Estre held a lead of just over six seconds in the #6 Porsche Penske, as the German manufacturer engaged in a fierce battle with the Action Express Racing Cadillac after the halfway point of the IMSA SportsCar Championship opener.
At the beginning of hour 13, Laurens Vanthoor surged to the lead in the #6 963 by virtue of staying in the car during the pitstop, while AXR lost time as Jack Aitken made way for Tom Blomqvist.
Blomqvist had only just slipped past Vanthoor when the 11th caution of the race was deployed, as marshals scrambled to recover the #24 BMW of Dries Vanthoor that had stopped on track at the exit of Turn 3.
The pitstops that followed shook up the order, with Laurens Vanthoor retaking the lead ahead of Rene Rast in the #25 BMW, with Blomqvist dropping to third in the lead Caddy.
At the restart, Rast jumped the Porsche to put BMW into the lead of the race and even managed to establish a small gap on his debut in IMSA’s top class.
However, Rast couldn’t put together any challenge to Blomqvist, who was able to slip past his BMW with ease at the banked final turn as Vanthoor’s Porsche fell down the order.
Blomqvist again lost the lead as he headed to the pits at the beginning of hour 15, rejoining the track with a 13s deficit to the #6 Porsche now driven by Vanthoor’s team-mate Estre.
The reigning Daytona winner brought the deficit down to eight seconds by the time Estre made his own pitstop and joined the field down in sixth, even behind the sister Porsche of Josef Newgarden.
But Estre was able to get the jump on Newgarden and assumed the lead of the race again after Blomqvist returned to the pitlane to hand over the #31 Caddy to Pipo Derani, swinging the race back in Porsche's favour.
The #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura that had previously dropped out of contention was now back on the lead lap, with Colton Herta aiding its charge up to third during the night hours.
The Acura had been running fourth but was promoted up a place when the #25 BMW that briefly led with Rast at the wheel had to be wheeled to the garage for repairs in a double blow for the Bavarian marque.
Newgarden dropped to fourth in the #7 Porsche after his pitstop, ahead of the customer 963 cars of Neel Jani (Proton) and Tijmen van der Helm.
Trouble struck the #01 Cadillac in the 14th hour after Renger van der Zande crawled to a halt near the exit of Le Mans chicane, bringing out the 12th FCY of the race.
Chip Ganassi was able to repair the car and send van der Zande back out on track, but 58 laps down on the leaders.