It is extremely slippery with the resurfaced track here at Spa. The Corvette is on the same lap and catching up to the leaders in GTE Pro, the Ferrari and the Porsche. Michael Christensen wants by Alessandro Pier Guidi but it's not on. Ah. The Toyota moves past Robin Frijns to Les Combes. Kamui Kobayashi at the controls, tiptoeing in the rain and the Glickenhaus is moving in on Frijns as well. I believe Pipo Derani is in the Glickenhaus right now. Kamui Kobayashi is back in front. Robin Frijns has been in the lead. Pipo Derani in the Pipo Moteurs powered Glickenhaus is moving in. Sean Gelael did the majority of the driving in changing conditions. Nico Lapierre in the Alpine is chasing lex Lynn and now Derani moves to second. The deployment threshold is the same for hybrid drive in the wet as in the dry at 190 clicks. Nico Lapierre still hounding Alex Lynn.
The grip level on the new surface in the dry is amazing. Lapierre has the speed on Lynn and he makes the pass through turn 12. That I believe is Stavelot, or maybe Blanchimont. Penske vs. Jota #28. Dane Cameron was off the road twice of course. Cameron running ahead of Danish driver Oliver Rasmussen. We have a spun GTE car someplace. A Ferrari perhaps. Now, Nico Muller has moved back up to fifth spot. Vector Sport ahead of AF Corse. Nico Muller and Niklas Nielsen and Muller straight off the road like a kick in the tail. The sun is out and the line is drying but I think the wet tires might overheat. What will the weather do? No intermediate tires for LMP2 anymore.
In Hypercar, don't squander a pit stop to fit a slightly superior tire. That's nonsense. The gamble for Glickenhaus, Alpine, and Toyota is to move away from the wets, to an intermediate, or to a full slick? If it does not rain in the final hour and 50 minutes, you can indeed bolt slicks onto the car. Oliver Gavin is here at Spa with his driving school as he has people set up ready to go to Le Mans and GM Europe management will also be there. Gavin and one of his colleagues has a couple C8 Corvette's and there are a dozen of the C8's for the driving academy. We are set to see Corvette going to GT3 with customer cars very soon as Laura Wontrop Klauser said earlier. GM are coming full time to Le Mans and the WEC.
I think they will be in the states too and we have the new Cadillac LMDh coming. Vector Sport in the pit lane. Alpine pass WRT for third place. Robin Frijns now third overall as the Hypercars are reasserting themselves as the track dries. Antonio Felix Da Costa off in the gravel pit and back off, at turn 14. So, Kamui Kobayashi leads the #708 Glickenhaus on Pipo Derani. Pit stop time for the #64 Corvette C8.R. AF Corse and RealTeam by WRT are going for it. Lilou Wadoux is fending off Rene Binder. Norman Nato chasing Nicklas Nielsen. Nielsen, I'm not thinking, I'm stampeding! Nato tries his level best to move in on Nielsen. Nato sends it and passes.
United Autosports continue to battle. Alex Lynn being monstered by Filipe Albuquerque. Albuquerque has endless miles in LMP2 cars. Jota #28 in the lane. An hour and 40 minutes left on the clock. Kubica is dropping like a stone, going backwards and his straightline speed is falling off towards Blanchimont. Norman Nato will eat him up. Robin Frijns in the lane for an earlier than expected stop, look, while Alex Lynn bang on the money in the lane as well. WRT were having trouble with their fuel hose. Prema and Kubica stay out. RealTeam WRT in the lane too. Both WRT cars pit. Penske with Dane Cameron and AF Corse with Nicklas Nielsen also to the pit lane for service.
The dollies are out for the #9 as the #7 Toyota slithers off the road and back on. Contact for the #28 Jota car with AF Corse. Oliver Rasmussen and Antonio Felix Da Costa scrapping. Felipe Nasr now in the #5 Penske LMP2 car replacing Dane Cameron. Will Stevens still has not driven in the #38. This weather is "slicker than snot" to quote Mario Andretti after going off in a Porsche in the wet at Le Mans in 1995. Nielsen hounding Rasmussen up through Eau Rouger and Rasmussen slides past Nasr at the top of the hill! Nasr is usually brilliant in the wet but he is on a learning curve with an LMP2 car. The GTE Pro leader is now in the overall top ten.
James Allen, he is on his out lap in the Algarve Pro entry. Offline, there's standing water. Don't go out there. James Allen off the road and back on. The wet tires are overheating and chunking because the drivers who have them are surely looking for water. Felipe Nasr holding off Nicklas Nielsen in LMP2. Third place class battle in GTE Am as Francesco Castellaci fends off the intentions of Ollie Milroy. AF Corse Ferrari vs. Project 1 Porsche vs. Seb Priaulx in the Dempsey Proton Porsche. Nico Lapierre is faster than both Kamui Kobayashi and Pipo Derani. Da Costa catches and passes Kubica. An hour and a half to go as they go past seventh place GTE Am runner, Ben Barker in one of the Porsche's. Toyota and Glickenhaus falling into the clutches of the Alpine which is kinder on it's tires.
