Antonio Fuoco ought to be the one to do a double stint to the end of the motor race today, here at Paul Ricard. It's true. The Lamborghini is not able to keep up with the Mercedes from what we have seen so far. The driver will take the car through the fading light, from daylight, to sunset, to darkness. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. Iron Lynx and team co-founder Andrea Piccini, being assisted by Ferrari specialists AF Corse. Just two mechanics per corner. 41 seconds is the fuel delivery and Rigon is down and away as the sun is setting here at Paul Ricard. Of course, we saw Adam Eteki with a puncture. Nico Muller is the erstwhile leader in the WRT/VR46 Audi. But here, look, Davide Rigon leapfrogs Daniel Juncadella and Jack Aitken, both. Iron Lynx are rolling the dice.
We welcome our pal Ben Constanduros to the broadcast booth for a wee while. Tire and fuel strategies are being considered. Now, just like the longer endurance races we have seen, the grandstands here at Paul Ricard have emptied and the roof terrace has opened! It's time to party! It's time to boogie! That's what sports car racing is all about, having a great time. There's a vibe here in the south of France. We'll also see this at the 24 Hours of Spa later this summer. As we said, Jack Aitken is back in the Lamborghini #63 while Daniel Juncadella is still aboard the #88 Mercedes. Aitken's pit stop was just a hair quicker than that of Juncadella. Nico Muller has been to the lane and therefore, Rigon takes the lead back.
Aitken and van der Linde both had slower pit stops. Check that. van der Linde's stop was faster. A ten second added time penalty at the next stop, for car #20 for an unsafe pit lane release. The is the SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3 being shared by Dominik Baumann, Valentin Pierburg, and Martin Konrad. Nico Muller is in the lane for service and Fred Vervisch checks in with him but he won't step out of the car yet I don't think. Fred Vervisch can keep his eye on the data and he will get in for the final stint as e are going to be racing in darkness soon. The rhythm of this race has been steadily simmering with no real peaks and valleys.
Iron Lynx are playing their strategy well. Whoa. Close shave there between Alexander West and Stefano Constantini. West in the Garage 59 McLaren, car #188, racing with Constantini who is driving the second AF Corse Ferrari, car #52. The Italian sharing with countryman Andrea Bertolini and with Louis Machiels from Belgium. West wants by Constantini because this, look, is the battle for the Pro-Am lead. Constantini moves ahead and both these blokes know how to drive GT3 cars. West not only drives for Garage 59 but is an investor in the team. The McLaren has been all by it's lonseome for a good chunk of the race.
Nico Muller is back in the race now in 13th spot. The fuel rig did not fill the tank enough on one of the pit stops. Casper Stevenson is still leading the Silver class #87 Mercedes for Akkodis ASP. An interesting point about Paul Ricard. The pit lane is really long here, and the GT3 cars and GT4 cars need the length because the fields are enormous with so many automobiles. With Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, when the open wheel cars come here, they can split the lane in half because of each class containing 20 cars. Take the amount of cars from all three of those races, add them together, and that's the massive grid you have here for SRO GT3 and GT4.
Yours truly wants to write more about GT4 and there are a couple of GT4 races being planned for publication on the blog, as soon as this event for the GT3 cars is complete. Bear with me. There's been bucketloads of sports car endurance racing lately, all across the globe. The GT4 paddock is outside the track while the other cars are on the inside. Nico Muller wants by Alex Aka in another Audi, the Attempto car. Now, you see, that was a gimme. Alex Aka knew a quicker car was right on his six and he had to ease his way over letting Nico Muller by. On fresh tires you can hold the inside line as older tires on Aka's Audi are a shade more worn and don't have the sharp edge on them. Patric Niederhauser is now in the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc car as the third driver on the team.
They are doing a single stint strategy, or will they be doubling up? Some drivers do not like racing in the dark for several reasons. Ten second time penalty for car #88 at the next pit stop. Unsafe release! Whoa! Hold the phone here, everybody. Lock the doors! Daniel Juncadella has a penalty in his future in the leading car! He will plummet down the order. He does not have to take an extra pit stop but he might still lose time. It'll drop him down just a couple places, and is not a full drive through but he will have to play catch up. Right now we have the battle on for fourth between Kelvin van der Linde and James Calado.
