We have two hours at least, until sunrise. Audi #66 gets a five secdond time penalty. Drive through penalty also, for car #10 for speeding in pit lane. That's the Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3. Karim Ojjeh of Saudi Arabia, sharing with Gilles Vannelet of France, Belgian hometown racer Benjamin Lessennes, and German BMW factory driver, Jens Klingman. The Ferrari has pitted fromt the race lead. Porsche #40 was in as well. #40 did a driver change. Not sure who went into the car. The rain makes the brake dust stick to the cars. There are penalties that have been announced. #66 is taking five seconds for a penalty. Andrea Caldarelli I think had a penalty, and someone else did, too, for speeding in the pit lane. #10 and #35, the two BMW M6's. A drive through penalty for #35 and #10, both.
Bentley in the lane, and likewise, Porsche's and Lamborghini's as well. Everyone is in the lane. There will be a driver change. Matthieu Jaminet pits as the race leader. So, "Jam Jam" will stay in that car I believe. Ferrari #51 has not done the technical pit stop yet. The tires are boiling the water off them because they are so darn hot. Rowe Racing and the Porsche have four new tires and fuel, and a driver change. One of the Ferrari's, car #93 is also into the pit lane. Chris Froggatt has taken over the #93 Ferrari and Davide Rigon has jusrt finished his stint. He says it was difficult starting in the dry and finishing the stint in the wet.
A dodgy chop into Eau Rouge. Couldn't tell who was trying to make that work. Could have been Sven Mueller. Blimey, Sven! Don't try entering the lane with another bloke right up your what's it! Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen, and Kevin Estre just nearly got chopped, and they thankfully recovered. Nyck Nielsen retakes the lead. 331 laps, 1,440 miles. A number of cars have completed their technical pit stops already. Still others need to make those specific five minute pit stops for the brake change. Chris Froggatt leads Pro Am, and he is at the controls of the #93 Ferrari right now.
Jonathan Hui says his team needs more luck with nine and a half hours to go. Roll the dice about the weather, but it is better compared to last year, when the race was run in the summertime. The rain might not be too heavy. It might drizzle, but it won't be the biblical rain we saw last year. The #78 Silver Barwell Lamborghini has a puncture. Lamborghini #78 in the pits. They are going to slick tires, to slick Pirelli P Zeros. The Lamborghini, not sure which one, but I think it is the Barwell car, has it's hazard flashers on for some reason.
Barwell team boss Mark Lemmer says they were forced into a scenario of using slick tires. Nick Tandy in the lane and so is Kevin Estre. Tandy back on the road. He had to have changed tires. Audi #66 has shot up the escape road at Les Combes for the second time, fifth overall, Frederic Vervisch at the controls. The fourth place Lambo is still weaving the heat into the tires heading for Eau Rouge. Whoa! He goes right off the road at the top of the hill. Andy Soucek makes a short stop in his Bentley from 16th place. Matteo Cairoli has made a pit stop in the Dinamic Porsche 911 GT3R, car #54. Matthieu Jaminet in the lane from second spot.
These are tire changes. Nyck Nielsen leads, but he has overheating tires. Nyck Nielsen pits for slick tires. Andy Soucek, Nick Tandy, Jordan Pepper, Dorian Boccolacci, and others, are in for slick tires. Audi #66 in the lane for slicks with Frederic Vervisch at the wheel of it. Nick Tandy passes Fred Vervisch. It is wet, and still 11 degrees Celsius, 52 degrees Fahrenheit. Gabrielle Piana just pitted and how will he perform compared to Frederic Schandorff? More pit work going on for the #40 Porsche. Romain Dumas at the controls. Nicklas Nielsen still leads this race ahead of Matty Jaminet, Nick Tandy, Dennis Lind, and Fred Vervisch, the top five.
We have seen some Pro Am cars, or Am cars make pit stops for tires and fuel. Audi #25 is on a mission. Dorian Boccolacci at the controls. He is two seconds faster than Nick Tandy. Has someone gone off the road in sector two? Hmmm. Pit stop for car #10 under investigation. That's the second Pro Am Boutsen Ginion BMW of Jens Klingman we've mentioned a couple times. A Mercedes is off the road, car #87. That's AKKA ASP and it's got a left rear tire down, or a busted left rear corner. Frenchmen Jean-Luc Beaubelique, Jim Pla, Fabien Barthez (the former soccer player), and Thomas Drouet, share the car.
Jaminet is hunting down Nielsen for the lead of this motor race. The Ferrari may still be on wet tires. Nicklas Nielsen is a good driver. What could be going on? Are they on knackered wet weather Pirelli's? Were they just taking on fuel? That's strange and a puzzling point. #72 is in front and #12 is catching #51. We will get a reverse of Davide Rigon being chased. Miguel Molina is in the #72 car. There is a lapped Lamborghini as well. Daniel Serra is in the #52 Ferrari.
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