Audi continued their incredible sportscar record with a first up win in the annual Sebring 12 hour race, the first round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series.

In another thrilling race the new Audi R15 driven by Alan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Cappello crossed the line only 22.279 ahead of the Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Sebastian Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin.

Diesel powered cars took the first three places with the number two Audi of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner in third.

Acura finished fourth but it was the P2 car of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz and not the new P1 car with both the ARX-02a’s retiring late in the race with mechanical failures.

Corvette was always going to win GT1 with the two factory backed Corvettes the only cars in the class.

Corvette celebrated their farewell to GT1 with another win

  Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen scored their second straight GT1 victory as they teamed with Antonio Garcia in the final race for the GT1 version of the Corvette C6.R. Magnussen crossed the finish line a lap ahead of Oliver Gavin, who teamed with Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fässler.

In a hard fought GT2 race Mika Salo took the checkered flag in Risi’s Ferrari F430 GT that he drove with Pierre Kaffer and Jaime Melo. 

It was a good recovery for the team which had to start from the rear of the grid after Melo arrived late at the track due entry visa problems.

The Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni, Mathias Russo and Luis Companc was second two laps back with the Panoz Team PTG’s Panoz Esperante GTLM of Dominik Farnbacher and Ian James third.

Audi’s win sets up another epic battle when the cars face up again at Le Mans in June.