The words of motorsports commentators like Leigh Diffey and Bob Varsha come to mind when talking about the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Diffey's intro to the 2005 race in part, "it is extraordinary to think where this event started and how far it has come. But, one thing remains the same. Since 1923, French country roads become one of the world's best race tracks every year. The traditional sprint to the car Le Mans style start may no longer be a part of the event, but the same spirit, passion, and emotion to be the best on this eight and a half mile track for 24 hours, is still the driving force. The view for the drivers remains the same, exhilarating. The clock still ticks for the same duration. The faces, names, and cars may have changed. But, the motivation to be etched into Le Mans history is unparalleled. To win the French classic is simply a driver's dream."
These are Varsha's thoughts on Le Mans in the intro to the 2006 race which saw Audi take one of it's greatest wins at Le Mans and the first for a diesel powered race car. "If ever there was a benchmark in sports car racing, a measuring stick by which the world's greatest race teams and drivers could compare their ingenuity, ability, and desire. If ever there was an arena to showcase moxie and machinery, persistence and passion, finesse, and fortitude, it is here at Le Mans. Since 1923, the roads of this town in western France have been the barometer by which excellence is measured. 62 cars on the cutting edge of technology, and drivers with the skill and courage to get behind the wheel, will entertain over 200,000 spectators in this timeless test of endurance. Among those drivers bold enough to attack this eight and a half mile true road course, two have stood taller than the rest.
Belgian Jacky Ickx dominated the late '60s through the early '80s with six overall victories, displaying an uncanny synergy between man, machine, and road. Tom Kristensen, the Great Dane, has won this motor race nine times. Only time will tell the story of this great motor race. Today, a year away from the centenary, the Le Mans tradition, continues." The 90th renewal of this great motor race is live, and it's next!
Staying clean, making no mistakes, is critical. That's endurance racing as we well know. After two years of closed-door racing, the fans are back. Welcome, everybody. We are glad you are here at Le Mans with us. This is the halfway point in a season of half a dozen races. Kazuki Nakajima is bringing the tropy in the 1985 Toyota which was their first entrant in Group C racing and we are welcoming a cavalry of new race cars starting next year. The weather is going to cooperate for the whole time. Kazuki Nakajima has delivered the trophy with the vintage race car. The La Marseilles plays, the national anthem of France.
39 French drivers in the race here at Le Mans as the 27th Mountain Infantry brigade brings the flag nd the soldiers will rappel out onto the track via parachute. There will be a new 100th anniversary trophy next year which will be on display around the world in different places. This is the 90th running of the race as there were no races during the war, during WW. II., and the reconstruction of Europe. Full capacity with fans and no need to futz with proving vaccination status or anything of that nature either. Everyone is happy to be here as the heliopter zooms over the grid. The tricouleur incoming. Our grand marshal is Gerard Larrousse who won with Matra 50 years ago. Check that. It was Graham Hill and Henri Pescarolo, and Graham Hill still the only driver to win the Triple Crown of motor racing, the Indianapolis 500, Monaco Grand Prix, and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Fernando Alonso got Le Mans and Monaco but never could crack the Indianapolis 500, unfortunately. Disc brakes, windscreen wipers, spraying champagne, all those things we take for granted in racing now, were invented here at Le Mans. This is a sprint race in every division. This is the final year we will see factory GTE Pro cars. So we will have to enjoy that as much as we can. Corvette, Porsche, and Ferrari, the lowest entry we have seen, but 23 cars in GTE Am. We have a display lap by the H24 hydrogen racer. We may see overall winning hydrogen racers and hear the jet like rush of a hydrogen race car.
Charles Milesi, Lilou Wadoux, and Sebastien Ogier in the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 Oreca, they will be ones to watch in LMP2 as will the two-car team at United Autosport. We have five Hypercars in the race. 62 cars will start this motor race, a record number of starters. 26 Oreca's and one Ligier in LMP2. God Bless the marshals, the orange army, or the white army in the United States, orange uniforms or white uniforms, it does not matter, they are here to keep the drivers and teams safe. God Bless the marshals.
History will be made with Josh Pierson in the #23 United Autosports car, we heard from him earlier, the 16-year-old rookie. Matt McMurry was previously the youngest, before that. Gunnar Jeanette, too, he was 18 in 2000 or 2001. Three minutes to the start, to the warmup lap. These are the hottest conditions we have seen at Le Mans all week. What is that going to do when we get the motor race underway? Testing miles eaten up, but now it is serious, it is go time. We are nervous for all the drivers. Godspeed, God Bless, be careful out there and stay safe.
