A battle of Am Ferrari's. Scott Andrews and Giancarlo Fisichella. We will see Scott Andrews at the IMSA WeatherTech Championship finale at Petit Le Mans next weekend as well. We are joined in the booth now by Michelle Gatting. She saw the race last weekend and is back again, although she has been racing a lot in 2021. She will race next weekend. Gatting started in junior single seater racing. Katherine Legge says that she thought her rival opened the door but he slammed it again. Only a cut tire was the symptom of that contact. There was an issue on a previous set of tires before and then, the wreck. It is tough in the European Le Mans Series to run with the LMP3 cars. The race still continues. Sports car racing was not on Michelle Gatting's radar. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was an attainable goal for her and she is very happy to be in endurance racing.
Gatting has also been racing in Ferrari Challenge this year. Good battle as Neel Jani is behing monstered by Alessandro Pier Guidi. This is the World Championship battle in GTE-Pro. When will we hear about the plan for Iron Dames in 2022? They have five or six categories Iron Lynx are running in. World Endurance, European Le Mans Series, SRO GT World Challenge Europe, Formula 4, and more. Esteban Garcia challenging Stoffel Vandoorne. That is Anthony Davidson, actually, in the car. Michelle Gatting says that in most cases, there is lots of respect for women in motorsports. Away from the race track, she understands the idea (with Iron Dames), inspiring other women to be in racing. Winning races is a big deal.
Robin Frijns runs second in LMP2 just behind Frits van Eerd. Francois Perrodo leads GTE-Am ahead of Roberto Lacorte. GTE-Am drivers have to do a longer minimum drive time in their class in the same way that the LMP2 drivers do. United Autosport and Filipe Albuquerque are catching the #70 car for RealTeam Racing. Nurse your tires in gently. We continue to watch the Neel Jani and James Calado battle. Warning flag for the #51 car of Pier Guidi, last warning for track limits before a penalty. He has done only 11 laps and has another 15 to go. So he has to be very careful. The shadows lengthen and the sun is setting. The sun goes down here in Bahrain really quickly before we plunge into dusk, into darkness. The drivers have to watch out for the sun.
Racing Team Nederland runs 12 and a half seconds to the good over the next LMP2 car, which I believe is the RealTeam Racing #70 that has dropped down slightly. Alessandro Pier Guidi is monstering Neel Jani right now. Andre Negrao moves past the GTE cars for position. Porsche #92 running a defensive line. Racing Team Nederland has won in LMP2 but it has been a long time since they accomplished that. So, two seconds behind the GTE-Pro lead battle, as Fuji 2019 was the last win for Racing Team Nederland I believe, although they also may have won in class at Monza last summer. Robin Frijns meanwhile, as we see Stoffel Vandoorne catching Robin Frijns who is also catching Frits van Eerd.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Anthony Davidson are going to be battling for position and for the championship in LMP2 I believe. Every driver, just like a set of tires, you have to get the maximum out of them. Frits van Eerd may pit this time and he is as Robin Frijns goes by. Stoffel Vandoorne does as well. Meanwhile, Michael Christensen is back in WEC for a three-driver Porsche lineup, and drive time is the benefit, for having rest time. Track position is critical. The people who make the least mistakes will be successful enough.
Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car #1 in the pit lane. Robin Frijns continues leading LMP2. Filipe Albuquerque and Job van Uitert are fourth and fifth as Matteo Cressoni passes Christian Ried. Ried is still in the car as the sun sets. This is his third weekend of racing. Egidio Perfetti is moving in on Francois Perrodo. Aston Martin #33 is up to seventh place but this won't be enough for them to recover in the points standings. They need to be as high as third. Their target was to win, but they are climbing the mountain right now. This could be Egidio Perfetti's last race for a while, or, his last race ever. We don't know yet. ARC Bratislava in the lane for service. Olli Caldwell sharing with Miro Konopka and Nelson Panciatici.
