Pole position, front row and lap record: perfect weekend for Cadillac at Daytona

Last year, for the first official appearance of the LMDh in the GTP category, it was Acura which struck hard with pole position for Meyer Shank Racing and 3rd place for WTRAndretti during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 2024, it’s Cadillac’s turn to ring the bell. The Detroit (Michigan, United States) firm experienced an ideal ROAR on Sunday: pole position and the lap record (1'32"656) with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering of Pipo Derani and the first row with the Cadillac n°01 by Sébastien Bourdais.

Cadillac has achieved a major feat in the face of increasingly tight competition (less than nine tenths between all the GTPs) and has established itself as the manufacturer to beat during the 24 Hours of Daytona, on January 27 and 28. “I am very proud of everyone involved in the program. The work never stopped from the conception of the car through development, testing, racing and what is considered the off-season., said Laura Wontrop Klauser, sports program manager at General Motors. It shows the amount of hard work and effort put in for us to be ready and keep pushing and be ready to chase the win. »

« The Cadillac was flying today! » rejoices Derani

The reigning champion team, Whelen Engineering – Cadillac, is riding the momentum of its coronation in 2023 and assuming its status as favorite. Pipo Derani, author of pole position at Daytona, highlights the progress made during the winter by the American manufacturer. “The Cadillac was flying today!” It is a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car. (…) We did a qualifying simulation before and we were a few tenths short of reaching first place, and I think we worked on exactly what we needed to do for qualifying in the gap we had between tests and qualifications, explains the Brazilian. It was excellent teamwork which made it possible not to turn things around, but to improve what was necessary for qualifying. Today the car was on track and it was nice to appreciate and feel the full potential of the GTP. »

For Sébastien Bourdais, author of the 2nd time and therefore on the first row at the start of the 24 Hours of Daytona on Saturday, this 100% Cadillac first row represents " A great day " for the Detroit firm. Slightly disappointed to miss pole position by only 71 thousandths, the Manceau driver is already concentrating on the race. “It was a solid effort, but we didn't manage to do everything the way we wanted to get a perfect qualification, recognizes the Frenchman. Nevertheless, we have a really good race car and we will now try to adjust things during the week in order to get the best possible result for the race. We'll try to execute as a team, with the drivers, and hopefully we can go from there with a watch! »

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