The GTE Pro cars are blocked by one of the Toyota's. Two hours and 50 minutes still to go. That crash for the Jumbo car was really scary. That was a head on impact with the wall. Nyck de Vries had a tire or suspension failture. Head on into the wall, and no deceleration. The tire wall did absorb the impact. Kamui Kobayashi just took a scheduled pit stop, and Fernando Alonso is chasing. Both of them are on the same lap. They are on the same lap, just barely, separated by 3:11. The track seems really greasy at certain places, especially Arnage. Fernando Alonso has clear track ahead of him here, at Le Mans. Kamui Kobayashi's lead is big, but Alonso is taking time out of Kobayashi or so it appears. The Jumbo Supermarkets Dallara is being repaired in the garage after having three wheels on ye olde wagon. The team wnats to get to the end as we almost have the length of a full IMSA sprint race left to run.
Satoshi Hoshino after his accident with Marcel Fassler, he decided to retire from the race. Pit stop time for the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car, and Stephane Richelmi hands the car over. Andre Negrao continues to lead LMP2 in the Signatech Alpine. Two Ferrari's battle and one of the Am class ones goes all the way off onto the dirt on the hard shoulder! Yikes! That was the Carguy Racing machine. Porsche #91 pits. An interesting battle in GTE Am between Ben Keating and Patrick Lindsey, two of the top Am drivers. Ford vs. Porsche as well. Personal best sector times are being put in, as the track is really quick. We have had no rain. The racing line is quick and grippy, but off line, there's a lot of junk, a lot of clag. It's cool and cloidy. No sun around. Great lap times are possible. Today, because of the cool temperature and the low ceiling of cloud cover, the track conditions are pretty good.
The clouds are giving a lot of shade. Teams can be more flexible on tire/tire compound choice. The driver's enjoy this even though their cockpits will still be warm. You are not sweating as much as on a hotter day. Alonso gets balked and he chops across one of his competitors. Will Alonso be headed for the sin bin? Alonso is a pro, but he is also somewhat hotheaded. Alonso has to think about the World Championship. Porsche #92 in pit lane. Maybe there was debris on the road. I apologize, Fernando, for what I just said. Can Fernando Alonso close in on Kamui Kobayashi?
The Signatech Alphine pits. Le Mans is not as much of a physucally demanding circuit excep-t in terms of G loading. Matt Griffin runs his fastest lap and the fastest lap for the Clearwater Ferrari 488 GTE, passing the JMW Ferrari. Porsche #93 pits for a routine stop from third in GTE Pro to leapfrog team mate Nick Tandy. Pro drivers will carry more speed off a corner in GTE Pro and the GTE Am cars also have a smaller air restrictor on the engine. The gap between Kobayashi and Alonso has dropped by two seconds. Alonso is faster than Kamui Kobayashi as Andy Priaulx has clear track in GTE Pro.
Jan Magnussen is back on track. He is eighth in LM GTE Pro. We have seen pit stops for Andre Negrao, Fernando Alonso, and others in the pit lane. Alex Brundle is down in 14th overall in the Uniuted Autosport #32 Ligier. We are coming up on the final two hours of this motor race as Thomas Laurent, one of the biggest sports car racing stars, he has a contract with Toyota as test and reserve driver. He has also found an idea to race in LMP2 as well. You can test as much as you want, but being in competition, will keep you sharp as a driver. Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer says the power downgrade worked the tires harder and we saw more tire degradation. Marco Sorenson is thankfully OK. Kamui Kobayashi pits for another stop.
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Fernando Alonso has actually been lapping quicker by 1.5 seconds. It could be Kobayashi's 32nd pit stop in the race. 32 stops it is. That's the same as the sister car, and the AF Corse aFerrari has also pitted. New boots for James Calado, who is the class leader in the #51 Ferrari. The gap is down to 2:10 between Kobayashi and Alonso. Kobayashi is one stop ahead.; Alonso has just run a 3:21. In GTE Pro, James Calado leads by over a minute to Fred Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet in two of the Porsche's followed by Dirk Mueller in the #66 Ford GT. Ben Keating is finishing the race in the #85 Wynn's Ford GT.
The #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca has pitted. Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi, and Gabriel Aubry. Ben Keating is in the pit lane with the #85 Ford GT. There is a double yellow at marshal post 24 and 25. The GTE Pro cars have run really reliably all race so far. The three safety cars have split the field up. The Full Course Yellow is still there, but the safety cars just split the field up. That's what happens.
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