Cleaning tires on the restart, it's easy to make a mistake. Penalty for the #67 Ford GT for an unsafe release from the pit lane. What will the stewards say? The lead battle in GTE Pro is still steaming. Nothing has changed up front. You haven't missed anything. A battle for eighth with Jan Magnussen and Daniel Serra. Corvette vs. Ferrari. Serra, the Brazilian is the third driver for AF Corse, son of Formula 1 driver, Chico Serra. Serra sharing with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. We haven't called their number for a while. Fernando Alonso is scything through GTE traffic. Aston Martin's #95 and #97 are both being penalized by the stewards for overtaking in the wrong places. Gianmaria Bruni is trying to fend off the challenge of the Aston Martin's who both want a bite of the cherry.
Check that. Porsche wants the cherry, but right now, the Aston Martin and BMW, they are getting the cherry, the whipped cream, and the entire sundae including the ice cream. The #66 Ford GT is eight laps down, but all the cars in the class is covered by just 22 seconds. Wow. Nicki Thiim is pulling ahead of Michael Christensen. Toyota #8, once again, is outperforming the sister car on their team. We are three hours and 11 minutes into this motor race so far. On time, at the end of this hour, we should be halfway home, but one wonders if we've completed 500 miles of the 1,000 miles that make up this motor race. Looking back at the Egor Orudzhev incident from a while ago, that was a major crunch into the barriers. Yikes!
The #98 Aston Martin has leapfrogged into the lead in GTE Am, as Paul Dalla Lana leapfrogs both Christian Ried, and Thomas Flohr. Ford still leads BMW and Porsche in GTE Pro with the factory cars. The Spirit of Race Ferrari does get dinged with a penalty from the stewards after pushing Jorg Bergmeister off the circuit. Squirrel! He's doing a 100 meter dash across a pole. So, the rocket launch has been delayed, to take a satellite into space. The GTE Pro class is covered by 21.9 seconds.
Aston Martin barges Ferrari out of the way. Lumpy and bumpy action here, look. Crash damage, engaged. Half of this race is already on the board, speaking in terms of time. Porsche and Ferrari are coming back into the game in GTE Pro as Ben Hanley replaces Henrik Hedman for the next stint in the #10 DragonSpeed Oreca. Kazuki Nakajima leads Mike Conway among the leading Toyota's as we have run 105 laps, and are close to the halfway mark in terms of laps. Kazuki Nakajima puts another lap on the GTE Pro leader. Brendon Hartley is fourth in the SMP #11 machine. Mike Conway already has a sore shoulder after taking a beating around this old concrete here at Sebring, but, he only feels it outside of the car, not while he's driving.
If you don't beat your team mate, you don't beat enough people. You've got to beat everybody. Toyota emphasizes the bigger picture, rather than two blokes who are team mates, wrestling each other. Five cars liner stern in GTE Pro, but one of the Ford's is laps down and so is one of the LMP2's, the DragonSpeed racer. DragonSpeed of course destroyed their car at the season opener last May at Spa which caused those severe leg injuries for Pietro Fittipaldi. Corvette on Ferrari, sliding into turn ten as Jan Magnussen disposes of Miguel Molina. Antonio Felix Da Costa, is chasing one of the Porsche's, but we don't know who.
The rocket launch is on hold and won't happen until 9PM, so, when we get closer to the end of the race. A penalty for one of the drivers who goes too far outside his pit box in the lane. Romano Ricci is chasing Francois Period in LMP2, which has Dunlop tires vs. Michelin tires. The only cars racing anything besides Michelin tires, are three LMP2 cars in this motor race, on British Dunlop tires. Edgidio Perfetti wants by Christian Ried in GTE Am. Perfetti is quite the driver, the Norwegian born Italian. Project 1 will have a second car for their European Le Mans Series effort in 2019. Jordan King is suiting up to go into the #37 machine.
