2021 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Live-Blog
PRE-RACE: Andretti Autosports has the front row in the Prototype division, but all the talk has been about the team starting at the back of the class – Toyota Gazoo. Alexander Rossi couldn’t get one car off the starting line and Tony Kanaan binned the second one in the first half-hour, leaving the odds-on favorites at the bottom of the point standings. Obviously, a better performance today will erase the memory of a rough 2-hour qualifying race, but is there doubt in the unstoppable force?
In GTD, the two WRT Audi cars finished 1-2 after a surprisingly lackluster performance by the preseason favorites: MarchSixteen Porsche. The Aston Martins also looked good, while Nighthawk Racing’s “Mutant” Ketovettes are fast but need driver experience. Only one of their six drivers – A.J. Allmendinger – has competed in endurance racing.
The new eGT class looks wide open, with all eight teams battling for the win on Pole Day. TECHEETAH GT threw away a podium finish by leaving John-Eric Vergne out for a hopeless attempt to win on fuel mileage, but they should be up front with the WeatherTech Porsche and the Peregrine Audi. Tesla Motorsports will be running as an exhibition team, but have shown serious reliability issues this far. There’s also the question of the Pirelli tires being used by the eGT teams. They are quite quick in short stints, but don’t wear well at all.
GRID: Toyota isn’t blaming their drivers for the pole-race disaster – Rossi and Kanaan are both strapped in for the start. Andretti Autosport is going with 17-year-old Carlos Ramon Jimenez, just as they did at the end of the pole race, while Acura Team Penske is sticking with veterans Juan Pablo Montoya and Ricky Taylor.
START: Months of preparation gone in 30 seconds for the #4 Corvette, which loses an engine in the first 200 yards.
30 MINUTES: Tony Kanaan shows why he still has the confidence of the Toyota Gazoo team, going from 9th to 1st in the first 16 laps. Alexander Rossi is up to 4th in the second Toyota, while the two Andretti cars have dropped to 9th and 10th after starting on hard tires.
Ferdinand Habsburg is being pushed by Kevin Estre in GTD, while Kazuo Nakajima has already built a 10-second lead in the #99 Porsche. He’s closer to the back of the GTD class than to the second-place car in eGT.
ONE HOUR: It’s taken an hour for GTP to settle into the expected Gazoo-Penske showdown. Kanaan still leads, with Taylor in the #1 Penske car ahead of Rossi and Montoya in the #5.
Estre’s #96 Porsche has taken a seven-second lead in GTD, but Chase Elliott is setting fastest laps in the #3 Corvette. The two Nighthawk Racing cars are 4th and 5th despite going with hard tires, but it hasn’t worked for Henry Paul in the #009 Vantage – he’s already 32 seconds behind.
Nakajima now has a 17-second lead in eGT, with Jeff Westphal (#36 Audi) and Vergne (#6 TECHEETAH) going wheel-to-wheel for 2nd. The hard Pirellis aren’t any better than the hard Michelins, with the teams running them between 35 and 55 seconds behind.
TWO HOURS: A fairly uneventful second hour, although most teams switched drivers and went to soft tires on the first round of pit stops. Helio Castroneves and Pipo Derani have taken the lead in the Penskes, with Sebastian Buemi and Dane Cameron in the next two spots. Scott Dixon is only six seconds behind that group in the Kronstadt, with the other teams well behind. Einar Armannsson is 71 seconds back in the #7 Andretti BMW, his team having gone with another set of hard tires.
Earl Bamber has a 21-second lead in the #96 Porsche, but Corvette Racing left Elliott out for a double stint to try to keep up with him. Lisa Keto is only five seconds behind him in the #19 Nighthawk, with brother Matt on her back bumper.
Nakajima, also doing a double stint, is 20 seconds ahead of Ben Keating in the Audi. Nico Rosberg is gaining ground in the Tesla.
THREE HOURS: Night has fallen and the #7 Andretti BMW is on its third set of hard tires – the only car on the track running them. Buemi is still in the #9 Toyota and has taken a 4.5-second lead over Ryan Briscoe in the #5 Penske. Dixon has moved up to 3rd, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood in the #1 Penske and Kamui Kobayashi in the #10 Toyota.
In GTD, T.K. Wolf has taken over the #96 Porsche and extended the lead to 33 seconds over triple-stinting Elliott. Emma Kimilainen and A.J. Allmendinger have replaced the Keto siblings in the Nighthawks and remain in 3rd and 4th.
Brendon Hartley is 23 seconds ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa (TECHEETAH), Lelani Munter (Tesla) and Rahel Frey (Menlo Park). The Audi, now being driven by Mario Farnbacher, has fallen back to 5th.
