Alonso: Brake problems were scary

Fernando Alonso admits he was “scared a little bit” when the brakes on his Ligier LMP2 failed during the 24 hours of Daytona.

这位两届世界冠军和他的团队,Lando Norris and Phil Hanson, finished 13th in their class and 38th overall in the endurance event.

The trio were 90 laps down on the winners after suffering a puncture and also a brake issue.

The latter happened while Alonso was driving, pitching him into a spin at Turn 1.

“You’re scared a little bit, no doubt,” he told reporters.

“You arrive at the first corner – it happened two times at the first corner – and you’re at 300-310kph, then you hit the brakes and there are no brakes.

“Luckily at this track you have a shortcut. At night you don’t see clearly the tyre wall and where is the escape road. So that was even more scary!

“But that’s the way it is. You try to get the car back to the garage.”

Despite problems, and their finishing position, Alonso says he enjoyed the overall Daytona experience.

“They’ve been racing with this car all last year,” he said. “They were at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they finished fourth, so it’s a car that is well proven, you know? It’s not a new car.

“But you come here and you have issues here and there, so it was a surprise, a bit unlucky, even more for our sister car because it was in the podium [position].

“We could be there; we were even one lap ahead of them in that moment [when the #23 hit trouble] so I think, yeah, we lost an opportunity here.

“But I have a positive outcome, even with all the issues. I really did enjoy it a lot. I love driving and when you drive eight or nine hours in one race, it’s much better than one. It’s a very good feeling driving 24 hours.”