Reigning USC champ Barbosa tops Sebring 12 Hours opening practice

The Portuguese, who won last year's USC title with Christian Fittipaldi, set a best time of 1m52.485s aboard his Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP in the one-hour session.

That put him more than a second ahead of Oswaldo Negri Jr in the Michael Shank Racing Ligier-Honda JSP2, which ended up on a 1m53.732s.

Third fastest was Nic Jonsson in the Krohn Racing Judd/BMW-engined Ligier with a 1m53.871s.

Chip Ganassi Racing, last year's Sebring winner, was ninth with a 1m55.062s set by Scott Pruett aboard its solo Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP.

The GT Le Mans class was led by the BMW Z4 GTE driven by Dirk Werner on a 1m59.496s.

That put him just three hundredths up on Richard Lietz in the best of the CORE-run factory Porsche 911 RSRs.

The times in the Prototype Challenge class were led by Colin Braun on a 1m55.14s in the CORE Autosport ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09 entry, while Mario Farnbacher was quickest in GT Daytona in his Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America.

First practice times:

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	P	J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi, S.Bourdais	Action Express Racing	Corvette/Chevrolet	1m52.485s	-
2	P	J.Pew, O.Negri, J.Wilson	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Ligier/HPD	1m53.732s	1.247s
3	P	T.Krohn, N.Jonsson, O.Pla	Krohn Racing	Ligier/Judd	1m53.871s	1.386s
4	P	R.Taylor, J.Taylor, M.Angelelli	Wayne Taylor Racing	Corvette/Chevrolet	1m53.914s	1.429s
5	P	E.Curran, D.Cameron, M.Papis	Action Express Racing	Corvette/Chevrolet	1m54.289s	1.804s
6	P	E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty	Tequila Patron ESM	HPD	1m54.594s	2.109s
7	P	R.Westbrook, M.Valiante, M.Rockenfeller	visitflorida.com Racing	Corvette/Chevrolet	1m54.709s	2.224s
8	P	S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson	Tequila Patron ESM	HPD	1m54.821s	2.336s
9	P	J.Hand, S.Pruett, S.Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates	Riley/Ford	1m55.062s	2.577s
10	PC	J.Bennett, C.Braun, J.Gue	CORE Autosport	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m55.144s	2.659s
11	PC	M.Goikhberg, C.Miller, R.Mitchell, G.Kraut	JDC-Miller Motorsports	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m56.068s	3.583s
12	PC	M.Drumwright, T.Drissi, D.Cheng, M.Plowman	BAR1 Motorsports	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m56.217s	3.732s
13	PC	J.Mee, J.French, C.Daly	Performance Tech Motorsports	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m56.424s	3.939s
14	PC	R.van der Zande, M.Hedlund, M.Schultis, A.Popow	Starworks Motorsport	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m56.766s	4.281s
15	PC	B.Junqueira, C.Cumming, G.Menezes	RSR Racing	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m57.044s	4.559s
16	PC	M.Guasch, A.Palmer, T.K.-Smith	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	ORECA/Chevrolet	1m57.942s	5.457s
17	P	T.Long, J.Miller, B.Devlin, S.Tremblay	Speedsource	Mazda	1m58.980s	6.495s
18	P	J.Pace, B.Defoor, D.Hinton, D.Schroeder	Fifty Plus Racing	Riley/BMW	1m59.127s	6.642s
19	GTLM	B.Auberlen, D.Werner, A.Farfus	BMW Team RLL	BMW	1m59.496s	7.011s
20	GTLM	N.Tandy, P.Pilet, R.Lietz	Porsche North America	Porsche	1m59.531s	7.046s
21	GTLM	B.Sellers, W.Henzler, P.Long	Team Falken Tire	Porsche	1m59.616s	7.131s
22	GTLM	J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet	1m59.652s	7.167s
23	GTLM	J.Bergmeister, E.Bamber, F.Makowiecki	Porsche North America	Porsche	1m59.679s	7.194s
24	GTLM	P.Kaffer, G.Fisichella, A.Bertolini	Risi Competizione	Ferrari	2m00.066s	7.581s
25	GTLM	O.Gavin, T.Milner, S.Pagenaud	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet	2m00.130s	7.645s
26	GTLM	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, D.Turner, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	2m00.301s	7.816s
27	P	T.Nunez, J.Bomarito, S.Tremblay	Speedsource	Mazda	2m00.860s	8.375s
28	GTLM	J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr, J.Klingmann	BMW Team RLL	BMW	2m00.982s	8.497s
29	GTD	I.James, M.Farnbacher, A.Riberas	Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing	Porsche	2m03.455s	10.970s
30	GTD	P.Lindsey, S.Pumpelly, J.Norman	Park Place Motorsports	Porsche	2m03.461s	10.976s
31	GTD	J.Potter, A.Lally, M.Seefried	Magnus Racing	Porsche	2m03.874s	11.389s
32	GTD	B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, S.Bleekemolen	Riley Motorsports	Dodge	2m03.906s	11.421s
33	GTD	C.Haase, B.Miller, D.von Moltke	Paul Miller Racing	Audi	2m04.045s	11.560s
34	GTD	C.MacNeil, L.Keen, A.Davis	Alex Job Racing	Porsche	2m04.058s	11.573s
35	GTD	C.Nielsen, J.Davison, B.Davis	TRG-AMR	Aston Martin	2m04.515s	12.030s
36	GTD	A.Carter, M.Goossens, B.Keating, C.Lawrence	Riley Motorsports	Dodge	2m04.695s	12.210s
37	GTD	M.Snow, J.Heylen, M.Valverde	Wright Motorsports	Porsche	2m05.078s	12.593s
38	GTD	D.Faulkner, M.Skeen, M.Avenatti	GB Autosport	Porsche	2m05.126s	12.641s
39	GTD	M.Marsal, M.Palttala, A.Priaulx, B.Said	Turner Motorsport	BMW	2m05.455s	12.970s
40	P	M.Rojas, K.Legge, A.Meyrick	Claro / TracFone DeltaWing Racing	DeltaWing/Elan	2m05.563s	13.078s
41	GTD	P.Perazzini, M.Cioci, R.Aguas, E.Potolicchio	AF Corse	Ferrari	2m05.924s	13.439s
42	GTD	B.Sweedler, T.Bell, A.Lazzaro	Scuderia Corsa	Ferrari	2m06.179s	13.694s
43	GTD	M.Holzer, R.Thorne, C.Thompson	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Audi	2m06.400s	13.915s