Daytona: Lucky victory for Rolf Ineichen 🎥
APOKALYPSE The Daytona 24-hour race, which ended prematurely due to rain, ended with a double victory for Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo Feller in the GT3 class. After Le Mans, Fernando Alonso now also took this overall victory. In the American sunshine state, such wet conditions prevailed in the second half of the 24 Hours of Daytona that the race was stopped early on Sunday morning for a first [...]
In the American sunshine state, conditions were so wet in the second half of the 24 Hours of Daytona that the race had to be interrupted for the first time early on Sunday morning. After the second interruption two hours before time expired, it was not continued for safety reasons. Regular drivers competing in the traditional season opener could not recall ever having faced such conditions.
Repeat offender Rolf Ineichen
So whoever was ahead in the intermediate standings at the second stop was also allowed to enter the famous Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway afterwards. Rolf Ineichen got to know this lane last year after a regular race and entered it again last Sunday.
Placed by himself on the great fifth starting position of the 23-car GTD class for GT3 sports cars, Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Rik Breukers with the new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo from Grasser Racing constantly mixed in the leading group. In the final phase up to the stop, Engelhart had moved up from ninth to first place, also benefiting from different pit stop strategies and mistakes by the competition.
Ungrateful second place for Ricardo Feller
The GTD winning team led only 23 of the 561 laps completed. Four laps before the race was stopped, the Mercedes, which had been setting the tone for a long time, was still in front having led for 141 laps.
The second-placed Audi R8 LMS from Land Motorsport could also have won the race due to the second most lead laps (71). So, as in 2017, the German team, which this year included Ricardo Feller, had to admit defeat by a narrow margin. For Feller, who is only 18 years old, this was his first international podium in an endurance race.
Accident of Fässler's Corvette and Trummer's Cadillac
Simona de Silvestro finished 13th in class with her three female colleagues in an Acura Honda NSX. For a short time, the women's quartet made it as far as third position.
In the dry, Marcel Fässler's Corvette was one of the fastest GTLM cars. In the rain, their race also became a lottery. Fortunately, a violent aquaplaning accident by Tommy Milner into the tire stacks ended smoothly. After a long repair stop, it still resulted in eighth place in class for the team from Schwyz. BMW took the win with one of the two M8 GTEs.
An accident ended the first race of Simon Trummer with a Cadillac DPi already on Saturday evening, before the big rain came. Team-mate Juan Pedrahita was unable to avoid a spinning GT car and hit the obstacle full on. At times, his team was in sixth place.
Alonso writes another chapter of success
The most prominent Cadillac team emerged as the overall winner. As in 2017, Wayne Taylor Racing won, this time with star drivers Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi alongside his son Jordan Taylor and Dutchman Renger van der Zande on the car.
Only shortly before the stop Taylor had taken the lead for the second time. The decisive maneuver, when he overtakes the red Acura of Pipo Derani in the pouring rain, is shown in the following short video:
Amidst all the rain and carnage, this ray of sunshine just brightened somebody's day ... for now. @jordan10taylor #DoubleHotDog #Rolex24 @KonicaMinoltaUS @Cadillac @IMSA pic.twitter.com/pVt6aVV24R
- Wayne Taylor Racing (@WayneTaylorRcng) January 27, 2019
With 259 leading laps compared to 97 of the second-placed Acura DPi, this triumph is fully deserved. Alonso is thus only the third Formula 1 world champion after Phil Hill and Mario Andretti to win the 24 Hours of Daytona, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The season's crowning achievement would now be winning the World Endurance Championship title with Sébastien Buemi on Toyota.
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