Porsche #92 takes left side tires and we have Ferrari in the lane in GTE-Pro as well. What are Ferrari up to? Ferrari #52 continues on for a lap. Scrubbed tires on the #92 Porsche as #91 leads with Gianmaria Bruni at the controls. Did Bruni pit for fuel only? GR Racing into the garage as Roberto Gonzalez and Sean Gelael are pressing each other. Gonzalez got by both Gelael and van der Zande. Gonzalez is still behind. Check that. Daniel Serra in the lane now in Ferrari #52. Left side tires for the #52 AF Corse Ferrari. That is what it looks like. TDS Racing are 1-2 with RealTeam and Racing Team Nederland in the Pro-Am portion of LMP2. Late dive to the inside as Habsburg passes Hanson in LMP2. Full send is the safest way to pass. Commit and make it work.
#56 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the lane. Egidio Perfetti out, and Ricardo Pera gets in. Roberto Lacorte is still leading in GTE-Am. Mike Conway leads Sebastien Buemi now by five and a half seconds. There's lots of rubber buildup on the circuit from both this race so far and what we saw in the race last weekend. Mike Wainwright and the #86 Porsche are in the garage. Toyota did change all four tires on #8. A scrap out of the lane between D'station and Project 1. Satoshi Hoshino takes over the #777 D'station Aston Martin as the #83 AF Corse Ferrari has Francois Perrodo has handed to Alessio Rovera. Giorgio Sernagiotto, the Bronze rated driver is now in the #47 and Thomas Flohr is the Bronze rated driver at AF Corse in Am. Christian Ried is ahead of Ricardo Pera. So, Ried stayed in the #77.
Felipe Fraga or Dylan Pereira have taken over the #33 Aston Martin and we shall see the #60 Ferrari, and see who is driving now. They have pitted, have the Iron Lynx team. Minimum drive time for Bronze drivers is two hours I believe. Phil Hanson runs ahead of Sean Gelael in the LMP2 class. A drag race into turn three. Jota's strategy is beginning to pan out. Phil Hanson is doing the heavy lifting for United Autosport. Gianmaria Bruni leads in the #91 factory Porsche. James Calado leads Kevin Estre as of now in GTE-Pro. Porsche could win the teams title and the Ferrari team could still win the driver's cup. Now, Sean Gelael has spun and gotten back underway again.
Estre will make sure Calado works hard. In replay, Gelael got chopped. He saw the gap was not as big as he hoped and he slithered over the curbs. Calado monstering Bruni. Furthermore, here comes the Porsche. Kevin Estre is getting feisty. That was an error from Sean Gelael. He will get back in the game. Roberto Gonzalez is really pushing. He is pressing on towards Phil Hanson in the United Autosports car. Hanson is loose and Gonzalez's car has damage to the dive plane on the left side. With track limits you get a get out of jail, a warning, and then the penalty. Renger van der Zande is pressing on, but he was off line on the clag and the Astroturf, both.
The driver and team will be told about track limits. Giedo van der Garde is now 38.6 seconds ahead of Loic Duval for LMP2 Pro-Am. We will see Frits van Eerd and Esteban Garcia later on. Watch out too for the #21 DragonSpeed entry of Hanley, Hedman, and Montoya. Toyota back together again as #7 leads #8 by 6/10ths of a second. Conway vs. Buemi. We will watch the ebb and flow. Sebastien Buemi has a balanced car compared to last weekend's race. Calado moves right in on Gianmaria Bruni. Mike Conway is told to swap. The driver behind gets on the phone to say he is quicker and then the sister car is told, the driver is told, to let the other man through.
Mike Wainwright had a shock damper failure, a similar failure to what they ahd at Le Mans. So, Anthony Davidson is suited and booted for his stint. Porsche #91 leads ahead of Ferrari #51 in GTE-Pro. We have run now for an hour and 21 minutes. Frits van Eerd is suiting up for Racing Team Nederland, balancing driver lineups. Sean Gelael successfully sends it by Phil Hanson. They don't have the handling, or, they are saving tires and fuel. They are halfway through the second stint. Sebastien Buemi now leads the motor race ahead of Mike Conway. The Alpine is now laps behind after the gear selector repairs.
45 laps completed, 151 miles. Alpine have cleared the GTE-Am runners, but Matthieu Vaxiviere is a second or so down. Could it be a mechanical issue for the gearbox? The #7 and #8 Toyota's remain close. #8 is not running away from their rivals yet. Roberto Gonzalez lets Sean Gelael through. Left side tires only for Toyota #7 as we hear from Ben Keating who says the early tire drama was not a puncture. Side by side through the first couple corners, he does not know why Paul Dalla Lana assumed everything was single file before going for the apex. Keating says Dalla Lana turned into him. Both of them were spun off the road. Another lost opportunity. Race to stay on the lead lap, this team is hoping for a safety car to happen.
That's a tough road to hoe for the next six hours. Aston Martin #777 spins down the hill out of seventh and he was tagged by the Ferrari. Andrew Watson is the third driver in that automobile. Katherine Legge was going for position. Now, the Aston Martin is back on track. Hot engines don't like to restart as Sean Gelael stays in the #28 Jota LMP2 car with four fresh tires. Gelael has to do 45 more minutes as Frits van Eerd is now in the #29 Racing Team Nederland LMP2 Pro-Am leading car. Four fresh tires and brim the fuel tank. RealTeam in the lane too for service. TDS Racing are waiting to finalize their plans for 2022.
WRT in the pit lane as well from third spot. Into the car, the #38 car, that is Anthony Davidson into the automobile. Will they change the nose? That's dive plane damage when they tagged Loic Duval. Slow rattle gun on the right rear of WRT's car and the car stalled, or almost stalled. The right rear tires do get abused here at Bahrain, scrubbing the inside edge of the right rear tire. The rear tires do get squeezed around here. Giedo van der Garde is beign congratulated for his double stint. Frits van Eerd has moved ahead of Phil Hanson. Juan Pablo Montoya might be doing a triple stint as the tire change on the left of WRT's car also had something affect the change on the right rear. Double stint for Montoya as Henrik Hedman started the race.
All the LMP2 teams are using the same chassis, engine, fuel, and tires. It is all about driving skill in LMP2. Filipe Albuquerque now in the #22 while Stoffel Vandoorne is now in at the #28 team, ahead of Robin Frijns. Anthony Davidson, Jakub Smiechowski, Sophia Floresch, Dennis Andersen, and Oliver Caldwell in the #44, at 19 years old. The titantic world title battle between Porsche and Ferrari in GTE-Pro continues. Frits van Eerd leads Esteban Garcia. Stoffel Vandoorne and Robin Frijns are fighting hammer and tongs right now with Anthony Davidson keeping a watching brief. The fight is brewing up nicely, thank you.
This race has not settled down just yet. WRT lead by five points over Jota #28 in LMP2 in the championship. Sebastien Buemi leads Mike Conway now by seven and a half seconds. Stoffel Vandoorne is closing on Esteban Garcia while Robin Frijns and Anthony Davidson are right in it. Christian Ried is passed by Khaled al Qubaisi in the two Dempsey Proton GTE-Am class Porsche's. Ferrari #85 for the Iron Dames will be penalized. Everyone is throwing caution to the wind for the finale of the season before we resume in the 2022 season in March at Sebring in Florida.
Toyota #8 leads #7 by 7.2 seconds. Toyota #8 won't win the title but they can still win the race today. Vandoorne leading Frijns in LMP2 for third and fourth place in the class. Ferdinand Habsburg says he was nervous before the race and was happier to start the race so the nerves disappeared. He hopes he was very entertaining. He says he is having a good time driving. WRT knows what they want to do running the fastest race they can from A to B. Ferdinand Habsburg is keen to watch team mate Robin Frijns' progress. Alpine back in the pit lane for a standard driver change to Andre Negrao. Alpine and TF Sport have a couple long races today.
Robin Frijns wants by Stoffel Vandoorne but he will have to follow. The Alpine is back on track. Again, Andre Negrao at the wheel of it. Left front tire gone for the #85 Iron Lynx Iron Dames car. Robin Frijns moves past Stoffel Vandoorne and we could indeed have a Full Course Yellow in the future here. We shall find out. Frijns was very patient in his move going ahead. Will Stoffel Vandoorne and Anthony Davidson do the switch? There's been a delaminated tire there for the #85 Ferrari going back into the garage. Full Course Yellow with tire debris all over the road and in replay, the centrifugal force makes the tire unravel.
Full Course Yellow now. The Iron Lynx team tapes the damaged left front fender. James Calado in the lane and a driver change handing over to Alessandro Pier Guidi. Porsche have just cleared the first timing sector as the Ferrari gets back out. The Ferrari's, plural. The marshal wants to sprint into a gap, but has to wait for a clear spot. There are other areas on the track that need to clean up debris. Both Toyota's in the lane and #8 will take four tires again as we see the #21 DragonSpeed car dragging debris behind it. Something to clean up there.
Ben Keating was hoping for a safety car but this is going to be a Full Course Yellow. Wholesale pit stops. Kazuki Nakajima takes over Toyota #8 and Jose Maria Lopez, #7. Porsche gamble on thier stops and are in the lane now. Nose change for the #38 Jota car and the Ferrari's, we have already seen them in the lane. Both Porsche's with a driver change. Richard Lietz into #91 and we have to see who is in #92 with Michael Christensen as the third driver. Cetilar Ferrari in the lane and so, Porsche have now leapfrogged the Ferrari's. Porsche have benefitted by staying out late. Alessandro Pier Guidi now runs third in class in GTE-Pro.
Longer on pit lane for both Porsche's. 1:12 for #92 and 1:13 for #91 as opposed to 1:09 for #51 and 1:07 for #52. We still have six hours of this race left to go. Sedately trundling into the corner. We remove the Full Course Yellow in 45 seconds. The #20 High Class car is having some issues. 30 seconds before Full Course Yellow is removed. 20 seconds now. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Go. Green flag. Robin Frijns lucked in and has Stoffel Vandoorne still on his six. WRT's Vincent Vosse raced many cars at Le Mans and he was in the Lister LMP car with Jamie Campbell-Walter and Vincent Vosse ran a lot of GT cars.
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