Strength and endurance are what are necessary to finish and to compete in a race here at Sebring as the #67 Ford GT pits. Points order will shuffle in LMP2 and GTE Pro, and maybe Toyota #8 will be in the clear, but don’t count the chickens until they hatch. BMW leads Porsche and Ford in the GTE
Pro class. The order is Tomczyk vs. Lietz vs. Bomarito. Again, Julien Andlauer leads LM GTE Am. Less than 45 minutes to go. Toyota team manager Rob Leupen says that the drivers don't want to take any more risks. Jose Maria Lopez had an earlier incident of course, which has caused the gap between the two Toyota's. Sam Bird has Augusto Farfus chasing him, while Alessandro Pier Guidi. It might get spicy if there's rain coming, which it seems their will be. Look out, boys and girls. Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a wild one, possibly. Jordan King has successfully run in his first FIA WEC LMP2 contest.
Don't speak too soon. Jordan King finished indyCar, and is now in the WEC for the remainder of the "super season". Toyota #7 in the pit lane, and it seems that might be their final pit stop. #37 continues to lead LMP2. #11 is in the pit lane. The rain is here, 34 minutes away from the end. If you have to, you can change to wet weather tires. This might make something happen that is unexpected. Wet track. All cars, rain lights on, on low mode, level 1 rain... spots and spritzes of rain. Nicky Catsburg and Matt Campbell have done their fastest laps so far. No rain at Sunset Bend, turn 17. Anthony Davidson pits the #31 DragonSpeed car.
It's not Snetterton or Silverstone in the U.K. yet. Gulf Racing have been pushing, climbing, and clawing for a podium. Thomas Pryning at the wheel currently. Between turns seven and 13, there is rain. They are just small drops. Augusto Farfus continues to fend off the challenge from Sam Bird. If you know you need a yellow, put the welly on the floor and just book it. Nicky Catsburg is still running in the lead in GTE Pro. Rain needs to get to level three before it gets serious. Sparks, from the exhaust of the Jonny Adam driven TF Sport Aston Martin, car #90. The lap times are very slow. the diffuser is chattering. The whole thing is tearing itself to shreds, look. #90 look at your RCMS. The black and orange meatball flag will also be shown.
BMW could be in the pound seats if they get a Full Course Yellow. But, adam is not headed for the lane, as it shed a large chunk of the diffuser. It split in half. It is very hard to get a windscreen wiper to work on an aerodynamically sensitive windscreen. The Toyota's are in 100% get it home mode, while the BMW is racing for the GTE Pro victory. Thomas Pryning has passed Jorg Bergmeister in GTE Am. Olivier Beretta is into a new placing in GTE Am as the #90 is in the lane having to make repairs. That rear undertray is busted. Andy Priaulx spins off and runs wide. This is very broken concrete, and it gets wet and slick with the rubber embedding itself into the track.
It's greasy there, mate. #37 is pitting for rain tires for insurance. Clean the windscreen, but it also has water on it, and every bit of debris, as the #50 car is off the road. Both Toyota's are in the pit lane for what ought to be the final pit stops as the car steams away. The brakes are steaming like Puffing Billy there. We knew it would rain, but we didn't know when or how much. Now, it's really wet. It's raining all over. The whole track is wet now. All marshals posts withdraw the slippery surface flag, the yellow flag with the red stripes. Everyone is swapping to wet weather tires.
How brave can you be? Risk assessment is the key. BMW, Ford, and Porsche, they haven't gotten rain tires yet. We might be hearing some thunder a the #81 BMW hits the lane, and wets are also goin on the #66. It is properly raining. The slower lap times will maybe allow the BMW to save fuel, now that they can fuel and change tires with no penalty, which is nothing like the old rules. Less than 20 minutes to go. Go for intermediates and wets in the gloom of the rain. We might just get to the 1,000 mile mark of this race. Wait a few minutes, it could happen. Gianmaria Bruni and Nicky Catsburg could be in a battle to the very bitter end of this race.
Matt Campbell leads LM GTE Am in the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR. You've missed nothing upfront, and the order in LMP2 hasn't changed yet. The Porsche leads the BMW and the Ford in LM GTE Pro. The rain is due to continue until the end, and Loic Duval has gone straight off into the barriers, bringing out the safety car. We might go behind the safety car to the end of this race. He has the Dunlop intermediate tire. This will seal our placings, if we get only a couple laps of green before the clock runs out.
Porsche #88 goes off the road with Giorgio Roda. Loic Duval is out of the motor race and may bring it to a premature end, and if we do go to the end, we'll just be running at a slower pace behind the safety car. Poor Nicky Catsburg. He cannot make a move on Gianmaria Bruni. The GTE Pro battle has been separated as they won't be pointed by the safety car. It will be a split battle in GTE Pro assuming we go back to green just before Midnight Eastern Time in Central Florida. #38 is off the road, as Loic Duval is out of the tires, but it is game over. He'll just have to go back to the pit lane. We will likely not get this race back to green flag conditions.
That's disappointing. We all hoped for this race to finish in the dry. Game over for Loic Duval and company who need a tow truck. We won't get to the thousand mile distance. We'll make it to eight hours on the clock, but that's it. Kazuki Nakajima must follow the safety car and keep temperature in the tires and the systems on the car. Getting the car onto the flatbed will be a bit of bother. Drag the car through the wet grass and lift the car. There is no way we will get this race restarted. So, yes, all in all, this race was wonderful, but the rain took the wind out of the sails at the end.
Porsche has been able to sneak into the LM GTE Pro lead, and the difference was the Porsche not needing fuel, whereas the boys at BMW did. So, BMW got snookered it seems. The rain has actually eased up, although you can't tell that by looking at the TV pictures. It's the final lap of the motor race. Bring it to the flag in the rain and under a safety car in a light drizzle.
This is the final lap of the race. The safety car will enter the pit lane, cars won't overtake, and we'll take the checkered flag in formation. No overtaking allowed. The battles are frozen. The race is done and dusted for all intents and purposes.
We will end at midnight Eastern Time, 11PM Central Time. No one can see a thing, so it's a good thing that this motor race is now done and dusted. Toyota will claim a 1-2 with SMP Racing rounding out the podium, with a podium for Brendon Hartley. How about that? The race is done! Checkers! Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastien Buemi, win! This is Alonso's second big race win in sports cars in 2019, in the rain, having also won the Rolex 24 in a deluge. He has won Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans! He's done what he's needed to do in sports cars but also has a chance now to win at Spa in Belgium, and then, maybe win another Le Mans. We shall see.
Overall/LMP1: #8 Alonso/Nakajima/Buemi Toyota TS050 Hybrid
LMP2: #37 Stevens/Heinemeir Hanson/King Oreca 07 Gibson
LM GTE Pro: #91 Lietz/Bruni Porsche 911 RSR
LM GTE Am: #77 Ried/Campbell/Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR
The penultimate race of the 2018-2019 "Super Season" is the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, at the mighty Spa Francorchamps circuit in Spa, Francorchamps, Belgium, in the Ardennes forest, first weekend in May. Only once in the last 20 Sebring 12 Hour races, has it rained. Could tomorrow see rain? We shall see. Rain a rarity at Sebring, but this was wild. We'll see you tomorrow, for the 67th 12 Hours of Sebring, and, we'll see you in May, at Spa Francorchamps, for the penultimate race of the FIA World Endurance Championship "super season".
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