Calado "nearly crashed three times" before WEC Spa GTE Pro win

Calado explained that he “gave it everything” as he resisted the advances of Michael Christensen’s Porsche 911 RSR on the way to completing class victory in the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo he shared with Alessandro Pier Guidi.

“I nearly crashed the car three times on the last two laps,” said Calado after taking the chequered flag half a second ahead of the Porsche, Christensen shared with Kevin Estre, at the end of round two of the 2022 World Endurance Championship.

“I gave it more than 100%, too much actually, but I didn’t want to give up.”

Calado explained that the big moments came at Eau Rouge, the Bruxelles hairpin and the following left hander over the course of the final two laps.

The Ferrari appeared to be second favourite when the race went green after a final full course yellow with 10 minutes left, because the Porsche was the faster car on slick tyres on a track with a clear dry line.

“I knew the Porsche would be there; in sectors one and two they were very strong,” said Calado.

“They’ve got a good car here at Spa in the dry, as we’ve seen over the past couple of years.”

#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo LMGTE Pro of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Calado explained that he was struggling on the soft-compound Michelin slick to which the class-winning Ferrari had swapped when Calado took over from Pier Guidi with just under 90 minutes remaining.

“They were amazing for the first few laps, but then I started to get massive movement from the tyres,” he said. “I even started going onto the wet parts of the track to cool them down.”

The winning Ferrari moved into the lead on the 82nd of the 102 laps completed by the GTE Pro frontrunners when the sister car shared by Miguel Molina