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After 8 hours of racing –
2/3rds distance – the 54th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring is
witnessing a truly enthralling battle for the GT2 lead with
less than three seconds separating the top two cars out on
the track. As the dusk moved over the Florida circuit and
the 8 hour mark ticked by Sebastien Bourdais in the no 50
Multimac Motorsports Panoz Esperante GTLM was just 2.826
seconds ahead of Anthony Lazzaro at the wheel of the no 62
Risi Competizione Ferrari F430GT. Third placed Marc Lieb, in
the first of the many Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entries, was 25
seconds further back.
This has been the story of the race thus far: the Risi
Competizione Ferrari F430GT and the surviving Panoz
Esperante GTLM, continually swapping positions at the front
of the GT2 pack as a truly frenetic pace has been set at the
front. Several highly-touted car/driver combinations have
been left trailing, quite simply unable to keep up with the
race leaders’ pace.
As darkness rolls in, the temperatures are starting to drop
under the cloudless skies, ideal conditions for the four
hours night racing that loom up ahead of the waving of the
chequered flag. “The car is going great. It’s very solid, no
problems to report,” says Risi Cometizione’s new Brazilian
driver Jaime Melo who is in his first race with the team.
“It’s very easy to drive, the finish is going to be a quite
a battle,” he adds.
“The car is going quite
superbly,” says Chief Engineer Rick Mayer, “we really
couldn’t have asked Ferrari to deliver us a better package.
With a brand-new car it is always a concern getting it set
up, especially in this case with the car arriving just in
time to compete here, but we have had no worries, it’s
really flying, he says. “We expect to be quick during the
later hours of the race, and our drivers were very fast in
Thursday evening night practice, so the whole combination
looks to be very strong. We are likely undertake a routine
brake change shortly which will set us up nicely for the
fight to the finish.
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