Rolex 24, Hour 10: Penske-Acura run 1-2 under second caution

He may have been under the weather for most of the week, but Ricky Taylor did a startling job for Team Penske when he took over the #7 car from Helio Castroneves, culminating in the three fastest laps the car had turned all race.

It wasn’t enough to overcome the 43-second lead that Albuquerque had held before he pitted the #5 AXR Cadillac to hand off to Barbosa, but it slashed the gap to under half a minute.

The charging Felipe Nasr drove the #31 AXR Cadillac into third, a further 42s behind and little more than a second ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the second Acura.

However, having pulled a seven second gap on Montoya, Nasr then suffered a right-rear puncture while triple-stinting his Continental tires, 20 minutes before the 10th hour was over. The slow tour to the pits dropped the #31 Caddy off the lead lap.

Following a caution flag to retrieve the PR1 Mathiasen Ligier of Roberto Gonzalez, the two Acuras emerged in front of the two Action Express Cadillacs.

Ryan Dalziel despite a swift stint in the #2 ESM Nissan, dropped almost a full lap behind leader Barbosa, but gained fourth thanks to the #31’s troubles but then drove into the garage, losing several more laps.

Robin Frijns and Alex Brundle had moved the Orecas of Jackie Chan DC Racing into sixth and seventh respectively, but Brundle’s right-rear gave out and he fell to 10th, behind the United Autosports Ligiers of Will Owen and Fernando Alonso - which were split by the second ESM Nissan of Nicolas Lapierre.

Thanks to Dalziel’s issues, Frijns made the restart in fifth place ahead of Owen.

A long pitstop for Spirit of Daytona Racing saw the #90 Cadillac drop three laps behind the leaders and then eventually it headed back to the paddock with a misfire.

The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was barely less snake-bit. The #10 DPi-V.R suffered a third right-rear puncture after 8h35m and the flailing tire carcass tore up the rear bodywork and wiped out some hoses. It rejoined nine laps down.

GTLM: Ford GTs still in charge

The #66 and #67 Ford GTs continued to run in first and second in the GT Le Mans class, now in the hands of Joey Hand and Ryan Briscoe.

They were a lap ahead of Tommy Milner who’s now piloting the #4 Corvette, but there was drama behind them at the end of the ninth hour.

Nick Tandy, trying to hold off the second Corvette of Antonio Garcia, spun the fourth-placed #911 into the tire wall at the Bus Stop chicane. The impact caught the front and rear panels and ripped off the rear wing of the 911 RSR. He limped back to the pits and into the garage.

For the restart, James Calado had the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 into third, albeit a lap behind the Fords with Mike Rockenfeller fourth in the #3 Corvette ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the #912 Porsche and Milner sixth.

There was more surprising drama in GT Daytona as the hitherto dominant #29 Land Motorsport Audi was judged by IMSA to have contravened the fuel-filling rate and therefore received a five-minute stop and hold penalty.

Following the pitstops under yellow, therefore, Katherine Legge had the Mike Shank Racing #86 Acura NSX in GTD lead, ahead of Adam Christodoulou’s #33 Riley Mercedes, Rik Breukers in the Grasser Lamborghini and Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Lambo.