The Porsche customer teams put their stamp on the 24 Hours of Daytona. The 911 GT3 R from Pfaff Motorsports won the new GTD Pro class after a gripping duel with KCMG. The works pilots Mathieu Jaminet from France, Matt Campbell from Australia and Felipe Nasr from Brazil prevailed in the big showdown against the crew of the Asian customer team from Hong Kong. Porsche has thus added a brilliant chapter to its history as the most successful brand at the long-distance classic in Florida: 18 overall victories as a manufacturer and Felipe Nasr accomplishing a huge victory on his first attempt with Porsche Motorsport.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona has always been the race you have always come so close to victory. Your first time with Porsche and you claim the GTD PRO category top step, how was that experience? It was amazing, I couldn't have dreamt for a better start in this new chapter of my career. I had never been in the Porsche GT3 R before and it was a new challenge for me coming from the DPI. The transition for sure was challenging, the traffic, driving style and team procedures was all new to me. It's a race I've tried a few times to win and I can't put into words how special it was to take the victory. I have to say Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell are awesome drivers, highly professional and super talented, it goes without saying, I couldn't have done it without them. Also, to Pfaff Motorsports, they delivered the whole race and we took on every obstacle as a team.

So, if we understand correctly, the first time you sat in the Porsche GT3 R and drove the car was at the Roar before the 24? Correct, I had never been in the car before then. I did some racing in Brazil in an invitational stock car race back in 2018, that's really my only time in a non-single seater race car. Then, when the deal came along to join Porsche Motorsport, they told me I could potentially compete in four races during the 2022 IMSA season. So, I headed straight to Daytona, my first laps in the car where at the Roar before the 24. I had gone from the guy who was overtaking everyone in the lead class, to now in the car that's been overtaken by them, so it's a learning curve for sure. The team gave me lots of opportunity to familiarise myself with the car and the way they work, be it with driver changes, turning laps in the car and race scenarios.

In your opinion, what was the biggest challenge from the transition from high down force DPI to the GTD Porsche? The speed on the DPI is of course much higher and the downforce that creates gives you confidence in the braking points and cornering speeds. In the GT cars you need to understand the mechanical grip and rely on that more so, you can certainly feel the roll of the car more compared to the DPI, which is a stiffer car all round. The DPI has carbon brakes and uses a different tyre compound; all this makes for interesting challenges when you move to another class. In my experience, it's easier to step up to a faster class, moving to DPI from GT, you have to learn and be adaptive to the car styles. We improved every session with seat time and it really couldn't have gone better in the preparations from Pfaff Motorsports. We stayed honest and realistic with what we could achieve and the win is something I will never forget.

It's obviously a huge signing for Porsche Motorsport to secure your services, how did your decisions play out, especially moving away from Action Express Racing - a team you have had huge success with? I'm forever grateful to have the opportunity to race in IMSA almost immediately after my time in F1. I found myself in something that I really enjoyed (IMSA/DPI), sometimes you can be in Formula 1 for ten years and never see a podium. How often do you see only two cars winning races? For sure that's one downside of F1. I was able to find a new home, win races and championships. When you look back, we accomplished two DPI IMSA championships, we won Sebring and Petit Le Mans and for me, the only one that was missing, was the Rolex 24 at Daytona. I gave everything at my time at Action Express Racing and I know how much effort the team put in, they will always be like a family to me. Sometimes you have to grab the opportunity, when the LMDh drive for Porsche came around, I had to act fast. For me, it's a new challenge, new regulations and a great chance to put my name in history in a big moment for sports-car racing.

Penske and Porsche had amazing success 15 years ago with the Porsche RS Spyder, how important do you think Penske's involvement will be in this new era? I can tell you they're already super involved, Roger himself is very enthusiastic and optimistic. For us drivers, you have the opportunity to work alongside the two most successful names in sports-car racing. Penske and Porsche have achieved so much in our sport and I want to be a part of that, I want to put my name in history and go for those big victories in a brand-new era. It's awesome to see how much they have already achieved and how the car is looking already.

Between now and this time next year, when the LMDh will debut, how is your schedule looking? I have the four endurance races with Pfaff, we've completed Daytona, next up is Sebring. I will also be participating in the World Endurance Series with Penske in the LMP2 class. This will give me and the team the opportunity to understand the series, the European tracks, the rules and regulations and the whole dynamics of the racing. I will also have plenty of seat time to test the new Porsche LMDh which will take place across world in the coming months, I'm really excited to be a part of the initial project and develop the car first hand.