Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia may be the reigning GT champs from the ALMS but despite showing strong speed today, the Danish/Spanish duo combined with Australian Ryan Briscoe will have a rough start to the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The No.3 Corvette Racing entry with Magnussen at the wheel was unable to set a time in qualifying – sending them into a traffic filled opening stint for the race.

The Risi Ferrari of Gimmi Bruni also suffered a similar fate – electronics issues forcing them to the back of the grid.

“Obviously starting down the order like this changes things a little. It’s still a long, long race but it’s a shame that we didn’t get to have a proper qualifying session and place ourselves on the grid where we deserve to be,” Magnussen said.

“I’m not sure of the problem but it was big enough that we couldn’t qualify. We will attack the race from where we start and see what that gets us. It’s not the end of all things, but it’s not optimal either. We can come back from this, I’m sure. We will have to work a little bit harder.”

Bruni left the pits for the start of the 15-minute session but, to the disappointment of the whole team, didn’t manage to complete a single flying lap due to what appeared to be a gearbox electronics issue.  He managed to return to the pits but the problem was not diagnosed immediately due to regulations preventing work taking place in the pits during qualifying, and thus the Ferrari will be forced to start the race from the back of the grid.

A disconsolate Gimmi Bruni said afterwards: “We had what we think was an electronics issue.  We were stuck in gear and losing power, so it wasn’t a good start to our weekend.”

Team Principal Giuseppe Risi added:  “The car had had no gearbox work done on it following practice as it was running fine but we all know that electronic problems can occur at any time.  It’s a horrible start to our weekend but we have to look forward now and not back, and face the increased challenge presented to us for the race ahead.”