Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Oliver Jarvis won the 61^st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida in their No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro – the first hybrid car to win at Sebring and in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.

Treluyer drove a storming final two stints. He took fuel with 20 minutes left but maintained his lead over teammate Tom Kristensen in the No. 2 Audi. Kristensen, Allan McNish and Lucas di Grassi placed second.

Rebellion Racing’s No. 12 Lola-Toyota placed third overall. Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld and Nico Prost teamed together.

Tommy Milner passed Matteo Malucelli for the GT lead and eventual class win as Corvette Racing won at Sebring for the first time since 2009. Milner, who drove the No. 4 Corvette C6 ZR1 with Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook, overtook Malucelli – who went off twice in the span of a lap – in Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F458 Italia with 13 minutes remaining.

Level 5 Motorsports went 1-2 in P2 with Marino Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe and team owner Scott Tucker winning in the No. 551 Honda Performance Development ARX-03b. Tucker tied a Sebring record with his fourth consecutive class win.

Franchitti crossed the line just seconds ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No 552 Level 5 entry. Hunter-Reay drove with Tucker and Simon Pagenaud. The Greaves Motorsport trio of Tom-Kimber Smith, Christian Zugel and Eric Lux placed third.

David Ostella made a winning pass of his own to give PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports its first Sebring victory in Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire. Driving the No. 52 ORECA FLM09, he passed BAR1 Motorsports’ Kyle Marcelli with 28 minutes left.

Ostella drove with David Chang and Mike Guasch. The car dropped to the rear of the field after an early-race off and contact with a P1 car in the race’s seventh hour.

Alex Job Racing won for the second straight year in GT Challenge. The No. 22 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Cooper MacNeil and Dion von Moltke won after dominating the race early, then taking the lead late from the No. 66 TRG Porsche that had to pit for a splash of fuel and brake adjustment.

Spencer Pumpelly, Brian Wong and Nelson Canache placed second for Flying Lizard Motorsports in the No. 45 Porsche. Sean Edwards, Henrique Cisneros and Marco Seefried were third for NGT Motorsport in the No. 30 Porsche.

American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patrón

Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring

Race results:

(Lap Length 3.74 miles)

1 (1) Benoit Treluyer/Oliver Jarvis/Marcel Fassler, Audi R18 e-tron quattro 364 laps

2 (2) Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish/Lucas di Grassi, Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 364

3 (3) Nick Heidfeld/Neel Jani/Nicolas Prost, Lola B12/60 Toyota, 359

4 (4) Klaus Graf/Lucas Luhr/Romain Dumas, HPD ARX-03c, 358

5 (5) Andrea Belicchi/Mathias Beche/Congfu Cheng, Lola B12/60-Toyota, 354

6 (7) Scott Tucker/Marino Franchitti/Ryan Briscoe, HPD ARX-03b, 346

7 (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay/Simon Pagenaud/Scott Tucker, HPD ARX-03b, 345

8 (9) Tom Kimber-Smith/Christian Zugel/Eric Lux, Zytek Z11SN-Nissan, 342

9 (16) David Ostella/David Cheng/Mike Guasch, ORECA FLM09, 336

10 (17) Kyle Marcelli, Chris Cumming, Stefan Johansson, ORECA FLM09, 336

11 (18) Tristan Nunez, Charlie Shears, David Heinemeier-Hansson, ORECA FLM09, 335.

12 (13) Bruno Junqueira/Alex Popow/Duncan Ende, ORECA FLM09, 335

13 (11) Anthony Lazzaro/Ed Brown/Johannes van Overbeek, HPD ARX-03b, 335

14 (12) Jonathan Bennett/Colin Braun/Mark Wilkins, Canada; ORECA FLM09 (14, PC), 334.

15 (21) Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 333

16 (20) Gianmaria Bruni/Olivier Beretta/Matteo Malucelli, Ferrari F458 Italia, 333.

17 (31) Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers/Nick Tandy, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 332

18 (27) Bill Auberlen/Maxime Martin/Jorg Muller, BMW Z4 GTE, 330

19 (29) Marc Goossens/Ryan Dalziel/Dominik Farnbacher, SRT Viper GTS-R Viper V-10, 329

20 (26) Marco Holzer/Richard Lietz/Bryce Miller, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 329

21 (19) Rusty Mitchell/Chapman Ducote/Tomy Drissi, ORECA FLM09, 326

22 (28) Dirk Mueller/Joey Hand/John Edwards, BMW Z4 GTE, 321

23 (22) Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke/Bruno Senna, Aston Martin Vantage V8, 318

24 (33) Jeroen Bleekemolen/Dion von Moltke/Cooper MacNeil, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 315

25 (35) Spencer Pumpelly/Brian Wong/Nelson Canache Jr., Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 315

26 (34) Sean Edwards/Henrique Cisneros/Marco Seefried, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 314

