Matt Campbell had Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #7 963 out front for the majority of the running since the race ticked over past the two-and-half hour mark.
It lost the lead following a driver change, as this year's Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden on his GTP class debut took over the 963 for the first time after just over four hours of running.
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 that started on pole was running as high as second in Ricky Taylor's hands, but fell back to fourth before a driver swap to Filipe Albuquerque further relegated the crew to sixth.
Sebastien Bourdais turned up the wick in the #01 Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R and rose up to second before handing over to van der Zande with roughly six hours remaining.
The #25 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 driven by Yelloly was able to get by Newgarden for second at 15 minutes before the halfway mark.
Newgarden would fall down another spot moments later, when Harry Tincknell’s customer Proton Competition 963 squeezed by for third.
The #6 PPM 963 that was involved in the multi-car crash earlier was able to return to action with seven hours left, albeit 68 laps down with Mathieu Jaminet behind the wheel.
In the LMP2 class the TDS Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Mikkel Jensen was firmly in control by 17s over Nolan Siegel's CrowdStrike Racing by APR version before a pitstop and driver change seven minutes before the halfway mark.
That vaulted Siegel to the top as Scott Huffaker took over from Jensen and emerged 18s behind in second. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ #52 entry of Alex Quinn is third.
Source: Autosport