Has one of the Audi's got a problem? Maybe the motor stalled briefly. It's hard to tell. It's probably just something to do with the energy recovery on the car (i.e. a small issue with the flywheel). He brings the car to the box. Here comes the #2 Audi, too. The #7 Toyota is now a lap up on the Audi's. It looks like the Audi is back on track now. #2 is back on the same lap with the #7 Toyota. Kristensen continues to circulate. Timo Bernhard has gained a position on the #1 Audi with Lucas di Grassi at the controls. Marc Lieb makes another stop with the #14 Porsche. We have eleven hours and 45 minutes remaining in this race as of right now.
Relying on the French feed, as there's still satellite trouble out here in blogging land. The leaders have completed 191 laps. Audi #1 is in the garage. There's a problem with the car. Could this be a second Audi retirement? There seems to be an engine issue. Stephane Sarrazin has been increasing his lead. Audi #1 is back on track, with Lucas di Grassi at the keyboard. Giancarlo Fisichella has made a pit stop, and he is a former Formula One driver. The Audi does not rev as high. They don't run throttle plates. They control the power through spark and fuel delivery. The car doesn't have a throttlebody on it. Yikes! Amazing. The #27 Oreca Nissan for SMP Racing is in the garage. This car is being shared by Sergey Zlobin, Mika Salo, and Anton Ladygin.
The #1 Audi has had a fuel rail issue. Now, it might be a battle between the #7 Toyota and the #2 Audi. Aston Martin is holding the cards in GTE Pro. First it was Corvette, then Ferrari, and now, Aston Martin. Aston Martin has the pace. We might get more rain. Dawn is not too far away, everyone. It's coming, and soon. Timo Bernhard and company are running well. This is only the third race for the Porsche 919 hybrid. They've run just the opening two six hour events at Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps earlier. In 1982, when Porsche debuted the 956, and of a bunch of cars, there were three cars that finished 1-2-3.
One of the team principals at Porsche, came from the BMW DTM team. The crew is ready for another pit stop. Porsche has not built a top level prototype race car in almost 20 years. The Porsche uses energy from the brakes and also from the exhaust gases during acceleration. In the pits now, we see the #20 Porsche. Quick pit stop. Norbert Singer, and Alwin Springer are here at Le Mans. These two have been with Porsche for decades. Fritz Enzinger is the head of the new hybrid prototype program. Porsche is clearly competitive.
There aren't many V4 motors and not too many four cylinder Porsche's out there. Now, there was a pit stop for Corvette Racing and the #73, as well as one for the #97 Aston Martin. But, more problems for Porsche, as they had to come to the garage. The #14 car was only running on electric power. Something is wrong with the gas engine. Fortunately, these cars have the spare power, because in the old days at Le Mans, if you broke on track, you couldn't come back to the pits and you'd be marked as a retirement. Porsche has a major problem with the car.
We are closing in on 13 hours complete. Eleven hours remaining in this race. Giancarlo Fisichella may soon see a battle with the Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner, who took the car over from Bruno Senna. Marc Lieb is back on track. But he;s now sixth in class and in the overall. The top two cars have had a trouble free run to this point. Sunrise will be in just two hours, at 11:00 P.M. Central U.S. time. We're 13 hours into this one. The #79 Weathertech Porsche has just two drivers. Jeroen Bleekemolen has done yeoman service.
But, they need to get Cooper MacNeil in the car. He'll have to do a lot to get there, too. As the race goes on, the fans are having lots of fun. They show race cars and road cars. Plus, there are fans watching the World Cup. The food of note at Le Mans is legendary. It's a Grand Marnier crepe. A crepe, soaked in Grand Marnier orange flavored liqueur. Now, no worries about food or alcoholic drinks. We see Anthony "The Ant" Davidson, getting into the #8 Toyota TS040.
He looked to be in a hurry to get back on the road. Anthony Davidson wrings the car's neck and puts the hammer down, while some other drivers at Toyota, are more methodical in braking, using the harvested energy to recharge the hybrid system's capacitor. Stephane Sarrazin also had a good reputation as a rally driver. We see that the #24 Sebastien Loeb Racing Oreca Nissan with Rene Rast, Czech driver Jan Charouz, and Frenchman Vincent Capillaire. Loeb is team manager, and is a former multi-time FIA World Rally champion for Citroen, as well as running for them in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.
