Oh yeah! Lookie here. We have a four wide scrap for position. AF Corse GTE-Am Ferrari vs. DragonSpeed and Jota LMP2's and the Alpine Hypercar! This is massive! The Alpine makes the move with little trouble. Sean Gelael moves around Ben Hanley as well. This is for sixth in class. This is four classes with the LMP2 Pro-Am class. One of these LMP2 cars has only one working taillight and that could be troublesome because it wasn't long ago in international endurance racing the rules stipulated you had to use both working lights on both sides of the car. The headlights and the taillights, just the same. Gelael is back on the button, finding pace after his dust up with the #98 Aston Martin that we saw earlier.
Hanley is passed by Gelael because he couldn't turn into the corner and that door was wide open on it's hinges. That's the opposite of slamming the door in someone's face. Rather, it was left ajar and the other chap just waltzes right through. Hit your braking point but hit your apex. If you don't hit the apex of the corner, you can't put power down evenly, and you are a sitting duck. GTE-Am pit stops as we see Egidio Perfetti and Francesco Castellaci both in the lane for service. Paul Dalla Lana should move to the front of the queue in GTE-Am. Ben Keating also is in the pit lane with Aston Martin #33.
We have Sara Bovy pitting and Christian Ried, too. Francois Perodo, we hear from World Endurance roving pit reporter Duncan Vincent, was really plagued by heat in the car in the dry, yet hot atmosphere of the desert here in Bahrain. It's a dry heat, but it's still heat. It is harder to take track position than it is to hold onto it. Now we see Tomonobu Fujii in the lead of LM GTE-Am, his co-drivers being Satoshi Hoshino and Andrew Watson. Fujii is in the pit lane now. Dalla Lana stayed out. Fujii san stayed out. Why did Keating pit? Well, both D'station and TF Sport cars are fueled at the TF Sport garage, and don't want to double stack because they will lose heaps of time if they do.
Driver change as Andrew Watson is getting in. Gianmaria Bruni brings Porsche #91 to the pit lane. Kevin Estre has opportunity to do one more lap on his fuel. Well, well. We also have a battle simmering in LMP2. WRT passes Intereuropol and the #22 United Autosport Oreca runs ahead of these two. Alex Brundle is catching Ferdinand Habsburg. But, we believe that WRT and United Autosport only took fuel on their most recent visits to the pit lane. Intereuropol changed drivers and on driver changes you always put fresh tires onto the car. Porsche #91 in the lane as is Ferrari #51.
The tires make the difference because the fresh tires on #34 have far more performance that than tired tires (pun completely intended there, look), on the #31 machine. Alex Brundle is fourth and the leading Toyota is about to put a lap on these LMP2 boys. Phil Hanson gets balked behind Satoshi Hoshino. A touch there? Nope. Hanson and Brundle are running close in terms of lap times although Hanson has been on a far longer driving stint thus far than has Brundle. Inter Europol are delivering not just in the World Endurance Championship, but in the European Le Mans Series too.
Kevin Estre is in the lane as well with tires and a clean windscreen. Paul Dalla Lana is in the lane so this means Satoshi Hoshino takes the lead ahead of Ben Keating as the Aston Martin freight train rolls on in GTE-Am. Aston Martin 1-2 after the first stint and we could see a 1-2-3. Thomas Flohr who has taken over Ferrari #54 has other ideas. We have Thomas Flohr now right behind Ben Keating as the #98 is down the order behind Alessio Rover now with Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian, at the controls. We watch Paul Dalla Lanna taking a long drink, and man oh man, does he need it. It's a dry heat in the desert, but it is scorching hot work out there!
He's got an ice pack down the back of his neck. In the heat like this you want to have ice on your back and on your wrists of all places where those sweat glands are. Paul Dalla Lana says "man, that was hot!" Truly, mate. Driving a race car, a sports car in an endurance event, it isn't for sissies. Having your feet in a bucket of ice water is another good trick because the floorboards on these cars, especially the front engine ones, can be steaming, blazing hot. A front engine car is not your pal in these hot conditions. It's like driving a giant furnace.
35 laps on the board, completed by the leading #8 Toyota. 118 miles. There's a long way to go. But as mentioned, this race will be covered all in the daylight hours, in spite of how tough it is. The 8 Hours of Bahrain next weekend, will be longer in duration, but will be slightly less stressful. Racing Team Nederland now lead overall and in the Pro-Am division, 34 laps into their race, so just a lap behind the Toyota's. In GTE-Pro it is Porsche GT Team with a 1-2 ahead of the two Ferrari's and they are a lap further down on 33 circuits while in GTE-Am on 32 laps it is D'Station leading TF Sport in an Aston Martin 1-2 currently.
We are seeing a lot of the battles we expected but some cars are interlopers who did not qualify as well. Alex Brundle got four green tires on his most recent pit stop and if he can manage them and make sure they don't wear out, he'll be the class leader when his stint ends and he hands the car either to Jakub Smiechowski or Renger van der Zande. We can also confirm Ferdinand Habsburg runs ahead of Phil Hanson at this moment. Hanson, on a full fuel load, he is struggling a wee bit. No tires taken for United on their most recent stop, so they are on the back foot just a wee bit. Giedo van der Garde, the Dutchman leads LMP2 Pro-Am. No tires taken either at WRT.
There's still a long, long way to go. The whole car is getting a thrashing and so are the drivers and the tires. The tires are not on rails either. Keep the car from moving around, a car with 800 horsepower than weighs 900 kilograms. Satoshi Hoshino continues to lead GTE-Am while Ben Keating is second. Keating stayed aboard the #33 Aston Martin and is doing a double stint. Tomonobu Fujii ran very well in his first stint, and the customer teams are proving themselves. Fujii says the stint was a tough one and they moved up pretty quickly.
He got it into the lead of the class from tenth in the field which is amazing. So, we have a scrap on our hands in LMP2 between Alex Brundle at Intereuropol and Loic Duval at RealTeam. Brundle will likely do a double and let Jakub Smiechowski run a single stint. Giedo van der Garde leads LMP2 and leads the Pro-Am portion of the class right now. Takeshi Kimura too, has Alessio Rovera putting a lap on him. Alex Brundle is now 1.3 seconds faster than Giedo van der Garde. van der Garde leads by 11 seconds but the gap is shrinking. They will pit in LMP2 in seven or so laps and the gap will be falling. So we will have to really look at that and see what the scoop is.
Giedo van der Garde is serenely cruising, managing his tires, and he does not have any traffic to deal with. We are seeing now where a tire, or swt of tires that has run a double stint, is very likely in it's sweet spot. The tires are begging for mercy but hanging in there. 1:57 deadf for Giedo van der Garde, and Alex Brundle at 1:56.3. Brundle has four fresh tires. Now, Giedo van der Garde ran a 1:53.5 on lap two. But for comparison, the lap times now are dropped down to 1:58 in that range. So, that is a massive difference, five seconds, between a fresh tire that still has an edge on it, and a tire that is used up and becoming pretty ratty at this point.
It's going to be hard to gauge everybody's strategy all at the same time. High Class Racing are in the pit lane and Robert Kubica takes over from Anders Fjordbach. They might just fix the damaged dive plane or put a whole new nose section on there. Yup. They will change the nose and then put four tires on this car. Toyota swapping again. Mike Conway gets on the horn to the team and they confirm, "we will swap at turn one." The two Toyota's have to get past the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the hands of Mike Wainwright, first. Bish, bash, bosh. So, Conway can hit the afterburners and Sebastien Buemi has to stay within "DRS" range as it is in Formula 1.
Formation flying for Toyota, leading the Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre by 16 seconds after the Alpine had power trouble and had to do a recycle of the system. What is interesting is that the Alpine is within range of the two Toyota's. We've done the run now for a cup of tea. Everyone ought to be enjoying a cup this time of the morning anyway. So, we move on to our next discussion topic, which is stint lengths. Minimum drive time for Am rated driver in a 6 hour event like this one is an hour and a half. Scratch that. It's an hour and 15 minutes, mate. Ben Keating has done his minimum drive time for the day. He is still second, catching Satoshi Hoshino to take the lead in class at a second a lap. Wow! That's bonkers!
Hang on a second. We've got some clarification to do on drive time, stints and the like. Bronze drivers in GTE-Am and for Silver drivers is an hour and 45 minutes before Ben Keating is done and dusted for the day and he can chill out for the rest of the race. Check this out. Side by side action there with the two Rosso Corsa AF Corse Ferrari's. #51 now leads #52. Alessandro Pier Guidi goes ahead of Miguel Molina. The team wants to make sure they are in the right positions for scoring points during this race. Hence all the swapping around that we see from time to time.
Cetilar Racing in GTE-Am, in the #47, Roberto Lacorte is inside the spot for a full stint to finish his drive time. But they are out of sequence on fuel. The car will need a splash and a dash near the end of the race no matter who is driving. Roberto Lacorte is getting his drive time out of the way now I suspect and we still haven't seen Antonio Fuoco or Giorgio Sernagiotto yet. The Toyota's play through the GTE traffic and Mike Conway leads by merely one second over Brendon Hartley. Brendon Hartley has taken over Toyota #8 from Sebastien Buemi. Mike Conway's job now is to open the gap over Brendon Hartley and keep his Kiwi teammate at bay. We've discussed before, but if you don't know what a Kiwi is, that is someone from New Zealand.
Conway needs the traffic to break well for him while he needs it to hold up his Toyota teammate. The two Am contenders they will be moving past shortly are Egidio Perfetti and Sara Bovy, a couple names we've mentioned already in this race for the Project 1 Porsche, the Mentos sponsored entry because Perfetti is the magnate, the boss behind that candy company, and Bovy is aboard the #85 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE, the car of "the Iron Dames", their three lady drivers. Speaking of #60, the sister Iron Lynx Ferrari gets completely dusted by the #777 D'station Aston Martin. The two Aston Martin's lead GTE-Am. While the #60 machine scored the class pole, they are two laps down at this moment.
Kevin Estre is told that the window is open a short while for a fuel only pit stop at Porsche. This is for in case of a safety car or a Full Course Yellow, you know where your strategy is so you don't fall behind the eight ball. Teams have to guess how long a Full Course Yellow would be, so that they are able to box without losing time. Don't get stuck behind the Ferrari because then they'll be in a world of pain. The LMP2 third place battle is simmering as we watch Loic Duval mightily holding off Ferdinand Habsburg. Duval is hanging on by his fingernails and needs new boots ASAP. WRT, same deal. So this is going to be squeaky, squeaky time for both of those guys if their tires hold out even.
Soon we will see Frits van Eerd aboard the #29 Racing Team Nederland car as he is limbering up in the pit garage, limbering up the throttle foot. There's lots of clag from the tires on the outside line and Habsburg looked like he might have caught some of it. That will stick to the tires, to the slick tires, and make the handling on the car evil. All that balled up rubber will be like driving on ice. Alex Brundle is running two and a half seconds slower than Giedo van der Garde even though they are right together on the road in your picture. van der Garde might not move immediately, but he can't fight this forever and will have to let Brundle through.
We are pretty sure Alex Brundle will stay in for a double stint. At RealTeam, Loic Duval will hand over to one of his team mates. Robin Frijns will take over at WRT. van der Garde lets Brundle through an Giedo van der Garde needs to not burn his tires off. Ferdinand Habsburg has gone to third dropping Loic Duval to fourth while Esteban Garcia is getting set to change into the #70 car. Some of these drivers race in both European Le Mans Series and the FIA World Endurance Championship for two separate teams, which makes it extremely confusing for those of us reporting on these races.
Petit Le Mans, the final race of the IMSA season, s also coming up very soon. We see a lead change in GTE Am between two of the Aston Martin's. Ben Keating takes the lead from Satoshi Hoshino. Good to hear, from Misano, Italy, IMSA President John Doonan is tuned in to this broadcast of the World Endurance Championship. Doonan is at Misano World Citcuit in Italy this weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals. 2023 sees convergence, and the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Pit stop time for #34 from the LMP2 lead. Frits van Eerd will be next into the Racing Team Nederland.
Another anniversary we will celebrate in 2023, will be the 50th anniversary, the golden anniversary of Oreca. Sean Gelael is in the lane and Tom Blomqvist should take over. Frits van Eerd will take over before Job van Uitert will be in for a few stints. Car #28, the LMP2 pole sitter is in and out of the lane while Roberto Gonzalez is still driving the #38 Jota Sport entry. Into the lane now, the #29 machine. Tom Blomqvist is now indeed in the #28 car. WRT and Jota are significantly quicker than everybody else in the LMP2 class. Ben Keating has cleared away from Satoshi Hoshino to the tune of 6.6 seconds and now, Hoshino san, look, has his hands full with Alessio Rovera!
Rovera moves to second in GTE-Am. That is the difference between a professional driver and a gentleman driver. #70 has pitted and now Antonio Felix Da Costa, the Portuguese driver is at the wheel of the #38 car. Roberto Gonzalez shall drive another stint later on in the motor race. Yikes! That's lurid spin very early into the corner for one of the Proton Competition Porsche's! That's #88 on the downshift into the turn. Those tires will be flat spotted and maybe come off the Porsche in the shape of cubes! Now, warning flag displayed for Toyota #8.
Brendon Hartley is warned about abusing track limits. He will have to go the stewards perhaps. He will have been warned in the car about which specific corner he will have overused. So, Giedo van der Garde says it is extremely hot and the team has been struggling with pace through practice and qualifying, but is now running well. He had a good fight with teammate Loic Duval. His ability to overtake has worked well in his stint. Giedo van der Garde has done very well and had great judgment with working through the opening stint laps. Alex Brundle resumes in the lead of LMP2 with United Autosport in the lane. Intereuropol are investing in engineering and strategy. We've got a battle in LMP2 that is hot and heavy at the moment.
We have a quick glimpse at the half second margin between the two factory GTE Pro Porsche's of Kevin Estre in #92 being followed by Gianmaria Bruni in #91. Albuqerque, Blomqvist, Da Costa, and more in LMP2. Estre and Bruni want a 1-2 in this race for Porsche. Ferrari dropped a lot in the first stint and are stabilizing the gap, halfway through the second stint. Ferrari are running gentler, or, Porsche are managing the gaps at this point. Alessandro Pier Guidi now third. Nico Lapierre pits the Alpine. Also, we welcome a new driver to the FIA WEC. Indian driver Kush Maini is in the race, brother of Arjun Maini who is a regular in the European Le Mans Series. Kush Maini sharing with Oliver Webb and Miro Konopka.
Alpine in the lae for four tires and fuel and Andre Negrao into the car. He will duble stint now that he is in the car. Nico Lapierre has finished his stint. We see a pass for position in LMP2 as Esteban Garcia is passed by Filipe Albuquerque. As the aerodynamics come off the car, it is harder to brake and turn the car. Some corners are tougher like the downhill hairpin in turns nine and ten and a faster version, turn 13. Albuquerque pulling away, and Tom Blomqvist also passes by Esteban Garcia. Robin Frijns passes Frits van Eerd for second spot in LMP2.
Get cleanly past another car. Robin Frijns told a story about the last lap of Le Mans. Frijns had Tom Blomqvist bearing down on him, thought he was battling for second place across the start/finish line, passed leader Yifei Ye, who was stationary. He knew the Toyota's were going slow for a photo finish and clipped a Porsche and had to avoid the flagman waving the checkered flag. Wow! Robin Frijns was quicker last time by, than both Toyota's in hot pursuit of Alex Brundle. Not much in it between the two AF Corse Ferrari's owned by Amato Ferrari, no relation ot the legendary automaker. The two Porsche's are within a second of each other. With the very hot turbulent air here in Bahrain, you don't want to be too close to the car in front.