FOUR HOURS: Most teams are double-shifting their drivers under a full moon and clear skies, but Chase Elliott is still behind the wheel of the #3 Corvette. He’s 30 seconds behind Wolf with the Nighthawks less than five seconds behind him.
Buemi has taken a 14-second lead over Kobayashi, with Heikki Kovalainen up to third in the Kronstadt. In eGT, Hartley has increased the #99 Porsche’s advantage to 33 seconds over da Costa and Frey.
FIVE HOURS: The first set of safety-car pit stops comes after Kovalainen wrecks the Kronstadt, and two drivers are given drive-through penalties for speeding on pit row. To the amusement of many, they are Dries Vanthoor in the #2 WRT Audi and Laurens Vanthoor in the #95 MarchSixteen Porsche.
The safety-car period has closed up the field, with Buemi, Briscoe and Kobayashi within three seconds at the front of the GTP field. Wolf is still 15 seconds ahead, but it is now Allmendinger and Kimilainen chasing him. Hartley has a six-second lead over da Costa in eGT.
SIX HOURS: The first set of Endurance Cup points is given out – 5 points for 1st, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th and 1 for every other car still running.
The quarter point came just after a set of green-flag pit stops, and Kobayashi took the points for the #10 Gazoo ahead of Briscoe, Buemi and Kirkwood. In GTD, Allmendinger took a timely lead in the #20 Nighthawk, ahead of Wolf and Casey Mears, who finally replaced Elliott in the #3 Corvette. Emma Kimilainen was 2nd in the #19 Nighthawk, but a mistake led to a lengthy repair in the pits, handing an extra point to the #007 Aston Martin.
The #99 Porsche has led the whole way in eGT, and Da Costa, Frey and Farnbacher took the rest of the points.
SEVEN HOURS: The hour mark comes during a green-flag pit cycle, so the #33 Ganassi Cadillac has taken over 3rd with Renger van der Zande at the wheel, Mears leads GTD and Farnbacher is ahead in eGT.
EIGHT HOURS: Nighthawk Racing’s inexperience bites them again, as Giovanni Friello wrecks the #20 after Allmendinger had handed him a 30-second lead. That has allowed Kevin Estre to go up by 20 seconds on Madison Snow in the #3 Corvette, with John Davis 71 seconds back in the second MarchSixteen.
Kanaan has a 20-second lead over Montoya in GTP, while Jean-Eric Vergne has put the #6 TECHEETAH into a five-second lead over Mark Webber in the #99 Porsche.
NINE HOURS: Mirko Bortolotti loses a gearbox in the #2 WRT Audi, reducing the GTP field to eight. Kobayshi leads Briscoe, Buemi and Kirkwood as the Toyotas continue to duel the Penskes. With the Nighthawks gone, Wolf has jumped out to a 35-second lead over Mears, while da Costa is 21 seconds ahead of Hartley in eGT.
TEN HOURS: The field is spread out around the track, with the GTD Audis the only cars within five seconds of each other. The class leads are 26 seconds (Kobayashi over Buemi), 27 seconds (Mears over L. Vanthoor) and 27 seconds (da Costa over Hartley). It appears everyone is content to hold station until a dash for the second set of Endurance Cup points at the 12-hour mark.
ELEVEN HOURS: A lot of teams changed drivers in the last hour, but the closest thing to excitement was Madison Snow blowing the Bus Stop chicane and putting the #3 Corvette out of the race. Tony Kanaan now leads Loic Duval by 43 seconds in GTP, Kevin Estre is 95 seconds ahead of MarchSixteen teammate John Davis in GTD and JEV is 42 seconds ahead of Mark Webber in eGT.
TWELVE HOURS: Pipo Derani gets past Alexander Rossi just in time to earn an extra point in the Endurance Cup, but he’s still 54 seconds behind Dane Cameron in the #10 Toyota. Earl Bamber has lapped the GTD field, with Richard Lietz graciously getting out of his teammate’s way, and Kazuo Nakajima hasn’t been able to cut into Jake Dennis’ eGT lead.
THIRTEEN HOURS: We’re down to four cars on the lead lap, and Kamui Kobayashi could lap Kyle Kirkwood if the race stays green. He leads Ryan Briscoe by 57 seconds, the #96 MarchSixteen Porsche is now 1:49 ahead of its sister car, and the #6 TECHEETAH is 27 seconds ahead of the #99 Porsche with the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari another 13 seconds left. There’s not a position battle within 10 seconds at the moment.
