Conway leads, Norris stars after six hours at Daytona

Mike Conway leads the Rolex 24 at Daytona after six hours of racing for Whelen Engineering Racing after perfect his tyre changes through a rain shower to overturn a 20-second deficit and move to the head of the field.

Conway found himself trailing Christian Fittipaldi in the #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi and Acura-Penske's Helio Castroneves before a short but sharp rain shower hit the circuit, prompting the majority of the field to dive in for wet tyres.

Conway was able to carve into the advantage of the cars ahead before pitting two laps earlier to switch back to slicks when the track dried, giving him the chance to move into the lead of the field once the pit stop cycle had been completed.

United Autosports' charge was led by Lando Norris, teammate to Fernando Alonso in the #23 Ligier JS P217, who put in a remarkable stint through the rain to cut the gap to the lead driver down from more than one minute to less than 30 seconds at one point, and even held the lead briefly before pitting and rejoining sixth overall.

Porsche took advantage of the rain shower to move into the lead of the GT Le Mans class with Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, jumping the pair of Ford GTs that had previously held the advantage after staying out on slick tyres through the rain shower. At the six-hour mark, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon sat second and third respectively.

GT Daytona saw the Montaplast by Land-Motorsport take control of the class, with Kevin van der Linde sitting over a minute clear in the #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3, with Jeroen Bleekemolen sitting second.