Olivier Pla is back into the Glickenhaus and I apologize, as they were on the right cycle. The Toyota is coming in a hurry. 300 clicks, 190 miles an hour for the Toyota. More repairs for the #71 and that Ferrari is having the power steering fluid topped up. Something is wrong with the steering as one of the mechanics is turning the steering wheel to see if it works. Frank Desoteux at the wheel of the car sharing with Pierre Ragues and Gabriel Aubry. They have had a fraught race so far. Team Project 1 remain behind the wall and it could indeed be game over for them. RealTeam is coming closer. Esteban Guttierez is the team boss.
RealTeam are running the #41 on this car for Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg, and the aforementioned Esteban Guttierez. Rene Rast sends it inside through Sunseret Bend! Yikes! These are the WRT team cars! Norman Nato should be into the lane at the end of this lap or the next one. Norman Nato is not going to give this one away. Paul di Resta now in the pit lane for United Autosport from the lead in class in LMP2. Mike Rockenfeller here with Vector Sport. Rockenfeller says the car is pretty much undrivable.
United Autosport car #23 is back on track. Mike Rockenfeller will be racing tomorrow with Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi for Action Express tomorrow, and they will be able to drive enough laps to start the race in the #48 Ally Financial Cadillac. Two drivers for a twelve hour race is doable, but they need three. Jose Maria Lopez should be fine for the race tomorrow. He will have to make up his mind about the race tomorrow. Let's hope he is. Medically he will be fine and he'll have to have the physio assist him. Three of the six Toyota drivers are penciled in to race the 12 Hours of Sebring tomorrow. The folks at Action Express cannot and will not hedge their bets.
Glickenhaus meanwhile have run down the pit lane to get to their pit box as we see the #31 WRT car in the lane from the lead in LMP2 as Rene Rast is now into that automobile. Premat has fallen back and the pace has come to their competitors. In the cloud cover, the plummeting track temps are causing the cars to handle differently and affecting the tire pressures and temperatures in a major way. Track conditions, ambient conditions, are changing. Good scrap between Roberto Gonzalez and Lorenzo Colombo. Jota vs. Prema. Colombo is catching Gonzalez. He goes the long way around and can't make it past Gonzalez. So, Colombo has been snookered here at least briefly.
Colombo makes his move. Matthias Beche behind, also in a Pro-Am LMP2 entry. Lorenzo Colombo now fifth in LMP2. Phil Hanson is all over Norman Nato like a rash. Hanson wants to go for it. What a wild deal in LMP2. Oliver Jarvis now has the lead in the #23 United Autosport entry. Has Will Owen completed his drive time? We also wonder about Josh Pierson. #9 has indeed led in LMP2 as the graphics say they haven't. Work continues on a ground up restoration for Vector Sport and the #10 car being shared by of Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Muller, and Ryan Cullen.
The Oreca LMP2 cars are pitch sensitive to their downforce. The aero and the oscillation cannot be hunderestimated. Watch the handling on the car. Roberto Gonzalez has now passed Lorenzo Colombo. Both of them need fuel in ten laps or about 15 minutes. It will be ten laps for Colombo and 11 laps for Gonzalez and neither driver will complete their drive time and so they need to stay in the car a while longer. We have not seen the adjustments on drive time due to the red flag, yet. Jonathan Aberdein is fixing to catch these two chaps up. Gonzalez will not defend from Colombo or so it appears. Colombo makes a successful pass.
An hour and a half and then two hours ten minutes are being slated as drive times for LMP2 Am and GTE Am, subtracting the time taken for the red flag for Jose Maria Lopez's accident. Two and a half hours to go as the Jota cars scrap. Aberdein passes Gonzalez with no dramas. #71, the Inception Racing Ferrari has gone behind the wall. Pit stop time for the #85 Iron Lynx Iron Dames Ferrari. Iron Dames have an all female pit crew. David Pittard is now second in GTE Am in the #98 Aston Martin as Andre Negrao brings the race leading #36 Alpine to the lane.
