Fernando Alonso earned his first Rolex 24 crown Sunday after leading his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi team to victory at Daytona International Speedway.
Alonso, a two-time Formula 1 champion, was joined by teammates Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi and they took a clear lead right before the 22-hour mark, pulling away from No. 31 Action Express Racing’s Felix Nasr after he ran wide at Turn 1.
Fernando Alonso showed class with a stirring stint that saw him climb from fifth to first and pull a 21sec lead in the Rolex 24 at Daytona before a caution erased his advantage.
A 15-minute caution period caused by the #24 RLL BMW M8 GTE stopping in the pitlane exit 2h45m into the race brought everyone into the pits and shuffled the order in all the classes.
Initially Rene Rast’s #77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P led the restart, holding off a very opportunistic Helio Castroneves who thrust his #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 into second ahead of teammate Dane Cameron.
Behind this trio, Alonso in the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R nibbled at the heels of Eric Curran in the similar #31 Action Express machine, as Harry Tincknell in sixth place was trying to return the #55 Mazda to prominence.