Sunday, August 22, 2021

24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 22

WRT still run 1-2 in LMP2.  You haven't missed a thing in that class.  No risk of rain.  A great view of the city of Le Mans.  They run rebuilt cars up and down Le Mans aerodrome and the main runway.  Great pictures from the Goodyear blimp.  Alex Lynn in the lane for a pit stop with the #23 United Autosport entry.  Robin Frijns and Yifei Ye are 1-2 in LMP2.  WRT are dominating the class right now.  Nissan tried front wheel drive for prototypes in 2015 or so.  That was a scary car to drive.  Maybe they did the same thing in the '80s.  The Deltawing and the Nissan ZEOD RC, both of those cars were pretty insane.  The ZEOD was a fully electric car.  Our buddy Martin Haven, working the world feed this year called the Nissan Zeod and the Deltawing, "a Reliant Robin on steroids".  Again, if you want to see a Reliant Robin, type into your computer and take a look.  A wacky three wheeled car indeed.  

Robin Frijns pits as the sun comes out.  Paul di Resta is chasing down Renger van der Zande, although van der Zande is flying.  He is a man on a mission right now.  That's why the Dutch drivers are referred to as "the flying Dutchmen".  #23 for United Autosport, they were going to be contenders, but it is quite sad because their race has gone downhill.  A slow DragonSpeed in LMP2 Pro Am for Ben Hanley.  Oh dear.  DragonSpeed will lose time to the RealTeam entry.  The DragonSpeed team is from Jupiter, Florida.  Racing Engineering and Spanish Prince Alfonso de Orleans Bourbon is running the team.  Hanley is in limp home mode at 80 clicks an hour.  They are a lap up on the RealTeam car.  

Racing Team Nederland could move up to second spot.  Second spot in LMP2 that is.  Hanley really has to watch out through the Porsche Curves where there's no place to hide except gravel.  Hanley is breathing a sigh of relief coming to the pits.  He's a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, luck boy.  Hanley was low on fuel and he continues.  This is a get out of jail free card, mate.  So, Norman Nato will be pushing, pushing, pushing for honors in LMP2 Pro Am!  Yikes!  Yifei Ye moves by Robin Frijns.  WRT are saying "don't race each other!  Don't take each other out!"  Yifei Ye might have a superior car on speed to Frijns.  Ferrari #51 into the pit lane.  Ditto for our race leader, Toyota #7.  Another lap and pit stop time now for the sister #8 Toyota.

Kazuki-san stays in the car.  Giedo van der Garde pits the Racing Team Nederland car.  We extend our condolences to Natalie Maille, one of the people who worked at Spa Francorchamps and was tragically murdered.  We've lost a marshal and also Bernard Cottrell, organizer of the British Sports Car Club.  An hour and a half to go now.  Rolf Ineichen closes up on Sara Bovy in GTE Am.  There's only a nine second gap between the TF Sport Aston Martin and the #83 AF Corse car.  Iron Lynx is next in the serial.  In LMP2, Paul di Resta is monstering Renger van der Zande right now.  The AF Corse #83 Ferrari pits, Rovera gets out and Nicklas Nielsen gets in.

Nico Lapierre pits the Alpine from third in Hypercar.  Glickenhaus #709 has also pitted.  The hybrid system in the Toyota allow for silent takeoff and maybe they don't always use the hybrid system like they used to, but the sheer torque of an electric motor from a start.  The #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari pits but it has damage.  That's only cosmetic damage for Matteo Cressoni of Italy currently driving the car.  Intereuropol pits the #34 car and Alex Brundle takes over the car.  He's a driver who knows just too speeds.  Flat out on the limit, or parked.  350 laps have been completed in this race so far.

Glickenhaus #708 is in the pit lane.  So is one of the LMP2 cars.  Louis Deletraz wants to do well here at Le Mans and his father Jean Denis ran three Formula 1 races but also raced McLaren F1 GTR's.  He was also in one of the support races this weekend.  Toyota #7 pits perhaps for the last time.  Kamui Kobayashi taking over from Mike Conway.  One of the Porsche's in GTE Pro also came in.  Not sure, honestly, whether it was #91 or #92.  Never mind.  It was the #92 car coming out of the pit lane.  Toyota #8 also has a routine pit stop.  Just over an hour to go.  Second place in LMP2, the #31 car is in the pit lane to match it's sister car.

Yikes!  Fred Makowiecki has run off the road and ripped the rear bumper and the diffuser right off the car!  Oh man, oh man, oh man!  He had no brakes in the Ford chicane.  A brake failure as well!  Oh dear.  33rd place, Matthieu Lahaye, and the two quadriplegic drivers, Nigel Bailly and Takuma Aoki, they are still in it.  Good for them.  Merci beaucoup, Fred Sausset, who is a quadriplegic amputee.  Full Course Yellow now on the speedway here at Le Mans.  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Full Course Yellow.  Philippe Streiff, a former racer, who was paralyzed in the late '80s, he started to help drivers with disabilities and did a charity karting race.  Now, the meatball flag has been given to #91.  


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