Ben Keating in the lane in the #33 Aston Martin for new tires and fuel and they will lose the GTE Am lead but go for it and try to get back in the game. Toyota, Toyota, Glickenhaus. The #8 a lap up on #7 with #708 on the podium. Corvette #64 leads GTE Pro while the #99 Hardpoint Porsche leading GTE Am over the TF Sport and the Northwest AMR Aston Martin's. Four cars have retired. D'station, Inception, Spirit of Race, and the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche. Alexander Sims leads Daniel Serra in GTE Pro. It is only 8AM. Eight hours to go. There's a boatload of racing still to go.
Duncan Vincent has found Rob Leupen, Toyota team manager. They had an issue on the front hybrid motor and the power cycle took longer and then had to come into the pits to reset the system. No issues but they've lost the lead to the sister car. Porsche #91 off in the dirt before Arnage and back on. The power cycle was too short and the front motor took longer to cycle. Thr ftont motor failure at Spa was the same issue for Sebastien Buemi and it occurred twice, under red flag, and under green flag conditions and that was a total motor failure.
Ed Jones pits the #28 car in LMP2 for Jota. He is a Gold rated driver along with Jonathan Aberdein and Oliver Rasmussen is the Silver as the #8 Toyota is in the lane. Ricky Taylor and Cool Racing pit in LMP2. Robert Kubica second in LMP2 for Prema Orlen team. Dries Vanthoor in the #32 WRT car is having the nose buttoned up after the crew looked at something and then put the nose back on with the quick release Allen key bolt system. More track limits penatlies for Paull Dalla Lana in the #98 Northwest Aston Martin team in GTE Am. No track limits at Indianapolis because there is a curb and a gravel trap there already and a SAFER barrier at the first turn in the Porsche Curves.
Ricky Taylor and Dane Cmaeron battling, former teammates in IMSA at Team Penske. Alex Brundle and his team at Inter Europol need attrition to affect their LMP2 rivals. Paul Dalla Lana says he was pinged for track limits. Ferrari #51 pitting as well and so does the #64 Corvette. Dalla Lana says the track limits infringements are silly mistakes, but he says he will still push in his tenth Le Mans race. His best result in LM GTE Am has been a fourth here at Le Mans. Christian Hook in the #75 Iron Lynx Ferrari has a delaminating right front tire!
Oh boy. This is very similar to what we just saw from the #92 factory Porsche and a massive lockup, skating through the gravel and caorss the curbs and the thing flat spotted and let go. Battle in LMP2 between Cool Racing and TDS Vaillante. We are prearing for a slow zone. Jose Maria Lopez pits Toyota #7. There is a tire change on all four corners as well as fuel added with Jose Maria Lopez doing a double stint. Ricky Taylor has three laps on fresh tires while Tijmen van der Helm has three stints on his tires. Another necessary slow zone with a bunch of clag and gravel and other rubbish at Mulsanne corner on the inside.
Christian Hook trundling to the pit lane. That punctured tire is troublesome indeed. Boom. Te tire just goes pop and then rips the bodywork to shreds. GTE cars don't have antilock brakes or traction control. The GT3 cars we will see at Le Mans in a few years have ABS and traction control. There are massive loads that go through the pedal. With a GT3 car, smash the pedal as hard as possible. The GT Endurance cars are going to be Am only next year, and then GT3 cars come in 2024.
There are a dozen brands in GT3 racing. Mercedes might even come back after 23 years away. Dane Cameron has finished his stint in the #5 Penske Oreca and Felipe Nasr will be in the car next. Robert Kubica in the lane for Prema as well. GR Racing has replaced the entire front clip of the #86 Porsche and they are back on track in spite of needing to change the whole front splitter. Buemi's wish has come true so that the #8 car might just be in the clear. #8 is a lap up on #7. Broken exhaust on the #63 Corvette and the #56 Project 1 Porsche has spun and clobbered the tire barriers just like Michael Fassbender's practice accident.
Smash! This car has spun to the left and absolutely destroyed the car. Brendon Iribe has run in IMSA WeatherTech, SRO GT World Challenge Europe, and FIA WEC since 2022 started. Michael Fassbender locked the brake. For Brendon Iribe the car just whipped around the fluid is pouring oout of the car. Without doubt, game over. Iribe, Ben Barnicoat and Ollie Milroy, it is an early bath for those three chaps. Time for another slow zone. Ben Keating and TF Sport leading GTE Am. The target for this race could be 379 laps in total.
Slow Zones make it so there's less chance of using a safety car. Cars with paddle shift, if the car is loaded, they won't accept the downshift to over rev the motor and blow it to smithereens. Lorents Horr has hit the barrier just beyond Mulsanne. No, in Dunlop cuve. Wait a second. That is in Mulsanne, ahe just overcooks it and gives the car too much welly thankfully no stopping in the gravel trap. He understeered through the gravel. Graham Goodwin joins our pal Peter Dumbreck in the booth. Gliceknhaus #708 in the lane with Olivier Pla in the car, in and back out.
The Gibson Technologies boys have had to change coil packs again on the Inter Europol LMP2 car, the #34. Toyota, Toyota, Glickenhaus the top three with the second Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla in fifth and might make it back up to fourth in the next few hours if it does not run into trouble. Alexander Sims leads GTE Pro in Corvette #64 with James Calado in Ferrari #51 next up followed by the #91 factory Porsche. The second AF Corse Ferrari is fourth followed by the #74 Riley Motorsports Ferrari as well.
DKR Engineering have had a baptism by fire into LMP2 at Le Mans this whole week. A brake change at AF Corse for the #51 Ferrari while the sister AF Corse car, #83, the LMP2 car of Francoiis Perrodo has a lurid skid into Arnage! Yikes! The Glickenhaus too, spins and there could be an issue for Olivier Pla trying to get back in the game, the #708 entry. Laurens Vanthoor in the delayed #92 Porsche makes it's pit stop. Will Stevens still leads LMP2 over Louis Deletraz, Ed Jones, Ricky Taylor, and others. Through a slow zone we go.
A long slow zone, both chicanes on the Mulsanne straight. How difficult is it to rest? How do you get into a rhythm? It is hard to switch off. Cat nap through the night for four or five hours, but you are in a light dream and every half an hour you are awake. You just drain yourself before you get back to your driving stint. Slow zone aain. Good to see Emmanuel Collard back at Le Mans, for 23 consecutive races as Paul Loup Chatin moves around Julien Canal for 13th in LMP2. Another slow zone, one remaining hrough Tertre Rouge and onto the Mulsanne straight once again. The GR Racing Porsche is off the road.
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