Welcome, everybody, to the desert of Bahrain, and the first of two races that encompass the final two rounds of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship. This first event is the 6 Hours of Bahrain which makes up for the cancelled 6 hour event that (had we not still been dealing with the global virus pandemic), would have been run at Fuji Speedway in Japan. So, instead, here we are, with a doubleheader to look forward to in Bahrain with today's 6 hour event and next weekend's 8 hour season finale for the 2021 World Endurance Championship. We have most of the major contenders here. No Glickenhaus Racing, though, as Jim Glickenhaus, the innovator and pioneer, following in the footsteps of Carol Shelby, and trying to race his own American built car, with components from around the world, and harken back to the glory days of sports car racing in the 1960s, his specialty cars, are not sold in the Middle Eastern market.
Glickenhaus will return in 2022 to continue their quest. So, today, the Le Mans Hypercar class will see a trio of racers. The two factory Toyota's will be in competition against the French Alpine. The cars are on track right now performing their reconnaissance laps. We have some that are lining up on the pre-grid. We can see some of the GTE cars exiting the pit lane as well. It is sure to be a hot day in Bahrain today, but being out in the middle of the desert, it is of course, a dry heat. Bahrain has hosted Formula 1 in addition to the World Endurance Championship and this is again, the first of two races here, held on back-to-back weekends, with this event replacing the cancelled 6 hour event that would have run in Japan at Fuji Speedway in the shadow of the magnificent Mount Fuji, and we all know why that is, it is the cursed worldwide virus pandemic that still has somewhat of a hold on society.
Be that as it may, thankfully, we still have motor racing. We still have endurance sports car racing to enjoy. For 14 hours, in the space of eight days, we will have two races in the kingdom of Bahrain to cap off the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season. These races will decide our championship titles. It's unbelievably hot at 32-33 degrees Celsius and a track temperature of 50 degrees Celsius. It's hot! We've raced so many times here. We have 34 degrees Celsius ambient temperature and a 41 degrees Celsius track temperature. The straightaway is a sun trap. We are going to be looking in greatly on LMP2 and LM GTE-Am. This is the ninth race we've had here in Bahrain. We've raced here a dozen time except for during the Super Season in 2018-2019.
Tires, brakes, and drivers, will be tested to their absolute limits during today's motor race. Toyota, Jackie Chan DC Racing, Porsche, and Team Project 1, were the previous winners that we have seen here. That was the last hurrah for LMP1. Toyota lock out the front row of the grid ahead of Alpine. We are going to see battles all over especially in LMP2. No one will have enough tires to survive to the end. Watch out for GTE-Am as well. For Toyota, this will be the biggest test they've had ever. This race is not the same as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But the conditions at Le Mans are very temperate compared to this desert. Yesterday in LMP2, High Class Racing did not get the point they wanted for pole. But they are battling for the Pro-Am portion of LMP2. Ah. Excuse me. It is RealTeam, not High Class Racing.
The heat will take it's toll and so will the degradation on the tires. The Le Mans Hypercar class has not run fault free. In GTE-Am, we are going to see a battle royal between the Project 1 Porsche #56 and the #98 Aston Martin Racing factory car. Many cars had their lap times deleted for track limits violations. Paul Dalla Lana starts the second place Aston Martin and he has a great record here in Bahrain, sharing the car with Brazilian co-drivers Marcos Gomes and Augusto Farfus. Dalla Lana has won this race three times, two of them with Matthias Lauda and Pedro Lamy in 2015 and 2017. Iron Lynx are on pole in GTE-Am in the #60 Ferrari 488 GTE. This is another favorite. This is the all-Italian trio of Rino Mastronardi, Andrea Piccini (team owner), and Matteo Cressoni.
Rino Mastronardi is making his first start in World Endurance and in his first drive at this track, he bish bash boshed it all the way to the pole position. Top of the shop. Brendon Hartley has put Toyota #8 on the pole and there is just eight points between the #8 and the sister #7 Toyota for the championship. If #8 does not win today, they will find it impossible to beat their team mates heading into the finale, the eight hour race here at Bahrain, next weekend. The Toyota strategy is open and Alpine are still quick too according to Hartley. Both Toyota's must win this race and the finale. Points and a half will be on offer in the eight hour contest next weekend with 38 points for a win.
We are now looking at the fourth placed GTE-Pro car, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE to be driven by the duo of Alessandro Pier Guidi of Italy and Brit James Calado. Again, Toyota has to win. Alpine are quick. The problem for the French team, is that they are required to use a smaller fuel tank and so their strategy will be entirely different to Toyota and the may not be able to keep up with the GR010 hybrid cars. In GTE-Pro, Ferrari are very upset. The Balance of Performance adjustments before this race, have caused the Ferrari to lose 25 horsepower from their turbo V8 engines compared to the normally aspirated flat six engines in the factory Porsche's.
Now, racing is all about politics, and maybe, that is what Ferrari were doing. Maybe a little bit of posturing, a little bit of sandbagging going on at the Scuderia? We'll have to find out. Sometimes teams don't want to show all they have until the race. Will Ferrari fully show their hand? Will they come up aces or jokers today? Will Porsche be the ones to give them a run for their money and say, "we told you so"? That remains to be seen. Interestingly enough, we have a sandwiched grid in GTE-Pro with the Ferrari's qualified as the meat in a Porsche sandwich. This battle of the factory production cars is going to be extraordinary to watch. Will Ferrari put their money where their mouth is today? They need to turn their fretting into action if they want to win this motor race and stay in the fight.