Drivers, start your engines. Pilotes, demmarent vos moteurs. It is an honor and a privlege to race here. The cars roll off the grid. This is so exciting! The Penske #5 LMP2 is a tad recalcitrant to start but now it is fine. Here come the GTE Pro cars, too. The drivers are a bundle of nerves before this race starts and understandably so. Algarve and Vector in LMP2 are caboose on the grid. 50 rookies starting this race today. 35% of LMP2, 20% of GTE Am. Perfect weather. 62 cars on the grid and we are ready to race.
We've had support races and we'll talk about those later. Don't miss the Road to Le Mans races. We're going to talk about those, next week, after we wrap this one up. But we've got 24 hours ahead of us. Corvette and Glickenhaus were a couple of the cars in the warmup this morning that ran into trouble. But now they are fine. Through Arnage, as we head onto the second half of the lap, in Noah's Ark formation. Safety car, speed up, please. Wait for 4:00/ We've seen issues in this heat before with engines overheating. Everyone is spreading out. Get to double file.
Sebastien Buemi in Toyota #8 and Mike Conway in Toyota #7 on the front row. It is 4PM local time as we get ready for the 90th running of this race. To the final chicane they come. This stacked grid is ready to go. The Ford/Motul Raccordement chicane. The flag wavrs and it's go! Who will lead the race? Glickenhaus going for it and the Toyota's are on it but there is a car off the road. Who has spun off into the gravel trap? Hard to see. Yellow flag. Oh dear! It's the #22 United Autosport LMP2 and the Algarve Pro car as well. The LMP2 cars catching up to the Hypercars down the Mulsanne straight. Robert Kubica is leading LMP2 in the #9 Prema entry.
Antonio Felix Da Costa and Felipe Nasr are moving up and poor old Will Owen is in a spot of bother, running out of road. Man, oh man. Nico Lapierre in the #36 Alpine Hypercar is having a tough old time keeping up with Toyota and Glickenhaus. Will Owen is still i the gravel. Sophia Floresch will get back to the lane but it could be game over for #22. We'll talk about that as soon as this race gets settled down. The Alpine had a late Balance of Performance change losing 16 horsepower. That'll hit them hard. The GTE Pro battle is hot and heavy. Corvette, Corvette, Porsche, Porsche, AF Corse Ferrari, AF Corse Ferrari, Riley Ferrari.
Slow zone one at marshal post one and they can crane the United Autosport entry out. Sophia Florsch is on the road again and the slow zone is in at 80 clicks for one section of the circuit per the Race Director. Will Owen was biffed by the WRT entry. Jeepers creepers! It was either the Prema or the WRT entry. Oliver Jarvis cannot believe it. Hopefully the damage is just bodywork for Will Owen. Three into one won't work, sunbeam. Sophia Florsch is fine. The Alpine is stuck behind the Prema LMP2 entry. Nico Lapierre vs. Robert Kubica. Lapierre darts out before the second chicane on the Mulsanne and makes his move.
Aye yaye yaye. Fraught stuff here at Le Mans thus far, ladies and gentlemen. #35, the Ultimate entry and the RealTeam by WRT entry off the road. All cars underway save for the damaged #22 and #35. GTE Am led by Harry Tincknell in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche with Christian Ried and Sebastian Priaulx. United Autosport ready for a pit stop. Tires, fuel, and spare bodywork if needed. GTE Pro hot and heavy still. Ferdinand Habsburg right in the way of the Toyota's and Mike Conway had to take evasive action.
The LMP2 scrum continues. We are going to see this all day, all night, and all day tomorrow. Rene Rast, Antonio Felix Da Costa, and Felipe Nasr all are pressing hard as we see RealTeam in the garage, the #41 car. This is the car of Ferdinand Habsburg, Rui Andrade, and Norman Nato. Robert Kubica, Rene Rast, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Felipe Nasr, Charles Milesi, Job van Uitert, lots of talent in LMP2 as Will Owen hits the lane for service. They are losing laps hand over fist. It'll be game over for the United Autosport bunch. Felipe Nasr tells his team about the performance of the car.
Track limits saw 86 penalties in Free Practice and Hyper Pole. Race Director Edoardo Freitas has been very clear about track limits abuse. How will the pace be for United Autosport and Will Owen? Owen sharing with Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson. #45 was totally rebuilt after a crash on Wednesday. That is the sister Algarve Pro car #45. James Allen, Rene Binder, and Steven Thomas. Harry Tincknell is running Harry Flatters in GTE-Am. All Porsche in GTE-Am. Tincknell, Ben Barker, Matteo Cairoli, Alessio Picariello, and Julien Andlauer. We have more Ferrari's and we have three private Aston Martin's too, but no factory cars.