You will only overheat the engine, the tires, and the brakes. Satoshi Hoshino aboard the D'station Racing Aston Martin is warned about track limits. Satoshi Hoshino is hanging on well in GTE-Am. We have seen one car use the less well ranked driver time for the #44 ARC Bratislava car. Miro Konopka, the Bronze ranked pilot has done his drive time and we now see Silver rated debutant Kush Maini in that car. In LMP2, a double stint isn't enough. They have another 15 or so minutes to do before the final hour. A professional driver will be in for a double stint. We will have a driver change soon, for each of the factory Porsche's. So, Michael Christensen will replace Kevin Estre and Richard Lietz will take over from Gianmaria Bruni. Both are suited and booted right now.
Alessandro Pier Guidi may very well want to do a triple stint. He will do the lion's share of driving compared to James Calado. Pier Guidi has a warning for track limits. GR Racing and Project 1 change places in GTE Am and Ben Barker, is now at the wheel of Porsche 911 RSR-19 #86. Mike Wainwright has done a double stint from the start. Egidio Perfetti will go to the end of his stint and same with Ben Keating. Perfetti and Keating will have both done their drive time. Felipe Fraga will be next aboard the #33 Aston Martin.
A number of drivers will have completed their minimum time in the Am class including Sara Bovy, Ben Keating, Thomas Flohr, Christian Ried, Takeshi Kimura, all of them will have done their minimum drive time. The Alpine whistles past the AF Corse Ferrari battle. Alpine are over a minute and a half off the lead of the Toyota's. Mike Conway is now nine and a half seconds ahead of Brendon Hartley. He cannot risk having another warning for track limits. That's 13 seconds gained in this stint by Mike Conway alone on the same tire strategy without track limits penalties. Plus, he has been half a second faster per lap! Holy mackerel! Antonio Felix Da Costa in LMP2 is chasing down Esteban Garcia. Garcia, the minnow, Da Costa, the shark.
This scrum is on for sixth spot in LMP2. Brundle on older tires is four seconds slower than Frijns on new tires. 1:58.4 and 1:58 dead for Brundle. How about this, though. Frijns at 1:54.6 and 1:54.3! Those are some stonking times from the Dutchman! He is taking no prisoners today! Brundle has been reaping rewards. Track position is critical and we say it all the time. It is far harder to take the lead than it is to defend it. That's for dead sure. Sophia Floresch has moved ahead of Henrik Hedman in the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca. We see DragonSpeed's mascot, a bobblehead of Evil Knievel. That is their lucky charm at every race they compete in.
DragonSpeed and Richard Mille Racing run ninth and tenth in an 11-car LMP2 field. Good battle underway for the LM GTE-Am lead. This is the #98 Aston Martin in the hands of Augusto Farfus, the Brazilian, chasing the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Italian Alessio Rovera. Augusto Farfus is really pushing hard, trying hard to catch Alessio Rovera. Ben Keating has completed his stint. He and Felipe Fraga have completed stints and now, Dylan Pereira is at the wheel of the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin, the only driver from Luxembourg in this race. His day job is racing Porsche Supercup. Many teams and drivers have come from Luxembourg.
There was a double yellow flag at turn eight which is now removed. So, someone spun, or one of the bollards got smashed again. Over the brow, sweeping downhill, how do they get to the apex at full racing speed, said with a mouthful of black licorice jellybeans, we can say, they don't. Once the tires are knackered, you are liable to make a mistake. #98 is slithering around on worn out rear tires oversteering out of the corner and mashing the throttle to get down the straightaway. Alessio Rovera continuing to lead GTE Am with Augusto Farfus right on his six. Satoshi Hoshino holds down third place, nine seconds ahead of Thomas Flohr in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari.
