Audi claimed its 11th victory in the Sebring 12 Hours at the end of a thrilling race between its R18 e-tron quattros.
Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Oliver Jarvis claimed victory in the opening round of the American Le Mans Series by just under eight seconds over the sister car shared by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi.
The two Audi LMP1 turbodiesels swapped positions throughout the 12 Hours before the winning car moved to the front in the penultimate hour and Treluyer was able to hold off a challenge from Kristensen.
Jarvis, who was racing at Sebring for the first time, said: "I felt privileged to be asked to drive here and even more privileged to win. For much of the race the two cars were never separated by much more than 10 seconds. I can promise you that we thought hard and there were no team orders."
The Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota B12/60 shared by Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost finished third as the best of the P1 privateers. The Anglo-Swiss team's lead car did not have the pace of the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03c, but two dubious 60sec stop-go penalties and a lost wheel meant that Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas could only finish fourth.
The Level 5 Motorsports squad finished one-two in the LMP2 class with its pair of HPD ARX-03b, team boss Scott Tucker, Ryan Briscoe and Marino Franchitti heading the sister car driven by Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud.
The GT class provided the best action of the 61st running of the Sebring 12 Hours, the lead Chevrolet Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner Jr. and Richard Westbrook snatching the victory from the Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia with just 14 minutes to go.
The Chevrolet was the fastest car in class, but it twice had to fight back from a lap down to secure the victory. A dashboard short circuit that knocked out the dashboard and the rear lights cost the car nearly two laps in the middle of the race. The crew returned to the front only for Westbrook to receive another dubious penalty after contact with a slower car.
Milner took over the car for the run to the flag with what appeared to be an irretrievable deficit to the Ferrari shared by Oliver Beretta, Matteo Malucelli and Gianmaria Bruni. Bruni looked as though he would be able to maintain a gap to the Chevrolet, but a back problem meant Risi was force to replace him with Sebring debutant Malucelli for the final stint.
The Italian lost time in traffic early one and finally relinquished the lead when he went off in the closing stages.
RESULTS:
1 (1) Benoit Treluyer/Oliver Jarvis/Marcel Fassler, Audi R18 e-tron quattro 364 laps
2 (2) Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish/Lucas di Grassi, Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 364
3 (3) Nick Heidfeld/Neel Jani/Nicolas Prost, Lola B12/60 Toyota, 359
4 (4) Klaus Graf/Lucas Luhr/Romain Dumas, HPD ARX-03c, 358
5 (5) Andrea Belicchi/Mathias Beche/Congfu Cheng, Lola B12/60-Toyota, 354
6 (7) Scott Tucker/Marino Franchitti/Ryan Briscoe, HPD ARX-03b, 346
7 (8) Ryan Hunter-Reay/Simon Pagenaud/Scott Tucker, HPD ARX-03b, 345
8 (9) Tom Kimber-Smith/Christian Zugel/Eric Lux, Zytek Z11SN-Nissan, 342
9 (16) David Ostella/David Cheng/Mike Guasch, ORECA FLM09, 336
10 (17) Kyle Marcelli, Chris Cumming, Stefan Johansson, ORECA FLM09, 336
11 (18) Tristan Nunez, Charlie Shears, David Heinemeier-Hansson, ORECA FLM09, 335.
12 (13) Bruno Junqueira/Alex Popow/Duncan Ende, ORECA FLM09, 335
13 (11) Anthony Lazzaro/Ed Brown/Johannes van Overbeek, HPD ARX-03b, 335
14 (12) Jonathan Bennett/Colin Braun/Mark Wilkins, Canada; ORECA FLM09 (14, PC), 334.
15 (21) Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Richard Westbrook, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 333
16 (20) Gianmaria Bruni/Olivier Beretta/Matteo Malucelli, Ferrari F458 Italia, 333.
17 (31) Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers/Nick Tandy, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 332
18 (27) Bill Auberlen/Maxime Martin/Jorg Muller, BMW Z4 GTE, 330
19 (29) Marc Goossens/Ryan Dalziel/Dominik Farnbacher, SRT Viper GTS-R Viper V-10, 329
20 (26) Marco Holzer/Richard Lietz/Bryce Miller, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 329
21 (19) Rusty Mitchell/Chapman Ducote/Tomy Drissi, ORECA FLM09, 326
22 (28) Dirk Mueller/Joey Hand/John Edwards, BMW Z4 GTE, 321
23 (22) Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke/Bruno Senna, Aston Martin Vantage V8, 318
24 (33) Jeroen Bleekemolen/Dion von Moltke/Cooper MacNeil, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 315
25 (35) Spencer Pumpelly/Brian Wong/Nelson Canache Jr., Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 315
26 (34) Sean Edwards/Henrique Cisneros/Marco Seefried, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 314
27 (37) Jan Heylen/Jon Fogarty/Mike Hedlund, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 314
28 (36) Ben Keating/Damien Faulkner/Craig Stanton, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 313
29 (32) Andy Lally/Joe Foster/Patrick Dempsey, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 311
30 (39) Andrew Davis/Bob Faieta/Michael Avenatti, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 311
31 (42) Lawson Aschenbach/David Calvert-Jones/Eric Curran, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 309
32 (38) Pierre Ehret/Alexandre Imperatori/Brett Sandberg, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 309
33 (23) Pedro Lamy/Paul Dalla Lana/Billy Johnson, Aston Martin Vantage V8, 307
34 (25) Tommy Kendall/Kuno Wittmer/Jonathan Bomarito, SRT Viper GTS-R Viper V-10, 303
35 (41) Kuba Giermaziak/Carlos Gomez/Mario Farnbacher, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 301
36 (14) Pierre Kaffer/Mirco Schultis/Patrick Simon, ORECA FLM09, 286
37 (10) David Brabham/Scott Sharp/Guy Cosmo, HPD ARX-03b, 281
38 (40) Al Carter/Kevin Estre/Carlos de Quesada, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 269
39 (24) Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Jan Magnussen, Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 213, Gearbox
40 (30) Leh Keen/Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell, Ferrari F458 Italia, 209, Accident
41 (6) Chris Dyson/Guy Smith/Butch Leitzinger, Lola B12/60-Mazda, 81, Electrical
42 (15) Andy Meyrick/Olivier Pla, DeltaWing LM12 Elan, 10, Engine