Alpine leading the motor race still, 37 seconds to the good over the #8 Toyota. The Alpine is a tad kinder on the tires. Alpine have been quicker than both Glickenhaus and Toyota. Porsche #91 now in the pit lane for service. The sister #92 Porsche is now in the lane. These drivers are giving it everything they have, sweat running into their eyes as they drive the car. Racing drivers are true athletes. Nick Tandy just ran an amazing stint and says he had fun with it. When the tires are fresh Porsche may have the advantage. At the end of the stint, Corvette doubled their first set of Michelin's. They have new and fresh boots on the car for Tommy Milner. Tires are not as good as the drivers would like them to be. At the Prologue test, there were false readings because of cooler track and ambient temperatures than we are seeing today.
Corvette went with soft compound Michelin tires? Well, they cannot tell us what they are doing because then they'd be giving their game away! Play your cards close to your chest. We have seen a battle in GTE Am between D'station and AF Corse. Toni Vilander vs. Charlie Fagg. 71 laps now completed. Alpine, Toyota, Toyota, Glickenhaus in Hypercar. Ben Keating being caught by Sebastian Priaulx. Florian Latorre is now in the #33 Aston. Sean Gelael is readying for his second stint aboard the #31 WRT Oreca in LMP2. Six hours remain in the race. Maybe a little less. We would be 14 minutes into a regular WEC event. The weather has been chopping and changing here at Sebring, with tire rubber going down on track from the IMSA cars and the WEC cars.
Again, this is the start of the final season GTE Pro. It will be sad to see these cars go as the GT3 cars will enter the frame in 2023 for FIA World Endurance. Just the same as what we are now seeing in IMSA. There are profound changes to these cars, losing pace between classes and finding it again, between the GT1 and GT2 eras and then into the GTLM/LM GTE eras and the new GT3 idea. Emmanuel Collard is back in LMP2 and back with Team Penske. He thought they were kidding. LMP2 is a new ball game for them even though Collard and Penske raced the awesome and legendary Porsche RS Spyder back about 15 years ago.
Jota vs. Penske in LMP2. Collard in the #5 Penske car and the #28 Jota entry, I am not sure who is driving the car at the moment. Emmanuel Collard knows the WEC and how it operates. Brendon Hartley has taken over the #8 Toyota GR010. Ed Jones is in the #28 Jota entry scrapping with Manu Collard. Ed Jones has raced IndyCar for many years and has only tested IndyCars here, until now. He was third in the 2017 Indianapolis 500, five years ago. He knows Sebring to a degree. The IndyCars do not test on the full circuit. Ed Jones has raced at Spa and Monza in Formula Renault.
Rahel Frey has just passed Nicki Leutwiler in GTE Am. This is a change for fifth in the class. Manu Collard is losing time to Ed Jones but he is clean as a whistle through traffic. Collard runs wide and Jones is closing up right on his six. Jones chops the Porsche and goes right 'round Collard! Yikes! That was wild! Matthieu Vaxiviere makes a quick stop and stays in the Alpine continuing on his merry way in the race lead. Correction. Brendon Hartley now has the lead of the motor race in the #8 Toyota. Jose Maria Lopez is now in the #7 and catching Brendon Hartley.
If Toyota has a lap in hand over their team car, they will have track position, depending on which one is leading. The Toyota's are slower than the Alpine but have a larger fuel tank. Historically, the trio in the #8 car has been able to save more fuel in the past races compared to the #7 entry. That is how they won Spa last spring. Romain Dumas in the Glickenhaus is still fourth behind Nico Lapierre. Alpine now 12 seconds down on the Toyota's. The Glickenhaus has been quick enough to be a contender. They are not as quick as the Alpine but are going further on fuel mileage. Richard Mille Racing Team are getting ready for a driver change. Lilou Wadoux has just done a double stint. Eight-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier is now at the wheel.
