Jackie Chan Racing will run with only one car. Chan's budget is restricted, but they will race a second car under Jota, with David Clark (formerly with McLaren), and former driver, Sam Hignett. Only six cars will run in LM GTE Pro. Two Ferrari's, two Porsche's, and two Aston Martin's, but there will be many more GTE Am cars. Daniel Serra has taken over from James Calado in the AF Corse Ferrari #51 car. Let's see where we are. The #36 Alpine is in the lane. Ford, Porsche, and Ferrari are the top three in LM GTE Am. Jose Maria Lopez brings the #7 Toyota into the pit lane. There's still 1/3rd of this race left to run. The action is extremely close, still. If you look away for a minute it is really easy to lose track of what is going on. The #31 DragonSpeed car opf Passtor Maldonado has smashed the wall! The front end of that automobile is destroyed! Ugh! We have a safety car quite rightly.
The paint is really slick. He's obviously moving around. Tertre Rouge starts earlier, is more open, and faster, to create a deeper, faster runoff area, for the motorcycles, for MotoGP and the 24 Hours of Le Mans Moto. Porsche #91 in the lane. This is the leading car in LM GTE Pro. Pastor Maldonado will be OK. He can't walk away more than ten meters from the car. There are some more aggressive French baguette curbs. I know, you're hungry, I'm hungry, in the middle of the night... so don't mention food... ugh. Porsche #77 is in the lane, not sure who i9s driving. We have seven hours and 40 minutes to go. It's still an eternity, and more than a typical 6 hour WEC race. When you go wide, you hit the clag on the outside of the circuit is like running ojn marbles. They are giant chunks of black rubber from the tires.
The #90 TF Sport Aston Martin is in the pit lanr. Once you get the tires dirty, it is harder to clean them. Clean the tires and reheat them in the tire ovens. Going this slow will still allow clag to get onto the tires. We've seen pit work for a couple of the LMP2 cars under the safety car. Stoffel Vandoorne has found his feet in sports car racing. Patrick Pilet questioning the length of this safety car. Erwin Creed of France has been driving the #50 Larbre Competition Ligier LMP2 car, one of the drivers, Erwin Creed, is part of a company that makes perfume. He is sharing with fellow Frenchman Romano Ricci and American driver Nick Boulle.
Drivers weave to get more grip in their tires as the yellow flag is about to be lifted. Jan Magnussen is a tad sideways, and the Porsche is right behind now. Yellow flags at marshal post four, now lifted. Porsche and Corvette are pitting as Pilet nearly tags Magnussen into the lane, look. Pilet has asked for clean tires, not necessarily new ones. Rockenfeller will get new tires it seems. We assume CORE Autosport has changed the tires, and both are back out of the lane at the same time. Daniel Serra and Ferrari are still leading LM GTE Pro. One of the Ford GT's has spun, and it's Ben Keating in the Wynn's Am Ford GT! Deary me! That'll delay the car. Three minutes stop and go for the #3 Rebellion with Gustavo Menezes at the wheel of it, for a tire use infringement! That's a whopping penalty!
SMP was fastest at 217 miles an hour in qualifying and at the test day. The SMP and the Rebellion are leaving the Toyota for dead in the Porsche Curves, but now, the Toyota's hybrid punch can give it a chance to catch the BR01 coming up to Tertre Rouge. Pit stop for Rebellion. Or so it appears. Normally you cannot work on the car during a penalty. Rebellion is just barely a lap up on SMP, and Rebellion may be demoted off the podium overall. Vitaly Petrov is at the wheel of the SMP car. The door is slammed in Petrov's face by the #86 Porsche 911 RSR of Mike Wainwright. Vitaly Petrov is giving way to a drifferent drivr, I think.
Drivers have their own seat inserts that are molded to their bodies individually. Bruno Senna in fifth overall, hits the pit lane. Check what I said earlier. Stoffel Vandoorne, the Belgian is now at the wheel of the #11 SMP machine. Gustavo Menezes will have to serve a three minute penalty, but when will it be served? The two Toyota's are split by a minute and a half. Daniel Serra, Mike Rockenfeller, Patrick Pilet, and Fred Makowiecki are the top four in LM GTE Pro. Ben Keating spun in the Dunlop chicane, but remains the leader in the class. Gustavo Menezes is serving his three minute penalty foir a tire rule.
Rebellion Racing have this tire penalty for using too many, which has just ruined their race it seems. The car does not have much heat going through it sitting there. Lightweight, high horsepower cars on cold tires, can be a recipe for disaster. You get heat soak on the components in the lump (the engine) as well. Vandoorne has moved into third spot for SMP Racing. Vandoorne is now on the podium. It is provisional, as we have just over seven hours left to race. Menezes will be chasing down Vandoorne. SMP seems to be better on the more technical parts of this circuit, here at Le Mans. We do not know exactly what this penalty is for Rebellion. It all has to do with tire allocations.
Vandoorne is flying, passing a GTE Am car with his lights flashing like a dodgy disco, look. Toyota #8 in the pit lane, and he's staying in the car. It's endurance racing at Le Mans, and you just never know what is going to happen. Toyota are in a league of their own right now. Hypercars are coming, as the hybrid and standard P1 cars, are coming to an end. Daniel Serra is in the pit lane in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. Mike Rockenfeller steals the lead in GTE Pro from Serra! Wow! It's a 4.5 second gap that will extend itself out. We've been racing for 17 hours and the racing is still remarkably close! The Rebellion is coming, and soon. No DRS in sports car racing. You have to work for your passes.
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