Cadillac in control of first quarter at Sebring

Both Cadillac Racing cars have taken their turn up front as the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring entered its second quarter. Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared V-Series had been leading Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing car. Pipo Derani had led the first segment of the race in the No. 31, but after the first round of pit stops, Sebastien Bourdais pushed the No. 01 past.

“Pipo was kind of holding us in tempo that was fairly comfortable,” said Bourdais. “I felt I had a little bit more grip to use in the stint and when I had the chance to get by I did and felt it was pretty good. The 01 Cadillac is pretty strong and Cadillac in general, so hopefully it holds true the whole time. We’re in a bit of a wait-and-see phase of the track, but you still want to be in position. We’ll have to double stint a couple sets of tires, which we’ve already done. Early going, but so far so good.”

A full-course caution, the third of the race, for the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA LMP2 pulled off course meant the end of the third hour came under yellow, although it was good timing for most of the GTP field that were under 20 percent remaining energy. The ensuing stops did jumble the field a bit, though, as the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 took a short fill of energy to gain track position, putting Dane Cameron in the lead as the hour ticked over. The No. 7 had had to do a full power cycle during an earlier pit stop to fix an improperly operating data logger, dropping it down the order.

As a result, Cameron led Aitken and Dixon, with Richard Westbrook in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 fourth and Fred Makowiecki in the No. 6 PPM 963 in fifth.

For most of the LMP2 field, however, the yellow was quite bad timing, and the top half of the field had to enter closed pits for emergency service. That meant two stops for each of them. As a result, what was a top three of the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA, the No. 99 AO Racing machine and No. 18 Era Motorsports entry became Bijoy Garg in the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA in first, followed by Rasmus Lindh in the No. 81 DragonSpeed entry and Lance Willsey in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier.