Sebring, 15th March - Ferrari has won the Sebring 12 Hours, the second round of this year's IMSA Championship. The 333 SP No. 3 Team Scandia car driven by Yannick Dalmas, Stefan Johansson, Fermin Velez and Andy Evans was first past the flag at the end of a very closely fought race. After an unlucky start, which saw Dalmas forced to pit to change a punctured tyre after being rammed by Leitzinger's Ford, the Maranello car was in the lead after one hour. The battle for the lead in the first half of the race was very close, with Team MOMO's Ferrari No. 30 also in the running, driven by the team of Gianpiero Moretti, Didier Theys, Antonio Hermann and Andrea Montermini, as well as the Ford Riley & Scott Mk III of James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger, Andy Wallace and John Paul Jr. Unfortunately, the third 333 SP entered, Team Scandia's second car, in the hands of Evans, Velez and Charles and Rob Morgan, was delayed by an engine problem which necessitated a long stop of around two hours to fix the problem. When the cause of the problem had been traced to a spark plug, it proved impossible to make up the 16 laps to the leaders. Furthermore, an accident finally put it out of the running. In the eighth hour of the race, a collision also accounted for the Team MOMO Ferrari. Having been left behind by the leaders after an error in calculating the amount of fuel required during a refuelling stop, the 333 SP Number 30, driven at that moment by Antonio Hermann was unable to avoid a collision with the Porsche 911 Turbo of Freeman - Gregg - Duffy, which was sideways blocking the track. The Ferrari, which had been running third behind Weaver's Ford and the other Ferrari, was too badly damaged to continue. The American can which had won the opening round of the season, the Daytona 24 Hours, had taken the lead at around the seventh hour, profiting from a somewhat slow handover between Dalmas and Evans, and had built up a slight lead. In the last five hours, the surviving Ferrari, driven alternately by Dalmas and Johansson was locked in a furious battle with the Ford which it eventually won during the tenth hour. Once in the lead, the Ferrari kept it until the end, finishing the race with around 50 seconds lead over the Ford, having covered 281 laps. The key moment was the decision not pit and change brakes on the 333 SP, while the Team Dyson car did. In third place, although 13 laps down, was the Oldsmobile Riley & Scott MkIII of Dibos - Pace - Waddell, followed by the Mazda Kuzdu of Downing - McAdam - Nearburg. This was Ferrari's eleventh win in America's oldest endurance race. The first success came in 1956 when Manuel Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti won in an 860 Monza. The 333 SP had already won Sebring in 1995, again with a Team Scandia car, then in the hands of Evans, Velez and Van de Poele. The following year, Evans came second with Michele Alboreto and Mauro Baldi, ahead of the Team MOMO car.
Ferrari Press Release
