Race report
IMSA Daytona 24
Rolex 24: WTR wins shortened race as Alonso beats Nasr
The Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac team scored victory in a Rolex 24 at Daytona cut short by bad weather, as Fernando Alonso won the American classic at his second attempt.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jan 30, 2019, 5:58 PM
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Alonso and his teammates in the #10 Cadillac DPi-V.R, Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi and Jordan Taylor, were the prime beneficiaries of the worsening weather at the Florida circuit, which resulted in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener being red-flagged a second time with just under two hours to run.
Following more than 90 minutes of inactivity, It was finally decided to abandon the race after 23 hours and 50 minutes, with efforts to clear standing water from the track proving fruitless.
Shortly before the stoppage, two-time Formula 1 champion Alonso had taken the lead from the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Felipe Nasr after the Brazilian ran wide at Turn 1.
That turned out to be the decisive move of the race, with ex-F1 racer Nasr, his new fulltime IMSA teammate Pipo Derani and Eric Curran being forced to settle for second.
Completing the podium was the #7 Acura ARX-05 of Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor and Alexander Rossi, which lacked the speed in the wet to challenge the leading Cadillacs in the final stages while IndyCar racer Rossi was at the wheel.
The arrival of rain overnight prompted an hour-long caution period, which was followed by the first red flag with a little more than seven hours left on the clock.
After an interruption of more than 90 minutes, racing resumed in a stop-start fashion as frequent caution periods were called amid various incidents in the treacherous conditions.
By this point, the race had boiled down to a contest between the WTR and #31 AXR Cadillacs and the two Penske-run Acuras, but the #6 car shared by Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud was ruled out of the fight with a loose oil pump belt in the 20th hour.
That promoted the CORE autosport Nissan DPi of Jon Bennett, Romain Dumas, Loic Duval and Colin Braun to fourth, although the #54 machine was four laps down on the leaders having suffered transmission problems shortly before half-distance.
A further three laps back in fifth place was the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Rubens Barrichello, Misha Goikhberg, Tristan Vautier and Devlin DeFrancesco.
Sixth place overall was the best of the LMP2 runners, the #18 DragonSpeed Oreca-Gibson of Roberto Gonzalez, Pastor Maldonado, Sebastian Saavedra and Ryan Cullen.
Saavedra appeared to have blown the #18 car’s chances when he suffered a heavy crash just before the red flags, but he was able to recover the stricken car to the pits to claim the win by four laps over the Performance Tech Oreca.
DragonSpeed’s other car, the #18 Oreca, had led the class for much of the race, but dropped out of contention when Henrik Hedman stopped out on track in the 22nd hour with a broken axle.
The #6 Acura ended up eighth and 17 laps down after its issues, ahead of the #5 Action Express Racing car of defending race winners of Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Christian Fittipaldi, who suffered a race to forget in his final Rolex 24 outing.
The Portuguese-speaking trio ended up ninth, 20 laps down, after a recurring issue with the rear lights that required a long trip behind the pitwall early on.
Mazda also suffered a double disaster with its pair of RT24-Ps, which both suffered reliability dramas within moments of each other before one-third distance.
The #77 car that Oliver Jarvis had qualified on pole dropped out with an engine failure, while the sister #55 car lost three laps with a fuel leak before finally bowing out after an incident involving a GT car in the early hours of the morning.
GTLM: BMW comes through to win chaotic race
A closely-fought GT Le Mans contest was won by the #25 BMW M8 GTE of Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng, Colton Herta and last-minute addition Augusto Farfus.
Six of the nine cars in class were still on the lead lap when the two leaders collided during a chaotic restart at Turn 1, as Frederic Makowiecki’s Porsche rear-ended Joey Hand’s Ford, effectively ruling both out of the fight.
That handed the advantage to the Risi Competizione Ferrari, but James Calado was passed by Farfus’s BMW shortly before the red flags came out for a second time, relegating Calado and teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi, Miguel Molina and Davide Rigon to second.
