24 Hours of Daytona – Acura and Ford in the lead at mid-race, Alonso delayed

While the Cadillac prototypes showed themselves to be the most comfortable during the first hours of the event in Daytona (Florida), it was the two Acura ARX-05s which led the proceedings with 12 hours to go.

Despite a spin during the first third of the race, simon pagenaud (Acura ARX-05 n°6), well supported by the former driver IndyCar et Formula 1 Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron, moved up to the front row. The Penske team's car escaped unscathed from a rainy phase at nightfall. The gaps remain minimal, since the prototype is only around ten seconds ahead of the second Acura driven by Graham Rahal in second place.

The Cadillac Dpi, however, remain well positioned in the hierarchy, such as the prototype of Mike conway (Action Express, 4th) and Christian Fittipaldi (Action Express, 5th).

After nearly 400 laps, the Ligier JS P2 shared among others Fernando Alonso et Lando Norris suffered mechanical damage. Rejected in 22nd position, 26 laps behind the leaders, the Spaniard can give up on a hypothetical victory

The @UnitedAutosport No.23 in the garage. Team working quickly to get the car back on track. @LandoNorris still behind the wheel. # Rolex24 pic.twitter.com/b4GTWW6mxB

— IMSA (@IMSA) 28th January 2018

In the GTLM category, Chip Ganassi's Ford GTs dominate. Sébastien Bourdais is in the lead with Joey Hand and Dirk Müller, but again, the sister car is only a few seconds behind, in this case the Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon.