Much has been written about the famous victory by Formula 1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Kamui Kobayashi winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Sunday, but not to be overlooked is the great performances by drivers with top-flight experience.
Alonso and Kobayashi teamed up with Wayne Taylor Racing regulars Jordan Taylor and Zenge van der Zande in the #10 Minolta Cadillac DPI to take victory in a race of high attrition marred at times by torrential lane.
Former Williams and Lotus F1 driver Pastor Maldonado was part of the LMP2 winning #18 DragonSpeed Oreca team, sharing duties with Sebastian Saavedra, Ryan Cullen and Roberto Gonzalez.
The Venezuelan, often parodied for his tendency to crash in Formula 1, impressed his team with his speed and consistency to take top honours, winning the LMP2 class by a handy four laps, with no damage to the #18 Oreca!
Other Formula 1 drivers in the field that stood out were, former Sauber driver Felipe Nasr who finished second overall in the Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi which he shared with Eric Curran and Pipo Derani.
Nasr looked set for victory until late in the race, with relentless pressure from Alonso in treacherous conditions, he made a mistake and overshot the braking point into Turn 1, ultimately handing victory to the #10 Caddy. The Brazilian and his co-drivers had to settle for second place.
Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, who raced for Manor Marussia in 2015, was third in the #7 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi he shared with Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves.
Another man from Brazil, 11-time Grand Prix winner, Rubens Barrichello finished fifth overall in the #85 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA LMP2 which he shared with Tristan Vautier, Devlin DeFrancesco and Misha Goikhberg.
Former Williams and McLaren driver, Juan Pablo Montoya shared the #6 Acura Team Penske DPI with Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud. They ran strongly with Montoya leading at one point but struck problems which saw them drop down the order to eighth, 17 laps down on the winners.
Latest News
Loading
