Yahoo Autos Rolex 24, Hour 10: Smooth and quiet for Porsche
The 10th hour of the Rolex 24 At Daytona ended with the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s first and third, sandwiching Jack Aitken in the Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. Felipe Nasr led in the No. 7 Porsche, with Nick Tandy third in the No. 6. Nick Yelloly is staying in touch in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 as the race has run an hour-and-a-half under green.
Jenson Button nearly changed that when he locked up the brakes on the No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 while passing Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette and made contact. Button spun the car, but got going again.
“I made a mistake, which is annoying for the team, in Turn 3,” Button explained. “So I went on the inside on No. 3 Corvette and I braked and he braked super late … I didn’t realize he would still be on the outside through the apex and I locked up a little bit and ran into him. So swung the car around — luckily there was no damage to either. So up until that point it was it was going all right; we were running in fifth behind Yelloly sort of five seconds doing similar lap times to cars in front, so it wasn’t too bad.”
The sister Acura was still in the garage as the crew worked to replace the wiring loom. In a further blow to WTRAndretti, The GTD No. 45 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 has gone to the garage to replace a front left hub.
The No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 has struck trouble, the team reporting a loss of power. Sheena Monk has made a couple of trips to the pits moving slowly. The problem was traced to electrical, and with a change of ECU and other components, the car was back on track with Monk at the wheel, albeit 15 laps down.
The No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has re-entered the race after a long time in the garage to repair crash damage after getting caught up with a spinning LMP2.
Class leaders after 10 hours:
GTP: Felipe Nasr, No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963
LMP2: Pato O’Ward, No. 2 United Autosports ORECA 07
GTD PRO: Alexander Sims, No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R
GTD: Daniel Morad, No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG
