We continue watching pit stop action right now for the LM GTE cars. The stops have to be timed perfectly. Watch if you can see how you save a second or half a second on a pit stop. Teams videotape the stops. The late John Wickham, who ran the factory Bentley squad, started that. Ooh. Car #92 pits, and there's been a wide slide moment for another car. Pit stop time for one of the Aston Martin's. This is car #95. #92 exits the pits, and #95 goes through the pit stop procedure. Pedro Lamy is second in LM GTE Am. Parick Long pits the #77 Porsche 911 RSR, and Patrick Demspey takes over the car.
Ryan Dalziel leads LMP2 over Julien Canal. ESM is leading their home race. It's Ligier Honda, Ligier Nissan, and Oreca Nissan. Fernando Rees has made a mistake and come in short to his pit. KCMG tries G Drive! Ooh. Done deal. Ryan Dalziel runs wide. These LMP2 machines, are very quick little cars. The Aston Martin thunders through. Richard Bradley wants by Ryan Dalziel. KCMG and Richard Bradley are in the LMP2 lead. But, the factory Porsche flies by the LMP2 car like Bradley is standing still.
Ooh. The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R- tangles with an Audi. Benoit Treluyer in the Audi. Gianluca Roda, in the Corvette. A fierce battle rages between Ryan Dalziel and Julien Canal. Porsche runs 1-2 overall. Brendon Hartley is pulling a gap on Marc Lieb. Richard Bradley leads Ryan Dalziel. In LM GTE Am, it's Patrick Dempsey leads Alexey Basov. Ryan Dalziel's tires, are "beyond toast" according to a Tweet from team mate David Heinemeier-Hanson. Busted tires. Oh dear. Reigning LMP2 WEC champ, Sergey Zlobin is here. But, he's not racing.
Brendon Hartley is whistling off into the distance. He's got nearly twenty and a half seconds on the sister Porsche 919 Hybrid. One car, is out, and that's the Rebellion, obviously. Brendon Hartley continues leading Marc Lieb. Jim Hall, waved the green flag, to move the cars onto the warm up lap before the race started. Hall, is a true racing legend. You've seen an article on him, on this blog, earlier this week.
The #42 Gibson prototype, spun, and continued. Nick Leventis at the controls. Two Aston Martins have been warned for track limits. Patrick Dempsey leads LM GTE Am in his team's Porsche. Patrick Dempsey is stretching his lead. Ryan Dalziel pits in LMP2 from second in class. Brendon Hartley stretches his race lead. Marc Lieb has fast lap at 1:47.6. Last year's fastest laps were in the 1:50-1:51 bracket. Alexey Basov is right behind Patrick Dempsey right now.
Marc Lieb continues running second. Watch the burst of speed. Engaging warp drive. Push the button, and go, daddy-o. Porsche was the first team to move up to the eight mega joule category, for the energy they can deploy and harvest, from their ERS systems. Audi runs a four mega joule system. Rumor is, Audi will move to a battery system. Porsche has the battery pack and the small gasoline four cylinder motor. Toyota has a super capacitor and a 3.7 liter V8 normally aspirated engine. Audi has a 4.0 liter diesel six cylinder, with a flywheel.
We're within a few minutes of the LMP1 cars hitting pit lane. Patrick Dempsey has been passed by Alexey Basov. The LMP1 Hybrid cars should pit soon. We have seen an out of sequence stop for the #4 CLM Prototype. Simon Trummer, is driving, right now. Pierre Kaffer, has done his stint. Kaffer ran in the Tudor Championship race, too. Stay tuned for coverage of that race, tomorrow. Benoit Treluyer pits, and we watch Patrick Pilet pass Michael Christensen in a scrap between the GT Porsche's. The lead changed twice in LM GTE Pro, twice, in the same lap.
Audi #7 is in the lane. Box, box, box. Not a smooth tire change. Oliver Jarvis pits from third overall. This is Audi #8. We have yet to see a hybrid racer double stint tires. Four tires, for Jarvis. New tires, on tap. Oh boy. The second Aston Martin (#95), has been given a stewards flag. Christoffer Nygaard at the controls. Benoit Treluyer has gone fastest in sector three. The #31 machine has made it's stop. Johannes van Overbeek, at the controls.
Audi will stay at COTA tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. They will be rebuilt, and tested, before the next race. They will not return to the home base in Germany, until the end of the year. Toyota has improved their lap times by a second and a half, to two seconds. But it is not enough to keep up with Audi or Porsche. A pattern is going to start emerging in the next stint. Pit stop time for Porsche. Romain Dumas takes over car #18. The #4 CLM ByKolles car, is under investigation for a pit stop infraction.
Brendon Hartley pits the #17 Porsche. Mark Webber gets back in the car. Will Timo Bernhard drive? These boyus are changing to the qualifying tires. They are scrubbed Michelin tires. Oliver Jarvis is going for it. Is Timo Bernhard Porsche's secret weapon for night driving? We'll find out later on. Mark Webber runs a new fast lap at 1:47.4. The new Energy Recovery Systems are working well. Porsche uses their 2.0 liter V4 with a battery. Audi has their 4.0 liter diesel with a flywheel, and Toyota has a 3.7 liter V8 with a super capacitor. Toyota could run a battery hybrid system, for next year.
Uh oh. Anthony Davidson locks the brakes, and misses the pit in. Ooh! Maybe he ran out of petrol. Save fuel, at Toyota. He is on slow mode. Davidson is in the box now. Driver change, fuel, and tires. Kazuki Nakajima is now in the car. The Toyota's season has been horrendous. The car, needed more go juice. Pit when you're told by your chief mechanic or your team manager. Is Mark Webber concerned about driving at night? Hmmm. We'll follow this story, if needed. Yikes. Maybe Webber wants to watch football. Football, being soccer, not American football.
Patrick Dempsey is being pressured by Francesco Castellaci (a.k.a. Frankie C.). We also monitor the race between Alexey Basov and Patrick Dempsey. Penalties now, for three of the four Aston Martin's. Mark Webber leads Romain Dumas by 37 seconds. Oliver Jarvis is catching Romain Dumas, as there is a local yellow flag. Someone is off the road, and we have a snatch tractor, fetching the stopped car. The green flag is at the start/finish line. Who went off the road? Ricardo Gonzalez passes Ed Brown. Oh! A broken rear wing, for Brown, who has crashed.
Full course yellow. The field is neutralized. Full course yellow is indeed being called by the stewards. The field slows to 80 kilometers an hour (50 miles an hour).
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