Cloudy with sunny intervals for the rest of this motor race. Under fivr hours to go. Paul Di Resta has smashed the Ligier for United Autosport, losing the back end, crashing into the wall, spearing across the road, and slamming the opposite wall. Game over for the #22 United Autosports Ligier JS P2 Gibson. A king size hit at a sharp angle. Paul di Resta, Phil Hanson, and Philippe Albuquerque. We are now under yellow. Will Owen in the sister United Autosport car was having a ding dong battle with another car. Paul di Resta will be taken to the medical center. Will Owen is in the lane and Juan Pablo Montoya will get in.
We have had no real racing for almost an hour. This is frustrating for teams and drivers alike. Jose Maria Lopez has more fuel in the tank than does Fernando Alonso. Rebellion and Oreca won't improve unless something drastic happens to Toyota. Cooper MacNeil takes over from Liam Griffin in the #84 Ferrari. They don't have a dry brake system. They used the traditional caliper spreaders which is a much more tedious process. Will Stevens and Timothy Buret are having trouble. Let's hope there are no major issues for Stevens and the Panis Barthez team. Now, we have another slow zone. We have been very lax on laps in hour 19. Fernando Alonso leads Jose Maria Lopez by 90 seconds.
Jose Maria Lopez has won FIA World Touring Car Championship, and Alonso of course, is a Formula 1 World Champion. Extra pit stops for #8 had to do with getting dinged in slow zones. Alonso can go ahead and run out the fuel, by using the slow zones. 10 laps is the baseline for fuel mileage. Paul Loup Chatin of France and his IDEC Sport team mates are surviving despite their fuel pickup issue. Their manager, former dirver, Niclas Minassian, has been pretty lucky in the last few minutes here. GTE Pro cars will inherit places once heldby LMP2 cars. Game over for United Autosport #22.
Porsche #92 pits and Laurens Vanthoor is now at the controls. Gianmaria Bruni is second and Dirk Mueller is now third in class. Alonso, Vergne, Vanthoor, and Ried, your class leaders. Ebimotors has moved up as Fabio Babini is at the wheel of it. Bruni is being chased down by Dirk Mueller. Corvette is still in with a shout, and so is the #69 Ford. Alonso leads Lopez by 1:24. Track temp is up to 20.6 Celsius. We have another slow zone from Tertre Rouge to the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight. No distance records will be set this year.
Big brake lockup for one of the Rebellion's. Fred Makowiecki, Sebastien Bourdais, and Richard Westbrook are going to be close together. Alonso pits the #8 Toyota. Rebellion does as well. After a slow zone that lasted for an hour and 40 minutes, we are back to full on green flag racing. Toyota #7 into the pit lane, look. Jose Maria Lopez stays in the car. Toyota #8 leads as the Rebellion, and the Jackie Chan DC Racing car #33 battle. New rules from the ACO say you can work on the car while refueling, and this never used to be the case.
Plug in settings for extra bodywork if need be. The BMW is miles behind the Ford's and the Porsche's. Andy Priaulx challenges and passes Fred Makowiecki into Mulsanne, and Makowiecki says "no you don't, sunshine!", but then there's argy bargy between these two, and Sebastien Bourdais tries, but Makowiecki slams the door in Bourdais' face! Wow! We have a ding dong scrap for second, third, and fourth in GTE Pro, headed to Corvette Curve! Andy Priaulx is on a certain fuel load. Now, Porsche has performance off the corners, and the Ford has the advantage on the straight because of it's aerodynamics. The Ford GT is a rather svelte motorcar.
The #28 TDS LMP2 car of Francois Perrodo goes straight on at the chicane on thr Mulsanne straight.
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