James Calado was naturally disappointed to see his chance of victory in the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona disappear when he was passed for the lead in the final half hour into turn one.
The Briton was running at the head of the field in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari before being passed for the lead by the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing machine of Dirk Muller, while the move also allowed the #911 Porsche GT Team machine of Patrick Pilet into second.
Calado, who shared the Ferrari 488 GTLM machine with Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander, felt the team did a solid job throughout the 24 hours of the event but ultimately felt third was the best they could have managed.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed we didn’t get the win, but I gave it my all,” admitted Calado. “I had to save fuel for the first half of the stint, which cost me a lot of performance in that time and I had to do it or we wouldn’t have made it to the end.
“Then, the full yellow came out and I was able to push the gap and maintain, but the Ford was just too fast. I caught the Porsche at the end, but third was the best we could do. The team did a great job as did both Toni and Giancarlo and I was glad to get to race again with the entire Risi Competizione team.”
