Daytona 24 2026 Report Part 2
- DIVEBOMB Sportscars Team
- 16 minutes ago
- 10 min read
After 24 hours of hard fought racing, the No.7 took a deserved win at the Daytona 24 Hours, to confirm Porsche's third consecutive victory at the famous race.
Results
GTP - Top 3
1st No.7 Porsche Penske
2nd No.31 Cadillac
3rd No.24 BMW
LMP2 - Top 3
1st No.04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR
2nd No.43 Inter Europol Competition
3rd No.343 Inter Europol Competition
GTD Pro - Top 3
1st No.1 Paul Miller Racing BMW
2nd No.75 75 Express Mercedes
3rd No.48 Winward Racing Mercedes
GTD - Top 3
1st No.57 Winward Racing Mercedes
2nd No.44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin
3rd No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin
If you missed the first 12 hours, you can catch up here: https://www.dive-bomb.com/article/daytona-24-2026-report-part-1
As is happened
For a long time after the 12 hour mark, no racing took place. In the middle of the night the fog hit, with visibility dropping down to a quarter of a mile. A full course yellow (FCY) was called for safety reasons, which didn't end for more than six hours.
At the mid race mark the No.7 Porsche led the race, but as the caution period played out this all changed. The No.6 came into the pits multiple times, making repairs to the floor of the car. They did this across multiple stops to remain on the lead lap.
Over the next 30 minutes, the majority of the rest of the grid pit too, and the grid was reshuffled. The No.6 found itself in second, despite being at risk of dropping a lap down only a few minutes earlier. Although the factory Porsche was in second place, it was the privateer Porsche that led, the No.85 JDC-Miller had more fuel on board meaning it didn't need to pit at the same time as everybody else.
René Rast was third with the No.24 BMW, which recovered well from its spin on lap one. The top five was rounded out by the No.31 Cadillac and No.60 Acura.
Toby Sowery led the LMP2 class in the No.04 CrowdStrike Racing car. The No.52 Bryan Herta Racing car was second and the No.43 Inter Europol car was third.
The GTD Pro class was led by the No.3 Pratt Miller Corvette, followed by the two Fords. Corvette also led the GTD class with the No.13 13 Autosport car.
The FCY continued through the dark hours of the race, when eventually at 4 a.m local time (nine and a half hours to go) race control told us the fog may clear at round 9 a.m local time. During that time though, pit stops continued and orders slowly shuffled around.
With six and a half hours left though, race control initiated the proper SC pit procedure, indicating that the race would be green very soon.
The prototypes pit, and at the head of the field was the No.7 Porsche, followed by both BMWs (led by the No.25) and then the No.6 Porsche. In LMP2 the No.8 Tower Motorsports car led the way from the No.22 and No.52.
The GTDs all reset too, with the No.64 Ford leading from the No.4 Corvette and No.69 Mercedes. The No.21 Ferrari led GTD, from the No.13 Corvette and the No.27 Aston Martin.
We finally got back to green with six hours and 20 minutes to go. All four classes got away well, and the battling resumed immediately in GTD, with cars almost three wide before they even reached the start/finish line.
GTP and GTD class leaders held their position on the restart, but the No.04 and the No.4 both took the lead in LMP2 and GTD Pro respectively. Purple sectors lit up the timing pages across the four classes.
However, the car that took the lead in LMP2 fell foul to a drive through penalty for blocking. They dropped back into the LMP2 mid-pack, giving the lead back to the No.8 car. Sebastian Bourdais held that lead for 20 or so minutes, before Nick Cassidy in the No.343 sailed around the outside of turn one to take the lead.
The No.44 Aston Martin had an issue not long after green, stopping on track at the Le Mans Chicane. But Spencer Pumpelly got the car going again after cycling the engine again.
The Porsches retained their flying formation from earlier in the race when Matt Campbell put the No.6 ahead of the No.25 BMW of Kevin Magnussen for second.
Maro Engel in the No.75 Mercedes was battling Ricardo Feller in the No.911 Porsche fifth in GTD Pro, Engel pulled off a brave move by keeping his foot in after being pushed off the banking to take the position.