They scream onto the Mistral straight. We have John Watson assisting Ben Constanduros in the booth. The commentators are doing stint changes as well, for the dinner break. Bon appetit. Juncadella seems to be losing time to a couple of the other leaders here. Juncadella vs. Aitken, and van der Linde vs. Calado, are the two scrums we will be watching. In replay, we are looking at the pit stop the SRO stewards are questioning. The car controller with the lollipop signals Juncadella is clear in the lane and he drives away. I can't see any "unsafe release" in that. What are the stewards having a Captain Cook at? Obviously, there is something.
Maybe it was the previous pit stop? Don't question the Race Director if you are a casual fan or a journalist. They know what they are doing and rules are rules which they've read backwards, forwards, inside out, and upside down. AMG Akkodis ASP will not roll over and play dead. It's not a total loss, but Daniel Juncadella will now have his hands full with van der Linde and with Calado. That's for dead sure. Race Control have to assess stuff that happened in the past, and they have to catch up on penalties. Calado right on van der Linde's back door. This is the fourth place fight.
Kelvin van der Linde is not getting the same speed level out of the Audi that we saw from Dries Vanthoor. van der Linde is fresh after the Nurburgring 24 Hours. He ended up crashing one car in that race and then getting into the ultimately winning car. The Nurburgring 24 requires a four driver team. Drive through penalty for the #27 Leipert Motorsports Lamborghini for repeated track limits offenses. Tyler Cooke, 43rd in the overall, five laps down from his nearest rival. Not a good race for the Leipert team at all. Dan Harper passes Marco Sorensen. Sorensen of course had a massive practice crash./
That actual chassis was crashed, the BMW, at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. If the basic chassis is not affected by the crash, put the car on the jig, square it up, and rebuild it. Gojng from the Nurburgring to Paul Ricard in just three or four days is quite the effort. The sister #98 is still running well with Augusto Farfus at the controls. We have an Audi in a Ferrari sandwich, through all this traffic. Augusto Farfus has lost a spot to Mercedes #57 for Winward, Lorenzo Ferrari currently driving that specific race car.
Ferrari has sandwiched himself between Calado and van der Linde. Oh dear. The #97 Aston Martin has spun, Andrew Howard at the controls, in the Gold Cup Aston. The back end just stepped out. Hit the brakes, hope you don't Fred Flintstone the tires, and just hold on. Race Control reporting car #51 spinning, but that was a mistake on their part. It was a miscommunication. van der Linde in clean air right now as it is twilight here at Paul Ricard. Alex Aka running 11th overall in the Silver Cup, and first in that class. Again, the classes are based on driver rating.
Kelvin van der Linde now a second ahead. down the order, we have a battle between Alex Aka and Casper Stevens as Aka runs the perimeter of Beauseilles corner. Beauseilles does not have much of a racing line through it with just over two and a half hours to go. There's lots of junk on the road. Use your headlights and your peripheral vision to pit everything up. Hard to see if there is a place where your track limits are. Paul Ricard is unusual. It is featureless and flat with no real track markers save for this red and blue high grip paint on the inside of the circuit delineating the off course area rather than paved runoff or gravel traps.
This place has it's own character. The headlights are so efficient that they can pick up everything out there and the drivers can see just fine. This time of year in southern France the light lingers in the sky. It is darker than it actually looks on your television screens if you are watching this race. There is no additional ambient lighting around the track either. All you can use are your headlamps. Casper Stevens is now right on Alex Aka's back door. Stevenson wants past him. No matter how hard he tries, he can't get there. The Mercedes has low speed traction but not enough straight line speed. Axcil Jeffries in another Mercedes is closing up.
Jeffries of course, at the wheel of the #777 Al Manar Racing Mercedes, the Zimbabwean driver racing for an Omani team. He does not want another car to get nto this scrap while Alex Aka can look forward. Rigon continues to lead by seven and a half seconds, before Jack Aitken in second, 1.8 seconds behind. Aitken is 8.6 seconds to the good over Kelvin van der Linde next in line. But Calado is making inroads on van der Linde once more. Dan Harper is next followed by Marco Sorensen, Patric Niderhauser, Nico Muller, Juuso Puhakka, and then the Mercedes scrap we've been paying strict attention to.
