Aston Martin #33 still has a lead for Dylan Pereira from Luxembourg ahead of the #98 Aston Martin. Wayne Boyd is being chased by Phil Hanson, fifth and sixth in LMP2 and ninth and tenth in the overall. Filipe Albuquerque has been out on wets and then switched to slicks. Franco Colapinto leads over Job van Uitert in the LMP2 division. Stay within a safety car period to stay in the game. If you fall behind, you are trapped and lose time. Alessandro Pier Guidi is closing up on Daniel Serra in GTE Pro while Earl Bamber is running slower in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche followed in fourth by the #63 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor while Michael Christensen and Richard Lietz are next in the factory Porsche's.
Toyota #7 leads, Kamui Kobayashi ahead by 9.9 seconds. Toyota #8 is 8.5 seconds behind, getting back into the race. The Toyota's seem to be sensitive to punctures compared to some of the others in Hypercar. Toyota working their way by the LMP2 cars as we see Andre Negrao really pushing the Alpine. Negrao continues in third place, faster than the Toyota's moving towards the chicane on the Mulsanne straight. Glickenhaus #708 is anticipating moving forward and should catch the #29 Racing Team Nederland LMP2. Franck Mailleux has moved between LMP2 cars. AF Corse runs 1-2 for Ferrari in GTE Pro ahead of Earl Bamber. Dylan Perera leads in Am ahead of Marcos Gomes and Giorgio Sernagiotto. So, Aston, Aston, Ferrari. TF Aston, factory Aston, Cetilar Ferrari. The GR Racing Porsche is having splitter woes. They might lose a lap, but the team is having real issues spending 20 some odd minutes trying to get a splitter on the car. A bigger hammer required I guess.
The gap is ten seconds between Kobayashi and Buemi. Sebastien Buemi will have to hand over soon to Kazuki Nakajima or Brendon Hartley. Romain Dumas is going to pass Yifei Ye, the Chinese driver, who used to live in Le Mans when he raced open wheel cars but is racing the 24 hours for the first time. Kobayashi has a couple laps to go before he needs to pit. One lap left before hitting the lane. Stuctural damage for Porsche #86. It could be game over for the car started by Ben Barker sharing with Tom Gamble and Mike Wainwright. Now, Toyota #8 in the lane after Buemi drove for three hours and 11 minutes. He's earned his cash.
Andre Negrao needs a pit stop in the Alpine too. Brendon Hartley into the car with new boots on the car, four fresh Michelin's. Franck Mailleux in the lane in the #708 Glickenhaus. Will there be a driver change? Will it be Pipo Derani, or Olivier Pla? Sunset towards the end of the lap off the Ford chicane is blinding. It is nice to be dialed into the race running in daylight. Starting the race at 4PM with more darkness in late summer, the first stint will be in the adrkness as the Alpine has pitted from third spot. Kobayashi, Hartley, Negrao, 1-2-3. Job van Uitert is gaining on Franco Colapinto, who is stuck in traffic.
Aston Martin #98 off the road and crunch!, into the tires! Safety car on the road! Safety car on the road! Cars will be waved by for the safety car, and this big crash has taken place at Indianapolis. That gravel trap is not slowing that car, as Gomes slews into the tires! Ker-runch! Massive speed through that corner, touching 200 miles an hour. The fastest part of the circuit. GR Racing are way behind and they've wheeled it out of the garage. It is running behind the Florian Latorre driven Porsche #99 for Porton Competition. Now, the driver is out of the Aston Martin and he will have had the wind knocked out of him. Thank God he is out of the car. It is not only the tire wall but it is the Armco barrier that also has damage. The incident is being investigated by the stewards.
It is just past 8:20 P.M. in the evening. The circuit has their own cameras that are not part of the TV footage for either the world feed or for Eurosport. If you pit under safety car, you have to wait for both safety cars and the queu of cars. Risi Competizione in the garage, swapping the front nose for better lighting and a rear wing drama for the car too. That is the car of Ryan Cullen currently, sharing with Oliver Jarvis and Felipe Nasr. Oliver Jarvis has also driven and Felipe Nasr has not had a stint just yet. Alvaro Parente is readying for his stint in the HubAuto Porsche 911 RSR-19, the #72 car.
Marcos Gomes is surely shaken up. He was champion in Asian Le Mans Series and has also raced Formula Renault and Brazilian stock cars. Michael Christensen is fifth in class in GTE Pro in the #92 that won in class in the six hour races at Spa and Monza. Dominique Bastien has been off the road in the #88 Porsche as well. Kamui Kobayashi is due to pit for fuel soon and he might be able to pit under green to gain more time and in replay, the wet astro turf caught Marcos Gomes out and he spun off and clanged the wall. He's shaken but he'll be OK.
