Emmanuele Pirro, the five-time Le Mans winner with Audi, is glad to be back as Grand Marshal, as we see the United Autosport cars pitting. #23 and #22. Jota Sport has also made a pit stop, scheduled. Paul Di Resta is now driving the #22 United Autosport machine and the Richard Mille Racing car has also stopped. The clouds are beginning to gather. Rain will be the great equalizer, and again, we will see what happens with the tires, between Michelin and Goodyear. Ho-Pin Tung at the controls of the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car leads in class in LMP2 as we see Mikkel Jensen chasing him down. Mikkel Jensen has run very well in the European Le Mans Series and this is his first Le Mans race.
The G-Drive car had a slight off course excursion, and we have seen a quick yellow, and the gap between #97 and #51 have come together. Now, the #57 Porsche has a flat tire and is in the pit lane to change it. The #16 G-Drive car spun and the #57 was in the vicinity, in the path of the spinning #16, Ryan Cullen at the controls. The G-Drive machine is being repaired. In replay, we see the #33 car, and the #16 spun and the Wynn's Porsche had nowhere to, while Mark Patterson also had to slam on the brakes. Mark Patterson, again, along with Dominique Bastien at age 74, are the two oldest blokes in the field. That car has been in and out and has only run nine laps. We have another Slow Zone between Arnage and the Porsche Curves. Harry Tincknell and Sam Bird. There are two G-Drive cars. Algarve Pro is helping run one of the other cars at the very last minute.
Repairs being made, look, for the #33 car. Slow Zone removed, and back to full on racing as we see the #57 Porsche, the Wynn's car of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Felipe Fraga, with bigger damage than we initially saw. Suspension and steering damage, possibly. Goodness gracious me, the GTE Pro scrum is unreal. Tincknell defending from Serra and Serra has the run on the Mulsanne straight and the Aston Martin is in the drag race to Mulsanne before Serra takes the place, slamming the door in Harry Tincknell's face, but now, Tincknell wants it, and wants to put the move on the Ferrari but can't quite make it.
Meantime, the Toyota has just screamed past both of those chaps. Mikkel Jensen is in the lane with the #26 G-Drive car as the pit crew clambers across the nose of the car. Ho-Pin Tung takes the lead of LMP2 for the time being. Kamui Kobayashi continues to lead going through Indianapolis. Ho-Pin Tung is leading LMP2 and he has the same piece of race track as Kobayashi. Pit stop time for one of the other LMP2's. The #47 Cetillar Dallara is in the pit lane. They are the lone Dallara in LMP2 this year. The pole time in LMP2 is right in the ballpark with the pole time in 2007 set by Allan McNish in the Audi R10 TDI diesel LMP1 car.
The circuit is in good shape according to Alex Brundle and the driver's are behaving themselves. Again, we are still looking at midnight and the possibility of rain. A marshal retrieves some debris. It's bodywork located at Tertre Rouge and La Chapelle, chapel corner. Mikkel Jensen is being chased down by Paul di Resta, and United Autosport have been bish bash boshing it in European Le Mans Series and WEC lately, with team boss Richard Dean, and owned by Dean and Zak Brown, in Leeds, England. They've acquired Strakka Racing as well and they could be in that with a GT car. Nick Leventis was the spearhead of that operation, and they ran very well here for a couple years before changing to GT racing. We also watch Cool Racing, a first-time Le Mans participant as the #57 Keating Motorsports Porsche is back on track.
Nicolas Lapierre sharing the Cool Racing car with Swiss drivers Antonin Borga and Alexandre Coigny. Andrea Belicchi, the Italian, is at the controls of the Cetilar car, from Parma, Italy. Rebellion #3 is still being driven by Louis Deletraz, who has had a few podiums in Formula 2. His dad is racing driver Jean Denis Deletraz. Rebellion will end their racing program and become SignaTech Alpine of course, with the same chassis used by Rebellion now. Gustavo Menezes, driving at Le Mans, on his birthday.
