24H Daytona: Two Swiss on the podium
WINNING IN THE CLOSING PHASE THROUGH THE LAPPS Of the eight Swiss drivers at the 24 Hours of Daytona, Louis Delétraz and Alexandre Imperatori each finished third on their class podium. But it could have been much more.
The traditional season-opening race in the USA took place in sunny, but for Florida unusually cool and, especially at night, almost freezing temperatures. However, those who followed the 24-hour race in Daytona live on site or - as is possible in Switzerland - on the live internet stream, really warmed up their motorsport hearts.
Louis Delétraz must save fuel
In all five categories - DPi, LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD - there were countless lead changes and battles for the individual victories until the chequered flag fell at 13:40 local time. In the exciting final phase, two Swiss drivers were also on course for victory - but in the end they had to settle for third places.
Louis Delétraz had fought his way back to the top spot himself in the Tower Motorsports Oreca when he was beaten by American Colton Herta and Dutchman Giedo van der Garde (a former Sauber GP driver) on the 743rd of 751 laps completed at Daytona International Speedway.
Louis Delétraz: "At the last refueling stop there was apparently a problem, which is why the tank wasn't full enough. So I had to take my foot off the gas and couldn't really fight back. Unfortunately, with four hours to go we already lost about a minute due to a puncture, but fought our way back. Otherwise it might still have been enough."
At the 24 Hours of Le Mans last June, the driver from Geneva was leading until the last lap before the LMP2 car fell victim to an electric gremlin.
Wheel-to-wheel duel for GT victory
Slightly disappointed at narrowly missing out on victory, which at Daytona is always rewarded with a coveted Rolex chronograph for all the drivers, was Alexandre Imperatori, too, although the man from Freiburg was also on the podium in the end.
In an epic duel between two Porsche factory drivers, his partner Laurens Vanthoor lost out to Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet in the final kilometers. The collision in the final chicane resulted in a half spin by the Belgian, after which a Ferrari also passed in second place. After all, it was the first podium at Daytona for both Imperatori and Delétraz.
Müller/Shearer accident
Nicolas Lapierre of Franco-Switzerland, who competes under a French license, finished in a thankless fourth place with his LMP2 team, just 13 seconds behind the winning team.
The Oreca of Nico Müller and Fabio Scherer, which had been leading several times, retired in the middle of the night shortly before half-time due to an accident with the Lucerne driver at the wheel that cannot yet be explained. Until then, Müller had set his team's fastest race lap and the twelfth-best of all 40 LMP2 drivers.
No repeat for Ellis
Leading laps were also collected by three hapless Swiss with their GT3 cars. The Mercedes-AMG with last year's winner Philip Ellis had to make a time-consuming pit stop on Sunday morning after a total of 151 laps at the head of the GTD class due to bodywork damage. Eight laps down, it was down to 6th place.
After just three and a half hours, the race was over for Raffaele Marciello's Mercedes. For Rolf Ineichen, class winner in 2018 and 2019, and his Lamborghini teammates, the fun was over after 400 laps in the 14th hour, having just taken the lead.
Acura/Honda defeats Cadillac
Overall victory went to the Acura DPi of Indy champions Helio Castroneves (BR) and Simon Pagenaud (F) and Oliver Jarvis (GB) and Tom Blomqvist (S). The American Honda brand Acura celebrated a one-two victory over the five Cadillacs also competing in the premier DPI class.
The four fastest teams each covered around 4354 kilometers with an average of 181.3 km/h. The complete results are available at this Link.
Overall standings 24H Daytona 2022
daytonainternationalspeedway.com
