Alonso leads Rolex 24 at four-hour mark

Fernando Alonso leads the Rolex 24 at Daytona at the four-hour mark after a scintillating opening stint for Wayne Taylor Racing in the Cadillac DPi car that saw him open up a 20-second buffer over the rest of the pack at one stage.

Having taken over from teammate Jordan Taylor in the #10 Cadillac near the two-hour mark, Alonso closed up on the lead runners after a full course caution was called following a stoppage for the #24 BMW M8 GTE at pit exit.

The Spaniard managed to jump up to fourth at his first visit to the pits before pulling overtakes on Eric Curran, Helio Castroneves and race leader Rene Rast to move into the lead during the fourth hour.

Alonso then forged a healthy lead at the front of the pack, running up to two seconds per lap faster at points to run 20 seconds clear of the #77 Mazda, having also completed the #10 car's sixth stop during his stint.

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However, Alonso's lead was wiped away when a full course caution was called in the closing stages of the fourth hour after a stoppage for the #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac, allowing the chasing DPi runners to close up again. The race remained under full course caution with 20 hours remaining.

In LMP2, Nicolas Lapierre headed the class for DragonSpeed in the #10 Oreca 07 Gibson, while Frederic Makowiecki took the lead in GTLM in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR, running eight seconds clear of Marcel Fassler in the #4 Corvette as the two cars continued to battle for top honours in the lead GT class.

Montaplast by Land Motorsport continued to lead the way in GTD with its #29 Audi R8 LMS GT3 ahead of Riley Motorsports' #33 Mercedes AMG GT3, with Meyer-Shank Racing's #86 Acura NSX GT3 sitting third in class.