Trouble early doors for the #85 entry. AMR, D'station, and TF Sport. Nikki Thiim chasing and passing Vincent Abril and running after Mikkel Jensen in the #57 CarGuy Ferrari 488 GTE. Jensen will be in a Peugeot Hypercar next race out when we go to Italy and to Monza in July. Watch the gravel traps. Watch out for punctures. Again, this is the hottest temperature range we have seen all week. Matteo Cairoli passes Ben Barker, reeling in Harry Tincknell. Cars #3 and #35 under investigation for ovettaking under yellow flags. DKR Engineering and Ultimate. Ignore GTE Am at your peril because there is talent all over the shop in this division.
The #85 Iron Dames Ferrari had a puncture but there was no contact. Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting in the lineup. Job van Uitert and Mirko Bortolotti are pressing hard. Bortolotti should be a part of the new Lamborghini Hypercar program we are hearing more and more about coming in 2024. Antonio Felix Da Costa is applying the blowtorch to Rene Rast while Robert Kubica extends the lead. 20 minutes on the board and the fuel range is small here for the LMP2 entries. Tomonobu Fujii runs wide at Mulsanne in the #777 D'station Aston Martin. A gaggle of Ferrari's ahead of the Aston. Five laps complete. It could be an eight or nine lap fuel range.
Fujii got run out wide, Satoshi Hoshino taking a look at how Tomonobu Fujii is doing. Jonathan Aberdein from South Aftica has Ricky Taylor ahead in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca sharing with Yifei Ye and Nicklas Kruetten. Matteo Cairoli is turning on the afterburners as we see Sophia Floresch is headed back onto the track. Harry Tincknell losing time to his rivals. 11 minutes in the lane for the #47 car, five or six laps down now. She is in the race. Tincknell loses the lead to Matteo Cairoli. Cairoli is a top flight driver. We watch the Bee Safe Racing #74 Riley Motorsports Ferrari as well. Sam Bird, Felipe Fraga, and Shane van Gisbergen sharing that automobile.
It's an all-Porsche fight in GTE-Am right now. The Toyota's are making their way through traffic. Sebastien Buemi ahead of Mike Conway. The car is now hot under the body, overheating the components of the car with no airflow and a bunch of blanking with new oil. A gearbox actuator is playing up. Stuart Cox, team boss for Algarve Pro Racing, not happy. You have to run the blanking at night when the temperatures plummet. Pit stop time for the #31 WRT LMP2, Rene Rast at the controls. They are going onto a different strategy it looks like. Refuel, full tanks, back into the motor race. Rast sharing with Robin Frijns and Sean Gelael.
Marshal post two, one minute stop and go penalty to Rast! Oh my gosh! LMP2 polesitter in trouble. Info to the lane, info to the lane, one minute stop and go penalty for #31 for causing a collision at turn one, but that was a racing deal. No malice intended, however, there was room all over and it was hard to see. Your eyes dart all over the place at the start. But trust me, it was not intentional at all. One minute penalty, you need a safety car and slow zones mean fewer sfety cars. Big wriggle there, look, for Toyota #8 running off the road. Pit stop time for both LMP2 leaders at Prema Orlen and Jota. Who will have the fastest pit crew?
Stock fuel rigs for LMP2. They can't be modded at all. Antonio Felix Da Costa in the lane and same for the #9. That would be Kubica. Mike Conway meanwhile catching Seb Buemi who is losing time. This is hot and heavy racing down the Mulsanne straight for the Toyota boys. Jota passes Prema in the lane! Holy cow! WRT are ahead but not on time. Only on the road. Off the road goes the Nielsen Racing car of Ben Hanley in the chicane on pit entry. Watch the right hand curb. The grip changes on pit entry. Hanley sharing with Matt Bell and Rodrigo Sales.
The gap is yoyoing between the two Toyota's. A late lunge down the inside on one of the GTE Porsche's. Buemi makes the move before Tertre Rouge. Corvette, Corvette, Porsche, Porsche, Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari, split apart. The final LMP2 car pits, the #43 Inter Europol car with Fabio Scherer at the wheel of it. Rene Rast leads the class but has the penalty in his future. #43, Scherer, sharing with Pietro Fittipaldi and David Heinemeier Hanson. Jota will take over the LMP2 lead as WRT takes their penalty. Take your medicine, and get back in it. It looks harsh with that crash we saw earlier. #31 got spooked and has no place to go.
Both Toyota's monstering each other. Sebastien Buemi is complaining about oversteer. He did lose the tail on the entry to the Porsche Curves. The Glickenhaus cars are catching the Toyota's. 3:34-3:35 for Toyota's. Olivier Pla uncorking 3:31's sans traffic. Seven seconds to the Glickenhaus from the Toyota's and then comes the Alpine behind the two Glickenhaus machines. WRT are coming back on track or so it seems. United in the lane for unscheduled service as we say hello to Peter Dumbreck in the broadcast booth. Great to have fans back here coming back from the COVID ridiculousness of the last few years. #7, Mike Conway to the lane and Glickenhaus are prepping for their first stop. 40 minutes, ten laps, on a full fuel tank. Buemi continues so that the pit stops at Toyota are staggered.
