It is 1:00 A.M. in Central Europe. Kevin Estre is drawing away again in GTE Pro, in "The Pink Pig". Everyone else in GTE Pro has been really trying to play catch up, although Richard Lietz in the Rothman's liveried #91 Porsche 911 RSR. Antonio Giovinazzi has pulled the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE #52. Daniel Serra in the sister car, is out of the top order in GTE Pro. It looks like Porsche are the ones to beat, so far. But there is a long, long way to go yet. The chassis is damaged for car #94, and it is game over for that car. Sven Mueller wrote off the brand new chassis that was crashed, and was due to race in IMSA at the 6 Hours of the Glen. That car is damaged beyond repair. The new RSR with chassis/suspension damage, that will be another one that has been binned. #92 continues to run well.
Porsche are taking things really seriously on their 70th anniversary. Frits van Eerd is driving the #29 Racing Team Nederland car, and Jan Lammers says the driving is pretty good. When it is raining, and the rain lights are on, it's hard to see. The flashing lights are awful, he says. Jan Lammers has started races at Le Mans since 1983. Francois Migault had a debatable start in 1971. Derek Bell has the record of 26 starts at Le Mans, and Jan Lammers as mentioned, is making his 24th Le Mans start. Toyota is pegging back their lap times, and if we stay green, they are going for record distance. Back to the #81 BMW. The stewards were being investigated for their pit stops. They refueled the car on the dollies, and that's illegal, so, a drive through penalty for Nicky Catsburg. Ouch!
Nic Jonsson has an incident at Indianapolis, where the car goes straight but keeps the car away from the walls, and the gravel trap. That's the #44 he shares with Andrea Bertolini and Tracy Krohn. Toyota's are four laps up over everybody else. TDS Racing and Matthieu Vaxiviere are not running as well as they'd hoped to. Ligier vs. Oreca for Jackie Chan DC Racing. These are entries from the same team, but for different cars. Enzo Guibert is gaining on Phil Hanson. G-Drive vs. United Autosport. SMP Racing has had a horrid time. Mattevus Isaakyan has not made it back to the pit garage. It is likely going to be game over for Isaakyan. This means we have had about four retirements from the race so far.
We are having phenomenal reliability which never used to be the case. The all white headlights are so bright now, are so bright and so efficient, it is hard to distinguish between the different classes, with a different colored light on top of the car. #26 in the lane. Andrea Pizzitola out, and Romain Rusinov, in. Pierre Thiriet pitted for fuel in the #36 Signatech Alpine. Nicolas Lapierre of France, and Andre Negrao of Brazil, are his co-drivers. Toyota #8 in pit lane, and there's a driver change. Sebastien Buemi, out, and Fernando Alonso gets into the Toyota. Alonso has hopefully had about a full night's sleep. Jenson Button is still wired up.
Every driver has a minimum drive time of six hours. Pierre Thiriet has only done half of his allotted time. Mike Simpson in the #5 Ginetta says there is a steering issue with the car. He was told to box the car, and retire. But they are still out there, plugging away. Simpson's fellow Briton Charlie Robertson, and Leo Roussel of France, are Simpson's team mates. The #6 car had a wheel stud problem and something else, too. Lawrence Tomlinson and Ginetta have had some troubles, but they are keeping on. Lawrence Tomlinson wants this to be a long-term program. We'll see more from Ginetta in years to come. Manthey Racing is fully owned by Porsche. Toyota GmbH, their German squad, is a factory team. Audi Sport ran the Audi's for so many years. The difference is that the cars are entered by the manufacturer alone, not by a team.
These are factory teams, and there are differences between factory and privateer squads. One could argue the Mercedes Formula 1 team has English team members in Brackley. It doesn't matter. They are selling Mercedes road cars. Ditto for Ferrari. It's a different reason than for sports cars. Matt Campbell still leads GTE Am in the #77 Porsche, up by a minute and a half on Cooper MacNeil in the JMW Ferrari, car #84. Kevin Estre leads Richard Lietz in GTE Pro. Joey Hand third, Antonio Giovinazzi in fourth. LMP2 has G-Drive at the top of the table. The top four see Mike Conway leading by two minutes 11 seconds, over Fernando Alonso, taking two seconds out of Conway's advantage. Next up, the #3 Rebellion of Matthias Beche, over team mate Bruno Senna. This was thought to be possible, as we are getting close to the halfway mark here at Le Mans.
Alonso has been running in the 3:20 range, while Sebastien Buemi has been in the 3:22, 3:23 range. Marshals work out blue passing flags. But, the blue passing lights are possibly controlled in some way. Marshals and race control can operate them. TF Sport has an issue. The #90 Aston Martin did a standard pit stop, and the car has been wheeled in after team member Mike Pickup saw something, and the bonnet pins are not working. Charlie Eastwood is at the wheel of it right now. Memo Rojas is closing on Romain Rusinov.
Julien Canal is very close behind Pierre Thiriet. Kevin Estre is lapping Billy Johnson. Game over for the #17 SMP Racing BR01. The garage door is down. What a pity. The car had made fewer pit stops than the Toyota's. No timing screens for the marshals, but the blue flags are waved except for safetycars, slow zones, and red flags. The #90 Aston Martin lost the bonnet before coming to the pit lane and Mike Pickup had to go and get a new bonnet.
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