Nearing the halfway point of the 12 hour Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Flying Lizard No. 45 is third in GT2 with Marc Lieb behind the wheel and Darren Law in the No. 44 is 9th. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari is in the lead and the No. 92 Rahal Letterman BMW is second.
Joerg Bergmeister started on the pole, but moved to P2 on the first lap as Wolf Henzler in the Falken No. 17 Porsche edged into the lead at the start. Joerg retook the lead 30 minutes later, with the No. 62 in P2, the No. 3 Corvette in P3 and the No. 4 Corvette in P4. An early pit stop under green by the No. 62 Ferrari and No. 92 BMW left the No. 45 and the two Corvettes jockeying for the lead.
The early pit stop worked in Risi and Rahal’s favor – when the rest of the GT2 field, including the No. 45, pitted under the first yellow shortly after the No. 92 and the No. 62 had pitted, both of those cars stayed out, securing their one/two positions, with the No. 92 in the lead. Just after the yellow, the No. 62, in second, passed the No. 92 to take the lead – which he’s held ever since. Coming off the first Lizard pit stop, Patrick Long now in the No. 45 had to settle for fourth, then passed the No. 3 Corvette to take third. An unscheduled pit stop by the No. 3 Corvette for a pit lane repair took some of the pressure off, but after the second round of GT2 pit stops, Marc Lieb was now in P4, the No. 4 Corvette in P3, the No. 92 in P2 and the No. 62 in the lead -all four on the same lap. By this time, the No. 44 had moved to P10.
In fourth, Marc Lieb continued to put pressure on the No. 4 Corvette, but was unable to pass. He stayed close until the No. 4 pitted, a lap or so before Marc was scheduled to pit. At hour 3, an accident in pit lane between the No. 3 Corvette, which was just finishing his pit stop, and the No. 4 Corvette, which was coming in, resulted in damage to both cars, and pushing the No. 4 back in the field and the No. 45 back into a solid third.
The No. 62, No. 92 and No. 45 have run first, second and third for the last 3 hours – all in a similar pace. At the six-hour mark, the No. 92 is just seconds behind the No. 62 and the No. 45 is about 40 seconds back from the No. 62.
- Flying Lizard Motorsport
