Estre Leads Andlauer With Three Hours Remaining

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

Kevin Estre led Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate Julien Andlauer with three hours to go in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Estre in the No. 6 Porsche 963 held an eight-tenth advantage of Andlauer’s No. 7 entry in second.

The No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marco Wittmann ran third, some ten seconds behind.

Andlauer’s co-driver Nasr put the No. 7 Porsche back into the lead, after Wittmann, who was off-sequence, pitted with three hours and 45 minutes to go.

It re-instated a Porsche Penske 1-2 at the front of the field.

The No. 24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, with Earl Bamber slipping back to fifth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which bouced back from a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for co-driver Connor Zilisch running the red light at pit exit during the six-plus hour long full-course caution period.

LMP2 was paced by the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson of Malthe Jakobsen, who recovered from an earlier drive-through penalty for blocking when Alex Quinn was at the wheel.

The race’s eighth full course caution came out with four hours ad 42 minutes to go when Logan Sargeant was tagged and spun in Turn 1 and was unable to restart due to a broken starter motor.

The No. 2 United Autosports entry had also battled starter motor issues, while the No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca of Kyffin Simpson briefly stopped on track before later going into the pits with gearbox issues.

Trouble also hit the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports entry, which was taken to the garage.

A three-wide move put Tommy Milner into the lead of GTD Pro in the 20th hour, following an earlier battle between Porsche drivers Ayhancan Guven and Harry King.

King, however, was assessed a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for a jumped start, relegating the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo down the rear of the class order.

The factory supported Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs ran 1-2 following the restart until Antonio Garcia suffered right-rear suspension failure with five hours and 11 minutes to go, sending the defending championship-winning to the garage.

The No. 3 Corvette returned to action 24 laps behind, losing more than 45 minutes.

Milner handed over driving duties to co-driver Nico Varrone, who was at command of the No. 4 Corvette with three hours to go, ahead of the No. 911 Manthey Porsche of Guven and Max Hesse’s No. 1 Paul Miller Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO in third.

GTD was led by the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley.

Several GTD cars have hit trouble, including the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette (gearbox) and No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO (radiator), the latter which has been retired.

Additionally, the GTD Pro race-contending No. 69 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo lost ten minutes behind the wall with an electrical issue.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John