Peugeot controlled the opening hour of the Sebring 12 Hours despite the best efforts of Allan McNish and Audi to get into the lead battle.
McNish managed to get up to second into the first corner of the race, but by the end of lap one Franck Montagny and Alex Wurz had established a Peugeot 1-2. That formation remained at the end of the hour, although McNish had briefly split the 908s again during some fraught racing on the restart after the event's only yellow so far.
The two Audis held third and fourth until the No. 1 car of Mike Rockenfeller sustained left-rear tire and bodywork damage just before the one-hour mark and had to pit for repairs.
Highcroft's HPD is the top gas car in fourth, under pressure from Nicolas Lapierre in the ORECA Peugeot, which fell down the order when penalized for entering a closed pit lane during the yellow but needed only a handful of laps to get back into the top six.
Risi's new Ferrari 458 leads GT in Jaime Melo's hands, chased by Oliver Gavin's No. 04 Corvette and Dirk Werner in the No. 55 BMW.
Gavin had led the opening laps and even pulled away for a while until hunted down and attacked by the AF Corse Ferrari and the two BMWs. But the pit stops saw AF Corse drop back and Risi surge to the front, while Dirk Muller's No. 56 BMW lost ground when it suffered damage in a brush with Christophe Bouchut's LMP2 Level 5 Lola-Honda.