Porsche #92 does have the GTE-Pro pole. That is the car of Kevin Estre sharing with Neel Jani. Their sister car #91 is second in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz. We also have news that in a few more years, Alpine will build an LMDh spec car that can cross over between World Endurance and IMSA competition and that car shall debut in 2024. Philippe Sinault, team boss at Signatech Alpine, and that whole team, deserve a lot of credit, for keeping up with a motoring conglomerate like Toyota. The Alpine boys will be back next year continuing to use their current grandfathered LMP1 racer. Neel Jani wants to win another title with Porsche in a different category. He has an LMP1 championship with Porsche and the remarkable 919 Hybrid. But, he wants a GT title as well which I believe would make him the only man in FIA WEC history to win titles in two different categories for the same automaker.
Porsche will also compete in LMDh and Neel Jani will be testing that car. The question is whether he will indeed get a race seat with Porsche in the next generation of prototypes that are coming in 2023. Our pre-race show continues. Robert Kubica is someone who is really taking to endurance racing and he did race twice in Formula 1 this year at Alfa Romeo when their regular driver Kimi Raikkonen tested positive for the Coronavirus. Kubica sees 2021 as a successful year even though Le Mans did not work out well for him. Kubica is part of the Pro-Am segment of LMP2 today. This is going to a brutally hot race not just for the drivers but for some of the folks covering the event, as we shall hear from pit reporters Louise Beckett and Duncan Vincent along with booth commentary from Martin Haven and Graeme Goodwin throughout the motor race today.
We look at the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team LMP2 car starting 11th. This is Sophia Floresch and Beitske Visser, so, two thirds of the regular all-female lineup for this team, today, joined by Frenchman and LMP2 veteran Gabriel Aubry. The whole team will be hot in their fireproof clothing today just like the drivers. We continue to delve into the LMP2 field. You're probably thnking, wow, you've been chattering on and on and on. Can't we start this race yet? Not yet. We've got more contenders to talk about. We look at the #21 entry, the Dragonspeed USA, Flex Box (or Flexi Box if you prefer), entry, for Ben Hanley of England, Henrik Hedman of Sweden, and the veteran Juan Pablo Montoya, who has done everything in racing. Indianapolis 500 winner, NASCAR and Formula 1 competitor, sports car competitor.
DragonSpeed lead the points in the Pro-Am portion of LMP2. Seventh on the LMP2 grid we have the #41 WRT entry for Robin Frijns, Charles Milesi, and their starting driver, Ferdinand Habsburg. This is the car, the drivers, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last time out. Sixth in LMP2, we have the #29 Racing Team Nederland entry for the all-Dutch trio of Frits van Eerd (the boss of Jumbo Supermarkets), Giedo van der Garde, and Job van Uitert. The #29 car is affectionatly called Van McQueen because of the eyes on the windscreen shade, after Lightning McQueen from the Disney/Pixar Cars trilogy movie franchise. Now we move to eighth place in LMP2. This is the #34 Inter Europol Competition team, from Poland.
Jakub Smiechowski, the Polish driver, sharing with Renger van der Zande of Holland, and Alex Brundle, from England. Intereuropol won the final race of the European Le Mans Series, last Sunday. Inter Europol will be back full-time in European Le Mans Series next year with a two-car team. Now we move to the fourth place starting #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca for Norman Nato, Esteban Garcia, and Loic Duval. Poor Norman Nato was doing fitness training in the gym for this race and in the process, stepped on a piece of glass and got it lodged in his foot! Ouch! So, he has been very uncomfortable as of late. For the first time in his career, Nato will have to use a right foot braking technique. That isn't normal for racing. Modern racing drivers hit the accelerator with their right foot and brake with their left foot.
Braking in a race car is like doing a leg press in the gym if you are weightlifting. That's how tough it is. It's not just gently tapping the brakes like on a road car and coasting to a stop. Third in LMP2, we have the #38 Jota Sport team, with their usual trio of Roberto Gonzalez, from Mexico, Portugal's Antonio Felix Da Costa, and Anthony Davidson from England. Norman Nato will do no more than the bear minimum in the race today. Sebastien Buemi will start Toyota #8 and Mike Conway will be aboard Toyota #7 once we do start this motor race. We are ready for the Bahrain National Anthem. With the anthem played, we continue the highlights of the LMP2 grid. Second is the #22 United Autosport Oreca. Phil Hanson of England sharing with Switzerland's Fabio Scherer, and Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal.
The pole sitter in LMP2 is the #28 Jota entry in the hands of Sean Gelael from Indonesia, Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, and Brit, Tom Blomqvist. Jota have set the form book for LMP2 this weekend thus far. We ought to have a corker of the motor race in the LMP2 division. That might just be the one to watch if the Toyota's whistle off into the distance in Hypercar and leave Alpine in their dust. We look now at the very head of the grid. The Hypercar class, with Alpine starting third in the #36 car, the trio of Andre Negrao from Brazil, and Frenchmen, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Before we get back to Hypercar, nine sets of drivers could very well win the LMP2 title. That is why this class is going to be so intriguing to watch despite the similarity of a lot of the cars. Seven different teams could win.
Toyota will undoubtedly win the Hypercar title. Alpine are here to give the new class some spice and to do their best to compete. It's going to be hard for them to catch these dominant Toyota's developed and built in Japan but also run very much out of Toyota Motorsports' European base in Koln, Germany. The all-Toyota front row has the #7 in second with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez, while on the pole is the sister #8 of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley. There's an eight point gap between the two Toyota's with the #7 team on 120 points for each driver and the #8 team on 112 points for each driver. 64 points remain in total on the table between this race and the eight hour event here next weekend to close out the 2021 campaign.
Toyota #7 has won every pole position in the season up to this race and #8 finally, finally gets a slice of that pie. This is the first pole for the #8 of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley, since the last time the World Endurance Championship raced at Fuji in Japan (Toyota's home turf), two full years ago, in October, 2019, before the pandemic happened. 31 cars will start this race. The heat will surely play a factor as we are joined in the booth by endurance racing legend Allan McNish. One minute to the formation lap. Drivers might just do single stints in some of the classes because of this heat. 30 seconds to start the formation lap for the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain. Clear the grid, immediately.
