Mike Conway still leads this race. You've not missed much at the sharp end. The sun has come up and the racing remains hot and heavy. Rebellion and SMP have continued to battle. Nothing in it in GTE Pro as well. The battle has been thundering on all night and into the daylight hours. Patrick Lindsey knows there is a lot of racing left but he wants to stay in it for the championship. Romain Rusinov brings the Auris LMP2 car into the pit for G-Drive. We had a couple spritzes of rain at night, but it's been pretty dry, it's been perfect conditions. The G-Drive car has been rotated into the garage, for a brake pad change, possibly. But no, it's more than that! It's the leading LMP2 car now hitting trouble! Oh dear! There's trouble at the back end of the automobile, look. Corvette still leads AF Corse Ferrari and Porsche in LM GTE Pro.
Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga have covered a lot of the driving for Keating Motorsports. The Alpine pitted for routine service. Pierre Thiriet leads LMP2. G-Drive are going to lost a lap here. Debris on the road at the Ford chicane, marshals post 35. We have the rest of the length of a WEC race to go, and four Formula 1 races, more or less. G-Drive could be having electrical troubles. Big lockup there by the Alpine! Yikes! All hands on deck at G-Drive. Romain Rusinov is staying at the wheel of the car. The car failed to start after it's routine stop. The car has to fire up under it's own power. You can't bump start the car.
Toyota #7 is in the pit lane. Conway has been leading this race for 16 hours. Will it be his year here at Le Mans? He deserves it. The flip side is the car #8 has just not handled or had the top speed. Car #7 has had the performance edge all race so far. G-Drive is still having troubles. The starter motor isn't working it appears. Corvette, AF Corse, Porsche, Ford, are still in contention in LM GTE Pro. It is Father's Day today. Happy Father's Day, once again, to all the dad's out there. DragonSpeed, Jackie Chan Racing, Arc Bratislava, Aston Martin, AF Corse, Dempsey Proton, and others have retired. We've had 11 retirements total.
Rebellion in the lane, and Porsche in the lane. This is no longer endurance racing. It is sprint racing, in a series of sprint races during an endurance contest. G-Drive are back on track, hopefully fixed, but they've lost buckets of time. Corvette #63 in the lane for service and a driver changr as Antonio Garcia gets into the car. Alessandro Pier Guidi now leads LM GTE Pro. The Corvette is really quick in a straight line. The wind speed, wind direction, and geart ratios will affect the situation, and we see trouble for the Rebellion, with no drive for the #3, in limp it home mode. It has no juice at the moment. Nathaniel Berthon at the wheel of it. It is a lap up on the sister Rebellion #1, Andre Lotterer at the wheel of it.
Menezes might have a braking issue. The pit crew has brake fluid ready to go. Maybe they will change the brake pads. The pads, the rotors, or both. If you have a problem on the final lap of the race at Le Mans and don't cross the line, you won't be classified. Rebellion again in the pits, fueling the car and putting the dollies under the car to get it into the garage. They're definitely lookng at the brakes, and it's perhpas the pedal box. Is the linkage broken? Andre Lotterer in the sister Rebellion will make a pass. Bart Hayden and company are going for it. They have to stay in contention. Rebellion #1 has moved up a position.
Will Stevens pits the Panis Barthez car. Cooper MacNeil is getting a warning from the stewards for driving standards. Again, the #8 Toyota is a minute and a half behind the sister car in the sister #7 car. Paul Newman, Patrick Dempsey, James Garner, Steve McQueen, and others wanted to race. The #84 JMW Motorsports Ferrari has run well. Same for Keating Motorsports as we look at replays. Everything has sadly gone wrong for Aston Martin. Maxime Martin and company have been really behind the eight ball. They lost nine brake horsepowert, 0.3 bar of turbo boost. By putting the car on pole, they made a mistake.
BoP is very difficult, because you have to balance a normally aspirated engine vs. a turbocharged engine, and turbo boost can be messed with on a turbo car. The #3 Rebellion is headed back on track adfter a pit stop. They've dropped to last in the LMP1 class, with their team mate, Andre Lotterer, passing them. Mike Conway leads Sebastien Buemi by 1:53, and Buemi is a full second behind Conway. The #8 can do a one lap sprint, but the balance on the car is just not on. Toyota #8 is in the pit lane. The track surface evolves each day that the cars are on track before and during the race. Jusrt over five hours remain in Le Mans 2019.
Loic Duval has the TDS Racing car in the pit lane, sharing with Loic Duval, Francois Perrodo, and Matthieu Vaxiviere, all three Frenchmen. 1,300 marshals working here at Le Mans, and there's a yrllow flag as the back bonnet has come off the United Autosports LMP2 car. We have a Full Course Yellow. That is the #32 machine with Will Owen at the wheel sharing with Alex Brundle and Ryan Cullen. The marshal retrieves the bonnet. Now, we are back to green once again. Toyota #7 and more, have opportunities to do a splash and dash.
The marshals are such a huge element to this race and they come to work for free. They love racing and they get the best seat in the house at Le Mans, but the danger is still there for the marshals. The energy of a crash ricochets through the barrier.
No comments:
Post a Comment