The track is flooded, and we will have to wait and see if the track dries out. This is our second red flag of the race. Lorenzo Colombo has driven a very solid race thus far. He says the team gave him good advice during his stint. This is his first time driving in the rain on slick tires. Robert Kubica took over the car before the red flag. This is Spa, always difficult in the wet. The top four GTE Pro cars will all be waved by. Race will be resumed at 15:20 following red flag procedures. Are cars eligible for the wave around? Pass the safety car. Get pointed by. Make sure your driver is aware. The GTE cars will be the only classes affected. Hypercars and LMP2's all on the lead lap as Pierre Ragues probably has to use the restroom before we get started.
Robin Frijns leads Andre Negrao, Mike Conway, followed by Prema and Glickenhaus. But this is not the order in the safety car queue. Toyota #8, Sebastien Buemi was totally frustrated and for good reason. He says that the team still does not know. Restarting the car didn't work. The hybrid was busted and the power cycle did not work. The cars are not in the actual race order we have seen. Nick Tandy is told that he and the Ferrari are ahead of the overall leader and they will get a wave around to the tail end of the field and they will be in position at Corvette to get a lap back. But it will be a bear for them. Your wheel arch liner is wonky as well. We should be seeing a double wave by. Tandy is shown four minutes plus behind Alessandro Pier Guidi but it is not a full lap.
The reference was to the #52 AF Corse Ferrari at the front of the queue but not the sister #51. It is all confusing. The Vector Sport LMP2 pitted from the race lead sans a wave by. #52 was next in line and then the race was red flagged. The big rain cluster is moving away according to the radar picture around the Spa circuit in the Francorchamps, Malmedy, Stavelot triangle. Andre Negrao is told to turn off the car in the Alpine. Mechanics are on the grid, looking at the tires. Tires are being changed on the grid? Old tires going back and new tires coming out? That is what it looks like as we remain under the red flag. The start has been delayed by five minutes as we welcome TotalEnergies Romain Aubry. TotalEnergies used to be Total fuel. 100% renewable fuel in all of these cars.
Total Excellium Racing 100 is the fuel. It is sustainable, renewable fuel made from biomass and has no oil. This is all residue from agricultural waste and residue from wine grapes. It is not a base product used for food either. It is a byproduct from the grape industry from making wine. We continue under a red flag but the clock is running. There are hydrocarbons in the fuel but there is no oxygen in it. Porsche #91, the tire pressures are being discussed with Gianmaria Bruni telling the engineers about how the tires are going to work in this next stint. For fuel, there is market demand, governmental demand, and envrionmental demand for making a cleaner burning fuel.
The new biofuel is transparent to the public, to the road car industry. The cars are now rolling behind the safety car for the wave by. TotalEnergies is seeing their company moving to new mobility for hydrogen, biofuel, and electricity. Yours truly still wonders how all of this is going to work. How effective will it be? How will race and road cars run on this cutting-edge technology? One minute to resume behind the safety car. Clear the grid immediately. Start your engines. Fuel cell technology is maturing as we have mobile filling stations for the race cars. Under 30 seconds to resume behind the safety car. Clear the grid immediately please!
Cars follow the safety car. The current difficulties for the hydrogen race car we will see running, is another change to make sure the package is safe. Hydrogen is volatile, so it has to be stabilized and we will see a hydrogen powered car in the European Le Mans Series coming up soon. We will be behind the safety car for a wee while as it is still wet on the road. We have seen the wave around for Corvette #64 and Ferrari #52 to rejoin the back of the queue. Robin Frijns leads ahead of Andre Negrao and Mike Conway. Oreca, Alpine, Toyota. Andre Negrao is told there is lots of water on the road still, and so, we are going to remain under safety car conditions. He is actually telling the team at Alpine that.
Rain lights, on. Heater and AC on. Roberto Gonzalez and Jota have had a good race so far. It was eating into Gonzalez's minimum drive time. Drive times will be recalculated. Car #83 is in trouble for unauthorized assistance from a pit crew member not allocated to that automobile. Good grief. At AF Corse for #83, the #5 Penske Oreca had an issue and the #83 team was told by the marshal to push the car back to get back around. Green flag. We are back to racing. Alpine in second spot. Toyota in third. WRT LMP2 out in front.
We have a TotalEnergies engineer and she is explaining how the fuel is analyzed after the motor race is over. The race track is a mobile laboratory for the fuel company. Andre Negrao leads Mike Conway, great rooster tails spewing from the cars. Conway wants to make a pass into La Soruce and does so. Negrao wants to do the over/under but he does not have the power. He needs to bring more power. No hybrid boost deployed on the Toyota. This si for second as Robin Frijns is the leader of the motor race. All the teams are very curious about this new fuel. They ask the people at TotalEnergies how this new fuel works. No need to worry about the transport. Early biofuels smell like cherry. This one might smell like alcohol if you drink a glass of wine or something.
