Alonso "very, very proud" after winning 24 Hours of Daytona

After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona, former Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso has expressed how proud he is of his team for winning the event, praising his teammates Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi for their performances in the Minolta Cadillac.

The two-time F1 champion announced his retirement from the sport at the tail-end of last season, although he did admit he could come back in the future.

Since December, he started preparations for Daytona, which he would be competing in for WTR (Wayne Taylor Racing).

The race ended under a red flag because of extreme weather conditions, but Alonso's ability in the rain proved vital once more, as he was putting in lap times as much as three seconds faster than anyone else on the grid at one point.

“I’m very, very proud of the job that we achieved today, but it was not a one‑day job, it was a one‑month job," the Spaniard was quoted by GrandPrix247.

"For me, in December we started preparing for the race and receiving all the documents, how the Cadillac works and how Wayne Taylor Racing works, some procedures that maybe are different compared with other teams.

“We tried to have a quick integration, Kamui and myself, trying to learn as much as we could from the team in the Roar [Before the 24 test days] and then, on the race itself, it was very, very difficult. Conditions were changing all the time, quite a shock sometimes."

Alonso is referring to the sometimes biblical conditions the race was in, with rainfall getting extremely dangerous at several points during the race. The red flag was brought out several times.

“You had to survive every lap. It wasn’t a matter of lap times or anything like that. It was a matter of crossing the line, putting the lap together and at the end, it worked.

“I think the last five or seven laps of the race were not, I think, right for anyone that we were on track because the visibility was nearly zero. I was calling the team for a safety car immediately because I could not see anything.”

Alonso wasn't driving the car when the race ended, but rather sitting down with a blanket, as the red flag didn't allow any of the cars to go out on the track.

“It’s too bad we didn’t get to race the full distance, but we led the race in night, day, dry, wet, so I think we all kind of deserve this one," he concluded.