Now, the #74 Corvette was wheeled into the garage on the dolly's, and the brakes need to be replaced. Ooh. The car stalled exiting pit lane. The #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari also pits. Ben "The Stig" Collins, is behind the wheel. "The Stig" is to remain anonymous on the Top Gear show. Perry McCarthy was the Stig, but he was fired for revealing his identity, from Top Gear. The #36 Signatech Alpine A450 pits. The #20 Porsche pits from third. Brendon Hartley is now in the car, taking over the wheel.
A Ferrari 512 is sitting on display at the empty Millenium Racing car. The Ferrari 512M has a 240 mile per hour top speed, as well as a metal fuel tank, and a small seat. The tires were MUCH smaller back then. This is the Scuderia Filipinetti car. The motor is a flat 12 with lots of power. Fernando Alonso looked at the car and loved it. Fox Sport's Andrew Marriott will make a documentary movie about the making of the great "Le Mans" movie with Steve McQueen. There's also a book about it, called "A French Kiss With Death".
One of the prototype cars pits. Andrew Marriott is the Executive Producer on this movie coming up. Kazuki Nakajima takes over the #7 Toyota as this race continues. The #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing prototype pits. That's another Ligier JS P2 with Nissan power in the hands of Pierre Thiriet, and his countrymen from France, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy. Keep digging even if you've had trouble. You never know what could happen in these 24 hour races.
Keep up the pressure. The #92 Porsche 911 RSR is pitting. Porsche has leapfrogged the Corvette. We're an hour from sunrise. Darren Turner pits the #97 Aston Martin. The #77 Dempsey Racing Porsche pits, as it recovers from a penalty for spinning the wheels in pit lane. Dawn will come, and more new chapters will be written. Say what? Someone is kindly offering to refuel the camera! Yeah, baby! Now, dawn is coming, because there's a pink hue starting to cross the sky.
Marc Lieb just pitted and they are now fifth in class and overall, after dealing with a recurring fuel problem. IMSA Matmut is running well. They were HUGE crowd favorites during the scrutineering sessions last Sunday. Now, we have a stopped #7 Toyota! The #1 Audi R18 eTron Quattro is ahead. The #7 is stranded on the road. How did it stop? The Toyota is stopped at marshal post 106, which is just past Arnage. The car is now running on electric power. You have to be a driver, and a computer scientist to get these space age race cars working.
The #2 team leads again after winning two straight Le Mans races in 2011 and 2012. The Toyota is sitting on track. Are they done? The crew is looking atg the monitors. The crew is not expecting the car to come in as usually the dollies are out, ready to wheel the car in. Toyota might shoot themselves in the foot... again. The tools you need as a driver, are tools, money to negotiate with corner workers, and a cell phone, to communicate with your crew. The car still sits on track.
Usually there's a way to get the car back to pit lane. But we'll just wait. Audi has 12 wins in 15 tries. That's an 80% success rate. Each of the front wheels on the Audi, has an electric motor and doubled up, they have more power than your road car. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil had some debris hit their car. Cooper MacNeil is now in the car. It's tougher with two drivers. Now, with Toyota, the car has stopped, and the team thinks it's a transmission or a drivetrain problem.
The advantage to running a super capacitor like Toyota is using, it has more power to recharge. We watch a shot of Lucas di Grassi at work, and also, one of Benoit Treluyer. These are the drivers in both Audi's right now. Audi #2 pits. Treluyer will get out of the car. Audi #2 has a three lap lead over the #20 Porsche with Brendon Hartley at the wheel right now. It seems now that Toyota is in fact out of this race. The #7 Toyota of Kazuki Nakajima, Alexander Wurz, and Stephane Sarrazin, is out. There's a green form you have to fill out to say the car is a retirement, and it's now true.
25 minutes to sunrise. The sun comes up and it's still cool. This is happy hour, as drivers sense relief. Now, with the Toyota, Toyota Business Operations Director Rob Leupen says there was a problem with the wiring loom that runs everything on the car. Devastating for them. Toyota won Silverstone and Spa. But, no win at Le MKans for them yet. Everything is fly by wire. Now, the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia pits with Gianmaria Bruni at the wheel.
The #74 Corvette is in pit lane. Keep in mind, this race is worth double points for the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Aston Martin is getting quicker. No weak links in the driver lineup with Darren Turner, Bruno Senna, and Stefan Mucke. The Nissan ZEOD had transmission failure. They did an all electric lap. They'll be back. The #92 Porsche pits from third in LM GTE Pro. Richard Lietz gets out of the car. The notes on timing and scoring said this car was moving slowly. But no worries. Fuel and tires.
