Alessandro Pier Guidi say he ‘couldn’t do anything’ to avoid a clash with Porsche driver Michael Christensen, which led to a controversial finale to Saturday’s Eight Hours of Bahrain.
The Ferrari factory driver was chasing down the #92 Porsche driven by Christensen, with the world title set to be won by whoever would take the chequered flag first. Pier Guidi and Christensen then made contact under braking into turn 15, which tagged the Porsche driver into a spin.
The Italian later explained the incident from his point of view in the post-race press conference, stating that he could not avoid the Porsche.
“It’s not ideal how we finished the fight,” Pier Guidi said. “It’s always been fair. I think from my point of view, I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t expect that he was braking so hard. He was trying to close the prototype and then I think I misunderstood. I couldn’t do anything, I didn’t expect it.”
After the clash, stewards ruled that Pier Guidi would have to hand the position back to Christensen, but the swap never occurred as both drivers pitted shortly thereafter. Pier Guidi and Calado went on to win, much to the dismay of Porsche’s drivers.
For his part, Pier Guidi claimed he was willing and preparing to let the Porsche back in front, until Christensen dove into the pits moments after the contact.
“Then they told me to wait for him, which was fair enough, but then he pitted so at that point they just said ‘keep going’.
“Because at that point, what can I do? I was waiting a lot, I lost many seconds and then I saw the car was going to the pits. By that point, I just kept going. It was a nice battle until this moment.
“I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t do it different. It for sure wasn’t my intention to do anything, and I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t avoid anything.”
The outcome of the race was met with disapproval from the Porsche camp, particularly Neel Jani, who angrily confronted Calado and Pier Guidi in parc ferme immediately after the race.
If the duo are allowed to keep their title, it will mark the second time Calado and Pier Guidi have won the world championship together after their earlier triumph in 2017.
