Motorsport: Alonso scores Daytona win

The two-time Formula One champion joined the powerhouse Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) Cadillac team for this year’s event and overcame treacherous conditions to score the team’s second win in three years. Alonso partnered WTR regulars Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande and fellow ringer, Kamui Kobayashi, for the twice-round-the-clock enduro.

The race started in good conditions and the pole-sitting Mazdas initially battled with the Team Penske Acuras before the weather turned sour and Alonso and co. made their move to the front. In the end the rain got heavier as the race progressed and the safety car was deployed for large periods. Eventually with two hours to run the race was red-flagged before ultimately being called with 10 minutes remaining on the clock.

Second place went to the Whelen Racing Cadillac of F1 refugee Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran and Pipo Derani, with the Acura of Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alex Rossi completing the podium.

BMW scored an emotional victory in a topsy-turvy GTLM category, honouring long-time Schnitzer team boss Charly Lamm who died suddenly in the days leading up to the race.

It was a hard-fought race between BMW, Porsche, Ferrari and Ford with all four brands in contention to win before the #25 M8 GTE of Augusto Farfus, Conner De Phillippi, Phillip Eng and Colton Herta finished in front when the red-flag flew.

That left the Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado in second for the GTLM class. Third place went to the #912 Porsche 911 of Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet, in a remarkable drive that saw the car claw back five-laps lost in the early hours.

It was a similar story for the #67 Ford GT of Australia’s Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook. That crew also had to make up five-laps and was in contention for the win in the final hours before an unlucky break with the safety car and eventual red flag left them fourth in class finish.

Supercars ace Chaz Mostert was knocked out of contention early with a mechanical problem in his BMW M8 GTE. Sharing the car with double-amputee Alex Zanardi, the #24 BMW suffered damage to its steering column during the switch from the regular steering wheel to Zanardi’s modified hand-controlled version.

Fellow Australian Matt Campbell scored eighth place in the GTD class in his Daytona debut. It was an unlucky result for Campbell and his Porsche team, leading the class just two laps before the race defining safety car emerged.

WRC: Ogier pips Neuville in Monte

The 2019 World Rally Championship began as it finished last year, with Sebastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak fighting at the front of the pack.

Ogier, now driving for Citroen instead of Ford, once again came out on top, beating Neuville (Hyundai) by just 2.2 seconds after four-days of action. It was the Frenchman’s sixth consecutive win on the Monte, and seventh overall.

It’s a special event for Ogier, with the stages run around his hometown of Gap.

“It's the rally I want to win the most in the season, that's why I'm so happy now,” Ogier said on Sunday.

“It was tough today because we had a problem with a sticking throttle which was pushing the car when I was on the brakes. Six years in a row with three different cars – that’s not so bad.”

Tanak burst into an early lead in his Toyota but lost more than two minutes to a puncture on Friday afternoon. He stormed back into third place winning every stage on Saturday and overhauled Hyundai’s new recruit, Sebastien Loeb.

Despite his nine world championships it was still an impressive debut for Loeb, who had only had a single day of testing in the Hyundai i20 WRC before the event started.

Formula E: Bird flies in Chile

Sam Bird stayed cool to win the Santiago ePrix in the hottest Formula E race on record.

The Virgin Racing driver worked his way up from fourth to second in the opening stages of the race, settling in behind Nissan’s Sebastien Buemi. It looked like it was shaping up as a two-horse race between the pair until Buemi hit the wall on lap 22 and handed a comfortable lead to Bird.

Former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein was in second place at that point and used the series’ unique ‘Attack Mode’ format (which gives a driver a power boost) to close the gap to Bird in the closing laps of the race.

Unfortunately for Wehrlein he was asked to back off by his team after his battery began overheating, allowing Bird to cruise to the finish.

Audi’s Daniel Abt finished in third place ahead of Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara. All up, there were eight different teams in the top 10, underlining the competitive nature of the new Formula E season.

Bird leads the standings by just two points over Mahindra’s Jerome de’Ambrosio with BMW’s Antonio Felix da Costa, Virgin’s Robert Frijns and Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vernge all equal on points behind them.

W Series: Two Aussies make finalists

A pair of Australians have made the short list for the female-only W Series, securing their place at the final test that will select the 18 competitors for the new category.

Caitlin Wood and Alexandra Whitley were part of the 54 finalists that were cut to 28 over the weekend in Austria. The women were put through a series of challenges - both on and off-track - including psychological and media testing, by a judging panel consisting of former F1 drivers David Coulthard and Alex Wurz.

The 18 selected drivers will win a funded drive in the W Series, which will use a Formula Three-style single-seater and is offering a $1.5m prize pool.

Wood has spent the majority of her career racing sports cars in Europe, including spending 2018 in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Series.

Queensland-born Whitley races primarily in New Zealand, competing in its domestic ute series.

Wood, Whitley and the remaining contenders will now head to the Almeria circuit in Spain in March for a four-day test in the W Series car to choose the grid.

It wasn’t all good news for the Australian contenders with Chelsea Angelo and Charlotte Poynting missing out on making the final selection round.