Francois Perrodo knows the emotions involved and the consequences. He is very respectful and passionate, admiring the professional drivers, and so he will be very upset about this incident with the Corvette boys, and will apologize. Stay sharp. Don't lose focus. Brendon Hartley still leads the motor race in Toyota #8 as the #92 Porsche pits which was delayed earlier, and they are fifth in LM GTE Pro. Ferrari for AF Corse and the #51 car lead the class in GTE Pro. James Calado in the lead. The factory Porsche team goes for a tire change. Ryan Briscoe is still third overall. Both Corvette's out of this race simultaneously.
The Algarve Pro LMP2 car was also right there coming across Francois Perrodo. Natural instinct was avoidance, and he came across on Alexander Sims. You can only look in one direction at a time. Francois Perrodo will indeed feel awful. Steven Thomas and John Falb, both of the Algarve Pro entries, #45 and #47 have their gentleman drivers in them. The gap is just under a lap between Toyota #7 and Toyota #8, where they are a lap apart. We won't see closing rates, but have not had safety cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year so far. They would only use it to clear up the whole track for the marshals to work on it. They have had no need to deploy the safety car for this whole race. We have five Ferrari's and two Porsche's left in GTE Pro, no Corvette's obviously.
Toyota #8 pits and so, Jose Maria Lopez's stint in the #7 has gone well while Sebastien Buemi in the #8 was doubting his performance. #7 just might have a performance edge. The #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche is in and out with Cooper MacNeil. TF Sport and Northwest AMR have put themselves in contention. Cool Racing have been battling in LMP2 while the same is true for IDEC and WRT. Francois Perrodo and Amato Ferrari and are headed to Corvette Racing to apologize. That was a massive accident for Alexander Sims and thank good he has gotten out of that car under his own steam.
Francois Perrodo absolutely gutted about his actions. He did not mean to do that. Paul Loup Chatin is faster than most of the other LMP2 car. Jota and Prema could be in the pound seats, but there's a long, long way to go, five and a half hours to go. We will hear from Alastair Moffatt at Toyota and the #7 needed a reset on the motor, the front hybrid motor I believe has had to be reset perhaps more than once. Car #83 has it's stp and hold penalty. Francois Perrodo knew he had a tiny swerve with the steering wheel and he feels awful about it. It's horrible. No words. The Corvette team handled everything in a gentlemanly manner, but Perrodo feels awful about what ended up happening.
Perrodo owns classic race cars including the Le Mans class winning Porsche RS Spyder and the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP diesel racer that was a Le Mans winner. Ferrari have on extra pit stop on their cycle compared to the two Porsche's. Ferrari #51 and Porsche #91 will be on the same pace racing to the end of the event. Back to green. Slow zone 4 has been cleared. Emmanuel Collard chasing Robin Frijns and Frijns chasing down Yifei Ye as the #7 Toyota is in the lane, Jose Maria Lopez bringing the car in. The delayed Glickenhaus is coming into the picture again as the #86 GR Racing Porsche will be penalized.
Fatigue is beginning to take it's toll. 10:30 A.M. local time in Le Mans, France, on this Sunday morning. The #23 United Autosport car of Josh Pierson has an off course excursion through the dust in the Porsche Curves. Tiredness after the graveyard shift is starting to take it's toll. Don't make too many errors. Fatigue and heat, it is a tough deal. Thank you for your company, Jazeman Jafar as we welcome Anthony Davidson back to the broadcast booth. It is heartbreaking, the incident with Francois Perrodo and the Corvette #64. Louise Beckett was speaking to Jim Glickenhaus about the recent incident and he agreed, it was a devastating incident.
Andre Negrao has brought the #36 Alpine in for service. The lead in GTE Pro between Alessandro Pier Guidi and Fred Makowiecki is 11 seconds. Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi will be going for it but taking it easy, as Lilou Wadoux was closing on Phil Hanson and then had to give it up. Andre Negrao now fifth in class in Hypercar, 29th in the overall. Alpine are really struggling against LMP2 cars. A spin for another LMP2 car and that is Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT car and he spins off the road, and he hits the wing on the... boom! He damages the left front corner of the car with wheels on the grass. Slow zone to be deployed. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bear right.
Robin Frijns is told to get out of the car so it can be lifted and put down on the escape road. Safety car! Oh my! First safety car of the event. Well, well, well. We need a massive bit of work to be done here. WRT are out of this race! The defending LMP2 champions are out. As the barriers are repaired it is pit stop time. 19 hours and change of this race done before we even get a safety car. AF Corse leads GTE Pro now as the cars are held at the end of the pit lane at the red light until the queues come by. There are three queues individually behind the safety cars and this won't be a short fix whatsoever. Everyone can hit the lane and fuel up. The barriers need to be repaired from trackside. Rene Rast, Sean Gelael and Robin Frijns have the LMP2 points lead with 52 points but the deal is that Josh Pierson, Oliver Jarvis, and Alex Lynn are the de facto LMP2 points leaders.
Everyone who pits will lose time, but it might not matter. The TF Sport Aston Martin leads GTE Am and it is behind one of the safety cars. Safety cars give you half a lap on your competition. We don't use Full Course Yellow because Le Mans as a track is so long. We are protecting a teeny tiny area of the road. They have to dig out the posts, put new ones in, and hammer them into place, into the earth, and the ground is soggy. They have to pour quick dry concrete in there as well to hold the posts together. Will Stevens is understandably tired of safety cars and slow zones.
Here are the fastest laps of the race in each class.
Hypercar: #7 Kamui Kobayashi JPN. 3:27.762 Lap 294
LMP2: #32 Mirko Bortolotti ITA. 3:30.946 Lap 218
GTE Pro: #64 Alexander Sims GBR. 3:48.771 Lap 240
GTE Am: #79 Julien Andlauer FRA. 3:40.459 Lap 265
TDS Vaillante after we lost one of their drivers, would have had a podium finish. We remember Neil Cunningham, a man who had one LMP2 start here, an Australian driver who is an adopted Brit. Porsche and Ferrari will have a proper race in GTE Pro. Slow zone six is now deployed bringing in the safety car. This is where the cranes are operating now and everyone is released onto their pit lane speed limiters. The impact light was turned on on the car.
Safety car in this lap. We have the GTE Pro battle in the middle of this.
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