Alpine leads Hypercar. United Autosport leads LMP2. GTE Pro led by Porsche and GTE Am being led by Ferrari. Oh dear. We have a slow car on the road and that is Fabio Scherer in the #34 Intereuropol LMP2 car going to the inside in turn 13, the Tower Turn, and contact with another LMP2, the Ultimate entry and he almost whacked the barrier! Blimey! That was close! 39 laps completed. Francois Perrodo now in the #83 AF Corse Oreca. Emmanuel Collard will get into the #5 Penske Oreca too. Is it fuel for Intereuropol? United Autosport #22 pits for fuel. In replay, three wide past Ollie Milroy and one of the other GTE Am cars. Toyota #8 is losing time to the Alpine as Paul di Resta pits and we will see a driver change. Sean Gelael will also be in the lane soon aboard the #31. Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson joined by Will Owen. Sean Gelael in from second in the #31 WRT car. Robin Frijns will take over from Sean Gelael.
Esteban Guttierez will take over the #34 car from Fabio Scherer. Josh Pierson, the young American driver is now at the wheel of the #23 United Autosport car. Oh dear. In the #708, Olivier Pla says he has no drink bottle. Dear me. That won't work too well. He will be thirsty! No use keeping cool trying to drink hot water. Fabio Scherer had a discussion with one of the drivers from Ultimate. He says it is a racing incident. It was a "racing deal". The car was power cycled after it stalled, and it seems to be working. Scherer was not expecting to be driving here and he did take the start of the motor race. He has been driving a wonderful stint thus far.
Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard battle. Collard was his co-driver and driver coach in the past. Emmanuel Collard now driving for Roger Penske and his team. Perrodo may yield but he does not. 44 laps now on the board. Emmanuel Collard is now a Silver rated driver. He has been around for a long, long time and is a true veteran of sports car racing. In LMP2, it is United Autosports with Phil Hanson ahead of teammate Josh Pierson. Pierson is closing in on Hanson hand over fist. 45 laps now complete. Prema, Penske, and AF Corse follow the two United Autosport cars. In GTE Am, here comes the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche ahead of the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari.
Sebastian Priaulx is in his first start in World Endurance alongside Harry Tincknell and Christian Ried. Sebastian Priaulx's dad Andy was a Ford factory driver. Seb Priaulx is a Multimatic contracted driver. Christian Ried's dad Gerold raced together. Ried's kids are go karting and in Formula 4. Robin Frijns is taking the fight to Ed Jones. Good scrap in LMP2. Rene Binder has the #45 entry for Algarve Pro Racing, the Oreca he shares with Steven Thomas and James Allen. Mikkel Pedersen is now seventh in class taking over from Matteo Cairoli in the #46 Project 1 Porsche. Ferrari #51, fourth in GTE Pro with James Calado at the wheel, Calado takes the off road route onto the dust.
Hanson and Pierson continue to battle as Miro Konopka is passed. Konopka, the senior driver in the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca. Konopka, the Slovakian sharing with Matthias Beche of Switzerland and Tijmen van der Helm of Holland. Aston Martin #98 is pressing on and Paul Dalla Lana was quicker than Ben Keating. David Pittard now driving ahead of Florian Lattore and Satoshi Hoshino. An Aston Martin 1-2-3 for AMR, TF Sport, and D'station. Then comes Dempsey Proton Porsche and Iron Lynx Iron Dames Ferrari. Nick Tandy and Corvette lead GTE Pro over both of the factory Porsche's with the Ferrari's bringing up the rear.
The #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi wiggles and is losing ground to the sister Toyota of Sebastien Buemi. Kobayashi maybe has knackered Michelin tires. Romain Dumas in the #708 Glickenhaus is catching up as the #36 Alpine continues to lead the motor race. At the exit of turn four, that is where we saw the wiggle for the Toyota, losing the back of the car, skating all over the road. Jeepers creepers! Nick Tandy in the Corvette C8.R had to take evasive action. Robin Frijns tells the WRT team the car is very hard to drive. He is having handling and balance woes. It is a long, long race, 1,000 miles. More woe for the #34! Goodness. Esteban Guttierez might be having electrical issues and we have a Full Course Yellow. Lap 49 and the Alpine is in the lane for service.