The formation lap has begun. Happy 60th birthday, Edoardo Freitas. We welcome Jenna Tam, the winner of the Charlie Whiting award, named for the longtime Formula 1 Race Director. Most of these teams are running this opening stint on a qualifying tire. Hypercar and LMP2 teams have totally different strategies. One tire vs. two. GTE Pro will be fascinating because the two-car factory teams from Ferrari and Porsche, each team will have a different strategy. The Ferrari's will likely keep one full set of tires for the final hour of the race. Race tactics in GTE-Am see all Bronze drivers in the car except for Tomonobu Fujii in the #777 D'station Aston Martin, while in LMP2, Jota is the only team to start their lowest ranking drivers in both cars. The Silver rated drivers will start both Jota cars. This is a risk for damaging the cars.
Don't lag more than one grid row. The safety car in the lane. We should see the two Toyota's form up side by side and everyone else fall in line in Noah's Ark formation. Red lights, on. Red lights, out! The 6 Hours of Bahrain is underway! Toyota #7 going the long way around the sister car into the first turn. The LMP2 grid chopping and changing, and Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca has the lead. He defends from Filipe Albuquerque in the #22 United Autosports Oreca, headed for turn four. If your brave and you give it the stick around turn one, the apex to turn two tightens up in a hurry. RealTeam second, United Autosport third, and into fourth Intereuropol. The two Jota Sport cars run fifth and sixth with Sean Gelael ahead.
Loic Duval is second while Phil Hanson just got swamped. Go easy on the tires. Build the long game for this race even though it is a six hour. There's time. Don't be a hero right from when the lights flash green. A slight touch between Hanson and Duval. There was some contact with the WRT car and someone else. WRT has to finish because they want to back up their championship in European Le Mans Series. Rino Mastronardi is leading GTE-Am aboard the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Toyota #8 leads overall. A battle is afoot between Roberto Gonzalez in the #38 Jota entry and the DragonSpeed #21 in the hands of Ben Hanley for the start.
Sean Gelael is also in that scrap while in the Pro-Am subcategory we see a battle between RealTeam and Racing Team Nederland. It is Giedo van der Garde vs. Loic Duval. A scrap brewing for fourth in GTE-Am. Ferrari vs. Porsche. Francesco Castellaci in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari followed by the #56 of Italian Norwegian driver Egidio Perfetti, the "candy man" as it were, the magnate behind the Perfetti confectionary that makes Mentos candies among other varieties. Mentos, Chupa Chups lollipops and more. Fifth spot belongs to the pale blue TF Sport #33 Aston Martin Vantage with American car dealer and racer Ben Keating at the wheel of it. Having a Captain Cook at the back of the Toyota's, the Alpine goes off the road.
That's the hairpin before the backstretch. He probably misjudged the braking point and ran wide, being fixated on catching the two Toyota's. Buemi leads Conway and we won't have to worry about track limits just yet. Give it oh, five maybe six laps before those dreaded rules come into play. Track limits, the scourge of modern motor racing. Francesco Castellaci sees an open door, and walks right through past Paul Dalla Lana. Ferrari on Aston Martin for a successful pass in GTE-Am. Through one corner, Giedo van der Garde made up five places! From ninth, to fourth. Phil Hanson wants by Loic Duval but that's easier said than done. Duval is a quick driver and a former champion.
Duval will be one of the drivers in 2023 on the Peugeot Hypercar team with their bizarre 9X8 racer that will not have a rear wing. That car, when it debuts, will be a sight to behold. Phil Hanson now begins to make inroads after protecting the tire for a lap or so. Be patient about overtaking. van der Garde vs. Duval follow by United, Racing Team Nederland and more. Top of the shop sees the three Hypercars. These are Le Mans Hypercars and are different than the new LMDh cars we will see in IMSA in a few years. So, now we move back to a two way battle in GTE Am. This is the D'station Aston Martin for Tomonobu Fujii. He has the position, while the Cetilar Racing Ferrari, wants it. Fujii in #777 and Cetilar Ferrari #47 of Roberto Lacorte, a pass for sixth in the class.
We've said a lot about Fujii san all year. No worries about the start. Rubbing is racing. So, Phil Hanson is now applying the blowtorch to Loic Duval. Porsche #92 leads the sister car #91. Gianmaria Bruni just behind Neel Jani. Now, sidebar. We are supposed to see a Nissan GT-R GTE Pro racer. It was supposed to run this year but has not appeared yet. Will they enter in 2022? Will they enter in 2023? This car is a GTE version of Nissan's "Godzilla" GT-R with the 3.8 liter twin turbo V6 motor, three and a half liters in displacement. The driver lineups in these cars, was announced. But, we haven't seen them. Car #23 was to be shared by Aaditya Gayadeen of England (a graduate of the Nissan GT Academy), alongside fellow Englishman Alex Buncombe and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez.
The sister #24 GT-R was to be driven by Tsugio Matsuda of Japan, Englishman Jann Mardenborough (a longtime Nissan stalwart racer), and former Formula 1 driver, Nick Heidfeld. Yet, we have not seen Nissan's GTE-Pro entry. Questions abound because that seems like a solid lineup of racing drivers. Porsche won GTE-Pro here last year while Aston Martin wore the victory wreath from Bahrain in 2019. Nikki Thiim has won four GTE Pro races in Bahrain, more than any other driver in the category. Romain Rusinov has three victories in LMP2. He isn't here today racing and won't be in the finale either I don't believe. Mike Conway has won here three times. Two LMP2 triumphs and one LMP1 victory with Toyota.
