Endurance races are not won at first, but they can be lost. Avoiding problems on the track, accidents and getting the strategy right, bring victory closer. And he knows more about that than anyone. Toyota, who also set his pace in the race. After giving up pole position to Ferrari in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, the Japanese brand won the American test with a double. The win went to Toyota #7 of Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez, followed by his twin #8 from Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa. For the others there was the fight for the last step of the podium, which was for the #50 Ferrari of mill, fuoco and Nielsen. A good result for Maranello, who combines this third place with the pole position obtained in his redebut in the ‘endurance’. “The base is good and we must continue working and we have learned a lot,” said the Spaniard at the celebration.
In the early stages, rivals for the Japanese were eliminated. The case of 499P #50pole car, penalized first for overtaking while the Safety Car I was on the track and then due to an infraction in the pits. Opened the ban on dropouts Peugeot #94, with problems from the very start and then electrical (he returned to the asphalt in the last minutes only with the aim of gathering information), he continued the glickenhaus with gearbox problems, and later the twin of the French house, the #93 had a touch with him vanwall that made him lose too many laps, which the latter in turn lost due to pure rhythm.
Toyota soon faced the race, before the three hours were up. The only thing left to determine was the order of the two Japanese cars at the finish line and who would accompany them on the last step of the podium: one of the Ferrarione of the Porsche or the Cadillac. By then, Miguel Molina defended that place against the harassment of kevin estre with the Porsche #6 in a wrestling match between the two European cars over potholes and between bends, from which the German car emerged partially victorious. A drop of water in the ocean, but that can serve as a sample of what is to come.
And what came more immediately in the second half of the race was a strategic fight in the hypercar with the Toyota without taking risks on his way to the first victory of the year, a comeback in LMP2 of Albert Costa with the car #3. 4 (he started 11th, came close to the podium and with the fastest lap in the category much of the time as his letter of introduction in his debut) and an error in the Porsche of the Iron Dames that he sent to the back of the class group GT after losing rear bumper and diffuser on a jaunt through the sown. In this class, Corvette #33 prevailed, and in LMP2, Team JOTA #48, with the car of the Inter Europol of Albert Costa, room. Or tenth overall, ahead of the Peugeots, the Vanwall and the Glickenhaus.
Returning to the premier class, as the sun went down, accident of Ferrari # 51, when I was going Pier Guidi behind the wheel (he hit a GT when turning it, for which he was also penalized), problems with the vanwall when villeneuve He was at the controls with damaged suspension and Porsche losing ground and leaving the podium in a one-on-one between Cadillac and the Prancing Horse. At sunset Ferrari confirmed, with its unit #50, of which it is a part Miguel Molinawith Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsenhis podium on his return to the highest class of resistance after an absence of 50 years.