Ogier is being harried by the Toyota right now through Sunset Bend. It is not Seb on Seb as Sebastien Buemi is not driving. But that was Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota. To the lane, United Autosport and Prema. Single stint for Phil Hanson and Josh Pierson and the sister car take over. Two and a half hours now on the board, so half an hour to go to the completion of another racing hour. Sticker Michelin tires on the car. Optimize the time of the Silver rated driver who has a different driver time requirement than a Gold rated driver. A double or triple are not enough. One of the LMP2 does a rodeo ride in turn 17, the #83 AF Corse entry.
That is not a bump in Sunset Bend. It is a sinkhole. Glickenhaus in the lane for service and Romain Dumas gets out of the car and is almost clipped by another car exiting the lane! Ryan Briscoe now into the car. That LMP2 car is going to have to be penalized for an unsafe pit release. Sheesh! That could have been the RealTeam car. Ah. It's the Ultimate car. Romain Dumas nearly had a very close shave there! At Toyota, Brendon Hartley is told to update how the car is handling as Ryo Hirakawa readies for his first stint. Hartley says the car is tricky to handle under braking, and so, he will be hitting the brakes very early into the corner. The corner begins as soon as you hit the brake pedal.
Romain Dumas shrugged off being clipped by another car. They have lost some time at Glickenhaus and they are going to see what happens. Dumas still has the fire and the passion to race. He is a great all around driver... rallying, sports cars, open wheel, whatever. Sebastien Ogier is coming. Romain Dumas did not even notice a car was about to hit him. Sebastien Ogier is loving this track at Sebring because it must remind him of his rallying days. LMP2 cars have never had wide enough tires. Toyota in the lane for #7 ahead of #8. 27 laps and 28 laps on stints for the #8. Toyota's Alastair Moffat confirmed that after the opening stint, 28 laps would be their target.
Stephen Thomas, Oliver Rasmussen, and Antonio Felix Da Costa are all chasing Dane Cameron presently. Cameron now in the #5 Penske Oreca entry. Oliver Rasmussen waves Antonio Felix Da Costa by. Toyota #8 now in the lane after another 28 lap stint as Ben Keating has Sebastian Priaulx right on top of him. Priaulx is running very well on his WEC debut. Ben Keating is in for his second stint and Florian Latorre ran a single stint. The #71 Gabriel Aubry driven Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE. That is an all French lineup. Paul Dalla Lana continues to lead GTE Am in the #98 factory Aston Martin.
Aubry in an all-French lineup with Frank Dezoteux and Pierre Ragues. Ben Keating has left the door open and Sebastian Priaulx passes Ben Keating. Nico Lapierre passes the #46 Nicky Leutwiler driven Porsche. The Alpine is the hare and the Toyota's are the tortoises right now. The Alpine's stints have been in the 1:50-1:51 lap time range while the Toyota's are down further in the 1:52 bracket. Dane Cameron leads Antonio Felix Da Costa and Oliver Rasmussen. .Louis Deletraz is giving everything to Will Owen in challenge here for LMP2. Owen seems to be giving Deletraz the rough end of the pineapple right now.
Will Owen is an AI technician in his day to day life. Prema have succeeded over the years in lower tier open wheel formulae and now are in sports cars and in LMP2, scrapping hard with AF Corse as the two teams are contesting for the opportunity to run the soon to come Ferrari hypercars. Tight racing through Sunset Bend as Giancarlo Fisichella moves past Francesco Castellaci, Fisichella passing the car he used to drive in WEC for a few years. 90 laps in the bag. 179 remaining. We are getting close to the three hour mark here in another ten minutes. Toyota run 1-2. Glickenhaus third. United Autosport lead LMP2. Corvette and Aston Martin Northwest AMR lead the GTE classes.
The Toyota's and the Glickenhaus have larger fuel tanks than do the Alpine. Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, will be next into the #36 car. Louis Deletraz and Will Owen continue to battle for position. Owen has been successful in LMP2 and LMP3. Lorenzo Colombo has already been in the car and we still have their other two drivers going for it. Josh Pierson very nearly runs over the curbs in turn five. The LMP2 cars are very stiffly sprung. Drive through penalty for Miro Konopka in the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP2 as Sebastien Ogier will double stint after a pit stop for two right side tires. Ogier's tires are totally ratty, the last set that have just been changed.