So, if Conway wins today or even next weekend, he could become a four-time, or heck, even a five-time winner, here in Bahrain. Unbelievable! Simply astonishing! Nikki Thiim may be overtaken for his title of the winningest driver in Bahrain. Aston Martin, Aston Martin, Porsche, Aston Martin in GTE-Am to this point and we've been running for a very short time indeed. It goes without saying, so don't say it, but I will anyway. There's a long, long way to go. So, Conway now has a 1.2 second buffer over Matty Vaxiviere in the Alpine in third place. One major difference between GTE-Pro and GTE-Am is that GTE-Am teams have a constant tire supply whereas, in GTE-Pro, you have to nurse and baby the tires because you don't get unlimited sets from Michelin even though these blokes race for the factory teams in Stuttgart and Modena respectively.
26 tires allocated for the six hour race for GTE-Am I believe. All the other classes are restricted to four sets, so, 16 tires, plus two additional spares if need be, for a total of 18 tires. So, they get roughly half the number of tires compared to GTE-Am competitors. A good scrap is brewing in LMP2 between Anders Fjordbach for High Class Racing and Richard Mille Racing Team as Beitske Visser is at the wheel of the #1 entry. Beitske Visser is one of five female drivers in this race, all from five different countries. The Aston Martin scrum is heating up. Paul Dalla Lana has Ben Keating right on his six and all over him like a cheap suit here, look.
Two champions racing side by side. A little argy bargy there, maybe. Criminy! We're only on lap four! These two are running like it's the final lap of the heat race for a transfer spot into the feature on a Saturday night short track stock car or sprint car race! Tomonobu Fujii brings another Aston into the fight. He's close enough to these two that it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Keating has his blue Aston Martin under control while Dalla Lana is wriggling all over the shop trying to keep the tires in good nick for the time being. If Fujii gets by Dalla Lana, then, he can reel in the Ferrari, five seconds up the road, in the hands of Francesco Castellaci. In the meantime, we see another battle for ninth place. Read more about this one, below.
This is the two Dempsey Proton GTE-Am Porsche's being reeled in by the #85 Iron Lynx/Iron Dames Ferrari. Khaled Al Qubaisi, leading Christian Ried, and Sarah Bovy. Bovy has run well in European Le Mans competition in 2021. This is Sarah Bovy's first race ever in Bahrain. The Aston Martin fight continues as Ben Keating first moves past Paul Dalla Lana and then, Tomonobu Fujii gets a bite of the cherry as well. Egidio Perfetti also wants it. This scrum is for third through sixth place. Perfetti is moving in on the Aston, oh boy. Perfetti wants to tear through the wall, but the giant at the gate, the troll at the gate, will not let him in.
The two Ferrari's of Rino Mastronardi and Francesco Castellaci are a long way up the road from this little tussle. Perfetti wants by because Paul Dalla Lana, he is the cork in the bottle right now and holding everyone else up. So, Perfetti says, "alright slowpoke, you need to move, now!" Dalla Lana, there's not much he can do. He has no rear grip on that Aston Martin and it's slithering all over right underneath him. This is oversteer, or what the NASCAR boys and girls would call a loose condition. Perfetti is coming in a hurry and Dalla Lana has to protect his place on the road. This race is just six laps old and we've got six hours on the board.
So, to the LMP2 scrap again, we can see Ben Hanley defending from Ferdinand Habsburg. Habsburg sends it, and pushes Ben Hanley out wide! No contact, and he's past Ben Hanley. Okie dokie. Easy peasy lemon squeezy there, look. That was your classic motorcycle racing block pass, but in a car. Yikes! Good spatial awareness from Ben Hanley who now has to regroup and try to make a pass of his own. Now it is time to resume the Rino Mastronardi vs. Francesco Castellaci story. Castellaci bearing down on Mastronardi. No dice. He's trying again, if at first you don't succeed, and is side by side. These cars have equal performance. Two prancing horses.
Castellaci can't hold the line, so Mastronardi slams the door in his face for now. Tomonobu Fujii in the D'station Aston Martin moves past Ben Keating in the TF Sport car. #777 ahead of #33. Rino Mastronardi is in a proper fight, a proper dust up, with Castellaci. The gap to Fujii from these two blokes is 6.8 seconds. Fujii just has to keep reeling these guys in. It's like fighting a big fish on the end of your line, like deep sea fishing. Fujii san can see the Ferrari's now. So, the Aston Martin's are keeping up. Fujii is faster in sector two. In the meantime, more battles are afoot in LMP2.
Roberto Gonzalez is now being monstered by Ferdi Habsburg. Habsburg in the #31 WRT car is looking to pass. He wants sixth place. Gonzalez is told by his team not to fight necessarily, but to stay in front of his rival. Just a reminder that their vision is for later in the motor race so they don't lose time. Don't gift him the place but don't fight it. One of the bollards is busted, and now we see Khaled al Qubaisi outbraking himself into one of the corners. This allows the #47 Cetilar Ferrari to move past. That is Roberto Lacorte we believe, still at the wheel of it.
Ooh! In replay, that was slightly later than a late lunge. al Qubaisi overcooks it. I don't think that was intentional. He realized he hadn't slowed down and knew the other cars were just about to get away. He's been off the road and he'll have to clean the junk off his tires. There's nothing but sand out there. This is the desert after all. There's sand that gets stuck onto the tires and you need two laps to get all of it off before you can start on a clean (literally, clean), run again. That's one of those trade offs. You gain three spots, slither onto the sand, and then, you lose four.
Five will get you ten? No. Three won't get your four either. Egidio Perfetti continues harrying Paul Dalla Lana. So, that hasn't changed. Speaking of harrying, Roberto Gonzalez is going to try Ferdinand Habsburg again, this time on the inside. Local yellow at the hairpin to retrieve the stricken bollard. That's a blind corner, you can't see where the apex is, and that's why the bollard sits out there all by its lonesome. Gonzalez does the right thing to pass Habsburg as we see a marshal retrieve the cone, but Habsburg seems to have locked the tires up. He can slide the car but if he tries a slide job like that later in the stint, when the tires are knackered, he'll be in a world of pain.