#20 in the lane with High Class Racing as Dennis Andersen hands the car to Robert Kubica. Norman Nato passes Juan Pablo Montoya for seventh in LMP2 and second in LMP2 Pro-Am. Ben Hanley will take over from Juan Pablo Montoya. The sun is still rapidly setting and we shall see the floodlights soon. DragonSpeed are 20 points behind Racing Team Nederland in the LMP2 Pro-Am points. Olli Caldwell is driving very well in the #44 ARC Bratislava car. Kazuki Nakajima leads Jose Maria Lopez now by 6.6 seconds. We haven't checked on the Toyota's for a while. Both cars will need new tires soon and have run 20-21 laps on their tires as of late.
The LMP2 cars are three laps down and the Alpine is four laps down. This is going to very likely be a Toyota race. Two and a half hours, we have see 126 overtakes for the leader. You overtake one car a minute for eight hours. Wow. The Toyota's are running in the 1:50 range insofar as lap times. It has been very hot here in the desert of Bahrain and the garages are extremely hot! Mechanics have had to strip the cars down and rebuild them. Anthony Davidson just drove through the pit lane. Was that for a penalty? We don't know. No notification given. That's odd. Once you are committed to the pit lane you cannot cross the white line before the lane, back over onto the road.
A bit of argy bargy between one of the AF Corse Ferrari's and the DragonSpeed LMP2 car. Miguel Molina is getting right back into this fight. We know now that Anthony Davidson drove through the pit lane in error thinking he was going to make a pit stop, but no. WRT at the ready for a driver change. Pit stop time now for the #31 WRT car. Tires and fuel as well as a driver change I believe. Charles Milesi is now in the #31. We have to note that Jota is right at the beginning of the pit lane. Check that, the middle of the pit lane I believe. Sean Gelael will be getting into the #28 Jota car. He will do another double stint, taking over from Stoffel Vandoorne.
Juan Pablo Montoya will hand over to Ben Hanley in the #21 DragonSpeed car. Pit stop time too for the #22 United Autisport car but Filipe Albuquerque stays in the car. Renger van der Zande says that the #34 Inter Europol car is oiutside the window twhere they want the performance to be. Jota are definitely in the game this time around. Front left puncture on the #28 car for Jota! Oh dear! Now, maybe this is a false alarm. Maybe this is just tire pressure fluctuating. It does not look like the tire is flat. Deary me. Job van Uitert will take over the LMP2 lead and be racing Roberto Gonzalez. He did a double stint and he will have his final required stint now.
Scrubbed tires as Sean Gelael stays out. Gonzalez gets left side Michelin tires. Anthony Davidson walks away, perhaps for the last time as a driver. The contrast is coming up as the light fades here in the desett in Bahrain. #38 is under investigation for speeding in the pit lane. Ah. Ferrari #85 has the number panel peeled away on the lefthand door. Drivers didn't have to qualify in the dark and you won't be pitted to have a failed lit panel repaired. The panels on the side are illuminated. The sticker can be replaced.
Yes, car #85 to repair left hand side door number on the next pit stop. #29 didn't pit under the Full Course Yellow nor did #38 in LMP2. Roberto Gonzalez and Job van Uitert. Frits van Eerd is eligible for the LMP2 Pro-Am championship. Charles Milesi will pass Job van Uitert. Toyota #7 pits from second, 15 seconds back. Jose Maria Lopez will do a double stint before Kamui Kobayashi takes over in 45 minutes or so. Christian Ried pits the #77 Dempsey Proton GTE-Am Porsche as well. The second place Porsche and third place Ferrari in GTE-Pro are in the lane now. What will the strategy be? No driver change for either team.
Scrubbed tires and a windscreen tear off change for the Ferrari. Four tires for the #92 Porsche. What will Ferrari do? Porsche are far quicker as we see the #8 Toyota in the lane. Confirmed that Ferrari changes four tires. Fresh left sides and scrubbed right sides. Aston Martin #777 is in as Satoshi Hoshino is out of the car. Jaxon Evans has the wheel of the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. In fourth in GTE-Am, Egidio Perfetti is still in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche. Scott Andrews is now second behind Roberto Lacorte. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari I believe is still leading the GTE-Am class. The gap between Francois Perrodo and Ben Keating. Porsche #91 in the lane now. Three hours now done and dusted with five remaining.
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