Louis Deletraz is really happy about his first Le Mans with Rebellion. Louis Deletraz has four podiums in FIA Formula 2. Louis Deletraz's dad is Jean Denis Deletraz, who ran a few races in Formula 1 and won in LMP675 here at Le Mans in 2001 and 2002, back to back. Romain Dumas leads Gustavo Menezes. Will Menezses drop back? Will he allow the car to not overheat and stay with the temperature parameters? Rebellion is telling Gustavo Menezes to like it or lump it. He will just have to follow team orders. Rebellion #1 is following the sister car #3. Gustavo Menezes isn't cruising but he is right behind Romain Dumas. They want to save their cars.
Pit stop for Filipe Albuquerque who stays in the #22 United Autosport Oreca. Hotter air will tear the brakes apart. If you push, you will wreck the brakes. We're seeing a public board meeting at Rebellion. Gustavo says about Romain, "I'm not going quickly, he is going slowly." Menezes will have cooked brakes, or, they would need a brake pad change. If things are peachy, Menezes will be disgruntled, ticked off about not being let off the leash. From the Toyota garage, the smoke is nothing to worry about. We shall not discuss the smoke anymore. The rear wing on the ByKolles was not stable enough and that's why it retired the car, according to Oliver Webb. At Spa, ByKolles wanted to test, and the people in Spa were whinging about noise complaints.
Teams do 36 hour tests, and then, come to Le Mans, and components still fail. A lot of the Spa 6 Hours was wet, too, if you remember, from last month. No brake change at Aston Martin from the #97. "We've given them softer racing boots." Hardy har har. Rebellion have said something similar. This is crunch time. It is money time as Richard Westbrook gets into the #95 Aston Martin and heads out for another stint. We have a yellow flag, as the #99 Dempsey Proton Porsche is off in the gravel at Ford Chicane. Vutthikorn Inthravuphasak spins into the gravel. Kamui Kobayashi has done his work in the #7 Toyota. #7 has been here, gosh, five or six times, and the stars were aligning, and then, all of a sudden, the turbo fails. It's almost a curse for the #7. Mike Conway still holds the lap record at 3:17.29 from 2019.
He gets the fastest lap, but it won't take the sting out. Antonio Felix Da Costa is second in LMP2 right behind the #22 car that has run 328 laps, 2,778 miles. We have the same amount of time left on the board as a typical IMSA sprint race at 2 hours and 40 minutes. G-Drive are not planning to go to Bahrain for the finale for the WEC 2020. Mikkel Jensen is chasing Antonio Felix Da Costa. Time flies when you're having fun. Beitske Visser is now driving the Richard Mille Oreca LMP2 car. The ladies on the Richard Mille team have really been setting impressive lap times.
Zak Brown from United Autosport says the oil leak for the #22 car was the low point for their team. They still have one car in the fight. They are still looking for good luck in the last two and a half hours, approaching this race like a Grand Prix. Aston Martin #97 in the pit lane. James Calado is about to get back into the #51 Ferrari and the #97 Aston Martin can run flat out whereas the Ferrari just is having a harder time. Or maybe, Calado says they have a better pace in the Ferrari camp. Sam Bird is in the #71, the sister AF Corse Ferrari. Rebellion continues their scrap for second place in the overall.
Norman Nato and Louis Deletraz will get into each of the Rebellion's who are nursing a brake issue as has been discussed. Romain Dumas is in the lane for service. Louis Deletraz will take the car to the end of the race, to the checkers, from Romain Dumas, as the mechanics are looking for the brake wear and seeing how it is doing, with torches. A torch, is a flashlight. Now, Romain Dumas stalls coming out of the pit lane. Hmmm. Both Rebellion's have had that stalling issue. Romain Dumas has done all he can, maybe. Toyota #8 has run 350 laps, 2,964 and a half miles.
Thr sister Rebellion, #1 is in the lane. Gustavo Menezes, out, and Norman Nato, in. Romain Dumas is somewhat satisfied, but he knows what has just happened and is disappointed. Mixed emotions. Is Rebellion having issues with the transmission or the clutch? Both cars have had issues pulling away from the pit lane. Toyota #8 pits and Kazuki Nakajima is in the car after Brendon Hartley finishes his stint. Gustavo Menezes says Rebellion has been playing it safe, for 14 hours. They had an issue with a dislodged front nose cone. Paul Di Resta pits the #22 Oreca.
Dave Price worked with Sauber as Team Manger for the Sauber Mercedes bunch. He went to Nissan, and then to Formula 1 at Simtek, and then back to the sports car circuit with Harrod's McLaren. Everyone is tired. The cars are knackered. Just a couple hours left to run as Antonio Felix Da Costa is pushing hard. Antonio Felix Da Costa is the 2020 Formula E champion. Toyota are shortening their stint, triple stinting on tires. Maybe these numbers are different. Hard to see why Toyota would shorten the stint length.
Antoine Borga brings the #42 Cool Racing LMP2 car to the pit lane and the skids are ready to roll the car into the garage. Yes. It swings around so the crew can work on it. It is their first time here at Le Mans. They will do a brake change. Driver change at Jota and Anthony Davidson is back into the car. They adjusted their driver lineup order and Roberto Gonzalez has put in all his drive time. Jose Maria Lppez at the wheel of the #7 Toyota, in fourth spot. They had a hole in the manifold in the middle of the night. The Rebellion has been the meat in the sandwich between the Toyota's. Sebastien Bourdais is really pushing the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari. The #38 Jota Sport car has been really pointy. It's handling has been a bit of a bear.
The Oreca is really pointy compared to other cars, including for Oliver Jarvis, who drives the Mazda DPi in IMSA. To maximize the downforce of the car, there's a wedge planted into the car and that's why it feels like it shimmies around. Jose Maria Lopez is told he has three and a half stints for the tires. They can put Mike Conway back in the car. The two kinks towards Indianapolis are a bugaboo with the aerodynamic loads. The cure is adding rear wing, but adding wing angle kills the straight line speed of the car.
We are of course waiting for the new regulations of Le Mans Hypercar and the grandfathering of LMP1 cars. Pit stop penalty for the #95 Aston Martin, not the leading Aston Martin, the #97. We still have two hours remaining as the Ferrari is steaming along, and they are still pushing.
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