The kickoff of the 63e edition of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona took place this Saturday January 25 and the first hour of racing has just ended without any major incident to note since the start.
Starting from pole position, Dries Vanthoor kept the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V7 of BMW M Team RLL at the top of the hierarchy. The teammate of Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen and Philipp Eng even opened a small gap amounting to around 13 seconds after the first pit stops, thus ahead of the No. 93 Acura of Meyer Shank Racing, followed by the Cadillac n°31/Action Express Racing, the Acura n°60 and the Porsche n°7 completing the top five.
While this first hour was relatively calm, the LMP2 category is currently dominated by PJ Hyett at the wheel of the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07, while the GTD Pro and GTD categories are respectively led by the Paul Miller Racing's No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 Evo and Winward Racing's No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
What to remember at H+1 (local time):
1:40 p.m.: The start is given under a magnificent blue sky and a mercury reading 15°C, conditions unprecedented since the start of the week.
1:41 p.m.: While the 61 cars were underway, the No. 2 Oreca 07/United Autosports, driven by Nick Boulle, spun in the peloton.
-1:59 p.m.: Ben Keating, at the head of the LMP2 category, made a slight mistake in an infield corner, with no consequences other than the loss of leadership to PJ Hyett and the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca .
2:18 p.m.: The LMP2s open the pit stops. At the end of this first wave of judgments,
2:27 p.m.: It's the turn of the GTPs in the premier category to rush into the pits, starting with the Cadillacs of Wayne Taylor Racing, then the #24 race leader BMW.
