Albuquerque leads after first hour at Daytona, Alonso 14th

Filipe Albuquerque moved into the lead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona through the opening hour after getting the jump on Renger van der Zande through the opening round of pit stops for the Prototype runners.

Racing in the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac, Albuquerque ran fourth in the early stages as van der Zande forged an early lead, with Helio Castroneves and Felipe Nasr enjoying an early scrap for second place that saw the latter get pushed onto the grass at one point.

Van der Zande pitted from the lead just over half an hour into the race, coming in one lap earlier than Albuquerque, who made he overcut work to jump into the lead once the pit cycle had been completed.

At the end of the first hour, Albuquerque's lead stood at 4.5 seconds ahead of Spirit of Daytona Racing's Tristan Vautier, with Nasr and Castroneves running P3 and P4 ahead of van der Zande, who dropped back to fifth.

Fernando Alonso made a good start in the #23 United Autosports Ligier JS P217 to rise from 13th to 11th, but was shuffled back through the first stint, running back in 16th at one stage. At the hour mark, the Spaniard sat 14th ahead of the sister United entry piloted by Bruno Senna.

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing managed to get the jump on Corvette through the opening hour as Joey Hand moved into the lead of the GT Le Mans class in the #66 Ford GT, with Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin P2 and P3. In GT Daytona, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport leads the way with its #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 entry.