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Brown downplays Alonso's Daytona victory chances
Fernando Alonso's chances of winning this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona have been all but dismissed by United Autosports team boss Zak Brown.
Gary Watkins Jamie Klein
Edited: Jan 27, 2018, 12:43 PM
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Brown insisted that United was going into the opening round of this year's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship more in hope than expectation of winning the race.
He suggested that a podium or top five was a realistic aspiration for the team, which is running a pair of Ligier-Gibson JS P217 LMP2 cars.
"There is some strong competition; I think on ultimate pace we will be a little bit off," said Brown.
"A top-five or a podium [would be realistic], but I would be surprised if we are going away with any watches [which are awarded by race sponsor Rolex to the winners] come Sunday.
"Fernando is here to win. We are all here to win, but you have to be realistic. It would be misleading if I said we have the same chance as Cadillac and Acura, because we don't."
Brown conceded that the Ligier was not at its best on a circuit with so much high-speed running as the Daytona International Speedway.
"Among the LMP2 cars we have got a disadvantage to the Oreca, and the DPi cars always excel around here," he explained.
Alonso qualified the United Ligier he is sharing with McLaren test and reserve driver Lando Norris and Phil Hanson less than a second off the pole in 13th position.
Stroll confident of taking fight to DPi cars
Best of the LMP2 cars in qualifying was the #37 Jota Sport-run Oreca-Gibson 07 shared by Williams Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll, Daniel Juncadella, Robin Frijns and Felix Rosenqvist.
Asked if he believed his Jackie Chan DC Racing entry can take the fight to the DPis, Stroll told Motorsport.com: "Yeah, I do. It’s not about outright pace here, it’s about staying out of trouble.
"So I think if we execute the pitstops, the driver changes and all that sort of stuff as well as possible, we’ll be there at the end fighting for victory."
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