Ben Hanley third in the Pro-Am LMP2 section, he is trying hard still, to move 'round Roberto Gonzalez and will continue to chip away at it. So, back to the Ferrari battle we saw earlier. This is Iron Lynx vs. AF Corse. Rino Mastronardi continues to run with an advantage over Francesco Castellaci. Three wide and Sarah Bovy is used as a pick on the inside! Christian Ried muscles his way by and right behind him, look, is Roberto Lacorte. This is a scrum for seventh and pardon me, Bovy passes the Cetilar Ferrari. So Lacorte gets dusted, and Bovy is in this fight. She's not a lapped car being used a s a pick. My apologies.
Francois Perrodo was also around there, someplace. Now, we need to find where the Toyota's are. Those two chaps have gone through and that's why we see all these open gaps between the cars. We have to find out where on the road the Toyota's are at this juncture. So, the Toyota is five seconds up the road from the action that we've been looking at, and again we see Bovy's move. She sent it down the inside and I don't think that package was delivered. That's a return to sender. Christian Ried pinches her on the inside and slams the door in her face.
The Am Ferrari's are still running ahead of the Aston Martin's in spite of the fact that they are playing dodge 'em cars and trying to knock each other's door mirrors off. We've found the Toyota's in the lead. Sebastien Buemi is eking out a gap over Mike Conway. For some reason, through the high speed corners, the Toyota is a wee bit skittish. It's not handling the way the drivers expect it to. We should see 30 lap stints for fuel. How will that affect the tires? We're going to just have to wait and find out. We are hearing now that there was some casual contact there with the Porsche #88 and the team is ready to receive the car in the lane to fix damage.
Somehow the Alpine is struggling to move past this battle for GTE-Am. So, after nearly a season of racing the new Hypercar's we can tell that yes, they are slower in the corners, than the old LMP1's, their forebears, were. Matthieu Vaxiviere said he was feeling something in the pedal, trying to pass the Porsche. Now, my assumption is he speaks of the brake pedal and not the accelerator, however, maybe the throttle is not working to his liking? We'll have to see if there's a follow up on this little issue. Check that. That was the brake pedal he was referring to. Here at Bahrain you have long straightaways and heavy braking zones into the turns.
The brakes cool as you are booking it down the straight and then the intense heat runs through them while you apply the brakes into the corners. As the race continues, drivers will feel vibration and pedal pulsation and a long pedal meaning that the travel will go almost to the floor and you just hope and pray that you have brakes to get the thing stopped into the turn. Meantime, Sebastien Buemi leads the motor race in Toyota #8. You've missed nothing at the sharp end as we've been discussing the other runners. Buemi has a two second cushion on Conway while the Porsche teammates are in a dustup for GTE Pro.
The Ferrari's run behind. They are looking a tad better than in qualifying, but they might just not have the oomph to take on the Porsche's in a head to head fight. Sebastien Buemi increases his lead over Mike Conway to two seconds. Matthieu Vaxiviere has lost ten seconds. Oh! Argy bargy between the two Ferrari's in GTE Am. That smarts! Door to door, wheel to wheel contact between Castellaci and Mastronardi. Mastronardi won't roll over and play dead for Castellaci. Not in the least. While these two are fighting, that's manna from heaven for Tomonobu Fujii. He will be able to close in and gain ground to attempt a pass on one or both of these Ferrari's.
They are using all their energy for a fight that just isn't worth it. Take a deep breath. Regroup. Fujii has closed up three seconds a lap. Castellaci has gone around Mastronardi and Mastronardi gives it up and heads for the pit lane. The Iron Lynx Ferrari could have a puncture. No question that is not out of the realm of possibility. Castellaci gives a gesture to Mastronardi. Castellaci bounced in the air! That's not a lockup. hat car got slightly airborne!
So, the #22 United Autosport car is moving through the GTE Am field. Sean Gelael has had an impressive drive through the LMP2 field as we see a scrum continue in GTE Am. The Cetilar Ferrari bashes his way by the #86 GR Racing Porsche as we see the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari now in the garage on the dollies. The Mastronardi/Piccini/Cressoni entry will be delayed as will the #88 Proton Competition Porsche, the car for Khaled al Qubaisi sharing with Frenchman Julien Andlauer and Zimbabwean driver Axcil Jeffries this weekend.
We've only raced for 23 minutes and we have two cars in the garage for repairs. The Iron Lynx team looks to the back of the car and there could very well be driveshaft damage back there. That was a heavy clout between those two cars. Apportioning blame in this incident, that's a racing deal. Mastronardi moved left. The #88 machine is in dire straits! That thing has a full body off, ground up restoration going on right now. Something is bent on the right front of that automobile and it could have made contact with the sister car, the #77 in the hands of Matt Campbell, Jaxon Evans, and Christian Ried.
Khaled al Qubaisi had a clatter over the curbs as we watch the lead battle ensue between the Toyota's. Sebastien Buemi leading Mike Conway now by about 6/10ths of a second, a gap that has decreased hand over fist in the last number of laps. #88 is having the top right front control arm replaced on that car. So, he took a substantial wallop if they have to fix the suspension. That shouldn't get into the pickup points on the chassis. But you never can tell. Through traffic, too, the gaps in LMP2 are beginning to open up little by little. Giedo van der Garde is pulling away slightly from Loic Duval. Although, not by much. Phil Hanson is third followed by Renger van der Zande who has his hands full with Sean Gelael.
