Alonso Grabs Lead Before Late Race Red Flag

Fernando Alonso swept to the lead when Felipe Nasr ran wide in Turn 1 and held the overall lead under red flag conditions as the Rolex 24 at Daytona entered the final two hours.

The Spaniard, driving the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R for Wayne Taylor Racing, put pressure on Nasr early in the stint but had dropped back to around five seconds behind the Whelen Engineering Racing driver when Nasr slid wide.

Nasr was able to keep the car out of the tire barrier and continue in second place overall, before the race was halted for the second time by a red flag due to treacherous track conditions.

It means the 57th edition of the Rolex 24 is the first to have been neutralized twice by the red flags.

A yellow flag had been displayed just before the red for the LMP2 class-leading No. 18 DragonSpeed Oreca 07 Gibson which had nosed into the tire wall in the infield section.

Due to the red flag that followed, Saavedra is still listed as the class leader despite incurring front-end damage and holds a four-lap advantage over second place in class.

Augusto Farfus turned in an impressive drive in wet weather to bring the No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry to the lead of GT Le Mans while many of his class rivals had off-track excursions.

James Calado is in second for Risi Competizione and Richard Westbrook rounds out the podium positions for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. Only the top three remain on the lead lap in the class.

GRT Grasser Racing Team holds the class lead in GT Daytona in the German team’s bid to repeat as Rolex 24 class winners.

Christian Engelhart was promoted to first from third in the span of five laps due to spins from successive class leaders: Daniel Morad of Montaplast by Land-Motorsport and Luca Stolz of Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports.

Morad holds second, while Stolz has dropped to seventh in class and is now off of the lead lap.