He finished the Rolex 24 at Daytona laying in a hospital bed after a dramatic impact, but Matteo Malluceli bounced back in the best possible way this morning at Sebring by topping the timesheets for the opening practice of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Malluceli was limping back to the pits at Daytona when Memo Gidley’s Daytona Prototype ducked out from behind a another car and slammed into the back of the Ferrari.

The Risi team were forced to miss the Sebring test with Malluceli drafted in at the Risi-run Krohn Racing entry to get some miles under his belt.

The newly rebuilt No.62 red Risi Ferrari was strong from the green flag this morning with Malleceli setting the fastest GTLM time – stopping the clocks at 2 minutes, 12.279 seconds to outpace the two Corvette entries.

“So far the weekend has started well!” Malluceli said.

“The team has done a great job to repair the car in the last two weeks and it’s good to get back to driving here at Sebring.

“We still have some work to do on the set up to make the car good for all of us, but it is a good start. I’m happy to be back.”

At the front of the field, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon set the pace aboard his Daytona Prototype ahead of Alex Brundle in the Oak Racing P2 car.

Cars and teams will be back on track this afternoon at 4:05pm for the second practice session.

Click here to view live timing from on track at Sebring….