Those tires were totally undrivable and maybe Ogier was locking the brakes up. Antonio Felix Da Costa continues chasing after Dane Cameron. Antonio Felix Da Costa will be pushing, pushing, pushing to try and get around Dane Cameron in spite of a scruffy qualifying effort yesterday. Sebastien Ogier has gone off the road. You have to get a rallying driver to learn to stay on the pavement. Will Owen continues fending off Louis Deletraz. 95 laps now on the board as we continue to watch the LMP2 battle. Pit stop time for the #33 Aston Martin, Ben Keating at the wheel and he will do a double stint. Tires and fuel for the car.
Keating will finish his drive time. Someone has hit the tires out of Sunset Bend. It is the #46 Project 1 Porsche of Nicky Leutwiler who has just slammed the wall, losing the rear end, and, crunch! Did not take much for him to spin. It has loads of dmaage and the car is beginning to fall apart. They had repaired steering issues on the car before the motor race began. It is the same damage they had in qualifying and it is shedding parts all over the shop. That bodywork won't hang on. Slow down, bucky. That's not safe. The rear end will be torn to pieces and there will be carbon fiber all over the road. Hopefully the car comes back under it;s own steam and it looks like it has.
Alpine does not want a safety car or they will lose buckets of time to the Toyota's. Penske in the lane in LMP2 for service. Dane Cameron will stay in and do a double stint as Gabriel Aubry has a penalty for speeding in the lane in GTE Am. That is a significant speeding penalty. The limiter is busted. Paul Dalla Lana will stay aboard the #98 Aston Martin and Christian Ried will assume the lead in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche? Maybe not. This is a hot pit lane and the car will have to go back behind the wall. Team Project 1 have had a dreadful weekend this weekend. Very demoralizing for the team as we have seen them have two crashes in a couple of days.,
A number of years ago, they had a car burn to the ground in testing and had a few big accidents last year as well. Sean Gelael went off the road in the Tower Turn, turn 13. Deletraz closing in on Will Owen and fast. We also think of Mike Conway who lost his dad yesterday. Clear away the emotions and stay focused on racing. Michael Christensen is being asked about his tires and fuel. He is being told to stretch fuel. Corvette will do fuel and right side tires on their next stop. Porsche #46 is on the dollies and headed behind the wall. Next time by we will run 100 laps in this race, 375 miles. Sebastian Priaulx had a great stint in the #77 Porsche and now I think Harry Tincknell will be in the car.
Porsche #91 now in the pit lane. Guanmaria Bruni replaces Richard Lietz and Kevin Estre now takes back over from Michael Christensen. Tires and fuel as well. #92 now in the lane and this promotes Tommy Milner in Corvette C8.R #64 back to the lead of the motor race in GTE Pro. The Ultimate car stalls in the pit lane. Sean Gelael now leading LMP2 in the #31 WRT entry. Alpine to the pit lane. Nico Lapierre is in. Left rear puncture for the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche, the blue and yellow car. Alpine in the lane from the lead and everyone else is in as well. Sebastien Ogier is in as well. Now then, the Porsche has just spun and he will have to come back on track in the esses. Local Yellow there.
Will it be a Full Course Yellow? That is Fred Poordad sharing with Patrick Lindsey and Julien Andlauer. Poordad is blinded here trying to cross the circuit and cars have to take evasive action. He just barely crosses the track and does so after a couple cars had to play through! Yikes! So he has made it to the lane but in a dnagerous fashion. Josh Pierson says he was struggling for grip and the tires were going away. He managed his tires well. It is amazing for him to be in World Endurance at Sebring and likes the challenge. He will be racing the entire season in WEC including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Toyota position swap. Jose Maria Lopez was chasing Brendon Hartley. Now, Hartley may be playing the fuel saving game. So, the third hour has come to an end.
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