Alonso regains Rolex 24 lead ahead of red flag

Fernando Alonso moved back into the lead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona through Hour 22 after capitalising on a mistake from Felipe Nasr as heavy rain returned in the closing stages of the race, forcing officials to call a red flag.

Nasr had managed to return Action Express Racing's #31 Cadillac DPi to the lead after passing Jordan Taylor soon into the 22nd hour, with the Wayne Taylor Racing driver soon pitting and handing the reins of the #10 Cadillac back to Alonso for his third stint.

A caution allowed Alonso and Acura Team Penske's Alexander Rossi to close on Nasr at the front before the race returned to green despite a front of heavy rain arriving at the circuit.

Drivers kept spinning lap after lap, with Nasr holding his nerve ahead of Alonso as Rossi dropped back after an error, only to then himself make an error at Turn 1 and give up the lead of the race.

Alonso took full advantage of the error to move back into the lead and pull out a 10-second lead, tip-toeing in the wet weather, only for another caution to be called due to the heavy rain.

This was shortly upgraded to a red flag with one hour, 56 minutes left on the clock.

Erstwhile LMP2 leader DragonSpeed saw its hopes take a double blow when its #81 Oreca 07 Gibson suffered a sheared upright on an outlap, losing its one-lap lead to the sister #18 entry. A mistake in the rain saw Sebastian Saavedra hit the wall at Turn 1, forcing him to pit for repairs, but the Colombian was able to get back out on-track prior to the red flag.

In GTLM, Augusto Farfus leads for BMW under the red flag in the #24 BMW M8 GTE, having passed Risi Competizione's James Calado through the spray.

A number of errors from leaders in GTD saw Christian Engelhart move into the lead of the class for GRT Grasser Racing Team in the #11 Lamborghini Huracan GT3, capitalising on an error from Daniel Morad in Montaplast by Land Motorsport's #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 just before the red flag. Morad remains P2 in class.