Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website IMSA: Best 911 RSR sixth at anniversary race in Florida
gennaio 29, 2018 - Porsche Motorsport

IMSA: Best 911 RSR sixth at anniversary race in Florida

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Fifty years after Porsche’s first overall victory at the #24hoursofdaytona, the #Porsche GT Team fielded two #911RSR this weekend at the long distance classic in Florida. The racer with the starting number 912, driven by two-time overall Le Mans winner Earl Bamber (New Zealand), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Gianmaria Bruni (Italy), finished sixth in the strongly supported GTLM class. The second #911RSR with the starting number 911, in which Patrick Pilet (France), Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) led the field at one point in the first third of the race, took the flag in eighth. Two pit stops for repairs after leaving the track in the Bus Stop chicane hampered a top result.

The race for the #912 #Porsche #911RSR, shared by Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Gianmaria Bruni, ran without issues. The trio made no major mistakes, however they were unable to match the pace of the frontrunners over the distance. In addition, the caution phases at this year’s Daytona race were few and far between, making it impossible to close the gap to the leaders behind the safety car. Especially in the USA, the race director uses this method after incidents on the track to herd the field together and thus keep suspense high. This year, however, there were only four caution phases compared to 21 in 2017.

Comments on the race

Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, Vice President Motorsport and GT Cars: “We gained a lot of positive experiences in preparing for the race and at the start, also in terms of the performance of our #911RSR. Unfortunately we weren’t able to implement this over the entire race distance. The result is disappointing. We had bad luck with the two impacts which cost us a lot of time. As a result, the faster car fell far behind. The whole team worked excellently and fought to the finish. The pit stops for repairs ran perfectly, yet we couldn’t do any more. That was not our race.”

Patrick Pilet (911 RSR #911): “Obviously it’s a disappointing result. But we can’t put the blame on anyone. The drivers and team did everything, accidents can always happen, especially under such difficult conditions. This year’s Daytona race was unusual with so few caution phases. What I like about our team is that it never gives up. That’s why we’re staying positive after this difficult start to the season and we’re looking forward to the race in Sebring.”

Nick Tandy (911 RSR #911): “After such an unfortunate race we have to look at things in a positive light. For instance, one positive aspect is that the team pulled together as one unit this week. Everyone knew what they had to do. Plus we didn’t have any problems during free practice and were going well early on in the race. We now need to build on this. Daytona is an important race, there’s no question about that, but the season has only just begun.”

Frédéric Makowiecki (911 RSR #911): “Thanks to the team spirit and the great performance from the entire squad, who didn’t make the slightest mistake, we’ll be much stronger at Sebring.”

Earl Bamber (911 RSR #912): “That was a really tough race for us against strong opposition. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re not giving up. We’ll take the positive things and now look forward to Sebring.”

Laurens Vanthoor (911 RSR # 912): “Prior to the race we were all feeling very confident. We conducted very intensive tests here and managed to find a good setup for our #911RSR on this racetrack. That makes this result all the more disappointing. Daytona was a strange race this year with very few safety car phases. We actually didn’t make any mistakes, however we were simply not fast enough in some passages.”

Gianmaria Bruni (911 RSR # 912): “Daytona was my first 24-hour race with #Porsche and that alone made it a great experience which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately we had a few problems during the race. We’ll now analyze these back at Weissach and make the right decisions to come back stronger at Sebring. Our overall package is good, we have to make the most of this in the race.”