Pit stop time for United Autosport car #22. Same for a few other LMP2 runners. LMP2 is going through musical chairs right now. Again, Porsche are off the pace, seemingly, in LM GTE Pro as Aston Martin and Ferrari have come to the fore. Antonio Felix Da Costa, fresh out of the car says the Jota car is running extremely well, it is predictable and comfortable at the moment, and now of course, Roberto Gonzalez is in the car. The rain, later tonight, is going to be the great equalizer. There's trepidation about the weather later on, chaps. Plus, don't forget the extra hours of darkness that we will encounter. Longer darkness means the sun is out for fewer hours, meaning cooler ambient temperature for the engines. More horsepower means more revs and more stress on the motor.
A battle in LM GTE Am between the #98 Aston Martin for Paul Dalla Lana, Ross Gunn, and Augusto Farfus. In this scrap as well, the #75 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE, an all Italian lineup of Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastronardi, and Andrea Piccini. Now, the #88 Porsche 911 RSR is back in the race with Thomas Preining, but the car must complete 75% of the winner's distance. Kamui Kobayashi in the pit lane as he leads while Sebastien Buemi remains second. Such a shame to see his record setting lap cancelled in qualifying. Brendon Hartley is now in the #8 Toyota after the pit stop. The track limits debate are still raging. "The black stuff's grippy, and the green stuff's slippy", according to former motorcycle racer Jamie Whitham. A penalty for track limits to Luzich Racing, Francesco Piovanetti driving.
Will Stevens is in the lane handing the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car to Ho-Pin Tung, and Gabriel Aubry also on the driver's strength. We have also seen some action from Luzich Racing. Will be on that in a moment. The Goodyear wet is not as strong as the Michelin, but the intermediates from both companies are on a different scale. The Goodyear intermediate is a hand cut slick tire and the Michelin is a new and different compound. What will the operating windows be? An intermediate tire is a slick with grooves cut into it, but it varies as far as the amount of grooves, but there are also slick tires with special compounds that can be considered wet tires. Will Stevens, former F1 driver says that he lost some time after a recent pit stop but he is optimistic about his stints.
The full wet tires are not heated but the intermediates are to 40-50 degrees Celsius while full slicks are heated to 70 degrees Celsius. Good battle between the factory Porsche and the WeatherTech Ferrari. Now, back to Luzich Racing, their drivers are Francesco Piovanetti of Spain, Oswaldo Negri Jr., a Brazilian driver now living in the United States, and Frenchman, Come Ledogar. Good battle too, between the Porsche and Ferrari in LM GTE Pro as we have debris on the road and a slow zone into the first corner just past the front straight. We've not seen any footage. There's tire debris on the Mulsanne straight as well as we watch the LMP2 cars.
Signatech, United Autosport, and I am not sure who the other car is. Hang on. That's the #16 G-Drive car. There's tire debris as someone has lost a carcass. How do you make contact with a car of the same class out of the same corner? The G-Drive car with the left front damage will need a new nose. That's the #16 entry of Ryan Cullen, Oliver Jarvis, and Nick Tandy. There's three cars that couldbe damaged as a shark bite has been taken out of it's diffuser and the Ferrari's front splitter got clobbered. If it gets cracked, though, you'll know as a driver because you've got mega handling issues. The LMP2 third place man is off in the gravel, getting balked behind a slower train of cars.
That's Capillaire, running over the sausage curbs and he's jolly lucky he can keep the engine running. #22 in the lane for a slow zone. Phil Hanson in and out for quick service. Roman Rusinov has now put the #26 Aurus in the lead of LMP2, the car he shares with Vergne and Jensen. Slow Zones are a replacement for the safety car system and is far more efficient. The slow zones mandate 80 kilometers per hour during it. The area before, half a kilometer up the road, is a chance to decelerate. 80 kilometers an hour = 50 miles an hour. Where's the #4 ByKolles car? Oliver Webb at the wheel of it, but it has an alternator issue or so we hear.