A pitstop for the #67 Ford just before the red flags dropped Richard Westbrook, Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe from the class lead to third.
That became fourth after the race, as a penalty for pitting under yellow dropped it behind the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor, which was delayed near the end when Bamber spun and kept becoming wedged on the banking. He had to drive the wrong way around the track before finding a place to spin-turn.
Corvette Racing endured a miserable race in what could be the final Daytona appearance for the current-gen C7.R, with Tommy Milner aquaplaning the #4 car into the tyre wall early in the morning and the #3 car losing eight laps after stopping on track with an electrical problem.
Alex Zanardi’s #24 BMW was also removed from contention when the steering column was damaged in the pits on Saturday evening, before Jesse Krohn suffered a puncture overnight, necessitating a long trip to the garage.
Grasser Racing defended its 2018 GT Daytona class triumph, as Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Rik Breukers emerged on top in a frantic race-long battle in the #11 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 thanks in part to a late surge by Engelhart.
The #29 Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS survived multiple spins in the wet conditions late on to take second, while the final place on the podium went to the all-American-crewed #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Luca Stolz threw away a potential win for the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a late spin that demoted the Wynn’s-liveried car to seventh in class.
2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona Results:
Pos. Class # Drivers Chassis Laps Time 1 DPi 10 
Fernando Alonso
Kamui Kobayashi
Jordan Taylor
Renger van der Zande Cadillac DPi 593 2 DPi 31 
Pipo Derani
Eric Curran
Felipe Nasr Cadillac DPi 593 13.458 3 DPi 7 
Alexander Rossi
Helio Castroneves
Ricky Taylor Acura DPi 593 13.964 4 DPi 54 
Loic Duval
Romain Dumas
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun Nissan DPi 589 4 laps 5 DPi 85 Rubens Barrichello
Mikhail Goikhberg
Tristan Vautier
Devlin DeFrancesco Cadillac DPi 586 7 laps 6 LMP2 18 
Pastor Maldonado
Roberto Gonzalez
Sebastian Saavedra
Ryan Cullen ORECA LMP2 582 11 laps 7 LMP2 38 
Kris Wright
Kyle Masson
Cameron Cassels
Robert Masson ORECA LMP2 578 15 laps 8 DPi 6 Juan Pablo Montoya
Simon Pagenaud
Dane Cameron Acura DPi 576 17 laps 9 DPi 5 Christian Fittipaldi
Filipe Albuquerque
Joao Barbosa Cadillac DPi 573 20 laps 10 GTLM 25 
Connor de Phillippi
Augusto Farfus
Philipp Eng
Colton Herta BMW M8 GTE 571 22 laps 11 GTLM 62 
James Calado
Davide Rigon
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE 571 22 laps 12 GTLM
912
Earl Bamber
Laurens Vanthoor
Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 911 RSR 570 23 laps 13 GTLM 67 
Ryan Briscoe
Scott Dixon
Richard Westbrook Ford GT 570 23 laps 14 GTLM 911 
Nick Tandy
Patrick Pilet
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR 569 24 laps 15 LMP2 81 
Nicolas Lapierre
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
James Allen ORECA LMP2 567 26 laps 16 GTLM 3 
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
