since then, they have also been challenging for the top. 

During qualifying the #055 Level 5 Motorsports car driven by Christophe Bouchet crashed in the first corner midway through qualifying. During the broadcast, the team said that it might not be able to repair the car because it does not have many spares. The crash also considerably shortened the session. The fastest car in the LMP2 class was the OAK Racing Morgan-Judd driven by Olivier Pla.

The Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Team seems strong in the LMPC class. This class is comprised of spec cars using Oreca chassis and Chevrolet engines. 

In qualifying, the fastest car was the #9 RSR Racing car driven by Bruno Junquiera.

Until Thursday's morning practice, it had looked like Ferrari was the dominant car in the GTE-Pro class. They and Porsche both have five cars entered by various teams, and the Ferraris had been putting in the better lap times. But Oliver Gavin set the class's fastest time in Thursday's morning practice showing the Ferraris that they may still have a fight on their hands. Do not count the BMWs out though. Uwe Alzen was second fastest by half a second behind a Ferrari on Thursday's evening practice.

Ferrari continued to lead in qualifying. Its cars are first and second place in class. The fastest car was the #51 AF Corse F458 driven by Gianmaria Bruni. 

The Krohn Racing and Luxury Racing Ferraris have been putting in strong competition in the GTE-Am class. The Larbre Competition Corvette was fastest Thursday evening. 

Ferrari also led the GTE-Am class with the #58 Luxury Racing F458 driven by Domink Farnbacher taking the class. 

The sixth class is GTC, which are all 911GT3 Cup cars. No clearly dominating team has appeared yet. 

The #30 NGT Motorsport car driven by Sean Edwards was fastest in class. 

The race begins on Saturday, March 15, at 10:30am Eastern Time, and can be watched live in the US on ESPN3.com, and Radio Le Mans will be streaming the races for European viewers. If you live in the US and miss the live stream, ABC will show highlights of the race starting at 12pm ET. 

You can see the top qualifying times below. 

I will post a full list of all qualifiers when it is available, but for now the live timing is still up and you can see all of the qualifiers here. Here is the full qualifying list.