Yahoo Autos Rolex 24, Hour 16: Advantage swings back towards Cadillac
Pipo Derani has re-taken the lead of the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R runs 3s ahead over Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
Both cars are still on different strategies and have been taking turns in the overall and GTP class leads. Derani passed the No. 6 Porsche, then driven by Kevin Estre, on track at 16 minutes past the hour.
Rounding out the overall top three is still the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, which is on the same sequence as the No. 31 Cadillac and now has Jordan Taylor aboard.
BMW M Team RLL’s chances of an overall victory now appear completely sunk. The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 lost nine laps behind the wall for an issue that has yet to be diagnosed, and with the No. 24 down a further four laps due to an apparent issue with the steering wheel, it’s not been a good Sunday morning for the Bavarian marque.
Christian Rasmussen in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA 07 continues to stretch his lead in LMP2, now about 20s over the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA of Ferdinand Habsburg. Ben Hanley rounds out the top three in the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA.
GTD Pro has treated us to a fun on-track pursuit between Daniel Juncadella in the No. 3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. The two ran tail-to-nose for several minutes.
Both cars recently made pit stops and are now closer together in their pit sequences. At the top of the hour, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Sheldon van der Linde is scored as the leader but will soon hand it back to the No. 62 Ferrari.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 continues to lead GTD by nearly 30s with Philip Ellis at the wheel. Ricciardo Agostini is second in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of Rui Andrade in the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Two contenders in GTD have had trouble. The No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO lost 16 laps in the garage with a starter motor problem while running second.
Bizarrely, Antonio Fuoco has had two separate incidents in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari – he hit the wall, suffered damage to the front, then went off course on his out lap upon returning to the race. He’s back in the race, but now 10 laps down.
