• Daytona 24-Hour

Brundle and Blundell finish fourth at Daytona

The United Autosports car (No. 23) overtakes on its way to fourth © Getty Images

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• Drivers:
• Mark Blundell
• |
• Martin Brundle

The four-man team which includes former Formula One team-mates Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell finished fourth in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.

The United Autosports team - which also included team owner Zak Brown and fellow American, Mark Patterson - was running as high as third but fell back in the final hour. In the end, only 3.752 seconds separated the top four.

"We got so close to being on the podium and after the excitement of a top-three result being on the cards, finishing fourth, so close to a podium, is a little deflating," Brundle said. "But I think we did a tremendous job and it was a great effort by the team. All four drivers contributed in every way. We turned up here saying that if we could get in to the top-six, that would be a good performance … and we managed fourth, so I guess we should be very happy with ourselves."

The car suffered a slow puncture which necessitated a lengthy pit stop, and was also shunted twice.

"I'm kind of disappointed but that is typical me of me …I wanted that podium," Blundell said. "My goal was a top-10 on the grid and top-five in the race and we achieved both so I think we covered ourselves with a bit of glory and maybe surprised more than a few people."

Ganassi Racing won its fourth Rolex 24 in six years as the No. 01 BMW Riley shared by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Graham Rahal and Joey Hand beat a car driven by Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jamie McMurray to the flag by 2.070 seconds.

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