Steep uphill and then back downhill into the esses. High and minimum speed turns here at Le Mans for the most part, save for a couple of the 38 turns we have on this track. Pierre Ehret has had to have pitted for new boots. In that earlier fracas he has Fred Flintstoned a set of them. Alpine in the lane and Nico Lapierre completes a triple stint, handing the car to Matthieu Vaxiviere. Andre Negrao will be the third driver in the cycle. 6:00 P.M. in the evening in France. Air temperature and track temperature will drop in another few hours, but the heat will be held in the pavement for a few more hours yet. The temperatures here in France have been going up. It is a hot summer. WRT and Prema continue their scrap in LMP2. Mirjo Bortolotti vs. Lorenzo Colombo while Antonio Felix Da Costa leads in class. Pier Guidi stopped but AF Corse are very cagey about what they are doing. They are running on the pace they want.
The madness is settling down. Everyone is beginning to have a chance to take a breath and settle into a rhythm. Jim Glickenhaus says that there was a sensor that needed changing on the #709. Their tire runs and energy use are fine. The drivers are happy, triple stinting, quadruple stinting on one set of tires. Better to address issues and penalties as soon as possible. Don't wait. Nico Jamin, fifth in LMP2, uncorks a 3:33.8, their fastest lap of the race so far. Rashed De Gerus has taken over
Mike Conway out of the #7 as they pit. #8 will take the lead. The lead gap, 16 seconds ahead as the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche meanders through the chicane, Fred Poordad at the wheel of it. This is a guy who had a massive wreck in Free Practice and in his first time at Le Mans. Poordad sharing with Jan Heylen and Max Root. The Pierre Ehret and Francois Perrodo incident, no further action. Racing deal. Six of one and half a dozen of the other. Rene Rast pits for WRT as Jean Glorieux, the Belgian, is now in the #3 CD Sport LMP2 entry. #31 for WRT now in the lane too. All the cars are still in the race and we'll see retirements in the next few hours. Guaranteed. Back in the day, you can remember half the field failing and falling by the wayside.
These days, accident damage is more common than reliability woes. Much more dtesting being able to be done these days as we see the #8 Toyota in the lane and Brendon Hartley steps in, the New Zealand driver. The GR010 Toyota has a longer shark fin and a couple vertical aero gates behind the doors. Olivier Pla brings the #708 Glickenhaus in and there is a driver change. Romain Dumas is in the car now and we will see Pipo Derani later. Jose Maria Lopez now has the lead in Toyota #7, last year's Le Mans winners and last year's world champs.
Toyota, Toyota, Glickenhaus, Alpine, Glickenhaus. That is the top five. All Hypercars. Romain Dumas racing his 22nd Le Mans race. We welcome Oliver Gavin to the booth who is now also doing commentary and a Corvette driving academy, the Oliver Gavin Driving Academy through GM Europe and the Museum in Motion from the United States doing a tour from Paris, to Normandy, to Le Mans. Pit stop time for the leading #43 LMP2 car at Inter Europol. Driver change. Cool Racing vs. WRT in LMP2. Dries Vanthoor vs. Yifei Ye. He gets boxed in right behind Dries Vanthoor on the Mulsanne through the chicanes. Ye is right on Vanthoor's six.
They head into Mulsanne corner. The GTE Pro battle is very evenly matched between Corvette, Porsche, and Ferrari. Gianmaria Bruni being harried by Tommy Milner. This has been a scorching hot race in more ways than one. Antonio Garcia leading GTE Pro and we can see the #92 ahead of #52. Antonjo Fuoco is passed by Michael Christensen and Tommy Milner has passed by the #91 entry. Martin Brundle is here as a spectator at Le Mans and a former driver, supporting his son Alex this weekend, and away from his Formula 1 commentary duties at Azerbaijan. Alex is driving very well and this is indeed a race of attrition. Wait until the sun comes up on Sunday morning.
Martin Brundle says his son is faster than he is. He is here as a fan and to support his son, his team mates, and the Inter Europol team. We are now joined by Amanda Stretton, who raced in LMP1 and LMP900 with Vanina Ickx and Milka Duno. Big crash for the #3 DKR Engineering LMP2! He spins and whacks the Armco barrier. Jean Glorieux on an out lap, and he shall need a new nose. Crunch! Amanda Stretton is here as a fan just as Martin Brundle is. Stretton has been a part of Formula E the last number of years. It will be a hard thing for a fully electric car to run a full on endurance sports car race. Formula E do push the boundaries of technology.
