Photo : Nicolas COUSSEAU - ACO/Nikon

Tuesday, the second day of free practice at Sebring; two sessions of one hour each were held in sunny Florida, the Audi of Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller set the fastest time.

The teams are hard at work and there were few cars that chased the clock during the two hours of testing today. The best time was set by the Audi R15+ TDI #1 that is shared by the three winners of the 24 Heures of Le Mans 2010: Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller. The fastest lap by the German LM P1 was 1'48''450 (avg: 197.66 km/h) and was set during the morning session. They also set the best time of the afternoon (1'49''271).

Since Monday morning, the machine that remains the fastest is the 908 #8, having put in a 1'47''678 yesterday with Montagny at the wheel of the car he shares with Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin. These lap times are still far from pole position time last year (Gené, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP: 1'45''214) or the best time ever (Bourdais, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP in 1'43''274 race in 2009) on the current course layout of 5.95 miles. However it is impossible to draw any conclusions. The cars have evolved so much since then and qualification is very different from the long work sessions which the teams have been engaged in since the beginning of the week.

In LM P2, the Oreca 03-Nissan of Signatech continues to dominate the proceedings. This car, as on Monday, was fastest after two Tuesday sessions. The best lap time of the day was: 1'55''627.

In GTE, the battle raged again. The BMW Farfus / Werner / Auberlen, swiftest on Monday, was succeeded at the top of the timesheets by Ferrari F430 Fisichella / Bruni and Kaffer (2'01''873) on Tuesday afternoon (compared with 2'01''562 for BMW on Monday) ahead of the Corvette of Magnussen/Gavin/Westbrook (2'02''243; set on Tuesday morning).

Finally, in the GTE-Am Corvette of Larbre Competition has dominated its opponents with 2'04''631 set on Tuesday morning. 

Competitors of the 12 Hours of Sebring will not take to the track on Wednesday 16th March. The first official practice for the 59th running of this great classic American will also be the first round of the 2011 ILMC, begins on Thursday at 10h15 at Sebring (15h15 in France / 14:15UK). There are two one-hour sessions scheduled for this day, the second is scheduled at 15h05 (20h05 in France / 19:05UK). The qualifying will take place on Friday, 18th March between 15:00 and 16:05 (20h00 - 21h05 in France / 19:00-20:05 UK). The start of the 12 Hours of Sebring will be on Saturday, 19th March at noon (17h in France / 16:00UK).

Photo: Sebring (Florida, USA), 15 March, 2011. The Audi R15+ TDI  Bernhard / Dumas / Rockenfeller set the best time of Tuesday, the second day of free practice.