DAYTONA BEACH – The #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken led at the halfway mark of the Rolex 24 Hours.

Disaster struck for the two Acuras. In the ninth hour, Filipe Albuquerque’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 experienced an electrical issue.

The #10 Acura later returned to the race 98 laps down.

Almost three hours later, Louis Deletraz’s #40 Acura stopped at Turn 5.

Deletraz was able to refire the Acura and rejoined the race in ninth place.

At the start of the ninth hour, Pipo Derani found himself in the lead behind the wheel of the #31 Cadillac before heading to the pits for the driver change with Aitken.

Aitken held the third spot as the #6 and #7 Porsche Penskes swapped the lead.

Aitken would eventually make the pass around Dane Cameron’s #7 Porsche Penske 963.

Thirty minutes later, there was on-track drama. The 2009 F1 World Champion, Jenson Button, made contact in his #10 Acura ARX-06 with the #3 Chevrolet Corvette GT.3 R, running second in GTD Pro, in Turn 3.

The Brit spun as a result of the contact with the Corvette but was able to continue.

Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Penske Porsche ran in the second position, while the #25 and #24 BMW M Hybrid V8s ran in the third and fourth positions.

Cameron was in fifth place, and the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac ran in sixth position.

The #52 Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibso of Tom Dillmann led LMP2 ahead of Connor Zilisch in the #18 Era Motorsports car.

Malthe Jakobsen was third in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca.

In GTD Pro, Alessandro Pier Guidi, in the Risi Competizione’s #62 Ferrari 296 GT3, held a slight lead over Alex Sims in the #3 Corvette while the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Franck Perera ran third.

The #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff led in GTD.