It is a local yellow at turns six and seven. We might see a Full Course Yellow. We'll find out. We are going Full Course Yellow. The lead for Alpine will evaporate. Never mind. Full Course Yellow cancelled. Toyota now to the front and another issue for Kamui Kobayashi going way wide! Kobayashi has knackered tires. The player and manager role for Kobayashi is not working out just yet. #34 off the road again on the Ulmann straight, power cycling the car. Good grief. We may now have to go Full Course Yellow for this electrical issue. Now he is back on track. How strange. Jota and Ultimate battle in LMP2. Yellow at turn three and the #34 is now stopped again. Stop, start, stop, start.
I have to wonder if this will be game over for the Intereuropol boys. The bumps are messing with the electronics which hate heat and vibration. Kamui Kobayashi is reporting tire issues and not being happy with them. No you know what, Sherlock. Michelle Gatting now at the controls of the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE. The Aston Martin is handling the bumps better than the Ferrari's and the Porsche's. Team Manager of the #34 has been summoned to the lane to repair it. It is not safe for the car to keep starting and stopping. We continue to watch through the esses, D'station Aston Martin and Iron Dames Ferrari.
The Dempsey Proton Porsche is now back up to third place in GTE Am as Satoshi Hoshino is fending off the challenge of Michelle Gatting. Satoshi Hoshino is the man behind D'station Racing. Porsche #92 reeling in the #64 Corvette. Michael Christensen vs. Nick Tandy, former teammates at Porsche AG of course. Tandy has done double the amount on his tires compared to Christensen. Mercifully, the #34 is in the pit lane. You cannot see about whether electronics work. It is nothing like seeing an engine issue or a water and radiator problem. Gatting passes Hoshino into Sunset Bend, watch out for the big bump in that turn.
So, Gatting moves up to fourth in class. Ollie Milory is coming in a hurry in the Projectr 1 Porsche, the #56. Glickenhaus in the lane for service changing the drink bottle for Olivier Pla. He has had a crewman assist with a regular drinks bottle. If Porsche comes calling, Tandy will be told to let go and just get on with it. Kobayashi brings the #7 Toyota to the lane. Driver changes and we see Jose Maria Lopez into the car for his first stint. Nicolas Lapierre is another driver who is also a manager for a team. Kamui Kobayashi is in contact with Akio Toyoda, the President of Toyota motors. The sister #8 car is now in the lane for a driver change. Sebastien Buemi out and into the car, it will be Brendon Hartley.
Did #8 find an extra lap of petrol? Yes, he sure did. LMP2 battle for fourth. Emmanuel Collard being harried by Rui Andrade. 57 laps now being circulated. Josh Pierson is being harried too by the #9 Prema entry, the Prema Orlen Team. #9, the Oreca, has Lorenzo Colombo of Italy, along with Poland's Robert Kubica (former F1 and rally driver turned sports car racer), and Louis Deletraz. Colombo is their Silver rated driver, the Italian. We see ARC Bratislava in the lane too. Left side tires for Porsche and Michael Christensen in the #92. Christensen chasing Nick Tandy. Corvette vs. Porsche. Miro Konopka stayed in the #44 and is back on track.
European fans have not seen Nick Tandy in the last few years, racing in North America. Christensen is pressing his old team mate and I don't have to tell you, hard. United Autosport #22 in the lane from the LMP2 lead and Lorenzo Colombo has brought in the #9 on a double stint after Robert Kubica started the car. Lapped traffic ahead, the Corvette and Porsche scrap is getting spicy! United Autosport #23, Josh Pierson, in the lane from the LMP2 lead. Pierson could be the youngest starter ever at the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this summer. We'll see. So, this is a massive ding dong between the Corvette and the Porsche in GTE Pro. WRT in the lane with Robin Frijns at the wheel of it.
Fuel only for the #31 defending World Champions and Le Mans winners from 2021. It could be Nick Tandy will be in the lane soon. The bumps make it so your hands are very busy steering the car. You have to adjust the car constantly for where you are traveling on the road. Michael Christensen is told to adjust his brake bias on the car to the rear as we have the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari pitting. Michelle Gatting driving. These two blokes are half a minute up on the third place battle of Richard Lietz in the sister factory Porsche and James Calado in the first of the factory AF Corse Ferrari's.
Dempsey Proton Porsche #77 in the lane and so are the #92 Porsche and the #64 Corvette. Rahel Frey says that the handling of the Ferrari was starting to go away but she was keeping it together. Driver change in the #64 and Tommy Milner is now driving his first stint in World Endurance. Sebastian Priaulx is back on track for a double stint. He and David Pittard have had a great battle thus far.
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