The first hour of the 60th Anniversary Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring is in the books and, while the front of the field has stayed relatively stable, other teams and manufacturers haven't been so fortunate.
Ferrari, in particular, has had a fraught start to its afternoon, with four of the eight 458s entered encountering some sort of problem. The No. 58 Luxury Racing 458, the polesitting GTE Am entry in the hands of Dominik Farnbacher, contacted the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 driven by Jorg Bergmeister, on the warm-up lap. That sent the No. 45 car to the garage to repair its broken rear suspension. The incident was ruled “no further action.” Just past one hour, the No. 58 was announced as the race's first official retirement.
The sister No. 51 458, the polesitter in GTE Pro in the hands of AF Corse, has also gone behind the wall. Its team entry, the No. 61 GTE Am 458, was also on-and-off course and behind the wall.
Extreme Speed's all-pro No. 01 458 with Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Guy Cosmo driving also went behind the wall to replace an alternator belt.
On the flip side, the Falken Porsche team worked a minor miracle to even make the grid. An engine failure right at the end of the morning warm-up required the team to change engines, which they did within an hour and a half. Wolf Henzler made it out to the pits on the second and final warm-up lap, and through one hour, has climbed to 37th overall of 63 starters.
The Audis have primarily led overall, with Muscle Milk's HPD ARX-03a best non-diesel and ALMS runner to this point. OAK Racing and Greaves Motorsport are battling for the LMP2 lead, with RSR, Dempsey and Performance Tech in the hunt in PC.
GT-wise, it's been mostly the No. 59 Luxury Ferrari up front although Corvette, BMW and Aston Martin have taken turns in the lead.