The ebb and flow between Aka and Stevenson continues trhough L'ecole and then onto the Mistral straight. More darkness on the road, and the Audi has the advantage here with less than two and a half hours left. Poor old Casper Stevenson runs wide. He tried to make a cheeky move but got stymied and overcooked it. Rely on feel for turning and braking. That Signes corner entrance is very tricky. Nico Muller passes Patric Niederhauser. Niederhauser sharing with Valentino Rossi and then Fredric Vervisch who will finish the race.
Davide Rigon was in the lane for 1:24 and van der Linde for 1:23.9. Aitken and Juncadella, 1:26.4 and 1:27.2. Two and a half seconds lost. Giving up that time is inexcusable. The pit lane is no less important than the racing and it is make or break for a team's opportunity to win these races. This battle we have been watching laps past another Mercedes AMG GT3, the Mad Panda Motorsports entry with two Argentinian drivers. Ezequiel Perez Companc, the team owner, sharing with Sean Walkinshaw, and with first time GT3 racer, Franco Girolami. Girolami is making his first start for Mad Panda. Franco Girolami is the younger brother of World Touring Car Championship driver Nestor Girolami. Franco himself was runner up in the 2021 TCR Europe Championship.
He is replacing Duson Borkovic from Serbia who is also a touring car driver. Nico Muller is giving it a good drive through the darkness here at Paul Ricard. He has to take the L'ecole turn at half throttle and then can punch it on the straight with Patric Niederhauser behind. Nico Muller is eighth in the overall and on the Mistral straight you can catch your breath and sets you up for the final technical sector before coming up to complete the lap. Paul Ricard is a fairly physical circuit. Valentino Rossi feeling the G force in his neck. Sometimes that is felt on a motorcycle but more so in a car. Nico Muller runs 6.2 seconds behind Marco Sorensen in the Aston Martin.
Jack Aitken is 1.6 seconds down from Daniel Juncadella and Aitken is closing in on the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes. Davide Rigon, in the meantime, extends the advantage he has over Daniel Juncadella to almost ten seconds. The Ferrari's performance is top rate. James Calado is fifth in the overall and here is a lap of Paul Ricard. Through turn one, not too quick, go to the right, don't overrun the exit into turn two. Short shift to get the momentum downhill to the double apex chicane. Return back to the Mistral straight. Calado is acquiring the target. The perspex windscreen marked up by now, those marks are being caught by the light.
Fly down the Mistral straight at 270 kilometers an hour. Down a gear to get through Signes corner. Yikes! Hold on there, James! Ride 'em cowboy over the paint! Calado's Ferrari is not a happy race car. It has turned into an angry race car, letting the tail step out. Those rear Pirelli P Zero's, I would guess, are nearly knackered. He got out of jail with that save as we welcome David Addison back to the booth at nearly 10PM. The tires feel different with the temperature change. A skil of racing at night is being able to handle the conditions.
Calado has had someone slam the door in his face, flashing the lights to a McLaren up ahead and he has lost the momentum. Remember that the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes has been given a penalty, and well, the team manager of the car has indeed been summoned to Race Control to sort that situation out and have to sign off on the paperwork. Daniel Juncadella will perhaps have to take the penalty but again, there was nothing we could see with the release from the lane. Race Director Alain Adam would have to tell us more.
Calado laps past Alexander West in the McLaren wrestling this wild stallion while doing so. If the manager of the #88 has been called to Race Control, something is up. Davide Rigon is whistling off into the distance about ten seconds or thereabouts up the road. Alex Aka leads Casper Stevenson in the Silver division. In Gold it is Ollie Milroy in the Inception Racing McLaren, and in the Pro-Am division, the leader is Stefano Constantini. Remember, the driver ratings are the classes. There are no different car levels. Every car on the track in this race at Paul Ricard is a GT3 car.
Drivers are looking at the instruments on their dashboard when they have time. At night, the driver needs to see the pitceew and the pit crew needs to see the driver. So, the cars have lights on top of them so each team can identify what cars is theirs. Casper Stevenson passes Alex Aka again and Aka gets stymied in traffic. You can see how quickly he is eking out a gap actually chasing Alex Aka to be honest with 17 or so minutes to go before pit stops and driver changes as we are about to get into the last couple hours of the motor race. Casper Stevenson learning how to drive from daylight into the darkness and has to know for Spa in about six weeks. It is twilight that is very difficult, everything is a monotone rather than a color.
