Kobayashi Leads After Hour 1 At Daytona

The first hour of the 2022 Rolex 24 Hours took place in bright sunshine but very cold conditions, the cars tiptoeing on cold rubber at the start, Dwight Merriman caught out on pit exit in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca and exiting the pitlane backwards for the parade lap! It was an error under braking […]

The first hour of the 2022 Rolex 24 Hours took place in bright sunshine but very cold conditions, the cars tiptoeing on cold rubber at the start, Dwight Merriman caught out on pit exit in the #18 Era Motorsport Oreca and exiting the pitlane backwards for the parade lap! It was an error under braking at T6 after 48 minutes for the same car and driver combo that would see the first FCY of the race.


Before that though Filipe Albuquerque also seemed to struggle getting his Michelins up to temp and was pretty much a sitting duck for Tristan Vautier to pass for the lead in the International Horseshoe, Kamui Kobayashi also passing the #10 Acura at the West Horseshoe before passing the #5 for the lead, all of this inside 6 minutes.



Sebastien Bourdais was the next man on the move, he pulled his #01 Cadillac Racing DPi up to second within 20 minutes and took the lead as Kobayashi pitted just after the half hour.



The remaining DPis pitted next time around and Kobayashi was soon back into the lead, the only delay a dropped wheel nut for the #60 Acura crew costing the team c.20 seconds as Kobayashi was sideswiped in traffic by a GTD but seemed to suffer no additional consequences.



In LMP2 John Falb led from the start but was then pinged with a drive-through for a jump start leaving Ben Keating to fend off a spirited battle between the two PR1 Mathiesen Oreca’s, Falb’s penalty dropping him down to 9th in the 10 car class.

Merriman’s shunt at T6 which saw the #18 losing its nose section after contact with the barrier, the Era Motorsport driver seemingly losing control in close contention with the #8 Tower Motorsport car of John Farano.

The subsequent pit cycle saw the leading #52 PR1 car delayed in the pits, the lead taken by the #20 High Class Racing car, Dennis Andersen at the wheel.

The #11 PR1 car ran second (Thomas) with the dayglo #81 DragonSpeed car 3rd (Lux)

LMP3 saw some early troubles for a couple of runners as the stragglers were swamped by the GTD hordes. A left rear puncture for the #54 CORE Ligier and a precautionary stop for the #13 AWA Duqueine for removal of debris dropped them down the order (though the #13 was again delayed by a drive through for pitlane speeding!)



The class was led by the #36 Jarett Andretti-stated Andretti Autosports Ligier ahead of the #6 Muehlner Duqueine and #74 Riley/ Robinson Ligier until the FCY0pitstops when the leading pair exchanged slots.

GTD was an absolute melee in the opening hour with the combined class led overall for quite a while by Jon Miller in the #59 Crucial Motorsports Mclaren.

GTD Pro runners eventually though went to the front and the race was led by Matthieu Jaminet in the #9 Pfaff Porsche ahead of the #63 TR3 Lamborghini (Mapelli), #79 WeatherTech Porsche (Andlauer) and #15 Proton Racing USA AMG (Cindric).

The #24 BMW meanwhile had time behind the wall as the rear deck of the M4 became dislodged and was acting as an effective air brake.

The form for the #59 meanwhile was almost matched by the #70 inception 720S GT3 (Scharndorff), the two running one-two ahead of the #28 Alegra AMG of Daniel Morad.

In a major turnaround the #66 Gradient Racing crew turned their Acura. NSX around faster than the rest of the combined GTD field to lead after the GTs pitted.

GTD Pro post pit stops saw the pair of Porsches, and the Lamborghini running 1,2,3 but the KCMG Porsche made big progress to fourth.

Behind the main body of GTD Pro leaders the #28 and #57 AMGs were now ahead of the two McLarens.

The number and concentration of the combined GTD field is already causing significant dramas for faster traffic.