Derani Felt Albuquerque Move Was “Too Optimistic”

Image: IMSA

Pipo Derani felt that Filipe Albuquerque made “too optimistic” of a move on him that ended with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 in the barriers and out of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title fight with just over an hour to go in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

The two rivals had the dramatic coming together while battling for second overall in the race at the time, and the effective lead in the drivers’ championship that saw six driver pairings enter the season finale with a mathematical chance of the title in the new top-class era.

Albuquerque got aside Derani’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R heading into the high-speed corner but veered off into the barriers after slight contact between the two cars.

IMSA race control reviewed the incident and determined no further action.

“I think Filipe was a little bit too optimistic there with still an hour… to go,” Derani said. “We’ve seen that going through the outside of Turn 1 never really works. It happened last year with two Cadillacs, unfortunately.

“Over and over again you try and go on the outside and you just lose grip. Obviously he tried and he came in very aggressively trying to cut me off to the inside, trying to search for grip.

“But I was there and we touched and he went off.

“It’s unfortunate for him. I hope he’s feeling OK. That’s obviously the most important [thing]. But from my point of view, with an hour… to go still, a lot of race to go, he was too optimistic to go on the outside of Turn 1.”

While Albuquerque was transported to a hospital for further evaluation, Derani and co-driver Alexander Sims, combined with Jack Aitken, finished sixth in the race, which was enough to win the championship.

When asked if he was having flashbacks to the 2021 DPi title fight, that was also decided between his Action Express Racing team and the WTR outfit, Derani said: “It always has flashbacks because it seems to always be the 10 in the very end fighting with us.”

“This year, the race took a different direction towards the end,” he added. “It was unfortunate for the 10 because obviously we want to win with everyone on track and fighting.

“I think it’s even more special when you get to do it that way because we are fighting against amazing professionals with Wayne Taylor Racing, Acura, BMW, Porsche, everyone has put up an amazing level this year.

“So we do want to win on track… fair and not have someone crash. Yeah it does bring some memories back.

“But at the end of the day I said to myself, ‘I’ve already won a championship. Whatever comes this year is a bonus.’ Quite honestly I was very, very relaxed the whole week.

“I put my faith in God’s hands and did the best I could with what I had and in the end it worked out well. I’m really proud of this moment.”

Despite not finishing the race, Albuquerque and co-driver Ricky Taylor ended up finishing second in the drivers’ championship, 21 points behind the Action Express duo.

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