24h Le Mans
Two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Romain Dumas still has not secured the only major Endurance racing win missing from his remarkable track record, but along with Loïc Duval he came close, reaching the third step on the podium at the 56th edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, whereas Fernando Alonso was forced to retire.
The dreaded rain finally made a brief appearance early in the evening, only minimally disturbing the 56th edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, opening round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, which otherwise played out smoothly with just four deployments of the safety car, allowing the winners to beat the distance record (2,876.48 miles, 4,629.25 km). On the other hand, Fernando Alonso's first foray in Endurance racing did not last long, the Ligier LMP2's race cut short due to mechanical troubles.
As at the Indianapolis 500 in 2017, Fernando Alonso's first attempt in Endurance racing culminated in a retirement, but the two-time Formula 1 World Champion had already lost all hope of figuring well. The Ligier LMP2 of United Autosports lost way too much time in the garage under repair. Prior to mid-race, as the Spanish driver was at the wheel, the team had to replace the brake master cylinder before the accelerator pedal began acting up in the morning. Back in pit lane, the mechanics were unable to refuel and though the car took off again, Lando Norris - one of Fernando Alonso's teammates - returned the #23 Ligier to the paddock with one hour left in the race. There it remained, along with many other cars in the Prototype class, grouping together the DPis and the LMP2s, finishing 38th.
Fernando Alonso (quotation from IMSA press release): "Maybe the nicest thing was how competitive we felt. Because we entered the race with no high hopes because we were never competitive, and suddenly we picked up the pace and everyone was smiling in the garage. That was a nice feeling."
Very few prototypes were spared problems, starting with the heroes of the day, Filipe Albuquerque - former official Audi driver in LMP1 - Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi whose #5 Cadillac DPi was also sent back to the garage, as were the cars of their underlings Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran, Stuart Middleton and official Toyota driver Mike Conway. Loïc Duval, Romain Dumas, Jon Bennett and Colin Braun, rounding out the podium with CORE autosport's #54 ORECA, incurred a drive-through for lack of compliance with the speed limit in pit lane.
The race was significantly less dramatic in the GTLM (GT Le Mans) class, the equivalent of the LMGTE Pro class at Le Mans, with a stunning one-two for Ford and the GTs fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing, scoring its 200th win all disciplines considered. The Ford GTs left no room for error to their rivals trailing by two laps and not helped by the lack of neutralizations. Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon (celebrating his first win in GT at Daytona after overall success in 2006 and 2015) overcame their teammates Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais who won in LMGTE Pro at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans and in GTLM at Daytona last year. In a highly competitive class, only the two Corvette C7.Rs - third (Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Mike Rockenfeller) and fourth (Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler) - put up a valiant fight against the American marque. The mechanical problems met by Ferrari, Porsche and BMW, whose M8 made its big debut in competition, were too insurmountable to overcome in the fight for the final win.
They will not even be able to console themselves with a good result in the GTD class, in which an Acura, driven namely by Katherine Legge, finished flanked by two Lamborghini.
Ferrari, Porsche and BMW will seek their revenge at the next round, the 12 Hours of Sebring, on Saturday, March 17th.
PHOTO (Copyright - Scott R. LePage/LAT Images, IMSA): CORE autosport's #54 Ligier LMP2 brought Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval to the thrid step on the podium at the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
