Nicki Thiim pits the Aston Martin. The Aston and the Ford pit. Andy Priaulx takes over for Harry Tincknell. Oh! Fire in the lane! Fuel spill for Ford! They were in with a shot at Le Mans, and it's spwing out of the filler cap, which ins't supposed to happen! Holy cow! The vent didn't close on the fuel rig. Abu Dhabi Proton is in the lane. An hour and 45 minutes is the minimum drive time in GT. Andy Priaulx says he's OK. Fuel spilled onto the exhaust system. A small fire? No way. That was a volcano! Once they disconnect the fuel buckeye, the system should shut down. It's not like fueling your road car at the gas station where the pump clicks off automatically. A couple LMP2 cars battle. Brendon Hartley continues to lead right now.
Sebastien Buemi in the Toyota, was in the lead, briefly. Buemi has a WEC championship. 1:40.3 is the fastest lap thus far and Sebastien Buemi set that lap. Marc Lieb is pushing but he says he's got a traction issue and understeer. Bad combo. That won't work. Every team manages the pit stops differently. Here in WEC, you cannot service the car while refueling. The #67 car is out. Game over. Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard, and Mark Webber, have a lot of business to take care of in the points standings. They hardly have a good amount of points on the board.
The Ford squad had a fuel valve failure, causing the fire we saw in the previous hour. Oliver Jarvis is closing in on Brendon Hartley. Oliver Jarvis is closing. Nicolas Minassian and Ricardo Gonzalez battle in LMP2. Oliver Jarvis is now leading. In LMP2 at Oak Racing, they have Dunlop tires while ESM has Michelin's. You can only change tire brands once in the season. The FIA watches the Prototypes very closely for how much hybrid energy is put through the car to avoid anyone getting a competitive advantage. Andre Lotterer cannot use the energy boost for overtaking. Lead this motor race, but don't use too much energy on settings for the car.
Hey. The #67 car is now back in the race! The car was not too damaged after the fuel fire. They could get back into the race. Ooh! Hartley is not reading the traffic well and keeps getting chopped by the Audi. Hartley gets caught by the #86 Porsche 911 RSR for Gulf Racing, of Mike Wainwright who he hit, and because of that, flipped, at the season opener at Silverstone, England, back in April. Wainwright shares with fellow Brits Adam Carroll and Ben Barker. G Drive Racing is running well with Alex Brundle, Rene Rast, and Romain Rusinov.
Joel Camathias has taken over the #78 KCMG Porsche 911 RSR from Wolf Henzler. Francois Perrodo is passed by an LMP2 car. The LMP1 cars slice through traffic. David Cheng has gone off the road with his LMP2 car and has gotten back on course. Mark Webber is likely going to take over the #1 Porsche soon. Mike Wainwright is off the road just a shade. In LM GTE Am, Francois Perrodo is all over Joel Camathias. Perrodo shares with Emmanuelle Collard and Rui Aguas. Perrodo is a Bronze rated driver, rated based on results an participation, by an FIA committee. Those ratings can be goofy.
Tires are ready for the #1 Porsche. Hartley can't get the handling on the car and he's in the lane. It's very early. Box now, full service, for a slow puncture in the tire. Hartley out, and Mark Webber, in. This puts Porsche off their strategy. Michelin tire engineers are studying the tires. Lewis Williamson replaces Danny Watts in the Strakka LMP2 car. He is a silver rated driver having a good drive. An off and on for the #37 of Viktor Shaytar. Danny Watts will be driver coach for Strakka Racing. Oliver Jarvis and Andre Lotterer lead right now ahead of Brendon Hartley in the Porsche and the Toyota's of Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi.
#7 is in the lane and Andre Lotterer will stay in for a double stint. The two Toyota's are fourth and fifth overall and in LMP1. Lucas Di Grassi takes over the second Audi R18. Lucas di Grassi is now leading. Sebastien "Boomer" Buemi, is second in the Toyota TS050. Oliver Jarvis did well in the Audi and di Grassi has taken over. Less than four hours and 15 minutes to go. Now, folks, the shadows have gone away, and the clouds have collected. We could indeed see rain before this race is complete.
Porsche #2 is pitting. Romain Dumas will take over from Marc Lieb. He wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, within a week of each other! Sebastien Buemi now moves into the race lead. We have not seen Schlasse Eiffel, the famous Nurburg castle, which is more visible, for the 14 mile Nordschleife. Box, box, box, for Toyota. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. Both Toyota's pit together, again. You don't have to stack pit stops in WEC like in Formula 1. Stephane Sarrazin takes over the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. Battle for position in GTE Pro. #71 Ferrari of Sam Bird, and the Ford GT. Not sure who is in the Ford.
Paolo Ruberti is back racing after braking his back in a crash and missing Le Mans. The crash was at the other great German speed palace, the Hockenheimring. Olivier Pla, is running for Ford in the WEC and also for Krohn Racing in the European Le Mans Series. Clouds have rolled in in western Germany. We are nearing the end of hour two. We've got a full course yellow flag according to timing and scoring, here at the Nurburgring.
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