Ex-F1 star Nasr tops Daytona test qualifying, Alonso 12th

Ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr has gone quickest in the Roar before the 24 test qualifying to decide team garages and pit box selections for this year’s Daytona 24 hour race, with Fernando Alonso ending the session 12th quickest for United Autosports.

The former Sauber F1 driver had topped the timesheet during Saturday’s test sessions at Daytona and has followed up his feat with the fastest time in the 15-minute qualifying session which determines each team’s pit and garage selection for the race weekend.

Nasr’s 1m 35.806s in the #31 Action Express Cadillac Dpi saw him take top spot by almost a quarter of a second from Tristan Vautier in the #91 Spirit of Daytona Cadillac. The Cadillacs continued to dominate over a single lap at Daytona with a top four lockout completed by Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Action Express and Renger van der Zande in the #10 Spirit of Daytona.

On his Daytona debut two-time F1 world champion Alonso was elected as the #23 United Autosport Ligier’s driver for the qualifying session and clinched 12th place with a best lap of 1m 37.515s – 1.709s off the leader.

In the GT Le Mans class Joey Hand in the #66 Chip Ganassi Ford GT grabbed top spot thanks to his 1m 43.610s which was just 0.030s quicker than Oliver Gavin in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, while in GT Daytona Mirko Bortolotti secured the quickest time in his class in the #11 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with a 1m 47.374s.

The entire Daytona 24 hour field will get a final one-hour practice session on Sunday to round out track action before the Rolex 24 event on the 27-28 January.