We’re halfway through the 62nd edition of the Rolex 24 Hours and it’s Cadillac that leads into the thirteenth hour.
The #31 Cadillac regained the lead after hours of following the #7 Porsche, at Turn 1 early in the 12th hour. It was a superb move from Jack Aitken on Dane Cameron, the Briton using the Turner BMW to his advantage on the way through.
By the end of Hour 12 the order had shuffled again during a pit cycle that took place a Full Course Yellow for debris. The caution was called with 12 hours and 37 minutes remaining and ended 20 minutes later.
Behind Aitken, Laurens Vanthoor made his way to second after the restart in the #6 Porsche. Augusto Farfus sits third in the #24 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8, ahead of Maxime Martin in the #25 sister car.
It must be said that the difference between BMW’s performance at this year’s race and last year’s has been night and day so far. The Bavarian brand’s GTP challengers have been in the fight all the way through the race so far.
“I feel great,” #31 Cadillac driver Pipo Derani said after his most recent stint before the halfway mark. “I did a long stint and everything went OK. I was double stinting my tires to stretch the longevity. Now Jack (Aitken) is in the car and the car is very good at the moment. All in all, it is going according to plan.”
The #7 Porsche meanwhile, is down to fifth ahead of the #40 WTRAndretti Acura in sixth following a brief scare in the moments following the brief restart. Louis Deletraz had a spookily similar moment to Filipe Albuquerque in the sister car earlier in the race.
The Swiss lost all power and stopped, got out of the car, then returned and fired it up straight away. Only one lap was lost. It brought out a brief second FCY in the hour, which caused a second restart with five minutes to go in the hour.
In LMP2 the #52 Inter Europol PR1 ORECA leads with Tom Dillman holding a slim advantage over the #18 Era and #04 Crowdstrike By APR ORECAs that complete the top three. After an extended period of green running just five cars remain on the lead lap in the category.
The top six in GTD Pro meanwhile are all on the same lap and ahead of the leaders in GTD. The #62 Risi Ferrari currently sits atop the timing screens, with the #3 Corvette second and the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan third.
In GTD the #70 Inception McLaren, after a flawless 12 hours of running finds itself leading the class with Fredrick Schandorff driving. The Korthoff Preston Mercedes is up to second with Mike Skeen in for a night stint.
The #47 Cetilar Ferrari’s quiet outing thus far has been reawrded with third place in the running order.
There are a number of cars that have either hit trouble or rejoined the race after lengthy repairs over the past three hours.
In the 10th hour, the #13 long-delayed AWA Corvette went for a trip behind the wall for repairs, as did the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage, which suffered front and rear damage after contact. It was eventually retired.
Towards the end of the hour the Gradient Racing Acura also hit trouble, Sheena Monk running slowly on the banking with a loss of power. When the car visited the garage the diagnosis was an electrical issue, which forced the team to change a number of components, including the ECU. This cost the team 15 laps.
Into the 11th hour, the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura finally rejoined the race after a colossal effort from the team’s mechanics to rectify the issue with the car’s wiring loom. 78 laps down, Marcus Ericsson rejoined the race with the 12th hour approaching. But it would head back behind the wall at the end of the hour for a master cylinder switch.
From the GTD Pro pack, the #9 Pfaff McLaren, which lost a heap of time early in the race, had to visit the garage once again with a starter motor issue.
And in the GTD field, the #27 Heart of Racing Aston’s chances of a strong result took a hit, when the car lost power with Marco Sorensen at the wheel. After a power cycle and a cruise back to pit lane, the team took the car behind the wheel and discovered that its ailment is electrical.
After a messy start to the race for the LMP2 class, the only drama between Hours 10 and 12 was the #20 High Class Racing ORECA finally being retired after its lengthy struggle since Dennis Andersen’s Hour 1 shunt.
The #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini was also retired just before the halfway mark following its power steering woes. That makes six confirmed retirements so far.
