Tires and a driver change for the #95 Aston Martin. Aston Martin and Dunlop tires have had a great relationship so far. They have won a race already, together. Two hours have now been completed. Just under four hours remain now. Porsche, Porsche, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. Extreme Speed Motorsports leads LMP2. Ford leads LM GTE Pro. Check that. James Calado in the Ferrari has taken the LM GTE Pro lead. Problems continue for the #8 Audi. They have 15 minutes less fuel in the tank than do their rivals in the leading positions, from Porsche. Reinhold Joest, Ralf Juttner, and other team members, are looking at the problems. The fuel rig is still suspect. There's no doubt.
Maybe it is a car problem. Unless it is internally within the fuel rig, it's got to be something in the fuel system of the car, as we see a touch between the Corvette #50 and the #37 SMP car. Egad! Bang! That was a real wallop. The BR01 moved in on the Corvette. Kiril Ladygin tried not to get into the marbles. Chris Cumming was right on his gearbox. Cumming is in the lane. Pit stop time too for the #71 Ferrari 488 GTE. Sam Bird out, and Davide Rigon in. Massive championship implications in GTE here as Aston Martin is blocking Ferrari. This is brute force racing between Marco Sornsen and also, the Ferrari Gianmaria Bruni!
Bruni and Sorenson were side by side, and Bruni made the pass stick. Francois Perrodo gives the #83 Ferrari 458 Italia in LM GTE Am over to Rui Aguas. Bruni drops a wheel and makes a pass giving just enough racing room. Marc Lieb throws more tire debris around. These are softball size chunks of rubber. Back in the 1990s in the McLaren F1, Andy Wallace got glass in his eye when tire debris punched through the windshield, and we saw lots of wheel louver damage on cars from tire debris back in the American Le Mans Series days. Audi's grim season continues to it's conclusion at the end of this year.
Audi has not been a factor for this entire race since the red lights went out three hours ago. Paul Loup Chatin may go to the sin bin for abusing track limits. Aston Martin in the pit lane. Paul Dalla Lana, out. Mathias Lauda, in. Aston Martin has led 95% of the laps in the last three races that have been run in the FIA WEC. Timo Bernhard has 24 seconds in hand over Mark Webber as Kamui Kobayashi is trying to leapfrog the Porsche before the final race of the season in Bahrain in a few weeks.
David Heinemeier Hanson leads LM GTE Am in the Abu Dhabi Proton Porsche. The Bahrain finale will be a night race. Kamui Kobayashi is coming. We have not seen a good race for the #43 RGR Sport Ligier in the hands of Bruno Senna. Ford GT in the lane. Stefan Mucke pits, earlier than we thought he would. The #66 Ford had a quick stop for the crew to take a look at whether there was damage to the car. Marc Lieb runs a 1:48.8, a full second plus more slower than Timo Bernhard. Kamui Kobayashi is pulling the gap down.
We are two hours and 20 minutes into this race so far. Both Audi's have lost a lap to the leader. #8 has lost one and the #7 is on the tail end of the lead lap. Benoit Treluyer driving the #7 and Loic Duval in #8. Simon Trummer in the #4 ByKolles CLM P1 01 is holding up the leading cars. First and second in the championship lead each other. Kobayashi has to make a move on Marc Lieb. It is hammer time right now. Go for the gusto. The LMP1 Hybrid battle intensifies. Marc Lieb is not giving up trying to pass Kamui Kobayashi. Marc Lieb blows by Kobayashi! Is he out of hybrid power? No.
There's 23 points in the championship for second and third between #2 and #6. Pick your moments. Don't throw it away. The #2 Porsche wants to have some decent finishes in the last few races here. Timo Bernhard has 30 seconds on the rest of the field. Slow puncture for one of the cars as the #37 SMP BR01 of Kiril Ladygin pits. No driver change as first thought. Fuel only. Benoit Treluyer is starting to pick up the pace as we see a battle in LM GTE Pro. Porsche, Ferrari, Ferrari. Aston Martin has to win to take the championship fight to the end in Bahrain.