The race began to settle in, but the fog seemed to settle back in too. After a short while of very clear skies it returned again, but there was no indication of further stoppage from race control as we passed the 18 hour mark.
The race continued on, and the two Porsches controlled the race once again after another round of pit stops for all the cars. However, the windscreen wiper on the No.6 came loose, and was moving around quite a bit on the car. Race control took no action on calling the car in.
The No.3 Corvette suffered a disaster with five hours to go, smoke billowing from the right rear corner of the car, a suspension failure was eventually revealed as the cause. They had been in contention for most of the race in GTD Pro, but the damage took them into the pits and way down the order.
Logan Sargeant was at the wheel of the No.18 Era Motorsports car, when he collided with the No.8 Tower car and was sent spinning off at turn one. It looked like the engine stalled, and the former Formula One racer couldn't get it going again. The FCY was brought out to recover the stricken Oreca 07.
We went back to green with just less than four hours and 20 minutes to go. Each of the prototypes made a clean start, with the No.25 BMW leading from the No.40 Cadillac and the two Porsches - 7 from 6. The No.43 led the way in LMP2.
In GTD Pro, Harry King led away from the front in the No.77 'Rexy' Porsche, with Ayhancan Güven getting down the inside of three cars at turn one to move from fifth to second in class, and create a Porsche 1-2. That didn't last long however, as King got a stop+60 penalty for jumping the restart. Scott McLaughlin led away in GTD, being hounded by Antonio Fuoco.
The No.66 GTD Ford was taken back behind the wall with a punctured radiator, which spelled the end of their race. Meanwhile the No.8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 stopped just before pit entry. Kyffin Simpson got it moving again though and limped it into pit lane.
Back at the front the two Porsches were ganging up on Jordan Taylor in the No.40 Cadillac. The No.7 got by first, and the No.6 followed suit on the next lap. The Porsches quickly got after Marco Wittmann in the leading BMW. The No.40 kept falling backwards, with Fred Vesti in the No.31 Cadillac also getting past. Taylor fell from second to fifth in just a handful of laps.
With four hours left on the clock, GTD Pro really began to heat up. Max Hesse took the lead from King in his No.1 BMW, but then came Tommy Milner in the No.4 Corvette. The three went three wide into turn one, and Milner went all the way around the outside of both to take the lead. Hesse held on to second and King fell to third.
As the race played out, the Porsches continued to lead 1-2 overall, their only competition (if it could even be called competition) was BMW who occupied third and fourth.
The two GTD classes were closer, where the No.4 Corvette continued to fight off the No.911 Porsche and the No.1 BMW. In the brutal style of a 24 hour race, the No.64 Ford Mustang went up in a plume of smoke with two and a half hours to go, bringing a FCY out.
As expected the whole GTP grid pit under the FCY, but Porsche decided to split their strategies, the No.6 pit a few laps later - dropping them to the back of the GTP field but giving them a fuel advantage. It was a major roll of the dice considering they were previously leading.
Andlauer led the restart in the No.7, from the No.24 BMW and the No.60 Acura third. A Porsche also led the GTD Pro field with the Grello car. The No.4 Corvette was ready to challenge the Manthey car on the backstretch, but it was barged off the road by the No.033 Ferrari.
Laurens Vanthoor did not hang around in regaining positions. He restarted tenth, but was up to sixth two laps later. The No.93 Acura tried to put up a fight, but Vanthoor broke later into the International Horseshoe, giving no manners on the exit.
As per usual, chaos ensued in both GTD classes, as cars were going side by side everywhere, including the lead No.911 and No.1 cars.
It was not long before the next casualty hit, the fatigue of endurance racing taking its toll. The No.10 Cadillac came into the pit lane with flames bursting out the back.
It might have looked like Andlauer was trying to join the Cadillac in the damaged car department, as he put two wheels on the grass making a three car overtake on the back markers. His No.7 Porsche caught a kerb before the dogleg, giving the car some airtime. Fortunately it was no more dramatic than that, so he kept the lead.
Back tracking on its previous gamble, the No.6 Porsche was the first car back into pit road despite having 20% energy left, another risky move as a FCY would have put them right at the back again.
