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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.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger Van Der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, victory celebration, podium

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger Van Der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, victory celebration, podium

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

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 Spain Fernando Alonso
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Cadillac DPi 593  
2 DPi 31 Brazil Pipo Derani
United States Eric Curran
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Cadillac DPi 593 13.458
3 DPi 7 United States Alexander Rossi
Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Ricky Taylor
Acura DPi 593 13.964
4 DPi 54 France Loic Duval
France Romain Dumas
United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
Nissan DPi 589 4 laps
5 DPi 85 Brazil Rubens Barrichello
Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Tristan Vautier
Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
Cadillac DPi 586 7 laps
6 LMP2 18 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado
Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Colombia Sebastian Saavedra
Ireland Ryan Cullen
ORECA LMP2 582 11 laps
7 LMP2 38 United States Kris Wright
United States Kyle Masson
Canada Cameron Cassels
United States Robert Masson
ORECA LMP2 578 15 laps
8 DPi 6 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
France Simon Pagenaud
United States Dane Cameron
Acura DPi 576 17 laps
9 DPi 5 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Portugal Joao Barbosa
Cadillac DPi 573 20 laps
10 GTLM 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Austria Philipp Eng
United States Colton Herta
BMW M8 GTE 571 22 laps
11 GTLM 62 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Davide Rigon
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE 571 22 laps
12 GTLM

912

New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
France Mathieu Jaminet

Porsche 911 RSR 570 23 laps
13 GTLM 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe
New Zealand Scott Dixon
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Ford GT 570 23 laps
14 GTLM 911 United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Patrick Pilet
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR 569 24 laps
15 LMP2 81 France Nicolas Lapierre
Sweden Henrik Hedman
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Australia James Allen
ORECA LMP2 567 26 laps
16 GTLM 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Spain Antonio Garcia
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Corvette C7.R 563 30 laps
17 GTD 11 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Netherlands Rik Breukers
Germany Christian Engelhart
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 561 32 laps
18 GTD 29 Canada Daniel Morad
Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Germany Christopher Mies
Switzerland Richard Feller
Audi R8 LMS GT3 561 32 laps
19 GTD 12 United States Townsend Bell
United States Jeff Segal
United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 561 32 laps
20 GTD 88 United Kingdom Ian James
Belgium Frederic Vervisch
South Africa Kelvin van der Linde
Canada Roman De Angelis
Audi R8 LMS GT3 561 32 laps
21 GTD 86 United States A.J. Allmendinger
United States Justin Marks
Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Trent Hindman
Acura NSX GT3 561 32 laps
22 GTD 14 United States Austin Cindric
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Richard Heistand
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Lexus RC F GT3 560 33 laps
23 GTD 33 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
United States Ben Keating
Germany Luca Stolz
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Mercedes-AMG GT3 560 33 laps
24 GTD 73 United States Patrick Long
United States Patrick Lindsey
United States Nicholas Boulle
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 GT3 R 560 33 laps
25 GTD 13 Italy Andrea Bertolini
Brazil Victor Franzoni
Brazil Chico Longo
Brazil Marcos Gomes
Ferrari 488 GT3 560 33 laps
26 GTD 96 United States Bill Auberlen
Germany Jens Klingmann
United States Robby Foley
United States Dillon Machavern
BMW M6 GT3 560 33 laps
27 GTD 44 United States Andy Lally
Italy Marco Mapelli
United States Spencer Pumpelly
United States John Potter
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 559 34 laps
28 GTLM 66 France Sébastien Bourdais
United States Joey Hand
Germany Dirk Muller
Ford GT 559 34 laps
29 GTLM 4 Switzerland Marcel Fassler
United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Corvette C7.R 555 38 laps
30 DPi 50 United States Kyle Kaiser
Austria Rene Binder
United States Will Owen
Argentina Agustin Canapino
Cadillac DPi 555 38 laps
31 GTD 19 Germany Markus Winkelhock
United States Andrew Davis
United States Will Hardeman
Spain Alex Riberas
Audi R8 LMS GT3 555 38 laps
32 GTLM 24 United States John Edwards
Finland Jesse Krohn
Australia Chaz Mostert
Italy Alex Zanardi
BMW M8 GTE 553 40 laps
33 GTD 57 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Denmark Christina Nielsen
Brazil Ana Beatriz
Acura NSX GT3 550 43 laps
34 GTD 63 Finland Toni Vilander
Germany Dominik Farnbacher
United States Cooper MacNeil
United States Jeff Westphal
Ferrari 488 GT3 547 46 laps
35 GTD 8 United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
United States Parker Chase
Argentina Ezequiel Perez Companc
Germany Christopher Haase
Audi R8 LMS GT3 547 46 laps
36 GTD 540 Germany Marco Seefried
United States Tim Pappas
Germany Dirk Werner
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 GT3 R 545 48 laps
37 LMP2 52 United States Matt McMurry
United States Mark Kvamme
France Enzo Guibbert
France Gabriel Aubry
ORECA LMP2 512 81 laps
38 GTD 48 United States Corey Lewis
United States Bryan Sellers
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
United States Ryan Hardwick
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 491 102 laps
39 GTD 9 Canada Scott Hargrove
Germany Lars Kern
Norway Dennis Olsen
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Porsche 911 GT3 R 470 123 laps
40 GTD 46 Italy Fabio Babini
Italy Emanuele Busnelli
United Kingdom Taylor Proto
Italy Giacomo Altoè
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 470 123 laps
41 GTD 47 United States Don Yount
Serbia Milos Pavlovic
United States Steve Dunn
Sweden Linus Lundqvist
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 442 151 laps
42 DPi 55 United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
France Olivier Pla
United States Jonathan Bomarito
Mazda DPi 440 153 laps
43 GTD 71 Germany Fabian Schiller
Austria Dominik Baumann
Germany Maximilian Buhk
Colombia JC Perez
Mercedes-AMG GT3 431 162 laps
44 GTD 51 Portugal Pedro Lamy
Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Austria Mathias Lauda
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GT3 349 244 laps
45 DPi 84 Switzerland Simon Trummer
Colombia Juan Piedrahita
United States Chris Miller
South Africa Stephen Simpson
Cadillac DPi 225 368 laps
46 DPi 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Germany Timo Bernhard
Germany René Rast
United States Tristan Nunez
Mazda DPi 220 373 laps
47 GTD 99 Austria Klaus Bachler
Germany Sven Muller
Germany Alfred Renauer
Germany Juergen Haering
Germany Steffen Goerig
Porsche 911 GT3 R 47 546 laps

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