The Cadillac Racing teams had a mixed bag of results at the 2023 Long Beach Grand Prix on April 15th – and things started out rocky for the luxury marque with a crash in the first corner of the 100-minute event.
Sebastien Bourdais, who was in control of the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R race car at the drop of the green flag, had to do some quick footwork to avoid slamming the rear of the No. 60 Acura. Bourdais got into the loose rubber and gravel, and thanks to his cold, fresh tires, he spun out in Turn 1 and struck the inside retaining wall. Bourdais could not restart the No. 01 Caddy due to an electronic failsafe being triggered in the crash.
Meanwhile, Alexander Sims, who was behind the wheel of the No. 31 Cadillac Racing machine, took advantage of the incident to force his way up toward the front. Eventually, the No. 31 V-Series.R pitted to swap to Pipo Derani. Derani found himself in a rough spot, trying to keep the No. 31 Caddy on the lead lap.
However, Derani found a rhythm and stuck to it, and pushed the No. 31 Cadillac into second place, but he pitted for full service with four tires and fuel with 30 minutes left on the clock, relegating him to sixth place. There wasn’t enough time for Derani to recover, and he and Sims’ No. 31 V-Series.R ultimately finished fifth in the GTP class, almost a full minute slower than the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Phillip Eng and Augusto Farfus, who finished fourth.
Up front, the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet crossed the line in first. Meanwhile, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing team of Bourdais and van der Zande brought up eighth – or last – place in the division.
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