The Peugeot's were not far off the Audi pace in testing

The first day of the American Le Mans Series' Winter Test at Sebring International Raceway began just how the 2007 season ended - with Audi in front. The German manufacturer's diesel-powered R10 TDI set the fastest overall time Monday at Sebring, a 1:43.821 in the first of the day's three sessions that was more than a second off last year's overall pole time.

Defending Series LMP1 champions Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, along with four-time Sebring champion Tom Kristensen and Mike Rockenfeller, are entered in the Audi for the three-day test. Their car bettered Marco Werner's 2007 pole run of 1:44.974 by 1.153 seconds.

Series teams are using the Winter Test as a warmup and practice for this year's 56th Mobil Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, set for March 15 at the historic central Florida circuit.

Diesel cars held the top two spots on the day with the Peugeot 908 of Nic Minassian, Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin only 0.153 seconds back of their P1 rivals. This is the first time the two diesel prototypes have been on the same track since the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, an Audi victory by 10 laps.

The Peugeot suffered a significant oil leak during Monday's second session and did not return to the track for the final test period.

Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas were third fastest overall and quickest among the LMP2 entries. Last year's class champions set a time of 1:45.155 in Penske Racing's No. 7 Porsche RS Spyder, nearly a second better than Bernhard's pole time in last year's 12 Hours. They were followed by the sister car of Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe with a 1:45.214, set in the day's third session.

The Acura contingent was paced by the Patron Highcroft Racing entry of David Brabham, Scott Sharp and Stefan Johansson at 1:45.638.

Risi Competizione, last year's GT2 winner at Sebring and the defending Series champion in class, showed no offseason rust with a stellar time of 2:01.192 in the No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT of Jaime Melo and Mika Salo. The time was 1.247 seconds better than Melo's class pole time from last year's race. Melo, Salo and Johnny Mowlem won last year's class title at Sebring by 0.202 seconds over the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche in the closest finish in race history.

The Risi Ferrari was a full second faster than Tafel Racing's Ferrari driven by Dirk Muller, Dominik Farnbacher, Pierre Ehret and team owner Jim Tafel. Monday marked the first running of the car since Tafel took delivery of it last week.

Third in GT2 was the Panoz Esperante GTLM of Panoz Team PTG's Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, Tom Milner and Tom Sutherland at 2:03.134. Panoz won the 2006 class title at Sebring, the same year it won at Le Mans.

Also of note was the first appearance of the Bell Motorsports Aston Martin DBR9, which will challenge Corvette Racing in GT1. The Aston set a time of 2:00.148.

The American Le Mans Series Winter Test continues Tuesday and Wednesday at Sebring.

The Times

1 1 2 P1 Capello/McNish/Kristensen/Rockenfeller 1:43.821 128.298 4 -.--- 11 Audi AG R10 / TDI
2 2 07 P1 Minassian/Sarrazin/Lamy 1:43.974 128.109 12 0.153 13 Peugeot 908
3 1 9 P2 Brabham/Sharp/Johansson 1:45.638 126.091 11 1.817 11 Acura ARX-01B
4 2 16 P2 TBA 1:47.065 124.410 5 3.244 7 Porsche RS Spyder
5 3 15 P2 Fernandez/Diaz 1:48.578 122.677 7 4.757 7 Acura ARX-01B

6 4 20 P2 Dyson/Smith 1:50.407 120.645 5 6.586 10 Porsche RS Spyder
7 3 37 P1 Field/Field/Berry 1:51.427 119.540 4 7.606 5 Lola B06/10
8 1 62 GT2 Melo/Salo 2:02.837 108.436 6 19.016 8 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT
9 2 21 GT2 Hand/Auberlen/Sutherland/Milner 2:03.801 107.592 0 19.980 9 Panoz Esperante
10 3 71 GT2 Mueller/Farnbacher/Ehret/Tafel 2:03.866 107.536 0 20.045 10 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT

11 4 48 GT2 Jeannette/Mowlem 2:07.125 104.779 0 23.304 8 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT
12 5 8 P2 Devlin/Bach -.--- --- 0 -.--- 0 Lola B07 46
13 5 61 GT2 TBA -.--- --- 0 -.--- 0 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT
14 6 6 P2 Maassen/Long -.--- --- 0 -.--- 0 Porsche RS Spyder
15 7 7 P2 Dumas/Bernhard -.--- --- 0 -.--- 0 Porsche RS Spyder

16 8 26 P2 Herta/Fittipaldi -.--- --- 0 -.--- 0 Acura ARX-01B