ౠRene Rast topped a closely-fought first practice session on race week for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, setting the pace for Mazda Team Joest as Fernando Alonso's co-driver suffer🔥ed a crash.

Rast led the Mazda DPi team to theౠ top of the timesheets in the hour-long first practice session on Thursday morning, recording a best lap time of 1:37.428 around the 'r𓆏oval' layout of Daytona International Speedway.

Rast's lap came late in the session, displacing early leader Tristan Vautier, who ultimately finished 0.007 seconds💯 behind in second place for Spirit of Daytona Racing.

Less than one-tenth of a second separated ♌the leading Prototype runners in FP1, but two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso did not feature at the head of the field after seeing U♏nited Autosports co-driver Phil Hanson crash out early on.

Hanson hit the barrier ꦜat Turn 5, bringing out a red flag as well as ending the #23 crew's session, meaning neither Alonso nor Lando Norris were able to get any track time.

Lance Stroll was able to lead the F1 contingent's chღarge in opening practice as the #37 Jackie Chan DCR Jota Oreca 07 Gibson ended the session seventh-fastest courtꦍesy of Daniel Juncadella.

Joey Hand led Ford Chip Ganassi Racing to 𓃲the head of the field in GTLM, finishing half a second clear of Risi Competizione's Alessandro P𝓀ier Guidi, but the Ferrari-backed team was able to take top spot in GTD through Miguel Molina in the #82 Ferrari 488 GT3.

Practice at Daytona continues at 6:40pm GꦺMT ahead of qualifying tonight.