Perfetti is throwing everything except the kitchen sink at Christian Ried. Ried is now the only driver, who has started ever WEC race. Andre Lotterer is not in this race, because he has commitments for Formula E. Giorgio Roda is ahead of Charlie Eastwood. It's Porsche vs. Aston Martin. Thomas Flohr has served his drive through penalty, as Paul Dalla Lana leads GTE Am at the moment. A pass to get a lap back, from his rivals, made by the #66 Ford GT. Ferrari #71 is moving ahead. Andre Negrao is very near the end of his double stint. Lots of light is available. Cameras make it look darker than it is right now as we see a very pretty sunset.
The clouds within the sunset look like artificial mountains. Of course, there are no mountains, in Florida. There's a gear selector issue for someone. Not sure which car. The Rebellion is moving up the order, car #1. Kazuki Nakajima in the lane for a scheduled pit stop, and so is David Heinemeier-Hanson in LMP2. Pit stop time for the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing. Jordan King, David Heinemeier Hanson, and Will Stevens, sharing the #37 car. Nicki Thiim is harrying Alexander Sims, look. Pit stop time again for the beleaguered #31 DragonSpeed entry. Pastor Maldonado stays in the car. The #28 Oreca is back underway, with Loic duval now at the controls, and we have more scrapping between BMW and Aston martin!
The aston dives past the BMW. Nicki Thiim is going for it and passes the BMW. Alexander Sims is still in the BMW. Larbre Competition is continuing to run reliably with four hours and 20 minutes remaining on the clock. Giedo van der Garde, the Dutchman now at the wheel of the #29 Racing Team Nederland car in LMP2, and a new driver in the Larbre Competition machine as well. Erwin Creed replaces Romano Ricci. This race might be a timed one. It shall likely go to eight hours, not 1,000 miles. We will be launching the rocket from Canaveral in eleven minutes, and with the dark coming, we'll see the flames, as Bruno Senna goes off and on in the #1 Rebellion.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway is closing up on his team mate, according to Jose Maria Lopez, his Argentinian co-driver. Now that its dark, the temperature is cooling. Mike Conway is closing up, but the sister toyota has now vanished. Nakajima is going between turns 10 and 13 at the moment. Kazuki Nakajima is at the wheel of the leading Toyota, and Mike Conway has been put back by three seconds in traffic. How does fate deal your hand? #8 only has the advantage because of getting more points than they thought they'd be allowed. Mike Conway is nibbling away tenths, but not very many. Nakajima is going to be balked by GT traffic in a short while.
Conway has grabbed back a half a second, and the traffic will be the great equalizer in the twisty bits, look. Gianmaria Bruni and Michael Christensen battle, for second and third, squabbling with each other in GTE Pro, behind Nicki Thiim in the Aston Martin. Toyota #8 catches traffic where he doesn't want to. We have 146 laps remaining. #91 had the door opened and stepped right through it past Perfetti. #10 is in the lane with gear selection issues, as Ben Hanley stays in the car. Conway clears the car. The gap at the line is about three seconds. Mike Conway gets balked by the Porsche. Ford GT #66 pits for regular service. Ben Hanley has the pedal to the metal, and Conway is still having issues getting by.
Ford #67 is in the lane and so are other GTE Pro cars. Clear air between the Toyota's. Andy Priaulx gets into the ford, as there is a driver change for the #92 Porsche, and Kevin Estre is back at the wheel. Charlie Eastwood in thew TF Sport Aston Martin ahead of Thomas Flohr in the #54 Ferrari. Jan Magnussen, Antonio Felix Da Costa, and Daniel Serra, have all made driver changes. Mike Rockenfeller for Corvette, Bruno Spengler for BMW, and Alessandro Pier Guidi for Ferrari. Gianmaria Bruni is in the lane from the class lead, as Richard Lietz steps into the car. Paul Dalla Lana, Christian Ried, and Edgidio Perfetti have all pitted. TF Sport and Spirit of Race shall also put. Darren Turner runs ahead of Kevin Estre as Richard Lietz is all over him!
No comments:
Post a Comment