USC – Level 5 Motorsports regains GTD victory

À vouloir trop bien faire, les commissaires des 24 Heures de Daytona se sont installés dans une situation délicate qui a terni l’arrivée de l’épreuve. Profitant d’une sortie de piste sans conséquences de la Porsche n°22 d’Alex Job Racing pilotée par Leh Keen, les commissaires ont déployé un drapeau jaune afin de resserrer les positions et offrir une fin haletante dans les catégories Prototypes, GTLM et GTD. Si cette décision n’a pas eu d’impact dans les deux premières catégories, la lutte pour la victoire en GTD a été complètement faussée.

Alessandro Pier Guidi once again had to hold off the attacks of Markus Winkelhock's Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS. The pilot of the Ferrari #555 of Level 5 Motorsports crossed the finish line in first position, its German rival having lost its duel by going onto the grass. The story could have ended there if the officials had not chosen to impose a time penalty on the Italian, giving Victory Lane on the green carpet to the Flying Lizard. But the images proved that there had been no contact between the two drivers and the marshals finally had to reverse their decision more than four hours after the finish.

If the organizers have apologized to the participants, the Flying Lizard reserves the right to lodge a complaint following this confusion. “It's sad that the post-race events tarnish a great race in the GTD category. This race probably deserved two winners”, commented Romolo Liebchen, Head of Customer Service at Audi Sport. In the meantime, it is Level 5 which is declared the winner in GTD with Scott Tucker, Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Discover the report of the 24 Hours of Daytona produced by our special correspondent in issue 1945 of AUTOhebdo, exceptionally available tomorrow evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Thursday on newsstands.