The bewitching minutes of twilight are hard to get through. The light dropped away very quickly. The cars pour over the finish line. Aka loses the Silver Cup lead to Stevenson and these two chaps are still chasing. Patric Niederhauser is up the road. Poor old Vincent Abril has dropped like a stone. Nico Muller is still at the races, on the lead lap at the wheel of the #46 WRT/VR46 Audi sharing with Valentino Rossi and with Frederic Vervisch. Stevenson is passing the #112 McLaren, the second JP Motorsports entry from the Polish team, currently in the hands of Polish driver, Maciej Blazek.
Through Signes they go into the darkness. There is no light other than the headlamps. Alex Aka makes a pass on Maciej Blazek as well. The cars also have not only the mirrors but the rearview camera and the power of these headlights bleach the camera lens and it is so sudden it is a huge distraction to other drivers. Driving standards flag for Maxime Robin in the #33 WRT Audi. We are nearing the end of the fourth hour in another quarter of an hour, as Davide Rigon leads the motor race. Ollie Milroy takes over one of the McLaren's from Brendon Iribe. That is the leading McLaren, the Inception Racing 720S GT3, car #7. Milroy sharing it with Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff.
Vincent Abril has tumbled to 16th in the overall. Dennis Lind will take over. Dennis "The Menace" Lind in the dark. He will be magic. Former Lamborghini factory driver, now in the #111 McLaren for JP Motorsport. Lind, the Dane, is sharing with Abril and of course with former F1 racer Christian Klien from Austria. Alexander West in the #188 Garage 59 McLaren, he lost the lead to Stefano Constantini in Pro-Am and is in touch but can't find hus way back to the lead in class. West is part of the team ownership at Garage 59 with the two other bosses at the team who are also former drivers, Andrew Kirkaldy and Chris Goodwin. Through Signes they go once again.
West wants to make the pass and does so on one of the Porsche's. That is past the #39 Porsche 911 GT3R for Singha Racing Team TP 12. We've mentioned them in the race already and will do so again. The trio of drivers includes Thai drivers Piti Bhiroombhakdi and Tanart Sathienthirakul, along with Aussie Matthew Payne. The Akkodis ASP team manager is being summoned to the Race Director. No, he is not inviting him in for tea and croissants, he is telling him to come in there and explain himself for his teams transgressions. It's like being a kid at school and having the teacher tell you, "I want you to take this note, and go see the principal."
Race Control have to speak to Jerome Policand's team and have to do it now, not after the motor race. Pouring into turn one once again the headlights on these GT3 cars absolutely bleaches out the camera. Patric Niederhauser has pitted Audi #25 promoting Casper Stevenson back into the top ten as we watch Alexander West chasing after Stefano Constantini, with third place being held in Pro-Am by Martin Konrad. Our pal in the commentary box, John Watson, points out that at the top of the shop, it is still Jack Aitken in third in the Lamborghini behind the Mercedes in second with Kelvin van der Linde behind Jack Aitken.
The positions will chop and change in the next two hours and ten mnutes as Davide Rigon continues to lead going past the sole surviving Porsche 911 GT3R in this motor race which appears to be the Giorgio Roda driven automobile, the #56 Dinamic Motorsports Silver class entry. Roda, the Italian, sharing with the aforementioned Swiss driver Mauro Calamia, and Norwegian Marius Nakken. Davide Rigon makes the pass and we are ten minutes away from the end of this racing hour. The race has really and truly come back to the Iron Lynx team and car #71 after they started from pole, and they yoyoed up and down the order for a wee while.
The second and third place cars have lost ground to their principal challengers. Nico Muller in eighth spot, reeling in Marco Sorensen in seventh. Muller, looking for the best opening at Virage du Pont. Using low gears, getting back on the throttle, don't use the traction control too much. Use your right foot. Five second time penalty for the #21 car at the next pit stop, short refueling time. OK. That is the first of the AF Corse Ferrari's, the one shared by Alessandro Balzan of Italy, Hugo Delacour of France, and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli of Monaco. The car is in the Silver division and is a long way down the pile in terms of the running order.
