A Ferrari 488 has finished on the podium for the first time in one of the world’s classic endurance racing contests, the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Driving the no. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, Ferrari factory drivers James Calado, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander drove to a third-place finish in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Daytona. In the hard-fought GT-LeMans class, which saw the top three cars separated by a little more than three seconds, the Risi Competizione Ferrari stayed near the front of the field throughout the race.
In the race’s closing hours, the Risi Competizione Ferrari was locked in a battle for the lead which would not be settled until the very last lap. The third place for Risi Competizione mirrored the third-place finish achieved by Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team Ferrari 412P in Ferrari’s sweep of the podium fifty years previous in the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona. As well, it was the third podium finish for Risi Competizione in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
In the GT-Daytona class, the pair of Ferrari 488 GT3s demonstrated the championship-winning speed that the car has shown since its debut in 2016. However, the great pace shown by both cars was not rewarded with a deserving finish.
The no. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 led the opening stages but retired before the sixth hour of the race. However, Alessandro Pier Guidi, who qualified the Spirit of Race Ferrari on the pole position, set the fastest lap of the race in the GT-Daytona class at 1:46.972.
The no. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, shared by defending GT-Daytona champions Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen, as well as Ferrari factory driver Sam Bird and Matteo Cressoni, ran near the front of the field throughout the race with the Ferrari taking the lead several times. However, the car was forced to retire while in the lead with less than two hours remaining.
The next race of the IMSA championship will be the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 18 at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida.