In LM GTE Am, the 2016 cars from Pro this year, will be grandfathered into the LM GTE Am class next year. RGR Sport gets a penalty. The #43 RGR Sport by Morand car has to finish sixth or better to beat Signatech Alpine for the LMP2 championship. The #44 Manor has lost a lap due to pace. But after being on pole, their surviving car is out, after Mathias Beche spun and crashed after being hit by the Aston Martin in the first hour of the race, the section yours truly did not see.
Romain Rusinov stays in the G Drive car after the pit stop. Sean Gelael takes over the #30 car from Antonio Giovanazzi. Timo Bernhard stretches his lead. Stefan Mucke has made an unscheduled pit stop and dropped to fourth, while Andy Priaulx has the sister #67 Ford GT in the class lead. Porsche, Toyota, Porsche, Toyota, Audi, Audi, the top six. ESM leads LMP2. Andy Priaulx leads LM GTE Pro, and Mathias Lauda leads LM GTE Am for Aston Martin. The #8 Audi squad is still having problems.
David Heinemier Hanson and Rui Aguas battle in LM GTE Am. Ooh! Gustavo Menezes has come a cropper in some way. He's gone off the road someplace. Bruno Senna and Gustavo Menezes actually run close together as there has been more concern for the #44 Manor car that was in the garage for eight minutes, with Richard Bradley at the controls. David Heinemeier Hanson and Rui Aguas have had a real dust up these last couple laps. As soon as the leaders hit traffic, they lose loads of time over successive laps.
Marc Lieb hits the pit lane. Audi is also ready to service one of their cars. Porsche has only gotten 30 laps on a fuel run during this race. The #7 Audi also pits for new Michelin tires. This is a stop actually for both cars (#8 and #7). Heinemeier Hanson is pushed wide by the delayed Ford GT of Stefan Mucke. The #8 Audi is in the lane. Fuel only for the Audi. Timo Bernhard now is in the lane, and we see both Toyota's moving to the lead. Toyota are 1-2 at the moment. This is a long stop for Audi and Oliver Jarvis. His future is in jeopardy after Audi withdraws at the end of the year.
They are having issues with the pit stop. Audi's shock announcement meant that they wanted to go out on a high note. But, so far in China, they are going out with a thud, not a bang. We near the halfway mark. Timo Bernhard still leads Kamui Kobayashi as Romain Dumas has taken over the #2 Porsche. Will Mark Webber also seal the deal? Porsche #1 are the defending race champions here in Shanghai. Drivers are really pushing hard here in Shanghai. Audi's pit issues are getting worse. They are trying to fix their pit stops, but nothing is working right now.
1:47.9 for Romain Dumas, as he is gaining on Sebastien Buemi. Romain Rusinov leads LMP2 over Sean Gelael. Gustavo Menezes is third in class followed by Bruno Senna. Romain Dumas has to finish the season for the championship. No heroics required. They can control their own destiny. Marco Sorensen, Andy Priaulx, Gianmaria Bruni, these three are the top runners in LM GTE Pro as a Porsche slides luridly off the road and recovers! Eek! Ryan Dalziel has the #31 ESM Ligier in the pit lane.
We've seen tire issues in LM GTE Pro during this race after the first lap, first hour wreck. Bruno Senna pits, and so does Stefan Mucke. H will have a driver change in the #66 Ford GT. The #44 Manor car had damage after running into one of the SMP cars. Richard Bradley is at the wheel. Gustavo Menezes brings the #36 Alpine into the pits and Stephane Richelmi will take over the driving chores. These blokes know they are on the cusp of the championship. They have to keep their noses clean. Once you've made a mistake, you have to control the adrenaline.
Stefan Mucke ran fewer laps than Ford wanted him to. Andy Priaulx should pit for his first stop, soon, while Olivier Pla in the sister Ford GT has pitted, four times.
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