The AF Corse Ferrari #54, Francesco Castellaci, in the lane and taking on fuel. That is the Vista Jet liveried car. Sean Gelael brings the #28 Jota Sport car into the lane and now, Tom Blomqvist is in the car. #29, Frits van Eerd is stuck in the gravel again, and someone has run him off the road. He is upset again. When the engineer says to the driver, "you are in the gravel" and the driver replies, "of course I'm in the gravel, you muttonhead!" Again, something has happened with the Motor Trend and Eurosport video streams and so yours truly only has timing and scoring on now, not the video screens before the next segment of the race begins in 55 minutes with start of the next hour.
A couple messages on the screen as Frits van Eerd had just come out of the pit lane and made contact with the #66 JMW Ferrari with Thomas Neubauer at the controls, the German. Poor old Neubauer is languishing down in 47th place. Toyota #8 has done full stints while the #7 sister Toyota are trying to eke out a speed advantage by doing different stint lengths. Car #29 has rejoined the track while Neubauer's Ferrari is stranded up at Dunlop curve. Antonio Garcia is penalized because the engine was running and the pit crew pushed the car. They had to change the diffuser because James Calado in the Ferrari hit the car pulling off the grid for the formation laps.
Giedo van der Garde is now headed back into the #29 Racing Team Nederland car, or is it Job van Uitert? Hard to tell. The #66 Ferrari is damaged and there's smoke billowing out of the car. It's either engine oil or transmission oil and it is said that transmission oil has the most vile smell to it. Michelle Gatting has taken over the #85 Iron Dames Iron Lynx Ferrari. Frits van Eerd has passed Arnold Robin. So put Racing Team Nederland ahead of Graff Racing I believe. Now, in Alpine land, they inform their driver the Glickenhaus is on new tires. That is the #709 of Olivier Pla. Both of them are catchin the #41 Team WRT entry.
Ferrari #66 is still slow as the Glickenhaus blew past the Alpine. It has just jumped the Graff Racing LMP2 car and that is the new tire edge which will be knocked off those Michelin's in the next few laps. Gabriel Aubry is in the #24 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. Good battle between Marco Sorensen in the #20 High Class Racing LMP2 car and Oliver Jarvis aboard the #82 Risi Competizione Oreca LMP2 as well. Ah. Olivier Pla is being caught by Nico Lapierre. Brake management is becoming crucial for the Glickenhaus and so the Alpine has an advantage. You just can't get through a lap here at Le Mans without losing time. You can get held up in places like Arnage and Porsche Curves. Poor old Olivier Pla has been caught behind a Porsche and here comes Nicolas Lapierre. Wow.
Wow! The old switcheroo does not quite work for Olivier Pla. Nicolas Lapierre into Mulsanne and back into Indianapolis, wow. Lapierre gives the place to Pla. Great, clean racing. This is an incredibly cut and thrust race. As a driver, you relish this stuff. Mike Conway is closing up on Kazuki Nakajima for the race lead. Nico Lapierre is catching Robin Frijns as well. The Hypercars cannot afford to have a hiccup because the LMP2 cars will pounce. Sheer weight and numbers as there are only five Hypercars while there are 25 LMP2 cars. The #709 Glickenhaus just does not have the pace. Olivier Pla is the higher placed Glickenhaus compared to team mate Richard Westbrook.
The battle for third is on now. Robin Frijns is being chased by Nico Lapierre. Lapierre is locked on a missiles loaded. So, we now see Olivier Pla trying t follow through on Robin Frijns. The Glickenhaus is still twitchy through the Porsche curves. The Glickenhaus does not like that high speed turn. Meantime, someone is off the road at the Dunlop curve. We don't know who it is. The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari was no longer shown as stopped. The #38 Jota Sport LMP2 car looks like it is the one that is off the road. The #56 Project 1 Porsche for Egidio Perfetti, Matteo Cairoli, and Riccardo Pera is officially shown as a retirement.
Meanwhile, the #71 Inception Racing Ferrari to go off the road. Toyota #8 in the lane as Sebastien Buemi takes over from Kazuki Nakajima. A slow zone now for the recovery of the #66 JMW Ferrari, the car now driven by American Rodrigo Sales, sharing with Germany's Thomas Neubauer and Jody Fannin from England. We have a slow zone at the Dunlop Chicane. They cannot tow it in backwards. They cannot recover the car from Parc Ferme. Mirror adjustment on the #709 Glickenhaus as Toyota #7 also pits after a full stint. Not a full stint for Mike Conway. Only nine laps, because of the slow zone.
So, headed for the garage is one of the GT cars. Richard Westbrook pits the #709 Glickenhaus from 11th place. The safety crews are still trying to extract the #66 JMW Ferrari. Mike Conway continues in the lead of the motor race. The #24 PR1/Mathiasen car went out and are back in the lane once again. They have had a serious oiling issue on that car. Through a slow zone again as we see Toyota #7 with Mike Conway continuing to lead this motor race. Unofficially we have lost nine cars. #1 and #56 are officially retired. #98 is crashed but not officially retired. Porsche #99 is retired. #32 United Autosport, that car is retired I believe. The #47 Cetilar Ferrari is out and so is the #25 car. The #55 and #66 Ferrari's, #55 might still be on the road but #66 is retired.
Full pit service too for the #36 Alpine as Andre Negrao from Brazil takes over Nicolas Lapierre and drops the car to fifth in the overall. Robin Frijns moves to fourth and now back to third will be Olivier Pla in the #708 Glickenhaus. 52 cars of the 61 that started remain in the race. We are back to full metal, green flag racing now. Spirit of Race and Cetilar have likely retired and so has the #66 JMW Ferrari. So, that's three retired Ferrari's. The #25 G-Drive car is out. Ferrari #47 for Cetilar, gone. #56 Project 1 Porsche, out. #32 United Autosport, out. #99 Proton Competition, out. #56 Project 1 Porsche, out, and the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car, out.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari, the #63 Corvette C8.R, they've run 11 laps, and the #92 Porsche is ten laps into the stint. Problem here, smoke, for the #57 CarGuy Ferrari of Mikkel Jensen. Is that heat soak in the brakes? Is it smoke? No. It could be good old fashioned steam coming out of the brake rotor and the wheel. Has the brake rotor seized up. We have a double yellow and a slow zone. The Ferrari's are dropping like flies now. They were a dominant force earlier in the race. Double yellow flag at marshal post four and next slow zones at MP3 and MP4. Check that. Yellow at Marshal Post six. #66 is out. They had external assistance, which is not allowed, and they backed the car up the pit lane. That car is going to be disqualified.
Dylan Pereira pits the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. That is the Four Horseman car. Dylan Pereira is back on course now. Ben Hanley has the #21 DragonSpeed car and Pereira very nearly ran into the back of the LMP2 car! Yikes! AF Corse lead GTE Am in the #83 Ferrari followed by the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari and then Dylan Pereira in the #33. Tom Gamble is back on track and so has Gabriel Aubry. Tom Gamble has the wheel of the #86 GR Porsche and it is 2:00 A.M. at Le Mans, nearly. They've been racing for nearly ten hours.
Iron Lynx #60 is still on the road. Racing Team Nederland have pitted and Frits van Eerd will do a triple stint in the #29 Oreca. He needs to get the hours in. Jim Glickenhaus is a fan just as much as a team boss. He is out there watching this race go on. Porsche #91 pits from fifth in GTE Pro. Richard Lietz into the car. AF Corse continue to lead GTE Pro with the #51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi followed by the #63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor and the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre.
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