Job Van Uitert will be thirsty as his drinks bottle is not working. Also, it is game over for Erik Maris and Eurointernational. Sam Bird heads for pit lane. Rear tire degradation is going to be a bugaboo for the Ferrari boys. The new Hypercar regulations and the IMSA LMDh regs were also confirmed, and 12 manufacturers are interested in LMDh. 3-4 years down the road, we will have a dozen automakers fighting for the win at Le Mans. Excited about the future. Should the rain come, we will have quite the battle coming up. Porsche #91 has pitted. We may look at midnight or so for the thunderstorms. That will put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Roberto Gonzalez is running his fourth Le Mans race. Will Owen has the fresher tires. Don't push too hard and make a mistake, as Aston Martin #97 is in the lane. Maxime Martin hands over to one of his team mates as Alessandro Pier Guidi takes the class lead in LM GTE Pro. Marco Sorensen has the #95 Aston in second. Ferrari #55 is pitting and so is #82. Risi Competizione and Spirit of Race. Aston Martin #95 will pit for full service and a driver change. They are the points leaders in LM GTE Pro in the world championship. Keep the car on the road, mate. #82 has Olivier Pla, Sebastien Bourdais, and Jules Gounon. #55 is driven by an all British trio. Duncan Cameron, sharing with Aaron Scott, and Matt Griffin. Matt Griffin is an Irishman.
Pit stop complete for Aston Martin #95. Sofia Floresch had a horrible crash at the Macau Grand Prix years ago but she is back now. Tatiana Calderon is also quite talented, having run single seathers such as Formula 3 and even testing in F1. The Am class #98 Aston Martin has made a stop. The GTE Pro battle remains hot and heavy. Lena Gade is a great female engineer who worked with Audi and she has also worked in IndyCar and at Multimatic with the Mazda team in IMSA who took over the car from Reinhold Joest. Track limits for Aston Martin. Race Director Edoardo Freitas has been pinging cars coming out of Karting. Harry Tincknell at the controls of the Aston Martin.
Rebellion has just pitted the #3 car. Now in the lane, the second Rebellion, car #1. Birthday boy, Gustavo Menezes at the controls. Meantime, Rebellion are third and fourth behind the Toyota's as #7 has also pitted. The lead car is in with Kamui Kobayashi still at the wheel, leading Brendon Hartley in the sister car by 49 seconds. There's all sorts of rubbish at certain points of the track as Kamui Kobayashi flies down the Mulsanne straight. The Ferrari and Aston Martin battle is still hot and heavy, but Alessandro Pier Guidi is clearly unhappy with his team mate, Sam Bird. The ByKolles car is back in the race after their alternator issues. They are down in 28th place, and have a long road to hoe.
Red River Sport is back in the race and they had a litany of woes in practice and qualifying during the condensed buildup to the race. The sun is beginning to go down at 6:20 P.M. local time. 11:20 Central Standard Time in Minnesota in the U.S.A. where yours truly is located. Harry Tincknell and Alex Lynn raced together, against each other, in Formula Renault. Both live in London in different districts. Daniel Serra is pressuring Alex Lynn right now. The Ferrari's have been turning it on. What happened to the Porsche's? They are way down the order. They are way down the list. Porsche were quickest in qualifying yesterday with a one liter fuel break. But now, they have a mountain to climb.
Daniel Serra is pushing very hard. They are having issues with rear tire degradation. The headlights have to be on always, but you are just seeing it now as the darkness is coming. It's not the traditional summer darkness that comes in gradually. Much more darkness this year in the autumn. The weather might just throw a spanner in the works. Next yea'rs calendar will have half a dozen races. There's a restricted, provisional calendar starting in March at Sebring, Florida, for the 1,000 Miles race that didnt run this year. Then we go to the Spa 6 Hours in May followed by Le Mans on June 12th and 13th. Then comes a new race, the 6 Hours of Monza on July 18th. Fuji 6 Hours, next on September 26th, and on November 20th, the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
The schedule is provisional, depending on the Coronavirus situation. Silverstone could be a possibility. Pit stop coming for Jota Sport.
No comments:
Post a Comment