There is room for everything. #28 in the lane, the second Jota Sport car. Yifei Ye vs. Nico Jamin, and Dries Vanthoor in LMP2. Cool Racing, Panis Racing, and Team WRT. This is a great race now, but we are really looking forward to the centenary of Le Mans next year. Book your trip now if you want to go. The Hypercar brands are readying their cars for sure. Le Mans is the one unique race where any driver from any discipline can come and race. Adrian Newey, a legendary race car designer, has raced here at Le Mans before. We have seen manufacturer support but a lot of privateer entries too, especially in LMP2 and GTE-Am. Sports car racing no matter the era, has seen factory teams. The iceberg is the privateers who pay for their own fun.
Entrepreneurs racing with race winners and current and future factory drivers. Glickenhaus #709 in the lane as there's big damage to the #22 United Autosport car and tire woes for the sister car, the #23. 342 kilometers per hour for Hypercar, 328 kilometers per hour for LMP2. The GTE Pro and GTE Am cars are just two clicks apart in their top speeds. Richard Westbrook chasing Matthieu Vaxiviere. Romain Dumas in the sister Glickenhaus is next in the serial ahead of Vaxiviere. So, the Alpine is the meat in a Glickenhaus sandwich.
Toyota run 1-2, Jose Maria Lopez 23 seconds ahead of Brendon Hartley. Only four cars are now on the lead lap. Richard Westbrook a lap down after an extra pit stop. The two Toyota's are 23 seconds apart. The LMP2 cars are basically equal with all of them having the 4.2 liter Gibson Technologies V8 engines and 99% of the chassis' are Oreca's with one Ligier. David Heinemeier Hanson, Reshad De Gerus, and Sebastien Bourdais. Duqueine to the pit lane for service and likewise for the #36 Alpine A480 Hypercar. Brendon Hartley, 3:28.232 as Romain Dumas clicks off fastest lap of all at 3:28.110. Which driver do you start? Naturally you want to start the Silver or the Bronze driver. Or, you go with the Pro driver.
Battle for third in GTE Pro and it is an internicene scrap between the Porsche factory cars. Michael Christensen gets waved by, by Gianmaria Bruni. IDEC Sport under investigation on pit procedure. David Droux investigated for track limits, and we have the top seven LMP2 cars in the lane. Jota, Penske. Prema, Cool, WRT, Panis, and Richard Mille. Drive through penalty for the #36 Alpine for speeding in a slow zone, and a penalty for the Jota Sport car starting the car while it was still being worked on in the lane. No major dramas for the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin as we see wholesale GTE Am and GTE Pro stops. Tommy Milner leads from Michael Christensen. Jordan Taylor and Antonio Fuoco as well.
Tommy Milner leads GTE Pro. Two Corvette's, two Porsche's, two Ferrari's, as the fast laps are coming thick and fast in LMP2. Jota and Will Stevens are booking it right now. Dane Cameron in the #5 Penske Oreca is running fast too. Gianmaria Bruni cuts a 3:53.1 while Michale Christensen averaged 3:51.2. Porsche are splitting their strategy and doing the switcheroo. Porsche and Ferrari know they are struggling to find pace against the Corvette's. Corvette #64 to the pit lane and the same is true for Porsche #92. We did see one of the Toyota's also in for service.
The ambient temperatures and track temperatures are going to be cooling off. Romain Dumas has been warned for track limits after setting his fastest lap of the motor race, running third at the moment. Will Stevens leading in LMP2 and truly flying. He did very well in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year as we see the #51 AF Corse Ferrari in the pit lane and the same is true for the #93 Proton Competition Am class Porsche. Will Stevens' confidence has been bosted heavily. WeatherTech Racing currently ahead in GTE Am. WeatherTech vs. Dempsey Proton, Northwest AMR, Team Project 1, and the second Dempsey Proton Porsche as Brendon Hartley is in the #8 for fuel only in the Toyota. Jose Maria Lopez too, in the #7 has pitted.
You need downforce at Le Mans but you want the cars to have less drag. Le Mans and Monza are very similar circuits and we will see low downforce at Monza later this summer as well. Romain Dumas brings the #708 Glickenhaus to the lane. The #57 CarGuy Ferrari runs off the road just before the Mulsanne Straight! That was sketchy stuff! He kept his foot in it but that was a rodeo ride! Yikes! Fredrik Schandorff, the Danish driver, he really, really had his hands full! The GTE Am class being dominated by Porsche and Aston Martin although we can see the D'station Aston maybe passing the CarGuy Ferrari soon.
Ferrari's performance is down or the track temperature is fiddling with their strategy. Dane Cameron and Lorenzo Colombo in LMP2 continue their scrap. Colombo has passed tons of drivers. Dane Cameron is in his first Le Mans race;. Colombo struggling for speed as he chases the Pneske LMP2 car hanging onto Dane Cameron.
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