The gaps between the overall leaders at Toyota will grow and shrink, ebb and flow, depending on traffic. We will see that with the Toyota teammates in Hypercar and with the Porsche teammates in GTE Pro. So much of this depends on a driver's experience and their judgment on when it is safe to jump in or safer to lay back for a short while and collect yourself and then, make a lunge for it. Contact between Iron Lynx and AF Corse will be investigated by the stewards. That's a no brainer. We saw that mess and it was pretty obvious that it was a racing incident. No blame to either driver really. Mastronardi will be on the back foot though.
Roberto Lacorte continues to be monstered by Mike Wainwright. Warning flag for Rino Mastronardi for causing contact. That's a gray area. Not sure again, about laying blame at his doorstep. Poor old Mastronardi is three laps behind with the car still in the garage being fixed. So that warning flag is bogus. It means nothing. So, Matteo Cressoni says that they were managing their tires and now have a transmission issue. They have no chance of a good result right now. They are bringing the car back on track but the transmission issue is different from the contact we saw earlier.
It is a very unlucky coincidence. Side to side contact on the wheel can shock the driveline. Did they change the driveshaft? You may want to hire those blokes as your mechanics. That was speedy. For Khaled al Qubaisi, the steering arm is broken on that Porsche. That was investigation of damage from contact with the curbs as Mike Conway is catching Sebastien Buemi. Tomonobu Fujii was 6.8 seconds down but has clawed his way back to be 1.2 seconds behind. Porsche #88 will indeed rejoin the motor race.
We know the rules of engagement for Toyota. If you are behind, click the radio and say "let me by". If you are quicker, the team radios the car in front and says "let him go". If you aren't quicker, you will be told "son, get back in your spot and stay there." That is clear as crystal. Wheel to wheel scrapping is verboten. Conway's objective is to catch up to Buemi to go for the lead before they hit the next batch of lapped traffic. The field is now beginning to spread out and we see that there's less drama in carving your wya through traffic. The contact we saw was with the #36 Alpine that hit the Porsche. Sean Gelael has dropped like a stone down the order and the reason, well, clear as crystal, or mud.
In replay, we can see that Gelael took a turn on the whirligig. But, he got help. He was tagged into a spin there by the Aston Martin. That looks uncannily like the #98 machine that sent him around. Check that. Paul Dalla Lana is the innocent party. Sean Gelael made a lunge at the Canadian in the Aston Martin and paid the price big style. We also see a replay of Phil Hanson locking up and overcooking the entry of the first turn. We watch the battle for sixth place in LMP2 between Jota and Dragonspeed with only 32 minutes gone of this race. So, there's a long, long way to go just yet.
Anthony Davidson and Antonio Felix Da Costa looking on. Davidson has won this race twice, back when he was a factory Toyota driver in the LMP1 days. Roberto Lacorte in the #47 Cetilar Ferrari is losing pace and has Mike Wainwright in the #86 GR Racing Porsche right on his six at the moment. Wainwright is making inroads and I would guess, I'll agree with the chaps in the booth that maybe Roberto Lacorte's tires are knackered and he's overused them. He'll need new boots fairly soon. Lacorte is slowing and is being caught by an LMP2 car. That's the #34 Intereuropol entry. Your movements on that steering wheel have to be as smooth as if you were driving in the wet, acting very much like a ballet dancer or an ice skater.
It is true. Contact between the #28 Jota Sport Oreca and the #98 Aston Martin is under investigation by the stewards. Lots of mistakes being made into turn one. These are somewhat unavoidable when you've been at full chat for a kilometer down the straight and then, you hit the pavement in turn one of a very bumpy corner. The fuel loads are changing and you're going to get wheel oscillation in that turn over those bumps. Tomonobu Fujii continued hounding Francesco Castellaci who has to be thinking, "just ignore this guy. Keep driving your own race." Fujii, though is right in his wheel tracks. Porsche continue to lead in GTE Pro and have a healthy gap to the Ferrari's of about 3.7 seconds.
The gap is just over five seconds between the Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni (the #91) and the leading Ferrari which is the #52 in the hands of Miguel Molina. The Ferrari's lead the championship and they are playing the long game here, looking at the last hour of the race as opposed to the first one. We're back now to our regularly scheduled program here on the sarcasm channel as Ben Hanley is still right on the gearbox of Roberto Gonzalez in this scrum for LMP2 honors. Fujii san is now in shooting distance of passing Castellaci and making him be the hound. Castellaci has been the rabbit for a good while now. Ben Keating is running in a lonely third spot. He's 11 seconds behind the GTE-Am leaders but still quite a ways ahead of Paul Dalla Lana, to the tune of eight seconds.
Fujii san has really shown himself in this opening hour of the motor race. Meanwhile, Roberto Lacorte is going backwards. He has the #57 CarGuy Ferrari in his mirrors with Takeshi Kimura at the wheel of it. Cetilar have tires at the ready, staying cool in the garage, for Lacorte to hit the pit lane soon. Roberto Lacorte is reaping what he's sown with knackered tires from pushing too hard too early. It is difficult to measure the Ferrari performance in the Am division because you have one leading and two more that are caboose on the field in the class. We were just about to speak about Kessel Racing coming back next year subject to the ACO selection committee. But, we have a change for the lead in GTE-Am right here right now.
Fujii has made his way back by. These two were held up by the LMP2 cars. The Jota Sport car swept down the inside taking Castellaci's preferred line away. Kimura wants by Lacorte as the Cetilar pit crew retreats to the garage and will change tires later. Kessel will be back with a single entry in GTE-Am in WEC next year while having two more cars signed up for the European Le Mans Series. That team could have an all Japanese lineup for 2022. Today Takeshi Kimura is sharing with Scott Andrews from Australia and Mikkel Jensen from Denmark.
