Romain Dumas got Audi Sport Team Joest started on the right foot in official practice for the 60tth Anniversary Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida, opening round of both the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón and the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Frenchman set the fastest time in Thursday's one-hour session with a lap of 1:48.626 in his Audi R18.
Dumas' Audi was 1.136sec clear of Klaus Graf in Muscle Milk Pickett Racing's HPD ARX-03a. The quickest of the ALMS regulars had a 0.351sec advantage over the Audi of Marcel Fassler.
Level 5 Motorsports' Joao Barbosa was the fastest driver in P2. His lap of 1:52.680 in his HPD ARX-03b put him 0.404sec ahead of John Martin in the ADR-Delta's ORECA 03-Nissan prototype. Next up was Luis Diaz in the second Level 5 HPD at 1:53.664.
ALMS teams held the top two spots in GT with Oliver Gavin's Corvette C6.R setting the fastest lap at 2:01.154. The Corvette Racing veteran was just 0.009sec ahead of BMW Team RLL newcomer Jonathan Summerton in his BMW M3 GT. Toni Vilander sat third for AF Corse with a lap of 2:01.610 in his Ferrari F430 GT.
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing's Memo Gidley was the fastest driver in Prototype Challenge after a lap of 1:55.881 in the team's ORECA FLM09. Alex Popow had the second-fastest lap at 1:56.018 in CORE autosport's prototype; he was about 0.7sec ahead of Performance Tech's Ricardo Vera.
Dominik Farnbacher set the pace in GTE Am. His lap of 2:02.988 in Luxury Racing's Ferrari F430 GT was good enough for a 0.524sec gap back to Paolo Ruberti in Team Felbermayr Proton's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
In GT Challenge, Leh Keen set the fastest time for Alex Job Racing at 2:07.308. His Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was 0.315sec clear of NGT Motorsport's Henrique Cisneros.
The day's second practice session is set for 2:50 p.m. ET.