27 (37) Jan Heylen/Jon Fogarty/Mike Hedlund, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 314

28 (36) Ben Keating/Damien Faulkner/Craig Stanton, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 313

29 (32) Andy Lally/Joe Foster/Patrick Dempsey, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 311

30 (39) Andrew Davis/Bob Faieta/Michael Avenatti, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 311

31 (42) Lawson Aschenbach/David Calvert-Jones/Eric Curran, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 309

32 (38) Pierre Ehret/Alexandre Imperatori/Brett Sandberg, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 309

33 (23) Pedro Lamy/Paul Dalla Lana/Billy Johnson, Aston Martin Vantage V8, 307

34 (25) Tommy Kendall/Kuno Wittmer/Jonathan Bomarito, SRT Viper GTS-R Viper V-10, 303

35 (41) Kuba Giermaziak/Carlos Gomez/Mario Farnbacher, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 301

36 (14) Pierre Kaffer/Mirco Schultis/Patrick Simon, ORECA FLM09, 286

37 (10) David Brabham/Scott Sharp/Guy Cosmo, HPD ARX-03b, 281

38 (40) Al Carter/Kevin Estre/Carlos de Quesada, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 269

39 (24) Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Jan Magnussen, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 213 (Gearbox failure)

40 (30) Leh Keen/Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell, Ferrari F458 Italia, 209 (Accident)

41 (6) Chris Dyson/Guy Smith/Butch Leitzinger, Lola B12/60-Mazda, 81 (Electrical)

42 (15) Andy Meyrick/Olivier Pla, DeltaWing LM12 Elan, 10 (Engine)

Race Statistics

Winners’ average speed: 113.416 mph

Time of Race: 12 hours, 0 minutes, 11.638 seconds

Margin of Victory: 7.679 seconds

The post One-Two Win For Audi’s Hybrids At Sebring appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Audi said the race at Sebring is staged under special circumstances for the German company: the merger of the two U.S. championships, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and GRAND-AM, sees new regulations coming into force from 2014.

In the future, no Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) of the top category can compete in this race.

As a result, events come full circle for Audi in Florida: in 1999, the brand’s first LMP sports car celebrated its premiere at Sebring – now two LMP1 sports cars with the four rings provisionally contest a race there for the final time.

Audi Sport Team Joest fields two Audi R18 e-tron quattro prototypes. The current World Endurance Champions and Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler (CH) and Benoît Tréluyer (F), who are supported by Oliver Jarvis (GB) at Sebring, drive an R18 from 2012. Lucas di Grassi (BR), Tom Kristensen (DK) and Allan McNish (GB) start in the new R18 e-tron quattro from 2013, which celebrates its race premiere at Sebring.

The Sebring race track is located on a former military airfield, which Audi transforms into the ‘home of quattro’ this year and therefore picks up the threads of a successful chapter of motorsport history: for the first time since 1989, when drivers like Hans-Joachim Stuck and Walter Röhrl raced from victory to victory with the Audi 90 quattro in the IMSA-GTO series, Audi Sport contests a factory event in the USA with a racecar equipped with four-wheel drive.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro is the first hybrid sports car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its front wheels are powered electrically and thus make the R18 a special type of quattro.

After Audi customer racing’s winning start to the season with the one-two finish for the Audi R8 GRAND-AM in the 24-hour race at Daytona, Audi now targets another victory in the USA – despite difficult conditions as the race cars from the American Le Mans Series enjoy several advantages with regard to weight and engine power.

In the 13 outings to date in the sports car classic at Sebring, Audi has claimed 22 podium finishes, including ten overall victories. Three Audi drivers, Michele Alboreto/Dindo Capello/Stefan Johansson, mounted the podium at the premiere on March 20, 1999. The Dane Tom Kristensen is the race’s most successful driver with six wins. Marco Werner holds the lap record at Sebring, the trio Dindo Capello/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish the distance record.

The post Audi R18 e-tron Quattro To Compete First-Last Appearance In Sebring appeared first on HybridCars.com.

The new retractable hardtop provides all-season protection for America’s best-selling convertible. And the flex-fuel feature grants the vehicle the advantages of E85, in terms of lower fuel costs and cleaner emissions. Unfortunately, that’s where the ride ends. Transmission choices are limited, brakes are underpowered, interior materials are cheap and low-quality, and the drive-experience is anything but sporty or fun. So how is this America’s best-selling convertible? That’s a mystery.

Perhaps it all comes down to aesthetics. The Sebring convertible is eye-catching. Or perhaps there isn’t much in the way of competition. The Toyota Camry Solara is the closest competitor, and the Sebring offers more in the way of interior options. The Sebring’s ability to run on E85, and the lack of a convertible hybrid on the market, could put this vehicle on your list of cars to test drive.

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