Filipe Albuquerque of the #10 Acura led after seven hours completed at the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s 27th running of Petit Le Mans.
With the 10-hour IMSA season finale heading into the latter half of the race, the day drew to evening and eventually night-time.
This meant that the clear, blue skies and ambient temperatures begun to fall naturally.
Furthermore, tyre management is affected in the way that the performance will differ slightly in the nighttime in comparison to the daytime.
At the turn of the sixth racing hour, the fight for the overall lead in the GTP category was still hot as ever.
Both Porsche Penske and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura cars proved to be the strongest team effort so far.
The top-four ran as Nick Tandy’s #6 Porsche 963, followed by teammate #7 Porsche of Dane Cameron and Brendon Hartley’s #10 Acura ARX-06.
Unfortunately for Tandy, he unintentionally nudged off the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 – of Roberto Lacorte – at Turn 3.
From the lead, Tandy served his subsequent drive-through penalty which put him in third whilst Cameron took the lead.
Hartley, however, maintained strong pace so as to take the lead from Cameron at the chicane before Tandy overtook Cameron.
Acura lead the way in GTP
Albuquerque held the lead in the #10 WTRAndretti Acura, followed by Mathieu Jaminet’s #6 Porsche Penske.
The other Porsche Penske, the #7, of Matt Campbell took third position.
Sebastien Bourdais took fourth in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, followed by the other #31 Cadillac of Pipo Derani.
Meanwhile in LMP2, Hunter McElrea headed the charge for the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07.
Josh Burdon followed in second for the #74 Riley Oreca, and Ryan Dalziel’s #18 Era Motorsport Oreca in third place.
Tower Motorsports’ #8 Oreca, driven by Sebastien Alvarez, ran in fourth whilst the MDK High Class Racing #20 Oreca was in fifth with Seth Lucas.
A close fight in the GT classes
In GTD Pro, the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was in the lead by the seventh racing hour.
Jordan Pepper situated himself ahead of the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296, who were their closest rivals for the win.
Alessandro Pier Guidi piloted the #62 Ferrari in second, as Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas ran in third.
Behind the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo was Dirk Mueller’s #65 Ford Multimatic Mustang GT3 in fourth.
Daniel Juncadella rounded off the top-five in the competitively-running #3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
At the front of GTD was the #32 Team Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Mike Skeen in control.
Behind him was the eager #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini of Delvin Francesco, who kept Skeen on edge in second place.
Vasser Sullivan’s only running Lexus RC F GT3, the #12, ran in third with Aaron Telitz driving.
Proton Competition was in fourth place with their #55 Ford Mustang and Giorgio Levorato at the wheel.
Rounding off the top-five was the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 of Patrick Gallagher.
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