#49 is still amazingly mobile. Unbelievable! Jan Magnussen was sure the engine in that car was toast. Now, we have a yellow on the course. Ah. It was short. Ten seconds added to the next pit stop for the #709 Glickenhaus. Ben Hanley and Dragonspeed pit as Kamui Kobayashi pits the #7 Toyota, a minute down on their sister #8 car. In these races, there can be technicalities as we saw with the Toyota's at a race years ago where both were disqualified for wearing down a plywood legality plank at the bottom of the car. There's a Ferrari spun out on the road someplace. That could be the beleaguered #71 machine. The #34 Intereuropol Oreca is in the lane, Alex Brundle at the controls. He might just get out of the car. Don't overrun the drive time. They are allowed only two run four hours in a stint out of a six hour window and cars get excluded for that.
Ferrari #71 did slowly enter the pit lane. Porsche still have a chance in GTE Pro. Louis Deletraz sets fastest first sector for the #41 WRT car and Tristan Gommendy does the same for the #30 car for Duqueine. Norman Nato brings the #70 RealTeam Oreca to the pit lane for service. Formidable for Duqueine. A yellow flag on the road. Not sure for what. Someone maybe went off and on. 14,987 overtakes in this race! Wow! We could get to 20,000. Don't say anything to the folks at Formula 1, thank you. The screen on the fuel hose is a counter. 9,000 overtakes in LMP2 alone! Holy cow! That's insane! Kazuki Nakajima runs second.
Toyota #7 pits from the lead. Renger van der Zande is now in the #34 Intereuropol LMP2 car. Alex Brundle did maximum drive time of four hours. A small wake me up for Toyota #7 missing your braking point by half a meter at Mulsanne. Oh no! Trouble for wheels on the #7! Now,. let's hope this is not too much of a concern. Lopez now leads Nakajima by 26 seconds. Anthony Davidson is pitting the #38 Jota LMP2 car. Daniel Serra pits the #52 AF Corse Ferrari from sixth place in GTE Pro. Alex Lynn runs seventh for United Autosports in LMP2. Both of them exit the pit lane together. Sean Gelael and Will Stevens are running well. There was a Formula 1 French Grand Prix here at Le Mans years ago.
That French Grand Prix was in 1967. Ryan Briscoe hops aboard the #709 Glickenhaus. Panis Racing are challenging Jota for third spot. Nico Lapierre pits the #36 Alpine from third place. 26 seconds is the gap between Toyota's #7 and #8 and they aren't running laps lower than the 3:30 bracket. When Mazda won Le Mans in 1991, 30 years ago, well, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and more, and the following week, Mazda sold $500 million worth of cars after they won. This is the epitome of the saying "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." When Ford won this race four times with the GT40, their image was totally changed.
Alpine would dearly love to get one over on Toyota because they have already won in Formula 1 and they want to win Le Mans. Ferrari did it. Porsche perhaps did get a Grand Prix win and a Le Mans class win. Dan Gurney won a Formula 1 race for Porsche. Alpine is essentially Renault that won in the first Grand Prix in 1906 at Le Mans. Two years away, is the 100th anniversary of Le Mans and Peugeot and Renault would love to win Le Mans again. Will Stevens continues to chase Sean Gelael. The Panis Racing crew are still motivated to pass. Stevens raced in karting and also ran briefly in Formula 1 and has had a great sports car career too.
Takuma Aoki in the pit lane in the #84 SRT41 LMP2 car modified for drivers with disabilities and there is a driver change. Also, Ben Keating brings the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin to the lane. Mechanic's are catching whatever sleep they possibly can. Mike Conway now leads Kazuki Nakajima by 25 seconds as we see Panis Racing still chasing Jota Sport. Pit stop time for Hub Auto Racing and their Porsche with Maxime Martin at the wheel. This is the first Asian team to get a pole at Le Mans. Toyota are a Japanese team but run from Cologne in Germany. Vibrations being reported in the #49 High Class Racing Oreca.
The engine has something wrong and the team does not know how to make it run cleanly. They are monitoring the car. Pipo Derani pits for service and hands third back to the Alpine. Antonio Garcia brings the #63 Corvette C8.R to the pit lane, second in GTE Pro, still storming after James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Cleaning the radiators, making sure the car does not overheat. The C8.R Corvette is relatively new to Le Mans. The car started in Daytona last year. Next year, the GTE cars will be obsolete in IMSA because IMSA is going GT3. Will we see Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes, McLaren, BMW, and Porsche? There will be a GT3 platform in 2024.
The ACO would like the teams to be amateurs and not supported by the factories. Gelael and Stevens still chase each other and Renger van der Zande, fifth in LMP2 is keeping Intereuropol right in the fight. Team WRT have really run well in LMP2. They are stepping it up even though they have also run so well in GT3 racing for the better part of a decade. WRT run 1-2. Robin Frijns leads Robert Kubica. The sun is rising over Tertre Rouge at the moment. The glare makes it so hard to judge the corners. In the night time, the drivers would have a clear vistor and a darker one for the daylight hours.
Tbe atmosphere of the campsites are back at Le Mans in spite of the pandemic still being around. We had no fans here last year. Kazuki Nakajima in the pit lane from the lead. Run like clockwork. That's the key. There are still complications. You can't rest on your laurels in this race. All of Toyota's investment from the past, they see it paying off now and have been in the sport of sports car racing off and on for the better part of over 30 years, maybe 35+ years. A drive through penalty for someone. Could not exactly see who it was. Robin Frijns pits from the lead in LMP2.
Sean Gelael pits the #38 Jota Sport car as well. Just a shade over 1/3rd of the race left to run. The rain at the start of the race really upset the apple cart, but we won't have any more rain to worry about. Gearbox trouble for the #8 Toyota? Oh dear. We shall have to watch and see what is going on. What a weird joke, at 8AM in the morning there are two LMP2 cars. One sponsored by McDonald's and the other by KFC. Two fast food restaurants! Unbelievable! Comical if you ask me. The spirit of Le Mans means you don't give up. Gianmaria Bruni is in the pit lane for service on the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Bruni hands the car to Richard Lietz and the tires are changed as well as fuel added to the tank.
Straight out of the pits, the Porsche factory cars end up overshooting the chicane on cold tires. It cannot be coincidence though. What counts as track limits? We have a mist coming down. Rain is coming back? Wait. Say what? OK. This will really make the racing interesting as Toyota #7 is in. They are actually on the #8 and that car seems to have a gearbox issue. Toyota #8 needs to check and see what is going on. There's mist everywhere. Maybe the sun will burn it off.
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