Action Express Racing driver Dane Cameron led the 10-hour Petit Le Mans enduro at halfway, as Cadillac occupied the top two positions.
Cameron held a 1.421 second lead over Filipe Albuquerque in the sister Action Express Cadillac DPi-V.R, shortly after the field had been bunched by the seventh full course caution of the day.
Cameron, Eric Curran and Toyota LMP1 driver Mike Conway emerged as leaders midway through the fourth hour, having gone off the main strategy used by the other prototype teams.
At the start, pole-sitter Helio Castroneves lost his Penske ORECA's advantage on the opening lap when Pipo Derani swept past in his ESM Nissan DPi, before Castroneves lost a lap through contact with a GTD Ferrari.
That incident promoted the sister ESM car – started by Brendon Hartley – into second, which began a period of command for the Nissans.
Fortunes reversed in the fourth hour when Hartley's car fell off the lead lap following contact between team-mate Scott Sharp and the JDC-Miller ORECA, while Penske returned to the fray during the subsequent caution period.
At the close of the fifth hour, the affected ESM entry ran eighth, while the Derani/Johannes van Overbeek/Bruno Senna car remained in the top three.
Completing the overall top five were the Rebellion Racing ORECA-Gibson and the Visit Florida Racing Ligier-Gibson.
There have been two retirements in the Prototype category so far, most significantly the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac which suffered an engine failure during the third hour.
Despite the early finish, brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor will still be crowned drivers' champions this evening, having achieved their objective of making the start of the race.
The other retirement was the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier-Gibson, which brought out the third caution of the day during the second hour when Jose Gutierrez mounted the tyre barrier at the esses.
AS IT STANDS: Petit Le Mans after 5 hours
In GT Le Mans, Giancarlo Fisichella led at halfway for the pole-sitting Risi Competizione Ferrari squad.
Much of the opening five hours had been chaired by the #25 Alexander Sims/Kuno Wittmer/Bill Auberlen BMW, but an ill-timed caution in hour five dropped the M6 to third.
Risi lost ground at the start, but cycled back through to the front thanks to a series of quick pit services.
The sister BMW lost 10 laps early on with a power steering issue, while the #912 Porsche slipped down the order when a fire occurred in the pit lane.
The CORE-run Porsche squad has since restored its car on the lead lap, with both 911 RSRs now running well after struggling for pace in qualifying.
After five hours the second Porsche ran sixth in class, behind the pair of Corvette C7.Rs which remain in contention.
Performance Tech Motorsports continued to command the Prototype Challenge field, while Mark Wilkins led GT Daytona aboard the #93 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3.
Two of the GTD front-runners have been eliminated from contention in hour five: first, the champion-elect Scuderia Corsa Ferrari which came to a halt on the back staight, and secondly the Turner Motorsport BMW which suffered a loss of turbo pressure having led much of the opening half.
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