Magnussen misery in 24 Hours at Daytona; Wayne Taylor Racing wins

Ewan Gale
Sunday 31 January 2021 22:01 - Updated: 23:27

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura secured a third successive 24 Hours at Daytona victory after an astonishing race which saw Kevin Magnussen's Chip Ganassi Cadillac suffer a puncture with under 10 minutes remaining.

Felipe Albuquerque, Helio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi and Ricky Taylor took the victory after the rival Cadillac's tyre failure.

Kamui Kobayashi guided the #48 AER entry to second alongside Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Simon Pagenaud ahead of the #55 Mazda, which at one point was three laps down.

The race was dramatic even before the start, with the front-row sitting Mazda failing to select first gear ahead of the formation lap and forced to start from the back.

The pole-sitting #31 AER car started well under Felipe Nasr, at one point leading by 15 seconds during the opening stanza of the race, before an exhaust problem and subsequent gearbox failure ruled it out of contention, with the #5 JDC-Millar Cadillac also dropping out of the running after damage sustained in contact with a GT Daytona Porsche during the night.

Magnussen impressed on his debut, reeling in Tristan Vautier's #5 during his first stint in sportscar racing, before pulling off a sublime move on Rossi for the lead into the bus stop during the morning hours.

However, the Dane made an error at the penultimate pit-stop of his stint costing the team a drive-through penalty for spinning his tyres whilst jacked-up.

Team-mate Scott Dixon, who was impressive throughout, rallied to cut down the gap between the Chip Ganassi to the Wayne Taylor car from 40 seconds to 14 before a puncture halted his progress.

However, Renge van der Zande replied himself to drag the #01 back into the reckoning but with just seven minutes remaining, the team suffered the same fate with the right-rear tyre, eventually finishing fifth.

In LMP2, the #18 Era Oreca of Ryan Dalziel, Paul-Loup Chatin, Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley emerged victorious after the #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca, which had led for much of the final four hours, made a stop with five minutes to go for fuel.

Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica never took to the track as his #20 High Class Racing entry was retired early on due to a gearbox issue with team-mate Anders Fjordbach at the wheel.

Former McLaren SP IndyCar driver Oliver Askew took class honours in LMP3 with #74 Riley Motorsport team-mates Spencer Pigot, Scott Andrews and Gar Robinson, finishing three-laps up on the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports entry.

Corvette Racing dominated the GT Le Mans category with a one-two finish ahead of BMW. The #3 of Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor - brother of overall winner Ricky - and Nicky Catsburg edged out the #4 pole-sitting car after running nose to tail for the race's entirety. The Porsche #79 entry was effectively out of the running from the start after contact before the green flag.

In the GT Daytona class, the #57 HTP Winward Mercedes overcame two separate clashes with the #21 AF Course to take the win courtesy of Russell Ward, Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis and Maro Engel.