MOTORSPORT: Aussie glory galore at Daytona

Two Australians have won America's biggest endurance race – Ryan Briscoe outright in a Cadillac prototype sports car and Chaz Mostert in a BMW M8 in the major GT class.

Plans were confirmed during the Rolex 24 weekend at Daytona that will allow manufacturers to field the same sports cars in the World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and America by the middle of this decade.

Convergence will begin before then, with technical regulations for what will be called LMDh to be announced in mid-March at the 12 Hours of Sebring – which, like Daytona, is in Florida.

The new rally world champion's debut with his new manufacturer Hyundai went horribly wrong. Estonian Ott Tanak had a massive crash on the fourth stage of the Monte Carlo Rally, barrel-rolling for 14 seconds and ending up 100 metres down a bank. He and co-driver Martin Jarveoja miraculously escaped injury.

Belgian teammate Thierry Neuville snatched the win on the fourth day ahead of the victor of the past six years, Sebastien Ogier, and Welshman Elfyn Evans, both in their first outings for Toyota.

Melbourne teenager Oscar Piastri has been installed in the junior academy of Daniel Ricciardo's Renault Formula 1 team.

Piastri, winner of last year's Formula Renault Championship in Europe, will race for top junior team Prema in Formula 3 this year.

Mick Doohan's son Jack, West Australian Calan Williams and Tasmanian Alex Peroni – who had that spectacular crash at Monza last September – will be among his rivals.

And John Harvey – Bathurst 1000 winner with Peter Brock and Larry Perkins in 1983 as well as an open-wheeler, sports car and speedway ace and Holden factory touring car team manager – has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day honours at 81.

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Australia's Day at America's endurance classic

Ryan Briscoe partnered New Zealander Scott Dixon, Japan's Kamui Kobayashi and Dutchman Renger Van Der Zande in the Cadillac DPi-V.R. that won the 24-hour classic at Daytona, extending the GM brand's perfect record in the event in the four years of the Daytona prototypes.

Despite power steering issues and a penalty in the second half of the race, the Cadillac completed a record 833 laps – almost 4772.5km – in taking the chequered flag more than a minute ahead of a Mazda RT24-P.

"Happy Australia Day from Daytona. We did it!!! Yeahaw!!" tweeted Briscoe, who has been based in the US for 15 years.

Mazda's podium was its first finish in the event since 2012.

It was a hugely disappointing race for Roger Penske's Honda Acura ARX-05s, with one finishing five laps down and the other hit by a Mazda early on.

BMW backed up last year's success in the GTLM class, with Chaz Mostert sharing the victorious M8 GTE with Brazilian Augusto Farfus, Finn Jesse Krohn and American John Edwards.

"Loved every moment of this epic race. The team [Bobby Rahal's RLL] did a fantastic job," Mostert said.

After a race-long battle, the BMW was 12.5 seconds clear of the Porsche 911 RSR 19 that Australian Matt Campbell co-drove with Briton Nick Tandy and Frenchman Fred Makowiecki, with an identical Porsche third in the model's 24-hour race debut.

Along with 22 other drivers who raced at Daytona, Mostert is now on his way to Bathurst for next weekend's 12-Hour, in which he will drive a BMW M6 for Germany's Walkenhorst Motorsport.

Another Supercar star, Shane Van Gisbergen, is on the same trip after co-driving a Lexus RC F that finished 12th of 18 cars in the GTD class at Daytona.

Lamborghini's Huracan won that class for the third year in a row.

Meanwhile, the convergence of European and American endurance racing is to begin with the introduction of the LMDh class alongside the World Endurance Championship's new Hypercar regulations in the next couple of years, before perhaps a uniform set of rules in 2025.

LMD stands for Le Mans Daytona, while the meaning of the 'h' is expected to be confirmed – perhaps hybrid or hydrogen? – when the technical details are revealed at Sebring.

While many manufacturers are interested but non-committal about the move towards a global platform for top-level endurance racing, Porsche and BMW are particularly enthusiastic.

Hyundai's Monte despite new champ's spectacular exit

Thierry Neuville made up for losing out in the closest Monte Carlo Rally last year, coming from third to win all four of the fourth-day stages this time and end Sebastien Ogier's domination of his home event predominantly in the French Alps.

Neuville was fastest on nine of the event's 16 stages, including the last with the five bonus points, in his Hyundai i20.

His final margin was 12.6 seconds after being 6.4 seconds down in third after three days.

Ogier and Welshman Elfyn Evans, both in their first outings for Toyota after Ott Tanak's off-season switch from the Japanese manufacturer to Korean rival Hyundai, had traded the lead throughout the third day but they and the Yaris were no match for Neuville and the i20 on the last.

Neuville will go into the second of the 13 rounds of the World Rally Championship in Sweden on February 13-16 with 30 points to Ogier's 22 and Evans' 17. Hyundai leads Toyota on the manufacturers' table, 35-33, with M-Sport Ford on 20.

Finn Esapekka Lappi was fourth for M-Sport on 'The Monte' in a Fiesta, a minute away from the podium, while his young countryman Kalle Rovanpera was fifth in his Toyota debut.

The legendary Sebastien Loeb, seven-time winner of the event, was not his old self, struggling with his i20 and making numerous mistakes in the snow and ice and winding up sixth, more than five minutes behind victorious teammate Neuville.