Rino Mastronardi, his day goes from bad to worse, because he's just been pinged by the stewards for speeding in the pit lane. That is more likely on entry than it would be on exit. Check that. Exit rather than entry. Mastronardi is two laps down on the GTE-Am field while being four laps down on the field. Sara Bovy gets passed by the Alpine and thus cannot get past Castellaci. If the Hypercar hadn't been in the way, she'd been past the Italian like a rat up a drainpipe. Check that. That's not Castellaci. That's the sister AF Corse Am Ferrari with Francois Perrodo of France at the wheel of it. But the rat up a drainpipe analogy still stands. Yikes! Takeshi Kimura goes for a ride on the whirligig.
He tried to lunge past Roberto Lacorte, realized it wasn't on, and then, got spun around like a record. Mastronardi had Lacorte behind him. Kimura wanted to make the move, but got spun out in the process. He wasn't going for a spot. He spun because he was trying not to crash. So he got into a fight with a cone and the cone ends up underneath that Ferrari which could very well damage the floor. The gap is closing in LMP2 between Gonzalez and Hanley and we now will hear about pit strategy. Pit lane reporter Louise Beckett tells us that LMP2 cars are in the lane. Racing Team Nederland and RealTeam Racing in the lane. Now, both these teams (despite being different) are run by the same organization in the form of TDS. They are readying for a stop and so is the #28 Jota machine.
So, the dominos in LMP2 will begin falling. Who will take tires? We have a radio transmission on deck with Ben Hanley. Hanley is 7/10ths quicker than his rival and he asks about performance on different areas of the track. Hanley is 7/10ths up on his rival but he just doesn't have the power to lunge at the end of the straightaway. For some reason the car feels slow. Car #29 has now run 22 laps, 74 miles. Incidentally, we are racing at Bahrain on a 3.363 mile course. Matthieu Vaxiviere calls on the radio to the Alpine team and says "I have no power."
This is a predicament. The teams tells Vaxiviere, in essence, keep racing at 180 miles an hour, but whole you race, press the button that does a Control, Alt, Delete and recycle the car. Now, do you suppose that would make the automobile come to a dead stop? That would be very dangerous. This is hypothetical, but essentially, Vaxiviere he needs to be in the corner or something if he is going to recycle the power. It sounds like a sensor is on the fritz and there's a lot of heat soak into the cars with the hot day we have in the desert of Bahrain today.
There is a risk of heat soak after pit stops as we've not run in the middle of the day. This race is a daytime event while next weekend in the eight hours of Bahrain will be a daytime into evening race. After pit stops you can have tech issues. We have just seen the #28 Jota Sport car in for service. Scrubbed tires on the left side of that automobile. The Toyota's continue to lead in this opening hour. You've missed nothing in that respect. We hear a lot of grumbling "oh, LMP2 is so incredibly boring! It's a one-make championship!"
How much leeway do the teams have to govern performance differences? It's very similar to the two factory Toyota Hypercar's. You have the same tools provided to your team running an LMP2 machine, and so, how do you use them to make your car perform better, since you have the Oreca chassis and the Gibson Technologies naturally aspirated V8 motor to work with. Speaking of LMP2, we now see the class leading #29 Jumbo Supermarkets liveried black and yellow Oreca, in the lane. It's an all Dutch team with Giedo van der Garde, Frits van Eerd, and Job van Uitert on the driver's strength.
Jota were smart to not double stack their pit stops with the #28 and #38. Two cars, serviced by the same crew of mechanics. We also see DragonSpeed and High Class Racing in the pit lane too. Wholesale service in LMP2 right now. Again, LMP2 is a level playing field because you've got cars with the same motor and the same tires. What is there to worry about? Nothing. The driver is the great equalizer. Thei talents will determine how competitive the class is, and we are seeing that across the board in sports car racing worldwide right now. Same fuel tank capacity, too. Right now, we are seeing everyone fuel up and that's it. No tires to be changed in LMP2 just yet.
United Autosport, same strategy. Fuel in the tank and four tires on the automobile. We saw the Jota team call for just left side tires. How do you use your resources? Jota and United used two sets of Michelin tires yesterday during practice and qualifying while everyone else used only one. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we look at the GTE-Am battle, the battle of the Ferrari's. It is AF Corse #54 vs. Iron Lynx #85. Francesco Castellaci is being harried by #85. Katherine Legge, sharing with Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey, the second all-female team in this race.
Sports car racing is one discipline that is truly allowing women to compete in motor racing absolutely on equal par with the gentlemen. It does not matter who you are, as long as you have the skill and desire to drive and go for the win. Toyota have instructed their drivers to change positions in the braking zone to turn 11 and that's just what happens right on cue as #7 moves ahead of #8. Sebastien Buemi lets the sister car go by. Will Porsche do the same in GTE Pro? Kevin Estre is in the lead of the class right now. Estre's race engineer informs him on the radio, that they are able to achieve a lap more on a fuel load than their sister car #91 who is chasing.
That is very interesting because #91, he can lift and coast and save fuel into the corners and not have any kind of penalty for doing so where he'd fall behind the sister Porsche. Estre is able to achieve consistent lap times and save fuel. Now, is he wearing some magic pink fuzzy slippers that we don't know about? Well, all kidding aside, drivers save most of their fuel during the formation lap before the safety car moves to the pit lane and they are turned loose to race. The racing laps, you do save fuel, but very slightly. Now then, Alpine #36 is in the lane for servce and a driver change. We see the car, resplendent in the French national racing color of blue.
We have seen a driver change for the #34 car for Inter Europol Competition in LMP2 as well. Alex Brundle is currently at the controls, and he drops behind the WRT entry, the #31 car, Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel of it. Nico Lapierre takes over the Alpine for the next driving stint in Hypercar to chase down the Toyota's. But, back to LMP2, every one of those cars that took fuel only, with the exception of the Jota car we saw taking tires and Inter Europol who have just taken tires and that driver change. A warning flag for Paul Dalla Lana aboard the #98 Aston Martin in GTE-Am. This is for contact with the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 car that sent Sean Gelael spinning.