FOURTEEN HOURS: A significant development as the #9 Toyota suffers a brake failure. Buemi manages to get the car back to the pits, but they are five laps down before Loic Duval gets back underway. That moves the #8 Andretti into fourth place. One point of interest as we get closer to sunrise – how many sets of soft tires do teams have left?
FIFTEEN HOURS: Another thing to watch as we get deep into the second half of the race. The long green-flag run means pit cycles are now stretched over more than 20 laps. The #96 MarchSixteen Porsche is pitting first, with a lead of more than a lap, but a safety car in the middle of a cycle might the only thing that could scramble the stretched-out field.
SIXTEEN HOURS: Kazui Nakajima brings out the safety car as the sun rises, but just after a cycle of pit stops. It still allows Ryan Briscoe to put the #5 Penske on the back bumper of Kamui Kobayashi’s #10 Toyota. Laurens Vanthoor picked up his second pit-road speeding penalty of the race, which means the #96 Porsche now leads GTD by 2:35. With 53 laps separating Kobayashi from Harry Tincknell in the #55 eTeam Penske, safety-car periods don’t do as much to close up GTD and eGT, but Rahel Frey has gotten the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari within 26 seconds of the #6 TECHEETAH.
SEVENTEEN HOURS: Mario Farnbacher (#36 Audi) got past Justin Case (#47 Ferrari) for second place in eGT, but had to give the spot back for violating track limits. Two laps later, he repeated the pass coming out of the hairpin and make it stick. Fatigue is starting to show, as both GTD WRT Audis are under investigation for pit-road speeding. That could be meaningful, because Emma Kimilainen has set two fastest laps as the track warms up, and drive-through penalties would put her onto the same lap as the Audis.
EIGHTEEN HOURS: Ron Mignolet did get a speeding penalty in the #22 WRT Audi, but was able to keep Missy Stewart a lap behind in the #19 Nighthawk. In the meantime, his teammate, Crown Prince Ferdinand Habsburg has passed both Aston Martins to move into third place in time for the third set of Endurance Cup points.
NINETEEN HOURS: Jake Dennis crashes out of the eGT lead, giving Rahel Frey a 74-second advantage over Mario Farnbacher. The safety-car period allows Briscoe to close up on Kobayashi again, and the #19 Nighthawk is back on the same lap as the GTD backmarkers. Meanwhile, the #96 MarchSixteen is cruising with a two-minute lead over the #95 and two laps over the third-place #12 Audi, which is trying to hold off the two Aston Martins.
TWENTY HOURS: Ryan Briscoe was losing ground to Kamui Kobayashi yet again, but green-flag stops mean it is now Juan Pablo Montoya chasing Tony Kanaan. A brake failure has eliminated the #009 Aston Martin, leaving only six cars running in GTD.
TWENTY-ONE HOURS: No long stints now, as Dane Cameron takes over the #10 Toyota to try to hold off Pipo Derani in the #5 Penske.
TWENTY-TWO HOURS: The Penske just doesn’t have enough power to run down the Toyota, no matter who they put behind the wheel. With two hours left, Cameron leads Derani by 42 seconds. The other two classes are locked up for the #96 MarchSixteen and the #47 Menlo Park, barring a calamity.
TWENTY-THREE HOURS: Zach Veach in the #7 Andretti loses sixth place to Sebastian Buemi, then drops out with suspension damage. Buemi has the #9 Toyota within 12 seconds of Renger van der Zande in the #33 Ganassi Cadillac for fifth.
FINISH: Tony Kanaan and the #10 Toyota get their math wrong, crossing the finish line 14 seconds before the clock expires, but he’s still 52 seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and the #5 Penske the next time around. Ricky Taylor finishes a lap down in the #1 Penske and Philipp Eng is another lap back in 4th in the #8 Andretti.
Kevin Estre and John Davis cross the line together in the MarchSixteen Porsches with Estre officially winning GTD by 1:51. Ferdinand Habsburg comes home third in the #12 WRT Audi, 12 seconds ahead of Nicki Thiim in the #007 Aston Martin.
In eGT, with the Tesla sitting in the pits with a broken engine, Justin Case brings home the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari with a 73-second edge on the #36 Peregrine Audi, with the #48 Menlo Park another lap behind.
FASTEST LAPS:
Loic Duval, GTP
Emma Kimilainen, GTD
Antonio Felix da Costa, eGT
FULL RESULTS:
GTP
GTD
eGT
There are eight sets of standings for each class: Overall drivers, team, chassis, engine and the same four for the Endurance Cup. I'll update them in the Google Document, but they are basically just the Daytona finishing order at this point. I'll also add prize money to the budget page.