No new tires for the #38 car. Just fuel added to the tank. Rain in the ether at the moment, but not sdevere yet. Laurens Vanthoor is struggling with rotating grip into the west horseshoe. #912 has taken the lead from #911, separated by 3/10ths of a second as Alexander Rossi has passed Jordan Taylor and he is glued to Felipe Nasr, and Rossi wants the lead. Nasr is ahead but only just by half a second. The rain is now pouring down, so it's decision time. The infield will be really greasy. Grease it up. Wash it down. It's going to be treacherous. The teams have loads of information, but the weather map is the big deal. We have rain coming from the southwest across the Florida panhandle. There hasn't been a dive for pit lane as of yet.
This is the showers bit we were aware of on the forecast. We are an hour and 20 minutes before it begins pouring. 62% humidity, and an 85% chance of rain in the next hour. BMW #25 has passed the #911 Porsche of Patrick Pilet. DPi running order is Cadillac #31, Acura #7, and Cadillac #10. Felipe Nasr still has Alexander Rossi behind, after he is balked by the Corvette out of turn six. The rain is really going to start pouring and the track surface is going to cool off, carrying into the tire performance as well. It's going to get slippy out there ladies and gentlemen. Oh wow! Felipe Nasr is being hounded by Alexander Rossi, and Nasr runs deep into the corner. Rossi had a bite of the cherry, almost.
These blokes are romping away from Jordan Taylor at the moment. Ben Hanley to the head of the order in LMP2, as his gap over Roberto Gonzalez, in the sister DragonSpeed car has ballooned to 10 seconds plus. Cameron Cassels in third in LMP2, tenth in the overall, seven laps behind. Now, Felipe Fraga leads Fred Vervisch in GTD only by 1.4 seconds as Jeff Westphal has third followed by Corey Lewis and Nick Cassidy. The Porsche's are tied together in GT Le Mans, but Sebastien Bourdais is closing in, in the wet. The Ferrari and the BMW are up there and James Calado has made a pass on Sebastien Bourdais for third spot. Side by side stuff in the tri oval for the overall lead, look.
Nasr holds the inside line, but no way, sunshine. Alexander Rossi sweeps down low and inside. Rossi walks right through the open door Felipe Nasr left for him. Rain is tipping down at the moment, but the DPi cars are going like the clappers at the moment. Keep the speed up so that the car has loads of adhesion. The Acura is whistling off into the distance as the #86 GTD Acura runs off the road. Justin Marks may have had a slight off. Rossi was a demon on the brakes into turn one getting the better of Nasr. Rossi will now try to pull away. James Calado is right up on the gearboxes of the Porsche's.
Five cars nose to tail in GTLM headed for turn one. Bourdais has gone past Calado. Jeepers! The positions are changing in every corner. Augusto Farfus is right there, too. All of them are in the same corner at the West Horseshoe coming back onto the banking. Laurens Vanthoor has been swamped as Pilet leads Bourdais, Calado, and the aforementioned Vanthoor, with Augusto Farfus getting a ringside seat. #81 is in the lane, the Ben Hanley driven DragonSpeed car. They are staying on slick tires. It is lightly drizzling at the moment. There are slightly damper patches in the pit lane now. Greasy in spots, but a grippy racing line.
Laurens Vanthoor on the outside of the West Horseshoe as Augusto Farfus is hounding him still. Sebastien Bourdais is still monstering Patrick Pilet. Felipe Nasr retakes the lead as Acura #7 and Cadillac #10 pit on schedule, and so does Acura #6. Poor old DragonSpeed are stalled out in the pit lane. #81 will not start. They are rocking the car back and forth, which must mean a gearbox problem. Do we change tires yet? The track is not wet enough for wet tires. That's a significant strategy move. The rain is going to come and stay. Soon, you'll need wet tires no matter what as the #85 Cadillac is aheaded for the garage. The wheel is busted.
There's no left side taillight on the Cadillac, and damage to the wing support, the vertical strut. Poor old Rubens Barrichello will lose time. #31, Felipe Nasr pits from the lead of the motor race. Ford GT #67 in as well. If everyone is going for new tires, they are going for slicks. The #18 Oreca is steaming, but the bodywork is back on. This isn't going to plan for the DragonSpeed car or for the "Banana Boat". The #18 car is in the pit lane. Pit entry under review by the stewards for car #31. Corvette #3 in pit lane, too. It is a clean, scheduled pit stop. The rain is getting heavier. Nasr has fresh tires and a whole stream of cars hitting pit lane for wets.
All the GTLM leaders are in for wet tires. The #38 car is back in the lane for wet tires. It's raining. No more drizzle. Acura #7 is changing over to wet tires. This is the roll of the dice, right here, right now. Everyone has to go for it. It is tipping and teeming down with rain. Cadillac #31 has now run 470 laps (1,673 miles). Nasr runs a 1:49.3 lap. His best a long time ago was 1:34.5. Nasr is about ten seconds slower than expected and if he's on slicks in the rain, he's in a world of hurt. Cadillac #10 is in the lane with Fernando Alonso now at the wheel of it. The banking will retain grip, but there will be rivers out there.
Fernando Alonso is running at 1:49, and Nasr is at 1:51, but the rain getting havier will only mean the lap times slow. If that car is still on slicks it'll be 30 seconds off the pace and Nasr will be off the road and stuffed into the barriers if he's not careful. The #18 car has an ongoing starter problem as team boss Elton Julian has no idea why it was stalled. Ryan Cullen is at the wheel of #18 at this moment. Sebastien Bourdais is off the road, look. "Sea bass" was running second. The #62 Ferrari now leads, putting the Porsche's in the shade. Rubens Barrichello had a major off at the Bus Stop, damaging the whole rear end of the car, but the car is now fixed.
More drama for Sebastien Bourdais unless there was a replay. He's sloashing around, and he walloped the tires in the infield. He is moving again, but has tumbled down to fifth in class. The car ran totally off the road. No grip out in the weeds. The sodden grass causes you to wallop the wall no matter what. The #18 car is now missing the whole rear wing, and it has a huge shark bite out of the left front corner of the car. Elton Julian can't believe what he's seeing. The car will get a new tail. Did it spin like a top?
It's hardly surprising if it did in these conditions. Luca Stolz has taken over in the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 and he is turning the wick up at the head of the field in GT Daytona ahead of Jeff Westphal, Kelvin van der Linde, and Ricardo Feller. There's debris on the road, and it appears to have come from that troubled #18 machine we mentioned. Felipe Nasr leads overall turning a 1:55 lap the last time by. Nasr is catching up to Fernando Alonso, and also, he is chasing the two Acura's. Nasr has a commanding two minute lead, and so, that decision by Whelen Engineering is paying off. Nasr is in the pound seats right now. Ricky Taylor is second ahead of Dane Cameron and Fernando Alonso.
Loic Duval is fifth overall, six laps behind the leaders. Then comes Ben Hanley leading LMP2 in the #81 DragonSpeed entry, their car that is not beset with bodywork maladies at this time. Ryan Cullen is holding onto second in eighth overall with Kyle Masson third in LMP2. James Calado leasds GT Le Mans over Laurens Vanthoor, eight seconds adrift, ahead of Connor De Philippi, and Patrick Pilet, while the #67 Ford GT of Scott Dixon has spun, trailing team mate Sebastien Bourdais. Luca Stolz leads Jeff Westphal, Kelvin van der Linde, Ricardo Feller, and Nick Cassidy in GTD. So, it's Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, Audi, Lexus. Somehow or other, we are still green.
Now, the rain is easing off just a bit, but it's wet and cold out there. So the track isn't going to dry quickly at all. There's debris in turn six, fortunately not on the racing line. One of the BMW's of Connor De Philippi is spotted, but he is 20 seconds or so behind the Ferrari. John Edwards is in the sister #24 BMW, 20 laps behind the GTLM leader. Edwards has run 434 laps (1,545 miles), while the class leading Ferrari 488 GTE has run 454 laps (1,616 miles). Felipe Nasr is still running behind. Olivier Pla and the #55 Mazda seem to have disappeared. Pla was collected by another car, or he had a spin due to suspension failure.
It was a strange old incident indeed. We need to know the truth. Fernando Alonso works his way through the International Horseshoe, and he is right behind Dane Cameron. Alonso was impressive a year ago in the LMP2 car for United Autosport, and so was Lando Norris, who is now a full-time McLaren Formula 1 driver. Dane Cameron is fending off the challenge from Fernando Alonso, and Alonso dives inside Cameron in the Bus Stop! Yikes! That was a move, folks. A move! Ricky Taylor is the next driver and car on his shopping list. Alonso is the meat in an Acura sandwich.
One of the Lamborghini's goes wide at turn one. Steve Dunn at the wheel of the #47 PPM Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Dunn owns a surf shop in California, and boy oh boy, he and the other drivers need surfboards in this weather.
Ricky Taylor is overtaking one of the factory GTLM Porsche's as Alonso is bearing down on him. Big wiggle from the Cadillac onto the high banks. Fernando ASlonso looks to the inside and sweeps by Taylor, getting a lung from way way back, to second. Alonso is a demon on the brakes, look. Now, we have a full course caution. It could be for debris that we've seen, but there could be other required track maintenance as well. Ah yes. Debris on the road. The Mazda is running intermittently, and Olivier Pla got slammed in the back end by another car. The Mazda Team Joest car is poring over the car, and it had a third cutout of power, and the right rear corner of the car was knocked out of square.
One Mazda, car #77 is now retired, and the #55 is still having a fraught race in it's own right. They have a broken driveshaft to fix too. For #77, after the turbo blew up, it's game over. At the time, Timo Bernhard and company had run only 220 laps (783 miles). Fernando Alonso is working 480 laps (1,709 miles). We are under the 10th caution in this race. We had only four yellow flags in the 2018 race. The cars are bunching together, forming up behind the safety car, as pit stop time is approaching. No tire decisions. It's full wets all around, but the rain is not as heavy. Tires are not a concern. The fuel window is the big deal right now. Start back timing to the end of the race. The rain was forecast at 5AM and precisely, the rain came slap bang at 5AM like someone just turned the faucet on.
