Fernando Alonso wins in Daytona as Rolex 24 Hours ends under red flag

Fernando Alonso took victory in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona as part of the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R #10 team. Alonso with teammates Kamui Kobayashi, Renger van der Zande and Jordan Taylor were declared winners after a red flag for adverse weather ended the race early.

A three-way battle for the lead was the story at the start with Juan Pablo Montoya surging into an early lead before his Acura teammate Ricky Taylor fought his way into second to give the team a one-two in the opening stages.

By the fourth hour, driver swaps were well underway and Alonso's first stint in the car was nothing short of extraordinary. He sliced through the DPi class from 8th to the lead inside of an hour of taking over.

He went on to build a lead that was over 20 seconds by the time a full-course yellow brought the field back together as the darkness took over the Daytona Speedway.

Whilst the lead swapped hands throughout the night, the forecast rain arrived in the early morning and Alonso once again set the pace at the front, lapping between two to three seconds per lap quicker than anyone else in the race.

The intensity of racing increased along with the amount of rain but the standing water began to cause a real problem on track and prompted the beginning of a stop-start pattern that would continue until the end of the race.

A full course yellow that lasted over an hour was quickly followed by a red flag for standing water which brought the action to a halt for another hour. Eventually, racing would get underway once more but tricky conditions saw drivers from all categories flying off the track and a string of full course yellows was quick to follow.

Racing was frantic as the clock ticked ever closer to two hours remaining and the fight for the lead was back on with Alonso chasing down ex-Sauber driver Felipe Nasr in his AXR car for the lead.

The Brazilian initially had the measure of his more experienced rival but as conditions worsened once more and rain intensity increased, the leader aquaplaned wide into turn one handing the lead back to Alonso after which the final red flag was thrown with just under two hours remaining.

With ten minutes remaining of the 24 hours, the chequered flag was shown bringing the race to a close with the #10 WTR Cadillac team taking the win.