Signatech Alpine will make a pit stop as G-Drive leads LMP2 at the moment. Watch for G-Drive, and they have been racing the European Le Mans Series. Jean Eric Vergne of France, Job Van Uitert from Holland, and Romain Rusinov from Russia, are sharing that car. Toyota #8 in the pit lane. Fernando Alonso is still in the car, and sadly, #8 has not had the pace of their sister car, #7. They maybe don't have the setup right on the car. Maybe it will come back to them as night falls, but in the evening, it ain't working for Toyota #8 at the moment. The rake of the car impacts the downforce, and so does the fuel load. The circuit is evolving over time. We'll see dew on the road as dawn breaks tomorrow morning. Kamui Kobayashi has a flawless pit stop. Happy chappy for Toyota #7 at the moment. Kamui Kobayashi is pleased as punch. Fernando Alonso, is wringing his hands at this point. But the hours are long yet, here at Le Mans.
Someone needs to give Alonso some sugar lumps because at the moment, his chin is in the soup as it were. Alonso is pressing quite hard indeed. Turn that frown upside down, Fernando. Joey Hand, Jonathan Bomarito, Patrick Pilet, there is a good scrap in GTE Pro at the moment. Joey Hand has fresher tires. Run your own race. Are you driving the car as fast as it is capable of? That's the question. Aston Martin has lost their edge. Balance of Performance has swung out of their favor. The polesitting Aston has slipped down the order and is now having to claw their way back up to the top of the tree. Their reward has been a penalty. Pilet has made a pass on Bomarito. Pilet is the terrier off the leash now, and Joey Hand, he wants Bomarito to move over because Joey Hand has fresher tires than Jonathan Bomarito does at this point.
Aston Martin will be a team that the organizers for the FIA WEC and the ACO, they don't want to upset them since they've signed up for Hypercar next year. Joey Hand wants by Bomarito as we've explained. Joey Hand is a half a second quicker than Bomarito at the moment. Richard Lietz and the sister Porsche are ahead and it's Ferrari vs. Corvette! Corvette holds it into Mulsanne. That was sketchy stuff there. Corvette #64 it is. Tommy Milner wants by Richard Lietz and gets his opportunity as Lietz locks up! Yikes! That was close stuff. Too hot into the corner, and Lietz ran wide. Richard Lietz says he has a vibration, and so, he's picked up a lot of clag on his tires. That's the rolled up rubber dispersed to the side of the road, and it takes forever to clean the tires. Oliver Webb and Fritz van Eerd are in the lane for ByKolles and the Jumbo car for Racing Team Nederland, as Joey Hand is pressing Patrick Pilet into the first chicane on the Mulsanne chicane, and Pilet slams the door in his face.
Toyota #8, Alonso at the wheel, flies past the GTE Pro battle. The Porsche is more softly sprung than the Toyota LMP1 car. The GT cars can take a straighter line than the Prototypes. Alonso is working hard to make up ground. Pierre Thiriet races ahead of Job van Uitert. Alonso could still be World Champion even if he does not win the race. We still have 20 and a half hours of this stuff left, lads. This is great racing! The costs for LMP1 are becoming unsustainable. So, therefore, this is why we will see Hypercar. We'll have hydrogen and cleaner fuels to power the car, especially since the diesel tech that we saw years ago, has been questioned about it's cleanliness. Recall the Audi vs. Peugeot diesel battles from 10+ years ago. We have had dry racing with cloud cover, but no rain so far. We were expecting a deluge, but the boom, bang, crash has been on track, and not in thunder coming out of the sky.
Henrik Hedman is not on the scoring chart, and we need to find out his issue. He is stone cold last in the LMP1 class. All cars are on track except for three, and we'll be headed for dusk, soon. Pierre Thiriet is being pressurized still by Job van Uitert and both these chaps are in the lane now, look. G-Drive wants to leapfrog their rivals. Clean the windscreen, and fuel the car. Will there be tire dchanges for either team? Nope. No tires, and a slow release for Alpine. They are back on track liner stern and back into the race. Job van Uitert wants to outbrake the Signatech car. They are heavier, loaded up with fuel, and into the chicane on the Mulsanne straight and G-Drive is loose! Yikes! A tad more pendulum with the extra weight.
The Rebellion car passes both cars. Jan Magnussen's lead has shrunk to James Calado. Magnussen can play it safe in traffic, but Calado is bearing down on him. Both LMP2's pass the MTEK BMW M8 GTE. Not sure which one it is. As we watch this race, some great commentary about how these cars are driving and how the drivers are handling them, by commentators Damien Faulkner, Sam Hancock, and Terry Rymer, all of them, former race car drivers. Spatial awareness is a huge factor. Will Owen is being told to move over indicating the class leaders are behind. Will Owen is on a near identical pace. Fernando Alonso is in the pit lane, and he's had more trouble. A new nose on the car it seems. The balance of the car might be askew.
The #7 Toyota is a minute up the road, and poor old Alonso is really getting the rough end of the pineapple at the moment. Mike Rockenfeller has taken over from Jan Magnussen in the #63 Corvette. Local yellow flag again and there's a spinner, the ARC Bratislava LMP2 car is off the road, and he overcooked it into Indianapolis, did the Swede Henning Engqvist. Dont' reverse onto the racing line! But, he will be OK, maybe. There are stones all over the road at Indianapolis, and the gravel traps here at Le Mans, they are filled with these sharp stones that are even more robust than gravel and can do mega size damage to a car. The ARC Bratislava Oreca has Henning Enqvist of Sweden, Miro Konopka from Slovakia, and Konstantin Tereschenko from Russia, on the driver's strength.
Another lead change in LMP2! van Uitert gives Thiriet the rough end of the pineapple and goes for the lead. The G-Drive car is an Aurus 01 with a Gibson 4.2 liter V8 motor. An oversteering car is a really bad thing to have in an endurance race at any circuit. Especially, here at Le Mans. Laurens Vanthoor goes past Joey Hand. The Ford is on old tires and Ferrari are on new tires. The Porsche is one of the finest sounding cars. That 4 liter flat six is a screamer, in a good way. Some people like the rumble of the Corvette V8. So is the older generation Aston Martin. That Porsche flat six screamer is yours truly's favorite modern engine note from a racing car. The ACO and FIA have gotten the Balance of Performance really put together here at Le Mans. Five Ford GT's here at Le Mans, with the privateer Keating car here for the first time. The Wynn's oil liveried car, which is a classic IMSA livery from the 1980s, hearkening back to the Hotchkis Racing Porsche 962.
Alonso is chiseling the gap away to Kamui Kobayashi. Maybe he is starting to get back into this race a little bit. He wants to win even if he gets the title which he will even as far back as he is now. Rockenfeller leads Bamber in GTE Pro under pressure from Daniel Serra.
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