Oliver Gavin in the #74 Corvette felt like he had a puncture. There was a load of junk on the tire. But no puncture. The #61 Ferrari has hit something and scattered debris at marshall post 115, which is in the Porsche curves. Right now, we see the Audi has a three lap lead over the Porsche's. The #97 Aston Martin had a brake change. It looks like, maybe, the #61 Ferrari 458 Italia is in the pits being repaired. That's Marco Cioci of Italy, sharing with Mirko Venturi, and Luis Perez Companc. Two Italian's, and an Argentinian.
Sunrise is official at Le Mans as the #91 Porsche 911 RSR pits. Patrick Pilet, Jorg Bergmeister, and Nick Tandy, drive this car. Patrick Pilet is driving. We follow the Porsche on the Mulsanne. The #74 Corvette has been in the pits a while. It is fourth in LM GTE Pro and might get back in the race. Jan Magnussen takes over the car. The #74 Corvette is back on track now. The #14 Porsche is ready for a pit stop. The car is on pit lane now.
The #1 Audi completes another pit stop as well. Romain Dumas takes over the #14 Porsche 919. Now, the #7 Toyota is somehow still in pit lane. But, the car is out of this race, as mentioned earlier. The #74 Corvette still is having problems. It's going to get hot later on. The #95 LM GTE Am Aston Martin is in the pits. This is the all Danish lineup of Kristian Poulsen, Nicky Thiim, and David Heinemeier-Hanson. We ride on board with one of the AF Corse Ferrari's and are back onboard with the #2 Audi.
The #2 Audi comes to pit road. The stop is quick. Now, we have a change in the running order. Audi, Audi, Porsche, Toyota, Porsche. The sun continues to rise over Le Mans. The Ligier JS P2 has been running well. There's still eight and a half hours of this race to go yet. The fans have been in the grandstands all night. Everyone has survived the night. Stay fast. Stay out of trouble. The finish line is coming. The #62 Ferrari pits, with the oldest driver in the field... Howard Blank, at the controls, at 62 years of age.
Now, is the #7 Toyota back on track for real? Maybe that's just earlier coverage. The #51 Ferrari pits. Toni Vilander, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Gianmaria Bruni are in that car. Fisichella was team mates to grand marshal Fernando Alonso, at Renault, years ago. The #52 RAM Racing Ferrari is back in the garage as the #73 car comes back to pit lane for a standard service. Fuel only and no tires. The team switches out the data card.
The #8 Toyota pits for routine service. They have to keep plugging away to keep their championship lead in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Le Mans is worth double points. The championshop has been won the last few years, by the car that won Le Mans. Five races to go. The next one is at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Fred Makowiecki and company are still hanging in there, going under the Dunlop bridge at sunrise, which means the sun is right in your face.
Alex Brundle is running the #35 Ligier JS P2. His U.S. team mate in the Tudor Championship, Gustavo Yacaman, said that Alex Brundle is very, very quick on cold tires, and that's a talent for an endurance sports car driver. Nic Jonsson is running well in the #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 Italia. The team manager was on his honeymoon when he got the call that the team was entered, prepping the car in Italy, and they'll do it in reverse to be set for the Six Hours of Watkins Glen in two weeks, a race you will hear about on this blog.
Corvette's run fourth and fifth in LM GTE Am. Matt McMurry is still running real well in his first Le Mans as the youngest competitor at age 16. Matt McMurry's dad Chris ran in the old American Le Mans Series for years. McMurry is development driver for Dyson Racing, who have run great drivers such as James Weaver, Andy Wallace, and Fox Sports commentator, Dorsey Schroeder. The automakers have not crossed energy use thresholds. Everyone will have a different way to do things. All the cars sound different. The playing field is equal, which is amazing. Energy allocation, works.
Mark Webber is now third overall in the #20 Porsche 919. The #1 Audi pits. Lucas di Grassi out. Marc Gene, in. The #34 machine (fourth in LMP2) has been reported for speeding in the pit lane. That's the Race Performance car. Joe Foster has just finished his stint aboard the #77 Porsche in LM GTE Am. The new 911 has a longer wheelbase and better grip. Now, the #62 Ferrari is back in the garage. The #46 car pits. They are second in LMP2 as the #66 Ferrari 458 Italia for JMW, with their engineer from the states, Thomas Blam. Abdul Aziz Al Faisal, a royal Saudi Arabian prince, shares with Spencer Pumpelly and Seth Neiman while the #14 Porsche 919 is in the pits.