Mike Rockenfeller Corvette C7.R 563 30 laps 17 GTD 11 
Rolf Ineichen
Mirko Bortolotti
Rik Breukers
Christian Engelhart Lamborghini Huracan GT3 561 32 laps 18 GTD 29 
Daniel Morad
Dries Vanthoor
Christopher Mies
Richard Feller Audi R8 LMS GT3 561 32 laps 19 GTD 12 Townsend Bell
Jeff Segal
Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz Lexus RC F GT3 561 32 laps 20 GTD 88 Ian James
Frederic Vervisch
Kelvin van der Linde
Roman De Angelis Audi R8 LMS GT3 561 32 laps 21 GTD 86 A.J. Allmendinger
Justin Marks
Mario Farnbacher
Trent Hindman Acura NSX GT3 561 32 laps 22 GTD 14 Austin Cindric
Jack Hawksworth
Richard Heistand
Nick Cassidy Lexus RC F GT3 560 33 laps 23 GTD 33 
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Ben Keating
Luca Stolz
Felipe Fraga Mercedes-AMG GT3 560 33 laps 24 GTD 73 Patrick Long
Patrick Lindsey
Nicholas Boulle
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 GT3 R 560 33 laps 25 GTD 13 
Andrea Bertolini
Victor Franzoni
Chico Longo
Marcos Gomes Ferrari 488 GT3 560 33 laps 26 GTD 96 Bill Auberlen
Jens Klingmann
Robby Foley
Dillon Machavern BMW M6 GT3 560 33 laps 27 GTD 44 Andy Lally
Marco Mapelli
Spencer Pumpelly
John Potter Lamborghini Huracan GT3 559 34 laps 28 GTLM 66 Sébastien Bourdais
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller Ford GT 559 34 laps 29 GTLM 4 
Marcel Fassler
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner Corvette C7.R 555 38 laps 30 DPi 50 Kyle Kaiser
Rene Binder
Will Owen
Agustin Canapino Cadillac DPi 555 38 laps 31 GTD 19 Markus Winkelhock
Andrew Davis
Will Hardeman
Alex Riberas Audi R8 LMS GT3 555 38 laps 32 GTLM 24 John Edwards
Jesse Krohn
Chaz Mostert
Alex Zanardi BMW M8 GTE 553 40 laps 33 GTD 57 
Simona de Silvestro
Katherine Legge
Christina Nielsen
Ana Beatriz Acura NSX GT3 550 43 laps 34 GTD 63 
Toni Vilander
Dominik Farnbacher
Cooper MacNeil
Jeff Westphal Ferrari 488 GT3 547 46 laps 35 GTD 8 
Ryan Dalziel
Parker Chase
Ezequiel Perez Companc
Christopher Haase Audi R8 LMS GT3 547 46 laps 36 GTD 540 Marco Seefried
Tim Pappas
Dirk Werner
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 GT3 R 545 48 laps 37 LMP2 52 Matt McMurry
Mark Kvamme
Enzo Guibbert
Gabriel Aubry ORECA LMP2 512 81 laps 38 GTD 48 Corey Lewis
Bryan Sellers
Andrea Caldarelli
Ryan Hardwick Lamborghini Huracan GT3 491 102 laps 39 GTD 9 
Scott Hargrove
Lars Kern
Dennis Olsen
Zacharie Robichon Porsche 911 GT3 R 470 123 laps 40 GTD 46 
Fabio Babini
Emanuele Busnelli
Taylor Proto
Giacomo Altoè Lamborghini Huracan GT3 470 123 laps 41 GTD 47 Don Yount
Milos Pavlovic
Steve Dunn
Linus Lundqvist Lamborghini Huracan GT3 442 151 laps 42 DPi 55 
Harry Tincknell
Olivier Pla
Jonathan Bomarito Mazda DPi 440 153 laps 43 GTD 71 
Fabian Schiller
Dominik Baumann
Maximilian Buhk
JC Perez Mercedes-AMG GT3 431 162 laps 44 GTD 51 
Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GT3 349 244 laps 45 DPi 84 
Simon Trummer
Juan Piedrahita
Chris Miller
Stephen Simpson Cadillac DPi 225 368 laps 46 DPi 77 Oliver Jarvis
Timo Bernhard
René Rast
Tristan Nunez Mazda DPi 220 373 laps 47 GTD 99 
Klaus Bachler
Sven Muller
Alfred Renauer
Juergen Haering
Steffen Goerig Porsche 911 GT3 R 47 546 laps
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