Yellow flag at turn 18 at the Bus Stop. Good gravy. Thank you, TotalEnergies and we hope for everyone's fuel to pass inspection after the race. You have to push hard but it isn't easy in low visibility like this. Mike Conway is closing in on Robin Frijns. Miro Konopka is OK after his impact in the earlier portion of the race as the #777 Aston Martin spins out. Ben Keating says he is disappointed because following the strategy just has not worked. There were two bad decisions for TF Sport, staying on slicks before the rain and under the safety car before the rain bucketed down. #777 is still slithering all over the road. Keating says #33 went from front to back, putting Marco Sorensen in the car and Keating had his minimum drive time reduced due to the red flag.
They are on the lead lap but nearly caboose on the field. A big gamble for the team. Normally Keating is a very good driver on hot slicks on a drying track but this time it was all a can of worms for Keating as he could not even go in a straight line without aquaplaning off the road. There could be another yellow. Yellows breed yellows. So does the rain. Satoshi Hoshino had contact with Christina Nielsen which is how he was sent spinning. Nick Tandy screams past the Ferrari and the Ferrari is buried behind the GR Racing Porsche #86, totally boxed in, look. The visibility is miserable although the rain is stable and reducing, forming a drier line on the road but still damp.
Ricardo Pera is third in GTE Am. Francesco Castellaci leads GTE Am for Ferrari. GR Racing have been able to stay on their strategy but stay out of the pit lane. We have done a full IMSA WeatherTech Championship sprint or a full American Le Mans Series race from back in the day. The Ultimate LMP2 car has paper covering part of the windscreen. Now then, Filipe Albuquerque and Alex Lynn are scrapping, both United Autosport LMP2 cars. Around the outside he goes before the Bus Stop. Maybe one of the cars, #23, has fresher Goodyear tires. Anther LMP2 position battle as Esteban Guttierez passes Sebastien Ogier.
Inter Europol Competition vs. Richard Mille Racing and here comes the Jota car getting squeezed by the RealTeam entry! Norman Nato and Ed Jones almost get into a tad of argy bargy there and could have been a massive accident! Clear, clear, not clear. A battle between Ogier and Nato for tenth in LMP2. Ogier being a rally driver, is used to the slip angles of the tires without losing speed, used to a loose race car. In a sports car though it is different. Penske runs wide in the #5 at Jacky Ickx curve. Dane Cameron at the wheel of it. He tried out outbrake the #88 Porsche, misjudging the GTE Am Porsche and scraping along the barrier but keeps on trucking. We are seeing Robin Frijns and Alex Lynn bish bash boshing it in thr 2:20 range.
Ogier off the road in the gravel and he knows how it works. The sports car is actually so much more twitchy. Ogier crunched the barrier again and has kept the rear bodywork, thankfully. Great scrap here, look, in LMP2! Robert Kubica and Alex Lynn fighting and fidgeting for position and Lynn has all the grip. Robin Frijns is the only quicker car in LMP2. LMP2's are lapping three seconds a lap quicker than the Hypercars! Holy moly! United Autosport team boss Richard Dean sees how well Alex Lynn is doing and Josh Pierson made up tons of places during his stint. All the LMP2 cars are now on the same strategy after the red flag.
In GTE Am, the AF Corse car spun off the road and Matteo Cairoli in the Project 1 Porsche takes the lead. Francesco Castellaci got on the paint on the outside and spun. That paint in the wet is like ice. Sebastian Priaulx and Matteo Cressoni scrap for position in GTE Am. Porsche vs. Ferrari. Sebastian Priaulx passes but he is slithering off the road again! Did he have a tank slapper? Not quite. Jota have plummeted to 12th and 13th in LMP2. Filipe Albuquerque chasing Robert Kubica. Kubica leads by nearly half a minute. Nick Tandy now saying it is as wet as it was when the red flag came out. Drive through penalty for the #777 Aston Martin.
Antonio Felix Da Costa is back in the #38 car as Gianmaria Bruni slithers off the road into the gravel! Gianmaria Bruni, you little horror! Eek! Dane Cameron spins off the road and is getting a baptism by fire here at Spa as the rain level goes up. Antonio Felix Da Costa is off the track. The track is changing and it is getting wetter. We have another yellow flag. Pipo Derani in third closing up on Andre Negrao. Alpine vs. Glickenhaus. Something wrong for the Prema LMP2 car and Matthieu Lahaye, the older Lahaye brother is off the road. Full Course Yellow. Prepare for it. It isn't the rain or the grip. It is the visibility between the marshal's posts. If we go to safety car, we are going to go to another red flag.
Full Course Yellow. Pit stop time for fuel for the #1 Richard Mille Racing car. Full Course Yellow will make the cars less drivable. No tire temperature, no brake temperature, and more water puddling up on the road with the tires cooling down. Level five is the highest level. That is monsoon conditions. You can hear the rain pitter pattering down on the microphone. #31, race leader in the lane as we see cars diving for the lane for the third time. Glickenhaus and Alpine in the lane which cycles the #7 Toyota to the lead of this motor race. Nico Lapierre takes over the Alpine. Toyota on a different fuel strategy entirely.
No comments:
Post a Comment