Robert Kubica pits the #41 WRT LMP2 car from second in class. This is the point when the race starts to come alive. Michael Christensen is in the lane from third in GTE Pro in factory Porsche #92. This is the car that has had the troubles, Kevin Estre, Neel Jani, and Michael Christensen, driving through their issues. This is a double points race for the championships with only two races to go coming up in Bahrain in the fall. Jordan Taylor now aboard the #63 Corvette C8.R running in second spot in GTE Pro. Smoke, and big damage from a locked brake for the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari! That may be the all-female team as the second place Toyota hits the lane. Mike Conway in #7 continues to lead. The gap between the two Toyota's is about 3 minutes. Glickenhaus are in third and Alpine are third and fourth. Richard Westbrook is climbing up the order in the #709 Glickenhaus.
Loic Duval has the wheel in the #70 RealTeam Racing LMP2 car. They pit. Glickenhaus could go to Bahrain at the end of the season and run one or both of the races as there's an eight hour race and a six hour race. The race at Fuji in Japan is cancelled. The Sakhir circuit is not hugely popular and we'll have 14 hours of racing in total at a boring circuit. Fuji always had huge crowds not only in the modern era but also during the heyday of Group C in the 1980s. Glickenhaus #708 in the lane. Andre Negrao takes third away from Olivier Pla. IDEC and Panis each pit in LMP2. Will Stevens vs. Charles Milesi who is a lap up on the Panis car.
So, Charles Milesi is leading in LMP2. WRT are running really well right now with both of their cars and their six drivers. Paul di Resta pits the #23 United Autosport Oreca, sixth in class in LMP2 and they are amazingly surviving even with their damage. Tom Blomqvist runs third for Jota Sport. The #21 DragonDpeed LMP2 car is in the lane and Henrik Hedman from Sweden, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is back on track. Check that. Juan Pablo Montoya is into the car now. Montoya had a colossal crash on Thursday night but was rebuilt. Toyota #7 into the pits for service and Kamui Kobayashi takes over from Mike Conway.
Conway, Buemi, Negrao, the top three in the motor race. Tommy Milner back in the garage in Corvette #64. They have more woes. The Toyota has a much wider windscreen than the Alpine which is a grandfathered LMP1 car. #64 Corvette, status update. They have alternator troubles on top of the gearbox troubles as well. AF Corse boss Amato Ferrari looks on, no relation to the Scuderia Ferrari car though. But, AF Corse will be running the Ferrari Hypercar in 2023. Dylan Pereira chases Nicklas Nielsen for the lead in GTE Am.
Check that. He is chasing a couple of the GTE Pro Porsche's. Aston Martin had a GT sweep last year in Pro and Am. They could win Am this year. A long way to go, though. A long way to go. Aston Martin #33 in the pit lane for service. Fuel only and a change of the drink bottle for Dylan Pereira. Matteo Cressoni is at the wheel of the damaged #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Nicklas Nielsen has the lead of GTE Am in AF Corse Ferrari #83. Juan Pablo Montoya is catching Robert Gonzalez for 11th place in class in LMP2. Yellow flag on the course, and we do have a Full Course Yellow? Maybe not. Hang on. Ah. We had a spin for the Dempsey Proton Porsche, Dominique Bastien I believe, spins the car.
Mike Conway says everything is working well for the #7 Toyota. #8, that car still has a vibration or something. Official retirements. #72 HubAuto Porsche, #57 Kessel Racing CarGuy Ferrari, #66 JMW Motorsports Ferrari, #25, G-Drive Oreca, #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari, #32 United Autosports Oreca, #99 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE Am, #98 Aston Martin for AMR and Paul Dalla Lana in a horrid accident, the #56 Project 1 Mentos Porsche, and the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car of Sophia Floresch. We could have other retirements.
Amato Ferrari is the owner of AF Corse, not Antonio Ferrari. Wrong name. Andre Negrao brings the #36 Alpine into the pits for routine service with the Glickenhaus behind, #708. There's a huge hole in the headlight of the #36 Alpine. Andre Negrao leads Olivier Pla and Glickenhaus are triple stinting their tires. No chance of rain today, but you never know. There's been on and off rain all week. It did rain yesterday as we saw. The Gonzalez and Montoya scrap continues. Richard Westbrook is fifth in Hypercar and seventh overall, hauling itself back up the order in the #709, the sister Glickenhaus. In 20 minutes, we will have the length of an entire regular World Endurance race to go.
The lap times will start tumbling in the next half an hour or so. Robert Kubica finishes his stint aboard the #41 WRT car and we wonder who is now into the car. It is Yifei Ye into the car. Their pit work has been slick for the whole race for both cars. Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota is slow! Oh my goodness! This is big news! Sebastien Buemi is crawling heading down after Mulsanne corner and he is stopping at the old signaling pits. The car is slowing. He's back at it now. He is not coming into the lane. Maybe the Control, Alt, Delete worked.
The Gonzalez and Montoya battle continues. Sam Bird has a blown right front tire on the #52 AF Corse Ferrari! Man oh man! Pop! There it goes, and it was at lower speed out of Mulsanne corner! Yikes! Jordan Taylor in the Corvette C8.R still runs second in GTE Pro. A couple of LMP2 car cars have pitted and poor old Sam Bird has finally trudged back to the lane. Back in the 1980s and '90s during the Group C era, there was a tire made by Dunlop called the Denlok where the tire didn't whack the bodywork when it failed. We wish those were still around.
They need the air jacks to get the trolley's underneath and get the car repaired ASAP. Keep on trucking. Sam Bird and company will be still having to play catch up. Franco Colapinto massively locks the brakes heading for the 80 kilometers an hour zone. Kobayashi leads Buemi at Toyota and then come Alpine and Glickenhaus. Six hours left in the motor race. So, we are into the last quarter of this event.
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