Vincent Abril in the lane earlier than we expected and we will see our pal Dennis "The Menace" Lind, step into that motorcar for the next stint. Lind needs maximum drive time and he'll take it to the finish of the motor race and get it back up into a competitive place. This battle between Muller and Sorensen is getting spicy. Sorensen runs wide in the final corner and Muller has a chance to get right back onto his six. Oh criminy. Another penalty for the #88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes. Their race is going pear shaped.
They had the penalty, the ten second infringement for the unsafe pit release and now to compound their woe they have a short refueling time penalty to worry about. Team boss Jerome Policand will be hopping mad or at least he will be chewing his fingernails. That's nerve racking. That is not good for the #88 team. Small errors will snowball and take you off the podium. As we stand now, Jack Aitken s just 2.4 seconds in-arrears of second place on the road which is where the Akkodis ASP Benz is right now. This will put the cat among the pigeons for dead sure. Behind Aitken, Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi is just a further five seconds behind, so he is motoring as well.
Poor old Daniel Juncadella will be released from the lane and as such he will be down in fourth, fifth spot, roughly. Jules Gounon will step behind the wheel and then he will have to floor it to make up time in the final two hours of this motor race as we see Sorensen having the squeeze play put on him by Nico Muller out of Beauseilles. Muller fires it up the inside and makes it stick! Wow! Did not see that coming. The Audi has more mechanical grip than the Aston Martin. Nico Muller is bringing that car back into the picture after they had an extra pit stop.
Confirmation on the screen of Jules Gounon having to wait after the stop for serving the penalty we've mentioned for short refueling time. Take your medicine, get it finished, and get back in the fight. Kelvin van der Linde does not have working taillights on his Audi. Having no rear lights is a no no. Maybe there is a wire disconnected. Maybe they have to take the car back to the gatage, as #88 is second, 6.6 seconds down on the race leader before he has the 15 second penalty. Insofar as #32, he has one working brake light, but no true taillights on that automobile that are up to snuff.
Couldn't they put on a rear tail? It's possible. GT cars are not quite like prototypes. However, it is true, and Kelvin van der Linde is given the meatball. Now, what in the ta da is a meatball? That is a black flag with an orange dot on it telling a driver they must get to the pit lane to fix a mechanical issue on the car. Also called a mechanical black flag. There's the flag. It's a digital board with the car number and a flashing dot, a flashing yellow or red dot. That is the meatball flag we talked about, or the pit board in this case. That's a signaling board.
Earlier, during the daylight running, from the bumper camera on the Audi, we saw James Calado give the #32 car a little nudge, and that little argy bargy or whatever, knocked some wiring, some connections, loose from the behind the bumper just enough to disconnect the circuit to the taillight. Check and mate. It could be enough to move the rearview cameras as well. The team is preparing in the lane with a routine stop and a stop to fix the troube but the car will drop down the order. James Calado, too, is in the pit lane.
In replay, after his pit stop, he spins out or (as the Brits would say, "has a lose", if that makes sense) and he rotates the automobile. He didn't hit anything but that was a bear. He's Fred Flintstoned his Pirelli P Zero's and is having a tire change in the lane as we speak while also doing a driver change. Will it be Miguel Molina or Nicklas Nielsen getting into the car? That is the question we hope to answer. Antonio Fuoco was mentioned, but I think he is in another Ferrari, the second Iron Lynx entry, the yellow car. #51 is the white car. It is Miguel Molina, the Spaniard who will take Ferrari #51 to the flag.
Fuoco wll take over the #71 yellow Iron Lynx Ferrari from Davide Rigon. Oh goodness. Calado is no happy chap here. He slams the driver's door of the #51. Molina back on track. In replay, the back end of the Ferrari stepped out and he spun like a top. It was abrupt, snap oversteer that caused the car to spin out. Into the lane for the penalty to be served, Mercedes #88 of Juncadella, and Jack Aitken is in the lane to give the Lamborghini for Emil Frey Racing over to Albert Costa, the Spaniard, who will take that car to the flag.
Kelvin van der Linde has a long pit stop in his future to fix those busted taillights we talked about. Mercedes #88 is playing the waiting game. Now they can service the car, do the driver change, and so on and so forth. Juncadella is done driving and it is all down to Jules Gounon, the Frenchman, to bring it home at his home race here at Paul Ricard.
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