Sébastien Bourdais: “I couldn’t be happier”

If for the overall victory, the 24 Hours of Daytona ended on a controversial duel between the Cadillac DPi-VRs of Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing, the fight for success in GTLM will have been significantly more intense, involving four of the five brands entered in IMSA Sportscar Championship.

Facing the title holders Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche avec sa nouvelle 911 RSR, Ford avec quatre GT et BMW visaient les premiers rôles, mais la victoire s’est finalement jouée entre Ford, Ferrari et Corvette.

Third after the last burst of stops, Dirk Müller made the decisive and muscular overtake on the No. 488 Risi Competizione 62 of James Calado to take control of the race and win despite pressure from Patrick Pilet (Porsche 911 RSR n°911).

Müller's teammate with Joey Hand, Sébastien Bourdais thus signs a second victory in a 24-hour race with Ford, after Le Mans last year for the return of the American brand to Sarthe.

“It's one of the oldest endurance races that everyone needs to win or lose, and to be honest with you, we didn't make any mistakes, neither at Le Mans nor here, and it just paid, specifies Le Manceau, overall winner in 2014 with Action Express Racing.

Like Joey Hand said, the car is in one piece, and doesn't have a scratch. We didn't go back to the garage, we didn't make any unscheduled pit stops or anything like that.

To be honest with you, Dirk nailed it in the end. It's always like this at Daytona. Everything that happens for 23 and a half hours almost doesn't matter. Everything depends on the last yellow flag.

You know, we left that last pit stop in third position, which we didn't like, and yes, he had to pass the Ferrari, the Corvette, and with all the pressure, he went to the end. I couldn't be happier, for Ford, for everyone involved in racing at Ganassi. This is another great achievement, and I look forward to many more. »

Find the full report and analysis of the 24 Hours of Daytona, produced by our special correspondent in Florida, in issue 2099 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.