Albuquerque leads restarted Sebring 12 Hours for Action Express
The #5 Action Express Racing team led into the second half of a rain-affected Sebring 12 Hours with its Chevrolet Corvette DP in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque
The Portuguese driver, who took over from Christian Fittipaldi, pitted shortly after the halfway mark and decided to stay on wet tyres on a moist but drying circuit.
The #31 sister car occupied second place in the hands of Scott Pruett, four seconds back, with Action Express having opted to send both cars back out on wet tyres.
Pipo Derani was the best-placed of the dry-shod Prototypes in third in the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JSP2, having taken over from Scott Sharp.
After the race had started in dry conditions two separate spells of bad weather hit the circuit, the second forcing the race to be halted just before 1.30pm local time for safety reasons with the threat of lightning in the area.
A delay of two and a quarter hours ensued before cars were eventually able to return to the track behind the safety car, by which point the track had dried out significantly.
Fittipaldi led the field on the first safety car lap but was the first of a host of cars to dive into the pits, handing over to Albuquerque.
That put Sharp in the lead on the racing restart in the ESM Ligier but he was quickly reeled in by a charging Albuquerque, who made short work of Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP before completing a move on Sharp at Turn 11.
Pruett followed him through on lap 79, with the pair both opting to stay out on track on wet tyres despite improving conditions.
That prompted ESM to pit the Ligier for dry tyres but while Derani was able to eat into the advantage the Action Express cars had built up initially, he had dropped to 24 seconds behind Pruett by lap 104.
The #60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JSP2 that started the race from pole is currently fifth having struggled on the race restart. Oswaldo Negri runs 45s behind the race leader.
Colin Braun was the leading Prototype Challenge car for the CORE autosport team at the halfway point, a lap clear of Maro Engel who started his stint in the #88 Starworks Motorsport ORCEA FLM09.
The #919 Porsche 911 RSR headed the GT Le Mans challengers in ninth overall with Kevin Estre at the wheel, having also opted to remain on wet tyres, while Matteo Cressoni was the leading GT Daytona runner for the Spirit of Race Ferrari squad.
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