The two Porsche 963s of the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team are going into the final racing phase of the 24 Hours of Daytona with different chances. The number 6 car was in the lead at times during the night, but fell back a bit in the early morning. After sunrise, the vehicle is three laps behind the leading group. After a battery change on Saturday evening, the sister car is 18 laps down on the leader. In the two GTD classes, the customer teams are fighting with a poor classification of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R.

At the wheel of the Porsche 963 with the number 7, the Brazilian Felipe Nasr quickly established himself in the leading group after starting from second place. The car, which the former Formula 1 driver shares with his works driver colleagues Matt Campbell (Australia) and Michael Christensen (Denmark), fell back significantly in the evening at 19:00 local time. The Porsche Penske Motorsport team had to change the high-voltage battery on the new hybrid prototype. The crew completed this job in just 35 minutes. Nevertheless, the number 7 car lost a total of 20 laps to the front and thus all chances of victory at the season opener of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. At sunrise the deficit of the eighth-placed GTP car was reduced to 18 laps.

In the sister car with starting number 6, Nick Tandy quickly made up ground in the early stages. The Briton had started from ninth place and appeared in Nasr's rear-view mirror as fourth in the classification after just 15 laps. Thanks to good tactics and strong drives from Tandy and his teammates Mathieu Jaminet from France and Dane Cameron from the USA, the number 6 put in the lead at times during the night. However, a setback followed. Tandy spun while lapping at Turn 5, damaging his car. Three laps were lost due to the necessary repairs. At daybreak in Daytona, the approximately 500 kW (680 hp) hybrid prototype is in sixth place.

“Replacing the battery was unfortunate, but that solved our problem with number 7,” reports Urs Kuratle, head of works motorsport at LMDh. "The performance is right. The Acura is certainly the fastest car in the field, but right behind it I see our Porsche 963. Unfortunately, we had the most damage together with BMW, Cadillac and Acura significantly less. Nick Tandy's spin was also a shame. Overall, we lost too much time in the pits and in the garage. We're hoping for one or more yellow periods so that we can at least make up some ground. We have to hope for a small miracle.”

USA debut of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R under difficult conditions
In the two GT classes, a total of seven new Porsche 911 GT3 R (gen. 992) from five customer teams started the long-distance classic. However, due to a non-optimal classification for the Balance of Performance (BoP) by the rule holders, the 911s in the hard-fought GTD-Pro and GTD categories have no prospect of great success.

"I'm very proud that we're doing a really good job with our teams and drivers," reports Sebastian Golz before the start of the last six hours of racing. The project manager for the Porsche 911 GT3 R adds: “Compared to the leaders, we’re missing an average of two seconds per lap. Our only chance is to get through the race without making any mistakes in order to take as many championship points as possible into the rest of the season.”

The number 9 Pfaff Motorsports car is in GTD Pro position five around five hours before the end of the race. In the GTD class, the number 16 from Wright Motorsports is the best-placed Porsche 911 GT3 R in twelfth place.

The 24 Hours of Daytona ends at 1:40 p.m. local time (7:40 p.m. CET) on Sunday.

Driver comments on the race so far
Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6):“In the beginning there was a lot of action in the race. We were able to ride at the front, everything went well. Later Nick had a horse ride. I don't know if it was his fault or not - whatever. We've lost a lot of ground. I did a triple stint until sunrise. It was difficult to get the tires over that distance. Our position isn't hopeless, but we certainly need a few caution periods to win back laps. We need luck and more performance for the rest of the race. We give everything.