Kush Maini in the meantime, is equaling frontrunning pace in LMP2 in the 1:55 range. Ben Keating is proud of TF Sport and 4 Horsemen Racing. He knew he had a better car than what they qualified with. They had a hard time on a one lap qualifying run, but the tires hold up on lap time through the stint. You have to be in the fight to have the opportunity. Keating has faith in his co-drivers, Felipe Fraga and Dylan Pereira. The differences between the cars are very slight. The designing aspect of GTE/GT3, or LMP2, the rules boundaries are so small that the cars are very close. Ben Keating has driven a ton of GT cars through his career and he says they are all fairly similar.
We see Toyota #7 now in the pit lane. We see Mike Conway get into the car I believe. Ben Keating, he drives his tail off, but, even when he is hot and exhausted and the team asks if he can go back into the car he says, "yes." We might just see Ben Keating staying consistent for next year on manufacturers and staying at Aston Martin after swapping between I think it was something like seven different cars in the last seven years, not only in the World Endurance Championship, but also in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship if I am right. There he has driven in both LMP2 and the GT Daytona class which uses GT3 spec cars.
The battle is on in LMP2 for the class lead! Alex Burndle vs. Robin Frijns. Toyota #7 in the pit lane, too, look. Mike Conway pitted with a 20 something second advantage in the lead, and then, we are going to see the #8 cycle through and take over in P1 for the time being. Jose Maria Lopez is now onboard the #7. "Pechito" the Argentinian, will race a full double stint. Lopez is 2.7 seconds now ahead of Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, at the wheel of the #36 Alpine. Currently, nearing the end of the second hour, Toyota #8 has run 60 laps, 202 miles, so just over 200 miles completed in this race.
Car #21, the DragonSpeed entry, must repair a rear taillight at the next pit stop. Rear taillight. It's almost redundant, isn't it? Swedish driver Henrik Hedman is at the wheel of the DragonSpeed Oreca presently. Maybe they will change the whole rear tail section. So, Toyota #8 hits pit lane and we see debris on the road, right at the separation line, the white blend line between pit lane and the track. This could very well induce a Full Course Yellow and a safety car. A driver change in Toyota #8. Kazuki Nakajima will get in. So, their strategy at Toyota #8 is to single stint drivers. Full Course Yellow, in 15 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow. Full Course Yellow.
Toyota will be going for tires. We need to find out how that chunk of debris got where it is. That looks like a dive plane, a chunk of aluminum or carbon fiber or something with a flat shape and sharp edges. Ah. The engine cowling cover has blown off the D'station Aston Martin, the #777 car. Somebody has probably run over that. OK. Check that. It's the boot lid, the trunk lid of that Aston Martin, and the Ferrari passes by and obliterates it. Since #7 is not running at full speed, this will give a free pit stop, effectively to the sister #8 Toyota.
#7 has gone from having a 20 second advantage, to now being 30 seconds behind and having to play catch up. Nope. Wait. That's not the case. The #8 spent longer time in the lane and is now third, 20 seconds behind the Alpine. Holy smokes! The confusion is how could he have lost ground when everyone else is trundling around at 80 clicks behind the safety car? That's impossible. We will just have to wait for timing and scoring to update as we see pit action for both GTE Am leading cars, the #98 Aston Martin and the #83 Ferrari. Both GTE Pro leading Porsche's pit as well, Kevin Estre and Gianmaria Bruni.
Driver changes at Porsche while Henrik Hedman stays in the DragonSpeed LMP2 car. Ferrari's will pit too. Robin Frijns at WRT who just took over the lead in LMP2 from Alex Brundle is only halfway through a stint. This is getting very interesting. We could see some spicy action in the next hours of this race and after the conclusion of the next one, we will be halfway home. Augusto Farfus has gotten out of the #98 Aston Martin. He didn't even run a full stint. That is strange. Half a stint for the Am drivers is being called for on strategy here.
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