24 hours of Daytona – Cadillac and Ford triumph in style

Already fast during the first hours of the event in Daytona (Florida), the Cadillac Dpi VR bearing the number 5 of the Action Express Racing team crossed the finish line first after 24 hours of effort. The trio composed of Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi (nephew of Emerson Fittipaldi) and João Barbosa was not worried at the end of the race, so much so that it beat the record for distance covered during the 24 Hours of Daytona with 808 laps completed. The previous record was set at 762 loops in 1992.

victory for @AX_Racing @mustangsampling! # Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/UYQpFF3ahv

— Rolex24Hours (@Rolex24Hours) 28th January 2018

The fight for second place on the podium was more indecisive. The Oreca LM P2 shared by the French in particular Romain Dumas et Loïc duval (3rd) managed to close a 40-second gap on the No. 31 Cadillac of Felipe Nasr, Mike conway, Eric Curran and Stuart Middleton. The latter preserved a lead of 21 seconds at the checkered flag.

After the mechanical problems encountered by the Ligier JS P2 of Fernando Alonso (38th), United Autosports managed to take the other Ligier JS P2 of Bruno Senna, Paul di Resta, Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer to the foot of the podium.

In the GTLM category, Chip Ganassi's two Ford GTs moved together or almost until the end. In the lead with five hours to go, the No. 66 of Dirk Müller, Sébastien Bourdais and Joey Hand folded under the threat of the sister car composed of Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon et Richard Westbrook. The official Corvettes finished two and three laps behind.

Lamborghini finally reaps the laurels of the GTD class through the Grasser GRT team led by Mirko Bortolotti, the new recruit Franck Perera, Rolf Ineichen and Rik Breukers.

Discover the analysis of the 24 Hours of Daytona carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2150 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.