Kristian Poulsen is running well in the Aston Martin Vantage, which looks like a fun car to drive. Aston Martin could do well, as the all Danish lineup races in honor of their fallen buddy, Allan Simonsen, who was killed in this race last year. The #2 Audi came into the pits, but there's trouble. They have a three lap lead over their team car and the Porsche. They are taking the back end off the car and going to work on the front, too. Marcel Fassler is at the controls. Maybe the car is being fully serviced.
Any time the team has to come to the garage, because of the lightweight nature of it, it's hard to get back on. They use T wrenches. It's almost like putting togther a piece of Ikea furniture. The car comes back out, but stalls. What is wrong? Maybe there is a reset on the telemetry. Now they go back to the garage. There's still something wrong with the Audi. A three lap lead is being eroded. Ronnie Reinhardt, the car chief, noticed something.
In Europe, digital radios are used, so you cannot have them on a scanner like here in the U.S. Then, you can't hear the conversation. Reinhold Joest owns the car and the team. Ralph Juettner is his team manager. Marc Gene and Mark Webber are coming. They're on the same lap. Could Porsche be in with a shout? Oh no. The SMP Ferrari has crashed, and might have damaged something, in the Porsche curves. This is the #72 of Andrea Bertolini, and he spun and slammed the wall, like a ping pong ball in the Porsche Curves. This could cause a safety car. Bertolini is out of the Ferrari, and unhurt.
A full course yellow could help the Audi. They have a turbo problem. The sister Audi takes the lead. We have a slow zone for debris for that Ferrari that went off the road. Marc Gene leads. Can one of his team mates Tom Kristensen win a tenth Le Mans race? The #20 Porsche 919 is driven by Mark Webber, and he'll gain second. There it is. Audi vs. Porsche. Audi is doing the divide and conquer approach. They clean the bodywork and continue fixing the car. They've adjusted the nw front wing, too. Both Porsche and Audi are under the same ownership umbrella, under Volkswagen.
The slow zones have reduced the full course yellows. Don't stop the race's rhythm on a long track like this. There's something at the front of the Audi that the team doesn't want TV to see. The safety car has been dispatched. Are the #1 and #20 in the same sector? They should be. This is an intervention. It's not a full safety car period. Webber needs to be in the same zone, though. He has to be.
The #2 car is back on track now. Seven hours and 40 minutes left. ,We are now under full course yellow to fix the guardrail. The #74 Corvette C-7-R- is leaking fluid. The cars make their way through the slow zone while the fence is being repaired. The Audi was separated from the Porsche by the safety cars. The #74 car has an alternator problem. No matter how tired you are at night, dawn brings a lift. But it also brings a rash of retirements. This is when 24 hours seems impossibly long. The sponsors ask, "how are we doing?" All the crew wants to say to them is, "humph!" because of all the stress.
Audi has lengthened their gap over Porsche. Lots of work to be done in the Porsche Curves. Marc Gene leads this race. The reason why there's three safety cars, is to help the faster cars. This track is huge. We're back to green. Race to the slow zones and then, coast at 37 miles an hour to keep everyone safe. We're still racing. This is a technological innovation. Whoa! The #97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mucke, chops Marc Gene and the Audi. Gene is forced onto the shoulder, into the dust! Wow!
Uh oh. The #70 Team Taisan Ferrari 458 of Pierre Ehret, locks the brakes at Indianapolis, going off trying to pass the factory GTE Pro Pporsche, and slides off the road as the #73 Corvette C7R pits. Antonio Garcia takes over. He'll be on full tanks, and new Michelin tires. David Hallyday is tenth in GTE Am. He's at least still running. Keep pressing on. Keep going. Like the Energizer bunny. Speed plays a role, but you have to run your best race. One of the prototypes pits. It's the #34 Race Performance machine. One second a lap, over the course of four or five hours, you can make it up.
The #51 Ferrari changed brake pads, but only just in the last half hour. People are starting to wake up. The mess is being cleaned up in the Porsche curves. We watch Kristian Poulsen make his way around Le Mans. The #73 Corvette C-7-R- maks a stop. It seems that the Corvette and the #92 Porsche are on the same lap. The Audi is running through a slow zone right now. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia is now leading the LM GTE Pro class. The #1 Audi is back in pit lane.
The #1 Audi continues to lead. Marc Webber is still a lap behind in the Porsche. Webber makes a pit stop. Seven hours now remain, as we approach hour 17.
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