Daytona 24h, Hour 12: Porsche holds 1-2 at halfway point

Porsche held a commanding lead halfway through the Daytona 24 Hours, with Felipe Nasr heading a 1-2 for the German manufacturer.

Former Formula 1 driver Nasr propelled the factory #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh to the front of the field after passing the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque late in the 11th hour.

The #7 Porsche had been in contention for much of the last six hours, as Nasr’s team-mate Nick Tandy battled with the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken.

Tandy grabbed the top spot in the ninth hour with a brilliant move over Aitken at the International Horseshoe, only for the #31 V-Series.R to jump back ahead during the pitstop cycle.

But a tardy restart following a full course yellow for Frederik Vesti, now at the wheel of the AXR Caddy, brought Porsche back into play and allowed Philipp Eng to take the lead in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

Another full course yellow intervention, and the subsequent chaos in the pits, handed the lead to Albuquerque, before Nasr took advantage of the green flag running to take the lead and stretch his advantage to over six seconds.

With Nasr comfortably clear in front, second place was hotly contested by the sister #6 Porsche, the #60 Meyer Shank Acura and the #10 Cadillac.

#60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist

Photo by: IMSA

Around halfway through the 12th hour, Matt Campbell surged past the Acura’s Scott Dixon to establish a 1-2 for Porsche, with Will Stevens grabbing fourth in the Caddy after taking over the driving duties from Albuquerque.

The #24 RLL BMW that previously led with both Eng and Dries Vanthoor at the wheel sat in fifth place, with ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen circulating around 40s off the lead.

Formula E champion and Daytona debutant Pascal Wehrlein ran sixth in the #85 JDC-Miller Porsche, the last of the GTP cars on the lead lap at the halfway point of the race.

Cadillac was effectively down to just one car as the clock struck 1:40am in Florida, with two of its factory entries crashing out at night.

Louis Deletraz lost control of the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy following a full course yellow in the 10th hour, hitting the barriers at exit of Turn 2 before spinning back on track.

Deletraz was collected by the #73 Pratt Miller ORECA 07-Gibson of Chris Cumming, triggering a chain reaction that caught out four other cars - including the GTD Pro-leading #48 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Later in the 11th hour, Vesti smashed the wall on the oval with what appeared to be a technical failure on the #31 AXR Cadillac.

The car spent more than an hour in the garage, with AXR able to complete the necessary repairs just before the mid-way point of the race.

Proton, however, was forced to retire its customer Porsche 963 at around the same time due to what it identified as a rear suspension issue.

#43 Inter Europol Competition, ORECA LMP2 07: Tom Dillmann, Jon Field, Antonio Felix da Costa, Bijoy Garg

Photo by: IMSA

In LMP2 Inter Europol was back in front following a charging stint after the most recent caution period by Antonio Felix da Costa in the #43 ORECA-Gibson 07.

Da Costa held a comfortable advantage of over 30 seconds when he peeled into the pits at the end of the 12th hour, momentarily handing the lead to Rasmus Lindh in the sole-remaining United Autosports ORECA.

Lindh was followed by da Costa's team-mate Tom Dillmann and the AO Racing car of two-time IMSA champion Dane Cameron.

The #8 Tower Motorsports LMP2, which managed to avoid major damage in the multi-car accident triggered by the #40 Cadillac GTP, was also in contention for top three in the midst of the pitstop cycle.

Meanwhile in GTD Pro, Neil Verhagen had pulled away to the tune of 30s in the #1 Paul Miller BMW M4 GT30 EVO.

Ford had initially taken the advantage after Paul Miller lost the erstwhile class-leading #48 BMW in the Turn 2 melee in the eighth hour.

#1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO: Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen, Connor De Phillippi, Kelvin van der Linde

Photo by: IMSA

But Madison Snow was able to climb up to first place in the sister #1 M4 in the 11th hour, with Verhagen carrying on the good work after taking over the driving duties from his countryman.

The two Multimatic-entered factory Ford Mustang GT3s driven by Dennis Olsen and Sebastian Priaulx eventually dropped to third and fourth respectively, behind the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler.

In the GTD category, there was little to separate the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari of Frederik Schandorff and the #120 Wright Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ayhancan Guven.

Schandorff was just over three tenths clear of Guven at the midway point of the race, while Jens Klingmann was a further six seconds adrift in third in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.