Through Blanchimont it is totally dry and the tires are absolutely being pasted. Wet weather tires overheating like mad. Oliver Rasmussen is reeling in his rival as American Will Owen explains United Autosport is coming. Sebastien Bourdais has crunched the barriers in turn eight. The man from Le Mans, France, is beached in the gravel in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca. Full Course Yellow and safety car. Dane Cameron says it is better to be lucky than good some days and he had the brakes locked up into a pavement zone before the gravel trap. It is all new for Team Penske running an LMP2 car in the wet.
Driver change, in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Penske have been very busy and sticking through the cool, rainy, drizzly weather here at Spa. Slick tires for AF Corse and James Calado will drive the final hour and 20 minutes of the race. Will Owen says that the focus level is hard under the changing conditions on slick tires especially in the wet at places like Eau Rouge. A wee bit of practice is not enough. Improve in the sense of a total picture and not just in one place. Owen is back in World Endurance after a few years away and the LMP2 field is unbelievably competitive. Box, box, box for Antonio Felix Da Costa, Robert Kubica, and Felipe Nasr. Glickenhaus, Jota, and Iron Lynx Ferrari are all going to go for slick tires. Driver change at Alpine. Ditto for Glickenhaus.
Back time from the end of the race. Four tires for Alpine and Alpine have now leapfrogged Glickenhaus for second spot. Toyota #7 still leading with Jose Maria Lopez in the car. Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #36 Alpine. Henrique Chaves and Seb Priaulx come in and so does Ollie Milroy. Wholesale GTE Am pit stops and I believe it is the final or the penultimate stop. Pit stop time for the LMP2's. #22 overshoots the pit box having to go around #23. Whole field LMP2 pit stops. This will be tricky for the final hour and 15 minutes. Good to hear from Will Owen. Door could not open on #23. The door would not close. Correcting that. Phil Hanson takes over from Filipe Albuquerque in #22.
Alex Lynn is actually still in the #23. Vector Sport in the lane in the #10. Full Course Yellow only for 30 more seconds before we go green. 20 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Green flag. Alex Lynn ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg. Three-minute stop and go penalty for the #83 AF Corse LMP2 for for not respecting safety car procedure! Oh man! Alessio Rovera in the car. The battle is on in GTE Pro for second, trying to overtake the Am Ferrari. James Calado doing all he can to hold off Michael Christensen! Calado locks up! Stay on the island. Christensen sideways drifting the Porsche! Yikes! Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Am class Ferrari. Sebastien Bourdais still at the wheel for Vector Sport in car #10 in LMP2.
Jose Maria Lopez leading with an hour and ten minutes to go with Matthieu Vaxiviere closing fast. Trouble for the Glickenhaus which is slowing. They went onto slicks and got the wrong strategy. They change to intermediate tires as the #9 Prema car is off with Louis Deletreaz! Splitter is gone! He has aquaplaned off the road at turn nine at Jacky Ickx corner. Simon Man spins the Ferrari and beaches it in the gravel. WRT on the podium as Glickenhaus have been forced to change tires and we will have another Full Course Yellow. Jose Maria Lopez is booking it in the lead as we see the #9 Prema car in the pit lane for a nose change. Full Course Yellow, now. Full Course Yellow.
AF Corse #83 in the pit lane to serve the stop and hold penalty. That's catestrophe for them even though it is under Full Course Yellow. Algarve Pro could take over the LMP2 Pro-Am lead but maybe the Full Course Yellow could save AF Corse's bacon here. Thomas Flohr takes over the #54 AF Corse Ferrari. No. Flohr out and Nick Cassidy into the car. Slick tires for Glickenhaus in replay and the Alpine put intermediates on. The Glickenhaus goes off the road or it did because they are further behind than they need to be. Robin Frijns is now in the broadcast booth. He says that the driver sequences have been odd.
Frijns says he almost wrecked due to aquaplaning at 90-100 kilometers an hour. That's very slow. Toyota leading Hypercar, WRT lead LMP2, AF Corse #52 Ferrari leads GTE Pro and in GTE Am it is #33, the TF Sport Aston Martin. Rene Rast and WRT on the overall podium. Pipo Derani at Glickenhaus says the radio was not working and there was a miscommunication on tire strategy as his radio was not working. Maybe they can get back to the podium. They are learning a lot. Pipo Derani could not hear on the radio and did not know he could use wets compared to the cut slick tires. Everyone has had to go to slick tires. Corvette #64 in the lane.
LMP2 stops as well. Losing temperature in the slick tires is not good #23 is in the lane and Oliver Jarvis could not get into the car and they had to go in. But a broken door that can't get opened up from the inside, that is dangerous. What if the driver is hurt? That would be automatic exclusion and disqualification from the race. Oliver Jarvis replaces Alex Lynn.
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