There was a piece of tire carcass or something sitting on the track. If there's debris anywhere, we need it removed. Track maintenance is underway as the GT cars hit pit lane for emergency service only. Audi #88 is in, the maple leaf car, from Canada. It's the WRT Speedstar Audi R8 of course. They didn't take fuel. They changed the right rear tire, as there was a puncture. Maybe the tire spotted had come from the #88 car, or bodywork from the #18 LMP2 machine. Get some sweeping out opf the way. There are some puddles, some rivers on the infield, look. Know where the rain gathers on the infield section.
Be very careful offline. Pits will open for Prototypes this time by. Alonso, Taylor, and Cameron, all of them are getting assisted with this yellow. Felipe Nasr is in the lane, and it's true that #10, #7, and #6 also pit. Acura #7 will have another new nose. They seem to be strategically changing the noses on the cars at Team Penske. The pit lane is paved with asphalt and the concrete is for the pit boxes, and it's very greasy. Fernando Alonso's pit box is after the start/finish line, so he is shown as the leader at the moment. They did a driver change for the #31 car, and put Eric Curran in the car. Alonso is in the lead of the motor race at this time. #10 followed by #31, #6, and #7. Ricky Taylor is at the wheel of the #7 Acura right now.
The GT cars will pit this time by. James Calado leads GTLM over Laurens Vanthoor, Connor De Philippi, and Patrick Pilet, are next in line in the class. In GT Daytona right now, the #33 Mercedes AMG GT3 leads in the hands of Luca Stolz, with Jeff Westphal second and Nick Cassidy third in class. Six cars pull into the lane for service. Not all GT teams are extending their fuel window, but there's a stream of cars in the pit lane. Ferrari #62 is in, and we will have a brake change as well on the #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini, which is of course being shared by John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, and Marco Mapelli.
They are fifth in GT Daytona, followed by Lamborghini #48 for Paul Miller Racing. The Ferrari and Porsche teams have completed their stops. The Ford's pit, both of them. A driver change for the #67 Castrol liveried car. Scott Dixon has finished his most recent stint and the team is going for a brake change. The #44 Lamborghini is having a wing adjustment for more downforce in the rain. The Audi and Lamborghini teams have the chance to now have maximum downforce. They came into the lane in fifth in class in GTD. Nick Cassidy and Kelvin van der Linde have already pitted. Also not coming in were the #11 Lamborghini and Dirk Werner in one of the Porsche's.
The #5 Action Express Cadillac is in, and so is the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac, both of which have had fraught races. Nick Cassidy is 30 minutes into his driving stint right now. Audi, and the #13 Via Italia Ferrari are in, along with the other GTD leaders. Andy Lally will go down a lap as Nick Cassidy stays on track. Magnus Racing is not in a good spot right now. They will lose time with the brake change. The race might come back to them if their competition has not done a brake change. The #13 Via Italia Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 also came in, in the colors of the Brazilian flag. Andrea Bertolini of Italy at the wheel of it, sharing with Brazilian drivers Chico Longo, Victor Franzoni, and Marcos Gomes of course.
Both Corvette's are in the pit lane as well for routine service. #3 is a lap down and #4 is close enough to the GT Le Mans class leaders. Tommy Milner is driving, and he has currently run 460 laps (1,638 miles). Jan Magnussen is well down, having run 453 laps (1,613 miles). The #85 JDC-Miller Cadillac is back on track with Rubens Barrichello at the controls. #85 was behind the wall for a good while. They have to have been circulating over the last few hours. We are about to go racing in the wet again! Fernando Alonso, Eric Curran, and Dane Cameron, are all nose to tail, and Ricky Taylor is in tow. So is Colin Braun in the Nissan, who is not on the lead lap right now.
Laurens Vanthoor leads GTLM over Connor De Philippi, James Calado, Sebastien Bourdais, and Calado, look, squeezes ahead of the BMW. They are all over the place for position as Laurens Vanthoor leads. Patrick Pilet is fifth, and now Calado is ahead of the #25 BMW as they are jostling for position. Vanthoor, Calado, De Philippi, Bourdais, Pilet. Nick Cassidy still leads GTD for Lexus and AIM Vasser Sullivan. Jeff Westphal second, Luca Stolz third, Ricardo Feller and Justin Marks round out the top five in GT Daytona. The BMW jinks over a bump, with Connor De Philippi chasing James Calado and Laurens Vanthoor. Calado is going for the class lead insid Laurens Vanthoor in the Porsche and Vanthoor loses out.
Fernando Alonso is romping clear of everyone else at the head of the field while Eric Curran has been eaten up by both Penske Acura's. #6 and #7 are second and third with the #31 Cadillac now fourth in the overall. Alonso is booking it in the wet.
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