Ryan Briscoe wins Sebring LMP2 as Audi dominates

Australian former IndyCar pilot, Ryan Briscoe can add a win at the Sebring 12 Hours to his extensive CV, taking out the LMP2 category with Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker, whilst the Audi e-Tron of Benoit Treluyer, Oliver Jarvis and Marcel Fassler dominated overall.

The latter trio took the win by 7.6 seconds over the other Audi in the field piloted by seven times Sebring winner, Tom Kristensen.

The number one machine had to overcome a broken floor to take victory – the last for LMP1 for the time being at the time honoured event.

The Toyota-powered Rebellion Racing machine of Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost came home third, albeit five laps behind the all-conquering Audi, the four ringed German marque recording its 11th Sebring win.

In LMP2, David Brabham had been leading until his HPD had a gearbox drama and stopped on track. The second Tucker-owned HPD took the lead with Tucker doing double duty in both cars with Simon Pagenaud and Ryan Hunter-Reay, before the Briscoe piloted car was able to slip into the lead. The car occupied by the Australian finished sixth overall.

It is Tucker’s fourth straight class win at the event, tying the record for most consecutive wins.

Bad news for the DeltaWing making its much awaited return to racing, with a terminal engine failure putting it out of the race just after the second hour.

Corvette won the GT category with Oliver Gavin, Richard Westbrook and Tom Milner overcoming the Ferrari charge from Gianmaria Bruni.

Meantime, the Porsche piloted by Jeroen Bleekemolen won the GTC class.

Michelin tyres occupied the top seven placings in the  final results.