Conway fastest ahead of Stroll in final Rolex 24 practice

Mike Conway closed out practice for the Rolex 24 at Daytona with the fastest time in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi to edge out Lance Stroll, as Fernando Alonso ended the session 16th overall for United Autosports.

Following Thursday's qualifying session, teams and drivers were afforded one final hour of practice running on Friday morning at Daytona International Speedway, with Conway surging to the top of the timesheets for the Action Express Racing team entry.

Conway's fastest lap time of 1:36.865 saw him finish almost two-tenths of a second clear of Stroll in the #37 Jackie Chan DCR Jota Oreca 07 Gibson, with Tristan Vautier and Rene Rast taking third and fourth respectively.

After qualifying 13th on Thursday, Alonso once again was the fastest member of the #23 United Autosports entry in the Ligier JS P217, finishing 1.9 seconds back from Conway's top time en route to 16th overall in final practice.

Alonso will next hit the track at the start of the race on Saturday, embarking on his maiden sports car outing ahead of a possible shot at the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this year.

GTLM saw Ford Chip Ganassi Racing finish at the head of the field courtesy of Joey Hand in the #66 Ford GT, whose time of 1:44.062 saw him finish half a tenth of a second clear of Porsche's Gianmaria Bruni. Matteo Cairoli led Manthey Racing to P1 in GTD, finishing almost half a second clear of the pack in the #59 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona gets underway at 7:40pm GMT on Saturday. For details on how to watch, click here.