Calado Believes Estre Should Have Had Penalty for Contact

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado believes that the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre should have received a penalty for his contact with the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi while battling for the lead in the final two hours of the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas.

Calado’s co-driver, Pier Guidi, took the race’s restart with 1 hour and 45 minutes to go in the lead and was initially tagged by the Frenchman before both cars were under full acceleration, with Estre then having gotten alongside the Ferrari in Turn 1, making slight side-to-side contact.

The contact resulted in a left-front puncture for the FIA World Endurance Championship points-leading Ferrari, which was forced to pit and drop down the running order.

Estre’s Porsche, which he shared with Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell, went on to claim victory in the six-hour race, with only a ‘warning’ having been issued from the stewards for the contact in the run-up to the restart.

“We definitely had the pace to win then there was a contact with the Porsche, which basically gave us a puncture and put us out of contention,” said Calado.

“I think he was pushed to the right. Ale said he didn’t even want to fight because we were thinking about the championship and we even spoke about it before.

“He basically touched us. It was only a small touch but it was enough to puncture our tire and it was game over.”

Estre, from his viewpoint, believed he was “in [his] right” with the battle between the No. 51 Ferrari.

“I spent the whole of the first four hours watching the on board and I knew what the wet lines from my teammates, so I could do a good restart,” he explained.

“Then I think Pier Guidi, I don’t know, apparently he lifted a little bit in the last corner so we were close together there.

“I knew I wanted to try to overtake early so I went for the move and then we had another little touch. I was on the inside. He didn’t want to open the door, so I don’t know.

“I think I was in my right there.”

Calado referenced the five-second post-race penalty given to the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon for contact with the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Ben Barker while fighting for the LMGT3 class lead in the closing minutes of the race.

“It’s unfortunate he didn’t get a penalty,” said Calado about the incident with the No. 6 Porsche.

“What surprises me is in [LMGT3], we saw what happened, there was a little contact, they both continued on track and the Ferrari got a penalty.

“It’s hard to understand some logic but we’ve just go to accept whatever the outcome is and just carry on.

“We have to stay positive. We extended our lead in the championship in both manufacturers and drivers. It could have been a lot better but it could have been a whole lot worse as well.

“On to Fuji, which isn’t a great track for us but we’ll do the best we can and then I guess it’s going to go down to Bahrain.”

With Pier Guidi rebounding to a fifth place finish, the No. 51 crew provisionally hold a 15-point lead in the drivers’ world championship heading into the final two races of the season.

Jamie Klein contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John