ALONSO PREPARED FOR LEMANS
Fernando Alonso feels “much more prepared” to tackle the Le Mans 24 Hours in the future after making his endurance racing debut at Daytona last weekend.
Alonso was part of a United Autosports Ligier JS P217 crew that also included European Formula 3 champion Lando Norris and sportscar regular Phil Hanson.
Despite the trio only finishing 38th overall after losing a significant amount of time with a brake problem, Alonso believes the experience was useful ahead of a possible Le Mans drive as soon as this year.
“As a preparation, absolutely yes,” said Alonso when asked if he felt his Daytona attack had given him what he needed to feel confident about tackling Le Mans.
“[I learned things like] driver changes, communication, driver preparation between the stints, how much rest we need to have, how much you need to be in the garage, how much focus you need to have in the race, how to get ready to jump in the car. As I said when I came to Indianapolis, it was my first time oval racing, first time for many things, as it happened here.
“If and when I will be in Le Mans, it will be the second time at least, so I will be much more prepared.
“The next time I jump in a prototype car [with a] closed cockpit, I know the traffic situation, I know the night driving, I know about the safety car.
“I know things now that I didn’t know yesterday, 24 hours ago, so that was one of the goals for this event.”
The race was won overall by the Action Express Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R of Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa with the trio setting a new distance record. They completed 808 laps, smashing the previous record on the current track layout of 762 laps.
The other F1 driver in the race, Lance Stroll, also had a disappointing contest as the ORECA crew he was part of lost a significant amount of time fixing bodywork damage after a puncture, leaving them 15th at the finish.
Further back, Ford was dominant in the GTLM class, securing a one-two with the car of Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook beating Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais’ machine by 11 seconds.
GT Daytona class honours went to the Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Mirko Bortolotti, Franck Perera, Rolf Ineichen and Rik Breukers despite starting at the back after failing its post-qualifying inspection. The Acura of Alvaro Parente, Katherine Legge, AJ Allmendinger and Trent Hindman took second.
● For a full look at Alonso’s Daytona experience, turn to page 24