Daytona 24 Hours: Michael Shank Racing Ligier leads first practice

Negri claimed first blood for LMP2 machinery in the battle with the Daytona Prototypes by lapping 1.115 seconds faster than Christian Fittipaldi in the Action Express Dallara-Chevrolet Corvette DP with 10 minutes remaining.

Sage Karam was third fastest, a tenth-and-a-half slower than Fittipaldi in the #01 Chip Ganassi Riley-Ford Ecoboost DP, and two tenths faster than the Krohn Racing Ligier-Judd/BMW LMP2 driven by Nic Jonsson.

Jordan Taylor, who had set the pace-in pre-event testing driving the Wayne Taylor Racing Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP, was fifth fastest ahead of NACAR rising star Kyle Larson in the #02 Ganassi car.

The DeltaWing-Elan/Mazda DWC13, which showed encouraging pace during testing, failed to post a time in the session.

Bill Auberlen was fastest in the GTLM class driving the Rahal BMW Z4 GTE, but as expected in this tightly-fought class the battle was incredibly close, with the four quickest cars separated by just one tenth of a second.

Jan Magnussen was second fastest, 0.015s down, in the best of the works Chevrolet Corvette C7.R entries, with Gianmaria Bruni third in the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.

Oliver Gavin completed the rapid quartet in the second Chevrolet.

In GT Daytona, Andy Lally was fastest in the Magnus Racing Porsche ahead of the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Jeff Segal, while Tom Kimber-Smith set the pace for PR1/Mathiasen in the Prototype Challenge class.

This week's AUTOSPORT magazine - available online and in shops now - includes a full rundown of the drivers and cars to watch at Daytona, plus further analysis of the LMP2 vs DP balance of power

LEADING PRACTICE TIMES: