2019 24 Hours of Daytona
The LMP2 class was won by the #18 DragonSpeed Oreca 07, piloted by Pastor Maldonado, Roberto Gonzalez, Sebastián Saavedra and Ryan Cullen.
The GTD class was won for a second consecutive year by the #11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers, and Christian Engelhart.
These drivers came from a variety of categories, such as the FIA World Endurance Championship (Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, Harry Tincknell), the IndyCar Series (Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi), the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (René Rast, Loïc Duval).
The LMP2 cars were given a 10 kg weight addition, alongside a five-litre reduction in fuel capacity, and a 4 second increased refuelling time.
GTLM saw Nick Tandy set a 1:43.402 in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, with GTD led by the #13 Via Italia Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo with a 1:45.842 from Victor Franzoni.
The Nissan-Onroak DPi, meanwhile, has an adjusted Lambda, while the Mazda RT-24P was mandated to run its high downforce rear wing package instead of “2019 Opt.
The GT Daytona class saw the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo get a 1 mm larger air restrictor, along with a related 2-liter increase in fuel capacity, while the BMW M6 GT3 received a 15 kg weight break.
912 car, whilst Joey Hand moved Ford Chip Ganassi Racing up to third late on, although his final effort was over a second off the Porsche pace up front.
This lap came during the 15-minute extension of the event's first practice session dedicated to silver and bronze drivers in the secondary GT class.
Henrik Hedman topped the charts in LMP2 for DragonSpeed with a 1:46.657 in the team's FIA World Endurance Championship Oreca 07 Gibson.
Colin Braun checked in with the third fastest time, set early in the session, in the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan Onroak DPi, while Ricky Taylor and Agustin Canapino completed the top five for Acura Team Penske and Juncos Racing, respectively.
[34] In Practice 3, which was held at night, Loic Duval put the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan DPi at the top, with a 1:34.786, while a 1:34.905 was set by Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.
None of the Mazda RT24-P prototypes turned laps in Thursday evening practice after the Joest Racing team elected to carry out separate planned engine changes.
In GTD, Bill Auberlen posted a 1:45.165 to put his #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 in the lead, with Daniel Serra coming in 2nd in the #51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3, 0.109 seconds behind.
In the Prototype Qualifying session, Oliver Jarvis, driving for Mazda Team Joest, broke the Daytona International Speedway Road Course lap record to clinch pole position for the race, bringing the #77 Mazda RT-24P to the top of the timing screens early in the 15-minute prototype qualifying session before shaving his best effort down to a 1:33.685.
This was two tenths quicker than the previous record around the road course of the Daytona International Speedway, that had remained unbeaten for over 25 years, and had been set by P. J. Jones in 1993 behind the wheel of a GTP Toyota Eagle MkIII.
He was followed by another 4 more Cadillacs, with Jordan Taylor going sixth in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing car, ahead of Juncos Racing's Agustin Canapino, and the JDC-Miller Motorsports cars driven by Tristan Vautier and Stephen Simpson, while Jon Bennett propped up the running DPi field in the CORE Autosport run Ligier Nissan DPi.
The defending race winning #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R failed to post a time during the session, after Filipe Albuquerque radioed his crew about engine problems.
[39] In GTLM, Nick Tandy set a new qualifying track record for the class, taking pole position for the Porsche GT Team, driving the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, with his best lap of 1:42.257 being a full 0.326 seconds faster than the effort by the previous year's GTLM pole sitter Jan Magnussen in the #3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R.
Lamborghini then took the next two spots on the grid with Giacomo Altoe and Rolf Ineichen for Ebimotors and GRT Grasser Racing Team, respectively.
[44] ^2 – The #71 P1 Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4. of the Sporting regulations (Change of qualifying tires).
[42][44] After the green flag dropped on Saturday, Acura Team Penske held the advantage thanks to a strong performance from Juan Pablo Montoya, who passed Oliver Jarvis in the #77 Mazda RT24-P 30 minutes into the race.
Though running strong, the Acura and Mazda cars faced pressure from the Action Express Racing Cadillacs in 5th and 6th two hours in.
In the GTD class, Rik Breukers of the #11 GRT Grasser Racing Team emerged the leader, but was handed a four-minute pitlane penalty for ignoring full course caution procedures.
[46] As evening fell, two-time Formula One World Driver's Champion Fernando Alonso began his first stint in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.
After a third Full-Course Yellow flag, Alonso maintained his overall lead, and handed the car over to Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Kamui Kobayashi with a 15-second advantage over the #77.
Action Express Racing debutante Pipo Derani elected not to go to the pits when all other cars in the DPi class had, thus putting the #31 Cadillac in the lead.
[48] Since it was the season's first race Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande, Fernando Alonso, and Kamui Kobayashi led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 35 points each.
Bortolotti, Breukers, Ineichen, and Engelhart led the GTD Drivers' Championship, followed by the second-placed Montecalvo, Bell, Segal, and Telitz.
