Porsche’s Felipe Nasr leads from his teammate Kevin Estre with an hour gone at Daytona, but it’s been a chaotic first hour with two full course cautions already.
Nasr, in the #7 Porsche, started third with polesitter Renger van der Zande initially keeping the lead from Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac’s Louis Deletraz and Nasr.
The first full course caution was called within seconds from the start, with chaos in LMP2. Tobi Lutze in the #11 TDS Oreca spun at Turn 1 and collected Francois Perrodo, Raveen Nao, and Jon Fayer, in a multi-car accident to begin the race.
The safety car was duly summoned out and the race neutralised. However, just before, Nasr had managed to take the lead from van der Zande, jumping both the Dutchman and Deletraz in the Cadillac.
After the restart Nasr retained the lead. Further back, Estre in the sister #6 Porsche had moved up into third by taking the position off Louis Deletraz in the #40 Wayne Taylor Cadillac machine.
It wasn’t long, however, before the second full course caution of the race, with Eric Zitze crashing heavily at Turn 1 in the #28 RS1 Porsche 911, hitting the pit exit wall.
A lengthy safety car period ensued while the incident was cleared away. At the second race restart, Nasr retained the lead once again from van der Zande, but Estre soon got by the Dutchman and gave Porsche an early 1-2 into the race. Every GTP car has now pitted with Estre still leading from Nasr and van der Zande in third.
On the hour mark, Estre then passed Nasr to take the lead at turn 1, reversing the positions but keeping the Porsche 1-2.
Keating, Sims, Eastwood lead LMP2, GTD Pro, GTD at Daytona
In LMP2, Ben Keating leads Daytona in the #52 Bryan Herta Autosport PR1/Mathiasen car. Keating stopped early in the race and has subsequently been able to take the lead, putting the car off strategy almost from the first instance.
Jeremy Clarke started the #43 Inter Europol Oreca on pole but slipped back early on, with PJ Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca taking the lead before the first safety car, with Keating second.
Keating pitted after the second safety car to put his car off strategy, with Hyett still leading. As of the time of writing, Hyett has stopped and is now second, 25 seconds behind Keating. George Kolovos is third in the #343 Inter Europol machine, the sister car to polesitter Jeremy Clarke’s.
In GTD Pro, Alexander Sims has lead the race from pole in the #3 Corvette. He leads a Corvette 1-2, with teammate in the #4 sister car second, Nicky Catsburg at the wheel half a second behind. In third is Maro Engel, in the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG, with pitstops underway as we speak.
Charlie Eastwood leads the GTD class in the #36 DXDT Corvette, a few seconds ahead of polesitter Zach Robichon #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Third is Ferrari factory driver Antonio Fuoco in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, having just climbed into the car at a recent pitstop.
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