That took place in turn ten. Just a reminder to give the faster cars the right of whay. Francois Perrodo now is at the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari ahead of Sara Bovy. Francois Perrodo will be back in WEC competition with AF Corse next year in 2022 as well as in the European Le Mans Series. But, the team is making the step up from GTE-Am to LMP2. Speaking of LMP2, Sean Gelael makes a move around the #1 car, the Richard Mille Racing Team entry and the other all-female driver lineup, with Beitske Visser now at the controls. Inside, outside, park it at the apex, and make a clean pass. Done and dusted.
We can see the Toyota's continuing their internecene scrum and catching as well as passing the #57 Ferrari 488 GTE of Japan's Takeshi Kimura, running in GTE-Am. Mike Conway is slicing and dicing through traffic because he wants to clear out of the way and have a clear road ahead. He will get two or three clear laps. He has to stay in the lead of the motor race. Mike Conway is now leading. To Sebastien Buemi, you've had your fun, sunshine. Now it is time to go back into the box and just ride around for a while. No different than being a kid at recess and then being called back into the school to continue your lessons.
Energy total management was measured lap by lap in LMP1 but not with Hypercar. Now, we see Conway running wide, sliding to the outside and Buemi will get a head of steam to maybe make a pass on his teammate. Buemi is catching up because Conway ran deep into the corner and lost truckloads of momentum. Buemi wants to send it. But someplace on the radio we probably heard his crew chief say "no, Seb. No. Let #7 stay in front." The Toyota's work their way past one of the two AF Corse GTE-Pro Ferrari's of Alessandro Pier Guidi. Miguel Molina is the better placed of the two Ferrari's in third. The sister car in fourth leads GTE-Pro by a point over Kevin Estre in Porsche #92.
Both Jota cars are monstering the #20 High Class Racing entry. Anders Fjordbach runs wide opening the door for Roberto Gonzalez. Now, Sean Gelael will want a bite of the cherry, too. Three wide, and Fjordbach says "oh no you don't. Let me by." Then Gelael in #28 gets both of them back! Wow! Man oh man! A gutsy move by Sean Gelael. Roberto Gonzalez also moves 'round Fjordbach as they work past the GTE-Am Ferrari's we have also been watching these last few minutes. Sara Bovy must be thinking, "ugh! I am racing this other Ferrari and you've made me lose time!"
At the apex of the turn Sebastien Buemi asserts himself and passes Mike Conway back. For some reason, Mike Conway has better control of the #7 sitting behind the sister car than he does while in the lead of the motor race. Three laps before the pit stop, Buemi will have to really give that Toyota a thrashing. As of now our class leaders are Toyota #7 in Hypercar, Racing Team Nederland Oreca #29 in LMP2, the #92 factory Porsche in GTE Pro, and the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin in GTE Am. We need to know why Alpine pitted early with their single entry? We will hear the answer now from Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Vaxiviere says that their fuel strategy was why they pitted. The contact we saw earlier didn't contribute to their decision to pit. Vaxiviere says the car is not putting the power down the way he wants it to. They did not have the perfect start, but Alpine are still hopeful and confident they can catch the Toyota's. Speaking of Toyota, now we see the #7 in the pit lane. Having been put behind the eight ball slightly, does Conway come in to pit or is his decision based on team strategy? He is in the pit lane now for fuel and tires. He won't have new tires. Just more fuel weight. No new tires. You trundle down the pit lane and have dust and sand and other rubbish to deal with. Maybe Toyota will just put left side tires on the car.
Do they think they have a slow puncture somewhere? Ah. Left side tires only. Just two tires for Toyota #7. Will we see this from #8? The wheel didn't go on correctly. But now it is fine. That left rear was slow. The gap is gone. The #8 car can just do a clean and easy stop and take the stress away. Toyota is one team, but you can bet that both pit crews want to win. Each tire has a computer chip in it, an RFID chip. These tires have done just t two laps in qualifying and here is #8. So, the #7 boys are on the back foot. Driver change in #8. Brendon Hartley, the man who takes over the #8 Toyota for this driving stint.
Tires and fuel. #8 is having slight trouble on the left rear, but not as bad as we saw with #7. Nicolas Lapierre takes over the #36 Alpine A480 Hypercar in third place. Lapierre runs wide through turn 13 and through the last corner before coming up to start another lap. It is hard to get cars to the apex at this particular circuit. Toyota are debriefing about how to improve their pit stops for the rest of the race. A good scrap is brewing in GTE-Am as we see the #98 Aston Martin with Paul Dalla Lana driving, being challenged by Egidio Perfetti in the #56 Team Project 1 Mentos sponsored pPorsche. That is one brand made by Perfetti's candy company. He is the CEO of the company that makes Mentos mint candies.
With his tire troubles earlier in the game, Dalla Lana has backed himself up to where Perfetti is on the road. Perfetti now runs 15 seconds in-arrears of the other Aston Martin, the #777 D'station entry with Tomonobu Fujii at the controls. One step forward but two steps back for Paul Dalla Lana at this stage. If you take too much out of the gap to another car, I'm sorry, but no matter how long the race is, you just can't gain back the time. It's no different than locking up the brakes and missing the apex of the corner. Just forget your mistakes and control and manage the gap. That's what you need to do. During a race, a driver must have a very short memory.
Every lap is different. Driver change for the GTE-Am points leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari as Alessio Rovera, the Italian, takes over. That is the first GTE-Am entry we have seen that makes a regular pit stop, a scheduled one. Single stints in this race are the order of the day at least in GTE-Am. This race is going to end in daylight unlike next weekend's finale here in Bahrain which is slated to race into the hours of darkness and under the floodlights. Now we see damage to the #20 High Class Racing LMP2 machine. How did that get there?
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