Franco Colapinto will stay in the car for G-Drive as Patrick Kelly has run off the road in Arnage and he's now buried in the gravel trap, chasing the car in on a locked brake and now, he's clearly pff the road and could be beached. This will be a slow zone for dead sure. What is the scoop for the left hand corner? He has nosed it in and must be dejected. A new nose will go onto that car. We have been speaking about the fraught race for the #99 Proton Competition Porsche which has broken a bolt in the right rear suspension of their Porsche 911 RSR-19. They will have to replace the suspension for that car in the hands of Harry Tincknell from England, Florian Latorre of France, and Thai driver Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak.
The #71 Inception Ferrari is off the road along with Sam Bird in the #52! Oh dear! Both of them spin and it looks like Bird maybe didn't have the preferred line, the two touched and spun in either direction. That's what you call a racing deal. Brendon Iribe at the wheel of the #71 should have given it up. In replay, Sam Bird has the preferred line and Brendon Iribe just trapped him over the sausage curbs. Patrick Kelly is going to rejoun and we do indeed have rain at Arnage corner as John Falb moves past in the #25 G-Drive car he shares with Roberto Merhi and Rui Andrade, the Angolan driver. High Class Racing #49 has a slow pit stop as they have to fix the data antenna and the front nose of the car which rattled over the curbs with Anders Fjordbach at the controls. Ferrari #71 has a ten second penalty for a slow zone infringement.
Kamui Kobayashi continues to lead, going through Indianapolis corner and we see the headlights piercing the darkness as the #29 Racing Team Nederland very upset about being caught out in the rain. He's off the road. He must be upset with himself but is bluing on the radio to the team. He's stuck in the gravel. If everyone in LMP2 has a drama, it will balance out. He lost the rear end, corrected, and dove sharp left into the gravel trap. D'oh! We've got both of the United Autosport cars in the gravel and we have a Safety car after Tom Cloet nearly clobbers the #1 of Sophia Floresch! Good grief! Manuel Maldonado off the road and Sophia Floresch reversed into the path of the #74 and oh my God, Manuel Maldonado comes cross his team mate in the #23, locking a brake and spearing into the sister car!
We have another LMP2 car off and Sophia Floresch is still in strife. That's Floresch and she has tangled with the #26 G-Drive car and the #74 and the #48 is in the gravel trap. It's carnage in LMP2 on slicks in the rain with zero grip on the road. Six LMP2 cars in four places on the road! She was trying to reverse and Tom Cloet thinks he has the right line and then, wallop! Franco Colapinto lost control and then came back onto the road and into the pit lane. Safety car. It's a damaged car and so is the #74 Racing Team India Ligier. Tom Cloet of Belgium sharing with James Winslow of England and John Corbett from Australia.
We will have to assess what happens and unravel all this. We saw the #1 car spin and the #25 was farther down the road and now the #26 is in the garage being repaired losing places hand over fist. Romain Rusinov was at the wheel at the time and again in replay, Colapinto lost it, and... wallop! Sophia Floresch couldn't have seen Franco Colapinto coming. Good gravy! They need to get the flatbed because the suspension and the gearbox are both damaged. She's trying to restart the engine and the car is dead in the water. She has no brakes and the medical light is on. It is game over for this all women team, because the G sensor light is on. Game over.
The #74 Racing Team India car also had the medical light come on. That was a brutal, savage impact. Boom! #74 had a driver change and the car was able to get to the lane under it's own steam. We don't know who the driver is in the car. It is Norman Nato who had a cut on his hand. Toyota Gazoo Racing leads. The mechanics for United Autosport are now scrambling to repair car #23. Kamui Kobayashi leads overall and in Hypercar in the #7 car. Paul di Resta is very upset, the team changing a bent steering arm on the car.
Matthieu Vaxiviere wants to know about track conditions. The engineers are looking at the onboard camera feed and external pictures to see what the track looks like. It looks dry but there's a mist hanging in the air. No rain in the pit lane. Brendon Hartley in Toyota #8 wants to keep running. There is a gap in the weather and so we are seeing a sunset. Kamui Kobyashi, Julien Canal, Come Ledogar, and Dylan Perreira are the class leaders. Toyota in Hypercar, Panis Racing in LMP2, AF Corse in GTE Pro and TF Sport in GTE Am. We are back to green flag racing now. The conditions here at Le Mans are changing and everyone is stacked up on a slippery road.
Julien Canal for Panis Racing are leading in LMP2. They won in European Le Mans Series two weeks ago at Monza. Matej Konopka has spun the #44 ARC Bratislava car getting on the power in the first of the Mulsanne straight chicanes. Kamui Kobayashi is a lap up in the race lead over Brendon Hartley. Pipo Derani is in fifth spot in the #708 Glickenhaus. Ferrari leads GTE Pro currently running 1-2. The track is drying out now. Toyota #7 in and Kamui Kobayashi hands over to Jose Maria Lopez. From midnight onwards when it is cooler, the tires will be triple stinted. Ferrari leads Porsche, both Corvette's, the second factory Porsche, the WeatherTech Porsche and the HubAuto Porsche. Neel Jani runs third behind both Sam Bird and Come Ledogar. Nicky Catsburg is next up followed by Tommy Milner I believe. Corvette managed entirely by General Motors after Doug Fehan retired, a legend of sports car racing.
Cadillac wants to return to Le Mans but they have decided to hold off on an announcement for an LMDh car. So, we will talk about that when it is more official. Porsche Curves are bumpy but a big commitment. You have to really be committed driving through there after they come up out of the slow corner at Arnage. Hub Auto started on GTE Pro pole, but is now down caboose on the field. Correction. Doug Fehan is still an ambassador at Corvette. Ben Johnson is the team manager at Corvette. Neel Jani is chasing Sam Bird for second in GTE Pro. Former driver David Brabham, commentating for Eurosport, he hopes to bring the Brabham name to Le Mans someday if they can indeed build a car.
Fabio Scherer is chasing Julien Canal for the lead in LMP2. Panis Racing vs. United Autosport. The LMP2 cars are heavier and they have less power than they used to. #22 into the pit lane, again, in the hands of Fabio Scherer. Have Toyota made the wrong tire choice? We'll have to find out. Sam Bird and Neel Jani still scrap for second. Jani is frustraing, complaining on the radio that the Ferrari is in the way. Wow! The Spirit of Race Ferrari got into the bollards in the right hand corner spun and knocked down a bollard. That's Duncan Cameron in car #55. He is back on track now. Neel Jani and Porsche are coming back. He is being told he is faster than both Ferrari's of Sam Bird and Come Ledogar.
Don't get bogged down in distractions of another driver. It is hard to tell who is coming up on you even if you recognize the light pattern of a given car. Someone has gone off the road as there is a local yellow displayed on course. Race Director Edoardo Freitas has sent a message saying final warning, track limits. Do it again, sunbeam, and you will be penalized, mate. We are going for a Full Course Yellow. All cars bear right at marshal post five down in the esses. Someone is hung up to driver's left on the curbs as James Calado is setting up to take over the #51 Ferrari. The Toyota's are not even halfway through a stint yet.
No pit stops. Yellow too short. Full Course Yellow removed to collect the bollard. Back to green. We thank the marshals and the stewards and the safety services. Without them we'd have zero motor racing at all. Not a ton of spray but it is greasy out there, mate. It is a film on top of the road's surface as someone else is off the road and another yellow flag, look. Wehre's the yellow flag?
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