IMSA | Juncadella thunders: “Someone runs without rules, it's too much!”

The breathtaking finale of the 12h of Sebring left some controversy behind, especially for how the GTD PRO Class race ended.

Even at the second event of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship season, the Corvette returns home empty-handed, but this time with a lot of anger for a podium that was only lost in the very last stages.

After the many battles fought over the course of a race neutralized 11 times with Full Course Yellow/Safety Car, Daniel Juncadella found himself clashing with Laurin Heinrich, who hit him and sent him out, after having already previously Spaniard had to surrender to the aggressiveness of Jack Hawksworth and Daniel Serra, who then finished in first and second place in the sprint that rewarded Lexus over Ferrari.

But after the race the same guy from Corvette Racing didn't tell his rivals, loudly calling for interventions from those who have to manage the American races.

“The driving style of many people is really low level, they hit me in turn 3 without me being able to do anything. A real shame because we lost the podium, potentially a second or third place”, says the very disappointed Z06 driver. GT3.R #3.

“I had already been sent wide by Ferrari a couple of corners earlier, but there was a lot of chaos and some were behaving excessively aggressively.”

“At Sebring at the end it's dark and there's not a lot of TV footage to clearly show what's happening, so people start to believe there are no rules. So it was a bit much.”

“It's a shame because after the last neutralization, when we took the lead, I thought maybe we would have made it. But starting again among the GTD cars was a real disaster, so much so that I was overtaken by the Lexus before of the green flag”.

#77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R: Laurin Heinrich, Sebastian Priaulx, Michael Christensen

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

For his part, Heinrich admitted the mistake that knocked the #77 Porsche off the podium, but the AO Racing boy also has something to say about his rivals.

“I fought like a lion in the final phase and I had several contacts: most likely there isn't a single piece of the bodywork that isn't scratched – explains the German – Unfortunately I had to accept a penalty at the end because I hit the Corvette”.

From a certain point of view, Juncadella's partner, Antonio Garcia, is tougher: “It was the classic GTD race with several protagonists of a war. The ABS on these cars allows everyone to throw themselves into the corners and then brake while praying that the car stops. It's not exactly the best.”

Even at the front they didn't spare themselves any forbidden shots, as explained by Sébastien Bourdais, who came second with the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.

“I'm a bit disappointed by the fact that in the end it turned into a bumper car race – says the Frenchman – I'm happy to have got out of it because we could have had four or five punctures”.