Peugeot take early lead at Sebring

The Frenchman passed Audi pole man Rinaldo Capello on lap one and immediately began to stretch out a lead he has held ever since.

Such was the early advantage the solitary 908 had over the German cars that Peugeot elected not to change tyres during the first stops under yellows, which came out just after 30 minutes into the race to clear up the mess left by a crash between Capello and GT2 Porsche driver Johannes van Overbeek.

And that's when things began to unravel for Audi, going for their ninth consecutive victory in the famous US event.

Capello was judged to have clipped the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR as he lapped van Overbeek and was called in for a stop-and-go. The Italian dropped to 12th, but has worked his way up to sixth by the turn of the first hour.

Marco Werner inherited second in the No.2 Audi but within 20 minutes that car began to encounter handling problems, going off at the same corner two laps running, dropping to third.

Audi's early problems allowed Marco Andretti to run second overall in the Andretti Green Acura LMP2 run by his father Michael. The sportscar rookie dropped to the back of the prototype pack at the start as he ran wide on the grass at Turn 1, but a feisty drive saw him work his way back to the front.

Behind the overall top three, and second in LMP2, was the first of the Penske Porsches driven by Timo Bernhard, who was under pressure from David Brabham in the Highcroft Acura.

Meanwhile Sascha Maassen was in trouble in the sister Penske Porsche, which has already lost ten laps with what seems to be a major engine problem.

Corvette, as expected, is in control in GT1 with the Johnny O'Connell/Jan Magnussen car leading the Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta CR6.

Jamie Melo leads GT2 for Ferrari ahead of Dirk Werner in a Porsche 911 GT3.