The overcast conditions are cooling the track now that it is 5:35 P.M. Eastern Time. The sun is beginning to set. Slow pit stop for the #64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R a while ago, ten seconds longer, as the door was hanging out of place with a broken latch. That was from contact with an LMP2 car in turn seven. We see Ryo Hirakawa now at the wheel of the #8 Toyota in his first WEC race after racing Formula Nippon and Super GT in Japan. Alpine lead now by over a minute. Olivier Pla has the #708 Glickenhaus SCG 007 third, on the podium. Olivier Pla is being told he has good pace and has 11 laps left in his current stint.
Pla is faster than Hirakawa and Negrao. But Andre Negrao leads by a minute. Kevin Estre leads GTE Pro in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Corvette are behind, but maybe they have used fewer tires than Porsche. We just don't, and probably won't know. Corvette have stopped four times and two of them have been full service. Four stops for each of the Porsche's while they have taken tires on every stop. Kevin Estre has uncorked fastest race lap for Porsche at 1:58.09, 1:58 dead while Tandy clocked a 1:57.7. Nothing has changed really, in GTE Pro. Corvette have more tires in the locker and the performance of the tires for Corvette have been better than the Porsche. Ferrari have not been in it today. Maybe Sebring does not suit their car.
The Ferrari has a very close shave with the wall out of Sunset Bend! There's clag all over the tires and they stay on for a long while. Yikes! He was in a different county headed through Sunset Bend! Yikes! Penske pinged ten seconds for a pit stop infringement that we do not have specifics of. No earth wire? Maybe a foot ove the white line? The #7 Toyota is the only retirement but the #46 Project 1 Porsche and the #71 Spirit of Race Ferrari are in the garage. #28 in the lane and we saw I think the #83 AF Corse car. Jonathan Aberdein out of the #28. Lorenzo Colombo is staying in the car.
161 of 268 laps now done in the #36 Alpine. Oliver Jarvis in the lane for fuel only for the United Autosports entry. Roberto Gonzalez is still third even though the man is rated as a gentleman driver. Wow. Ferdinand Habsburg has loads of mileage on his tires. 81 laps, that is a quadruple stint plus on tires! Holy cow. Adding qualfying to the equation as well. Oh my goodness! 19, 38, 76... maybe all Free Practices as well. Yikes! Rene Rast is now in the pit lane. He ducks to the lane from the lead of LMP2 with Oliver Jarvis 58.8 seconds in-arrears.
Robin Frijns will take over the car. Fuel only for Oliver Jarvis. Will there be tires? The rattle guns are ready to go. Yes. There will be tires. Olivier Pla is going very quickly, closing up the gap to Toyota in the Glickenhaus. Sunset isn't sunset yet but the light is fading here at Sebring. Phil Hanson almost rams the D'station Aston Martin of Satoshi Hoshino who got on the dust outside turn 16 onto Ulmann Straight! Whoa! Lorenzo Colombo is still pressing hard aboard the Prema entry and Robert Kubica will take over on the next stop. The #10 Vector Sport car has gone off the road with Ryan Cullen at the controls. Local yellow. A battle in LMP2 between Penske and Jota. Felipe Nasr vs. Will Stevens.
Richard Lietz brings the #91 Porsche in for service and will stay in the car for a double stint as the mechanic removes a windscreen tear off. Robert Kubica has found his feet in endurance racing after losing his dream of Formula 1, and reaching for the stars. The #91 has also had fuel and tires. They had trouble with the wheel nut on the left rear tire. Felipe Nasr for Penske has set one of the fastest laps the #5 has done. Now then, Michael Christensen takes over from Kevin Estre in the GTE Pro leading Porsche #92. The other Jota entry has Ed Jones at the controls. Felipe Nasr and Will Stevens have both raced in Formula 1 before.
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