No further action on the #3 DKR Engineering machine of Alexandre Coignaud, Jean Glorieux, and Laurents Horr, a Frenchman, a Belgian, and a German. The #22 United Autosport entry has suffered a delaminated tire, two laps down in 61st place. Franck Mailleux and Nico Lapierre stay in Glickenhaus #709 and Alpine #36. The WRT #31 car is down the order to 26th place. Their delayed sister car #41 has recovered but is a lap down in 57th spot. The best WRT car is #32, Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, and Dries Vanthoor. Bortolotti chasing Rene Rast.
First pit stop for the #41. 50 drivers on their debut here at Le Mans, well over 30% of the LMP2 field as D'station takes the place almost fully off the road past the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella. Fisichella sharing with Matteo Cressoni and Richard Heistand, as the #8 Toyota and #708 Glickenhaus pit. Seb Buemi and Olivier Pla I believe. Toyota #7 goes to the lead with a quicker stop than the sister car. Has Toyota cured their oversteer? Change and adjust the tire pressures. That is a smart idea. Sebastien Buemi, when he is not happy, he will let you know it. Michael Fassbender is ready to take over from Matty Campbell in the #93 Porsche 911 RSR-19 for Proton Competition. Box this lap, box, box, driver change to Michael.
Zacharie Robichon, the Canadian, he is the third driver in the #93 with Fassbender and Campbell. We saw Michael Fassbender have a heavy shunt in Free Practice and he will be nervous for his first stint but will be able to adjust. Alex Brundle is passed by Laurents Horr, and both of them are LMP3 champions. DKR ahead of both Inter Europol entries and the ARC Bratislava car. GTE Pro in the lane for a full fuel tank for the #63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and a driver change in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari started by Miguel Molina, the Spaniard. Michael Fassbender is readying himself for his first Le Mans driving stint.
He has prepped for three years between Porsche Carrera Cup, Porsche Super Cup, and European Le Mans Series. He is excited and maybe a little freaked out, too. Major unsafe release at AF Corse! #21 nearly clattered one of their Pro cars! Jeepers creepers! #52 is Miguel Molina, Davide Rigon, and Antonio Fuoco. #51 is James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Daniel Serra. Antonio Garcia in the #63 Corvette C8.R is on his out lap and Nick Tandy is in the #64. We also saw the Inter Europol LMP2 entry, the racing bakers, from Poland. That is a bakery, and a big one, because they provide baked goods for different hospitality and food services all over the world.
Porsche in the lane, with #91. Gianmaria Bruni is changing and we are seeing single stints in the heat. It's hot out there. Bruni sharing with Richard Lietz and Fredric Makowiecki. New tires as well. The tires are screamingly hot too. Corvette will double stint the tires while Porsche and Ferrari each get new boots. Ultimate #35, drive through penalty for pushing a car off the road, overtaking under yellow. Ultimate, the LMP2 Oreca for Francois Heriau, Jean Baptiste Lahaye, and Matthieu Lahaye. The #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin is the best placed Aston Martin and in the lane now is the #33 TF Sport car of Marco Sorensen.
Sorensen sharing with Ben Keating and Portugal's Henrique Chaves. LMP2 battle is on, look. Felipe Nasr for Penske, Jonathan Aberdein for Jota, and Mirko Bortolotti for WRT. Porsche #92 in the lane and we have Sophia Florsch in the lane for scheduled service. Kevin Estre pitting from the GTE Pro lead and the Corvette's will leapfrog. No tires, no driver change. Split strategy, look, at Porsche AG. Mathias Beche chasing Nicklas Nielsen in LMP2. AF Corse vs. TDS Racing by Vaillante. That car had a huge crash in Free Practice 4 yesterday. The car was written off. The driver that shunted was prevented from racing. Philippe Cimmadomo was kicked out of the race for his recklessness. Harsh stuff.
They had to replace their Bronze driver, and they found one of the best drivers in the world, Dutchman Nyck de Vries, a three-time Le Mans starter with zero practice and three laps in the morning warmup. But he is up to snuff driving every week. Nyck de Vries is a Toyota reserve driver and has run with TDS for Racing Team Nederland. Car #22 under investigation for ignorning blue flags. That's going to be a penalty perhaps. But it is an oddity. This is a front running race car we are talking about. Antonio Felix Da Costa may be pinged for track limits but we don't know yet and here his in the lane.
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