The #777 D'station Aston Martin is in the lane for service. Satoshi Hoshino hands over to either Andrew Watson or Tomonobu Fujii. Cooper MacNeil will be next into the #79 WeatherTech Porsche replacing Earl Bamber. In GTE Am, Dylan Pereira has extra time over Giorgio Sernagiotto. TF Sport #33 will be in the pound seats, but, the gaps are only under safety car speed. Yifei Ye has taken over from Robert Kubica in the #41 WRT Oreca in LMP2. Three safety cars will come in at the same time. We are going back to green this time by. #7 is in the lead of the motor race.
Risi Competizione has changed the front nose, but the rear wing locks may have failed on that car. They could not remove the wing. More cars are headed for the lane and we have a green flag. So, it's back to full metal racing. 53 laps on the board for the leading Toyota's but we can see in GTE Pro, the gap has stretched due to the backmarkers. Watch out for the traffic in towards Karting corner. Earl Bamber is pushing as is Jordan Taylor and Michael Christensen. So, you have the #79 WeatherTech Porsche, the #63 Corvette C8.R and the #92 factory Porsche. Jota Sport in the sister car #28 of Tom Blomqvist. He has leapfrogged to first in LMP2 with Wayne Boyd next in the queue.
Sounds like Roberto Gonzalez is down the order but the big boys are at the top of the shop in LMP2. DragonSpeed and more in LMP2 have hit the pit lane. A shame for DragonSpeed since they've been out of sequence with Henrik Hedman driving a lap down to Blomqvist and Jota Sport. The gentleman driver in LMP2 had to do 1/4 of the race, six hours total out of the 24 hours. Frits van Eerd may be the next driver into the #29 Racing Team Nederland car, the man who owns Jumbo Supermarkets. Job van Uitert is only on his second stint. Henrik Hedman is now back on the road. Get Frits van Eerd into the car with fresh tires and now the #44 car is spun the wrong way with Miro Konopka getting asssited in the esses. Oh la la la la la! Kamui Kobayashi now on the 15th lap of his stint, fuel saving but he is in the lane now.
Miro Konopka has flat spotted tires, trundling into the lane. 55 laps done and dusted now. We have not seen poor old Miro Konopka coming to the lane yet. He stopped in the pit entry road and is not fully in the lane yet. Waved yellows to protect things. We can see the GTE Pro scrap heating up. #63 Corvette C8.R vs. #92 factory Porsche and we shall have a slow zone on the front of the course in zone nine right on the front straight. Miro Konopka is pointing to the front of the car. Ah. Contact happened before the corner and, screech! He just got tipped into a spin.
Earl Bamber, Jordan Taylor, and Michael Christensen have all hit the pit lane. Driver change at WeatherTech Racing. Will it be Cooper MacNeil or Laurens Vanthoor? Now, Miro Konopka is upset with the marshals for some reason. The #63 Corvette of Jordan Taylor is now ahead of the WeatherTech Porsche as we see the #92 JMW Ferrari pit from GTE-Am. Cooper MacNeil is into the WeatherTech Porsche, the first stint for Coop in this race. Ben Keating takes over from Dylan Pereira in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. He is extremely quick, in his seventh Le Mans 24 Hours in the seventh car he has driven.
Keating holds a pretty wheel. He is quite the driver for being an Am categorized driver. They had an infringement for the motor running before the fueling probe went into the tank. A Ferrari battle between Giorgio Sernagiotto and Scott Andrews along with Sara Bovy on her outlap in another all female lineup and Sernagiotto barges into Andrews! Egad! Ugggh! That was close! Miro Konopka finally makes his way to the lane and gets going again, so the pit crew will welcome him and take care of the car. Dries Vanthoor brings the HubAuto #72 Porsche 911 RSR-19 to the lane. Jordan Taylor still runs ahead of Michael Christensen.
Ferrari still run 1-2 in GTE Pro. Dom Bastien is under investigation in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche. Alvaro Parente is now in the #72 Porsche as we reach nearly four hours, the length of a European Le Mans Series race. We are well past the length of an IMSA WeatherTech sprint race now. Beitske Visser pitted the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car from 13th in the order. Ryan Cullen and Risi Competizione are back on track but they lost boatloads of time with the woes for the rear wing on the car. John Hartshorne in the #95 Aston Martin GTE Am. Now then, a battle for position in LMP2 as Job van Uitert moves by Beitske Visser. Colapinto runs wide and nearly clobbers James Allen in the Panis Racing car! Mama Mia!
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