Rebellion delivers power all the way through the corner compared to the Toyota's with their hybrid boost but also fuel cut, and the regenerative braking on the Toyota as well. Ryan Cullen passes Alexandre Coigny for position in LMP2, 14th overall. Pit stop time for Harry Tincknell. 35 seconds of fuel flow, regulated. The rolled up rubber, the clag, has built up really quickly on the air intake of that car. Pit stop time too, for the #36 machine. 50 years since Porsche won Le Mans for the first time, in the 1970 race with the Porsche 917, driven by Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood. The car was a huge feat of engineering and it was an incredible car.
Torrential rain fell during the 1970 Le Mans race. There was a bunch of water and the car had water iun the electronics. The 917 inextricably links Porsche to Le Mans. So many great cars followed like the 935, 936, 956/962 and 919 Hybrid. Chris Parsons and Mark Cole have also been at Le Mans for many, many years. A Gulf Porsche 917 never won Le Mans even with the win in the "Le Mans" movie. The lead battle is raging again in LM GTE Pro. #97 vs. #71. Harry Tincknell vs. Davide Rigon. Ferrari will be struggling on their tires.
The Ferrari, to the Aston Martin, has been a wasp at a picnic, a fly in the ointment, an elephant in the room. The weather has been moving back and forth and we do have storms scheduled tonight. We shall see. You never know what the heck the weather is going to do. Pit stop time for Toyota #8. Brendon Hartley remains at the wheel. Harry Tincknell runs wide in the second Mulsanne chicane, scuppering his efforts, and allowing Davide Rigon to have a bite of the cherry and he's almost got it! He does.
The #90 TF Sport Aston Martin has just pitted as well. In the background, look, yellow flags. Someone is off, and it's the #35 Eurasia LMP2 car which has gone off the road again. Nobuya Yamanaka has been in the wars, again. Tincknell is wise to let the Ferrari's go ahead. He needs to cool the car down as well, running too close to the leading car, the following car will be overheating slightly. The snatch crane is out retrieving the #35. Porsche #86 is in the lane. That's the Mike Wainwright, Ben Barker, and Adrien De Leener. Now, the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 is in the garage for repairs.
There's been lots of talk about Peugeot for Hypercar. We will talk more about Peugeot, tonight. So, stay tuned for that as the Le Mans 24 Hours continues. Jonny Adam is being followed by Rino Mastronardi through the slow zone. The Eurasia car is back in the motor race and Yamanaka san will continue. The Toyota team are in the middle of their exercising. Jumping jacks, boxing, and an applause. Yours truly does some stair climbing every so oftenn. Meantime, Jonny Adam earned his stripes in 2017 when Aston Martin beat Corvette here at Le Mans. We are back to full green flag racing.
Rino Mastronardi is a trainer for drivers, an instructor, at Mugello. Formula 1 could return. We've had sports cars there with Group C and BPR GT endurance over the years. If you want to find out about a Group C race at Mugello, check out my Group C Racing blog.
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Wow. Rebellion all over the shop, with tire clag all over. Picking up that rolled up rubber is very dangerous. It's slick stuff. Very greasy, as the headlight gaze streams into Mulsanne corner running up to Indianapolis with the sun right in the driver's eyes. The sun will set in half an hour as we head to the western stretches of the track. This is Le Mans at it's very best. Yes, Jackie Chan is involved with Jackie Chan DC Racing. He's made visits to Le Mans and races in the FIA WEC. The drivers in this stint have dark visors on their helmets. Because we are in September, we are so close to the autumnal equinox compared to in June, midsummer's night.
Peugeot drivers. Romain Grosjean? Simon Pagenaud? Jean Eric Vergne? Sebastien Bourdais? Who could possibly drive in Peugeot's return? We'll have to see. Many drivers would love a factory seat. We need to bring the top class back to full strength and maybe with Hyper Car, that will happen. Porsche #92 is getting back into the wars with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel of it. Actually, it's probably a different driver in the Porsche.
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