Albuquerque Out Front as Cadillacs Dominate First Hour

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Filipe Albuquerque leads the Rolex 24 at Daytona with the first hour complete while all four Cadillac DPi-V.Rs are running 1-2-3-4.

The No. 5 Action Express Racing driver inherited the lead in the pit stops after Wayne Taylor Racing’s Renger van der Zande had been out front from pole position for the first 30 minutes.

Tristan Vautier moved his Spirit of Daytona Racing Cadillac into second place on track late in the hour with light contact into the first corner with Felipe Nasr and van der Zande completing the top four.

Helio Castroneves dropped back to fifth in his No. 7 Acura Team Penske entry despite running strongly in the first few laps.

Joey Hand has a 15-second lead in the GT Le Mans category following an impressive showing of pace from the pair of Ford GTs so far.

The No. 67 Ford of Richard Westbrook had a slow pit stop after an issue with its rim, dropping it to the back of the class and promoting pole-sitter Jan Magnussen to second.

Montaplast by Land Motorsport’s Jeffrey Schmidt is leading in GT Daytona despite the Risi Competizione and Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3s heading up the class for most of the running so far.

Both Lexus RC F GT3s have shown good performance so far, both running within the top four.

The Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R didn’t make the start of the race after picking up heavy contact on the first formation lap and it is yet to rejoin the field.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.