10 minutes later the sister Porsche pit along with the rest of the GTP competitors. Porsche's gamble paid off, as Vanthoor shuffled back up the order to second place, behind the No.7.
Aitken and Blomqvist were the first two GTP drivers to pull their gloves off, 90 minutes from the end of the race. The two rubbed against one another in the bankings as both drivers refused to back off. Eventually Aitken took advantage of the inside line in turn one, putting the No.31 Cadillac back in the podium spots.
Engel's charge continued as he stubbornly used the brunt of his Mercedes V8 engine to move past the Grello to claim second place in the GTD Pro class. His No.75 Mercedes had a "win it or bin it" mentality, as it is not a full season entry. Only a handful of laps later he had taken the first spot.
Meanwhile the No.44 and No.27 Aston Martins fought on the infield for the lead of the GTD class, until the No.27 went bumping along the grass. Not as fortunate as its GTD counter parts to be racing for the top positions, the GTP Valkyrie suffered an issue with an hour left, forcing it to retire. The Daytona debutants did not lose much, as they were already 15 laps down.
A late turn of pace bought Aitken back into play, as he pulled up to the back of Vanthoor (who was racing with 20% less energy than the car ahead and behind him). Vanthoor held the No.6's position until the No.31 Cadillac behind got stuck behind the No.911 and No.4 car's fight for third place in the GTD class - earning the Porsches some space to breathe.
A lap later the two who held up Aitken were caught by the No.1 BMW, who mugged them both to claim the podium spot.
There were 48 minutes to go when the No.6 came in for his final stop. The team has some of the strongest drivers at hand, and Porsche chose Kévin Estre to join the fight to the flag. The No.31 pit a lap later, in a successful plot to over-cut the Porsche.
The next lap after that it was Nasr's turn to bring his Porsche to the pits. The No.7 rejoined in the lead of the race, right as the No.911 Grello took to the grass defending its spot from the No.4 Corvette.
Nasr's lead had shrunk however, with Aitkens No.31 Cadillac a few tenths behind. Third place was occupied by Marco Wittmann in the No.25 BMW, followed by Estre who lost out in the strategy game. Not one to hang about, Estre moved immediately past the BMW.
As his pace stalled, he was unable to stay within 10 seconds of the leaders and Dries Vanthoor overtook him, with the other BMW, the No.24. Its suspected the No.6 was nursing "unfixable" damage for the whole race, the severity of which grew in the final stint.
Things weren't any easier for the other Porsche Penske car, as Jack Aitken pulled right onto the back of the leader. No mercy was given by Nasr when Aitken tried sliding the car up the inside of turn one, remarkably they avoided contact and the fight continued.
At the same time, the No.57 Winward Racing contested for the lead, taking the top spot into the bus stop, then the duo proceeded to scrape their paint for another lap as the No.44 Aston Martin fought to take the position back.
The two GTD cars were side by side across the line when there was 10 minutes left, a small touch put both cars sideways at 175mph on the bankings. Despite the risk of a high speed collision they both kept their foot in and disputed the position into turn one.
After a dramatic 24 hours, the No.7 Porsche took victory, thanks to Felipe Nasr's ruthless defence against Jack Aitken's No.31 Cadillac. The No.24 BMW finished the race in a comfortable third spot.
The No.04 LMP2 couldn't feel comfortable right to the end of the race, as it had to make a late stop. Executed perfectly, the CrowdStrike Racing car didn't relinquish its lead. The No.43 Inter Europol car finished second and the other Inter Europol car (No.343) was third.
The GTD Pro class was suitably won by the No.1 Paul Miller Racing BMW from the No.75 Mercedes, which saw Engel fight all the way to the end of the race in. The No.48 Mercedes confirmed an all German GTD Pro podium.
Fighting right to the line, the No.57 Winward Racing Mercedes won the untamed battle against the No.44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin in the GTD class. The No.27 Aston Martin wasn't able to join the fight for first, but did finish third.
The six hour wait through the foggy night was worth it for the race we were presented at the end. The highlight of the race was the battle for the GTD win, but the story of the race was the dominance by the No.7 Porsche, which cannot be faulted over the 24 hour span.
