Rolex 24 Hour 6: Cadillac 1-2 at 1/4 mark

#31 Cadillac out front with strategy call

Pipo Derani stayed out during the fourth full course yellow of the Rolex 24 at Daytona to put the No. 31 Cadillac in front for the first time.

Derani, who co-drives the Whelen Engineering car with Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr, cycled to the head of the field when the rest of the DPi runners pitted under caution.

The race was broken up late in the sixth hour by the safety car following a clash between the No. 52 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac at turn one.

Prior to that, Kamui Kobayashi had led since taking over the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac from Fernando Alonso, who took the lead with a string of overtakes in the fourth hour and took the IMSA and IndyCar regulars to school.

Kobayashi consolidated his co-driver’s strong evening pace by setting the fastest lap of the race to get away from Dane Cameron in the No. 6 Acura ARX-05 DPi.

The Toyota LMP1 driver then managed to maintain his net advantage over the Acura and the No. 77 Mazda RT24-P during the pit stops under caution.

In GTLM, Porsche driver Nick Tandy lost two places in the pits while Oliver Gavin jumped to the class lead in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R.

In second at the quarter-distance milestone was the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE ahead of Tandy, with the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE in fourth.

After six hours, GT Daytona was paced by the No. 33 Riley-entered Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Felipe Fraga, who took the lead with a brave overtake on the outside of Audi factory driver Christopher Mies in hour four.

Hour 6 Standings