Drivers wake up, as the sun comes up. We are awake. We are alive. Go for it. Ricardo Gonzalez, Bruno Senna, and Filipe Albuquerque, had some mechanical issues, but the #43 RG Sport By Morand machine, is still running well. Ricardo Gonzalez has won in class here at Le Mans. Don't over drive the car. There's still time in this race as the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari, pits. They can win if they make no mistakes, and keep the pace up. Push the reset button, and the big pit stops have been made. Stay clean. The mechanics are fatigued. It's easier to make a mistake when you are tired. #36 is in pit lane. That's the Alpine. Gustavo Menezes gets into the car. They had a problem with the air gun. This is a big miscue. You are tired and you don't react as quickly. The other air gun, it was caught on the line for the original, hung from the pit gantry, and then, the car wouldn't restart.
25 years ago, Mazda scored the only Japanese win at Le Mans with Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot. Toyota has been so dominant. Can they make it to the finish? Porsche and Audi have had unprecedented issues. They were admittedly not where they wanted to be, with the two cars, instead of three. They can't develop their cars the way they'd like to. Toyota, has a very different feel. Toyota had nothing last year. They couldn't get anyplace. But this year, it's a total 180. They have been going really well. Things are going so well, and they are keeping things to themselves. These boys are here to win, and not to interact with the media.
It's like a pitcher in baseball. Okiyo Toyota, named the team Gazoo Racing, to not let the brass at Toyota know they were going to race. The #7 are back in the garage. Audi and Porsche have hospitality suites etc. Toyota isn't as inviting or as open with information. They finished on the podium three times in the 1990s. Japan, is a different culture, too, than in Europe. Ford continues to run a good pace in GTE Pro. The Audi is still being worked on. All hands are on deck at Audi. Manufacturers use mechanics as blockers to protect thnemselves from the media. That's against the rules.
#6 is in the lane. Clean stop. No noise from the Toyota. Totally silent, just like a bar of soap slipping out of your hands. Jonny Kane in the #42 Strakka Racing car. Kane was running for position with Viktor Shaitar in the #37 SMP Racing machine. The top of the division is very close. Lieb, Buemi, Conway, are the top three at the moment. Lieb pits. Dirk Mueller is eating time out of Matteo Malucelli's lead. Problems for the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7 Z06 in the Porsche curves. Screech! Boom! Five and a half hours remain now. Some of these guys just barrel into the slow zones. You have to maintain a two car length gap in a slow zone.
Conway releases the button to go, before Marc Lieb can. Lap times are skewed due to slow zones. Ferrari seems to be doing better with tire wear, than the Ford does. Ford is better in the warm, and Ferrari is better, in cooler conditions. Make sure the car works in higher ambient and track temperatures. A big thanks to the camera operators, bringing the fantastic pictures to the Le Mans broadcast, if any readers, happen to be watching at home. Ferrari has the advantage in the corners. Ford, has the advantage, on the straights.
Dave "Beaky" Sims, team mechanic for Risi Competizione. He was the late, great Jim Clark's Formula 1 mechanic. Ryan Briscoe is now third in the LM GTE Pro class, and the #66 is fifth in class. The #63 Corvette C-7-R- is in the pits. Motorsport is a very human sport, because humans, are of course, driving the cars. Mike Conway runs second to team mate Sebastien Buemi. We have a shade over five hours to go. The #1 Porsche pits. The #1 has come to working with this race as nothing more than a test session. Finish the race for points.
John Pew had a braking probelm, spun, and Tracy Krohn had no place to go. Pew swerved to the right, the car hooked, and Pew, he hit the crown of the road, upsetting the car. Krohn had no place to go. That's a wallop! Toyota, continues to lead.
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