FIA WEC/ALMS, 12 Hours of Sebring - Hour Ten

The sun is setting rapidly, but not as rapidly as the chances of the #15 Oak Pescarolo, Guillaume Moreau walking away from a mildly smokey car - Looks like game over for a car that has spent all day in the top 10.

Full Course Caution (Number 10) for recovery of the OAK down at Turn 7 - Moreau had just set the fastest lap of the car's race - under 1:50

That puts the Dyson Lola Mazda back up into the top 10 overall

Green flag again and the two former teammates Lucas Luhr and Peter Dumbreck go after each other again. Great battle between the HPD ARX-03a's.

Dumbreck ran wide - allowing Luhr to pass him. The gap between the two cars now just over 2 seconds. Luhr is back on the podium as things are now.

Into the pits comes Dumbreck - looks like a flat right rear for the #22 JRM Racing HPD. New wheels and off it goes.

Not just a flat tire - suspension failure on the #22. A strong performance for the new car will soon come to an end...

#28 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola stopped in pit lane - pushed further by the mechanics.

Dumbreck returns to the pit - mechanics scrambling to the right rear.

Fourth wheel attached to the car again - Dumbreck will turn right at the end of the pit and the #22 will go behind the wall.

And off goes the #18 Performance Tech PC - stationary in the grass, facing the traffic. Will it get back on - or will this be another caution?

It's 8 o'clock in the evening and we have our eleventh full course caution of the race.

Just before the caution Andre Lotterer set fastest lap of race, a 1:47.401.

Last year's fastest lap was set by the #07 Peugeot 908 - back then it was a 1:48.141 (in 2010 it was a 1:45.704).

Pits open for the GT's now - all GT contenders in at the same time. And 4-56-155-03 has changed to 56-155-4-71-03.

Loic Duval held at the end of the pit lane - and has to allow the entire field to go by. And he's at the back of the pack again.

GREEN FLAG (20:21)

Kristensen leads Duval as we're heading towards the end of the hour - gap between first and second is now 17 seconds.

Beretta in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari is lapping quicker than the cars ahead - Marc Lieb, currently sixth in class is also closing in.

Kristensen just gained 9 seconds on that first lap under green - gap up to almost 26 seconds!

First and second in GTC, Dion von Moltke and Nicki Thiim, collide at Turn 17. Over the infamous bump they touch - and then as Thiim crosses the track to get into the pit he is almost collected by one of the LMP cars.

Kristensen pulling away at the front - 48 seconds now. Another six seconds gained on the last lap.

Milner vs Hand, the gap is now 0.007s on the line. Jorg Muller half a second further down. Epic battle for the GT lead.

Hour 10 Summary - Set-Ups & Cock-Ups

One can debate whether Stephane Sarrazin (No. 44 Starworks HPD) and Joao Barbosa (No. 055 Level Five HPD) are racing each other. They are the leaders, one-two, in LM P2, but they represent the WEC and ALMS contingents, respectively. The seasonal points are paramount but fill in the blanks of if you have two very similar cars eligible for a single spot overall.

The most unraveling incident of the hour was in the GTC class where the second place No. 031 of Nickit Thiim got under and punted off the No. 023 of Dion von Moltke. The punter came off with more damage than the puntee and Von Moltke kept the lead while Damien Faulkner took over second in the No. 23 Green Hornet Porsche.

The overall battle has cooled a bit with Tom Kristensen pulling away just a tad. The fastest lap of the race was set during the hour by Andre Lotterer in the hopelessly behind No. 3 Audi. Three cars remained in the running for the third spot on the podium, meaning best in petrol. These were the Muscle Milk, No. 12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota and the elderly No. 16 Pescarolo—making its strongest run of the day.

The continually amazing GT contest appears to be down to two cars, the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 155 BMW, with the big American car holding the advantage through the hour. The pattern of stops here are more important than anywhere.

The attrition rate has been quite low. Only eight cars are definitely out which would yield a finishing rate of 87 percent. The highest finishing rate at Sebring was 91 percent. However, that came in 2010 when there were a mere 33 starters.

Today we have nearly doubled the field and added in much variety.

JW