We've crossed over to the ten hour mark and the gremlins of the LMP2's continue. Antonio Felix Da Costa has held it on the rev limiter and he has had to recycle the engine. #36 Signatech Alpine, Thomas Laurent has also been having troubles, pointed the wrong way in the Porsche Curves. He spun, bailing out early. Last time at Spa, Laurent of course, had a massive wreck at Blanchimont. #31 is in the lane as well, look. G-Drive are off the road another time. The #70 MR Racing Ferrari is on fire in the lane. Roman Rusinov is in a real pickle. Edoardo Freitas clarifies what he should do to stop. There was a fuel spillage in the MR Racing pit for their #70 Ferrari.
Ferrari #61 pits as well. That's the Luzich Racing Ferrari. Andrew Watson, sharing with Mike Wainwright and Ben Barker are running well in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche. Cool Racing and Cetilar are battling for the 12th spot in LMP2. The windscreen of the #26 car was in a bit of a mess, as they have changed over to the soft compound tires. Goodyear's medium A compound tire was too soft to be a medium and they've brought their B compound which is a medium I believe.
Paul Lafargue battles Timothy Buret. IDEC vs. DragonSpeed. IDEC Sport wrote off two cars in quick succession on Thursday during practice and qualifying. That had to be a nightmare. Dwight Merriman crashed the #17 car for IDEC and hurt himself. Patrick Pilet is the new driver for this race of course. This has to be Pilet's first time in an LMP car of any kind. Harry Tincknell has driven both GT and prototype cars, but he has really had a learning curve with driving the Aston Martin. So many buttons and functions on the steering wheel, and the way the car drives is entirely different. Its chalk and cheese between prototypes and GTs.
Another pit stop for the #22 United Autosport car with Phil Hanson at the controls. He's a seasoned pro in sports cars after just four years. He's 21 and started racing at 17. AF Corse #51, the Ferrari isa in the pit lane as well. Serviced and sent with no worries. Pit stop time too, for the #17 and the #32. Job van Uitert is another young bloke, at age 21. He is at the wheel in the lane in the #32 United Autosport machine. Porsche #91 has pitted as well. Second in LMP2, Antonio Felix Da Costa, the #38 car is the meat in a United Autosport sandwich.
The gap to Phil Hanson is seven and a half seconds. Second in GTE Am, in the lane, Aston Martin #98. Ross Gunn still in the car, though. So he will do another double or triple stint. Mike Conway has just pitted and is back on track in the lead of this motor race. He goes from hybrid power, to 650 horsepower, and then, to the full 1,000 horsepower, when the electric motors kick in. The car lifts, reducing the RPM of the motor in the automated fuel cut system. It will work out based on when Mike Conway lifts out of the throttle or uses the boost cut switch on the steering wheel, changing the fuel cuts, and the fuel mixture.
140 laps for the #32 United Autosport car. 1,187 miles. Mechanics in the garage, are preparing new tires. Antonio Felix Da Costa is a very good, very elegant driver in his style. The rain has not hit the circuit here at Le Mans. It has disappeared. Pit stop time for one of the Dempsey Proton Porsche's. Correction, that's #88. That is the Bastien/de Leener/Preining car. In the garage now, the #57 Keating/Fraga/Bleekemolen Porsche. Job van Uitert, meanwhile, continues to lead the class in LMP2. Paul Lafargue is chasing Roberto Lacorte in LMP2 as well.
We have 20 or so minutes to the end of this hour. Again, it is incredible that IDEC Sport were able to completely repair both cars that were crashed in qualifying. Riccardo Pera says he's amazed by driving at night in his first Le Mans race. He had a good stint and his co-drivers are running extremely well, too. Pera, the Italian, is satisfied. Matt Campbell has taken over the car and they run fifth in GTE Am. Henri Pescarolo, in all his year of racing at Le Mans, he never made contact with anyone, running the race 33 times, the last of which was in 1999, and then owning and running a team for a few years after that, for the next six year up to 2005 or so.
Concrete walls used to line the section of the Porsche curves, as we have had terrifying wrecks there in recent years. Pescarolo guided Tom Gaymore when he ran for La Filiere. In the lane, look, the #47 Cetilar LMP2 Dallara. Roberto Lacorte seems to be a happy man after his stint. Toyota #7 is still leading this motor race. Lifting and coasting, and then braking, that is how you have to drive a hybrid boosted LMP1 prototype. Maxime Martin leads the GTE Pro class in the #97 Aston Martin. It is nearly the tenth hour. We are close to the mechanics wanting to get some shuteye.
There will be a phenomenon called "zombie land" towards morning, where the cars just motor 'round, and the mechanics are fast asleep. Maybe we are getting towards "zombie land" now. It's 20 past midnight. The GTE Pro class battle is still going strong. It's still percolating big style. #97 Aston Martin leads, and strangely, "The Dane Train", they are playing it cool, Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, and Richard Westbrook. The wasp is still hanging out at the picnic, looking for crumbs, in the GTE Pro battle. Sebastien Buemi is another wasp that won't go away trying to catch the team Toyota, the sister #7 car.
154 laps, 1,279 miles, done. Kamui Kobayashi says things are going well, and wants to make sure things work out in the morning. Kamui Kobayashi says the conditions are not very different from racing here at Le Mans in June and he is having a good race so far. Takeshi Kimura has gone off the road at Dunlop chicane. He has made a pig's breakfast out of that sweeper down to Tertre Rouge. IDEC Sport, and Rebellion, among others, have been pitting.
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