Juncadella Leads at Halfway After AF Corse Penalty

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

The No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Dani Juncadella leads the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS at the halfway mark following a penalty for Ulysse De Pauw.

Juncadella currently holds a 22-second advantage over the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, which was forced to relinquish a nearly 30-second lead after making contact and spinning the sister No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Pierre Ragues in Turn 1.

It came after a commanding run for De Pauw and co-drivers Daniel Serra and Antonio Fuoco until that point.

The No. 33 Winward Racing Mercedes of Jules Gounon runs third, ahead of the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 in fourth in the hands of John Edwards, with the No. 1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo down to fifth.

Contact between Daniel Morad and Michele Beretta resulted in left-front bodywork damage to the K-PAX Lamborghini, which has appeared to effect the car’s pace.

ST Racing’s BMW runs sixth overall, with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari in seventh following its spin.

Pro-Am is being led by the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing by Akkodis ASP Mercedes of Kenny Habul, who runs ninth overall and holds a firm command in the class.

The battle for the Pro-Am class title in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS was turned upside down with both the No. 45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing with Riley Motorsports Mercedes both making trips to the garage.

Power steering issues for the Jan Heylen-driven Porsche sent it behind the wall while an incident for Ben Keating, who checked up on the No. 43 RealTime Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Erin Vogel, resulted in front-end and radiator damage

The No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura, which entered the weekend third in the class points, runs third in class and second amongst the points-paying cars.

The race has yet to feature a safety car period.

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