From 65th on the grid, KCMG team boss Matt Howson says the pit stop is coming and they believe they can win this race. The team is ready for a stop. Howson is a former racer turned team boss. So, the car is in the lane and Laurens Vanthoor will take over. #98 and #88 have been matching each other, the BMW and the Mercedes. #88 pits and is back on the road. They stopped sooner than the Porsche. The Porsche hesitated somehow. Maybe Laurens Vanthoor stalled the engine. We remain under the safety car until you catch up with the snake of cars. One of the safety cars maybe is out of petrol. That would be embarrassing if the safety car ran out of fuel.
The leader is in the pit lane now, the BMW M4 GT3. Nicky Catsburg and Nikki Thiim in and so is Max Hesse. Track cleanup is just about complete. Safety car in this lap and we're going back to green. No further action on the Chris Froggatt and Miguel Ramos. Neither driver wholly at fault. #88 passes #98 and Porsche #47 falls down a tad. The #98 and #50 BMW's will be shuffled down the order. #88 Mercedes has the advantage or so it seems. Augusto Farfus will have to play catch up with everyone else and they pitted a lap too late! #47 and #88 are going to move around for sure. We're going racing, now, with Maro Engel in the #55 Mercedes in the lead. Nicklas Nielsen and Rob Bell are next but those two might need to pit again.
Punch it. Green flag. Farfus will sink like a rock. Maro Engel steaming up to Les Combes. Jordan pepper going for it to get back on the lead lap and Augusto Farfus plummets. The top three are due to pit. Augusto Farfus will have to uncork some stellar lap times as the top three will see out their stint and then pit. They cannot leapfrog anyone. Maro Engel leads as Nicklas Nielsen is being trapped behind Fred Schandorff in the #7 McLaren. Two cars side by side into Eau Rouge. They've given each other room as Giacomo Altoe goes by and hee comes Jordan Pepper! Wow! Pepper is sixth and is focusing on the #50 BMW M4 GT3 for the BMW Junior Team through Les Combes and down the hill once more.
Giacomo Altoe is a lap down on Jordan Pepper. Altoe should let Pepper go. Nicklas Nielsen, Maro Engel, and Rob Bell, all need to pit. Steijn Schothorst halfway through his stint will need a stop as he is out of sequence. Nikki Thiim is noritonally the race leader. Jules Gounon may be catching him and we have to see where Augusto Farfus is as Lucas Legeret is now 18th in the overall after being at the sharp end last night. It's not if but when they come in. Througb Les Combes, 417 laps complete. Markus Winkelhock and company were virtually last yesterday evening. 15th overall now but not in contention to win. Mercedes #88 of Jules Gounon, a second behind Thiim.
Gounon is 3/10ths quicker as Dani Juncadella is taking a good look at all of this. Juncadella has finished his drive at Spa and he has had his best drive at the 24 Hours of Spa ever, this year. He is done with his stints and will go back and rest, probably. He hopes Akkodis ASP can make it to the finish and win the race. Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello should bring the car home. Maro Engel owes us a pit stop. He is an hour into the stint and has five minutes left. Maybe a couple laps, this lap would be ideal for a stop. Nicklas Nielsen and Rob Bell are next. The Heart of Racing Aston Martin with TF Sport is still in the race.
We will see the top three pit. They can short pit this time around. But the regulation 41 second fuel coupling time is still there. Steijn Schothorst will take over the lead in the #2 AMG Team GetSpeed car. He is a former Audi driver and drove open wheeled cars with Formula Ford's and Formula 3. Ten cars remain on the lead lap with four hours and 40 minutes to go. Drive through penalty for the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes, driving stint too long for Valentin Pierburg who loses the class lead to Theo Overhaus. Pit stop time now at Iron Lynx as well as other teams. Thiim, Gounon, Vanthoor, Farfus. So, Aston, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. Nikki Thiim goes to third and the Iron Lynx Ferrari heads back on track rdragf racing the McLaren. Now that could be an unsafe release from the lane.
They've given the spot to the Inception McLaren. The Ferrari team, the car controller made a mistake. He wasn't even paying attention to the fast lane. But they've been awake all night and their focus is shot. But they want to win the race, too. You are taking a massive gamble. Maro Engel stays in the #55, Rob Bell in the #38, and Sebastian Priaulx who has debuted at Le Mans and at Spa for the 24-hour races. Steijn Schothorst is 20 minutes out from his next pit stop as Davide Rigon is also off sequence. Schothorst leading on the road. Davide Rigon had a rear wing change. Thiim and then Vanthoor followed by Gounon.
Porsche passes Mercedes and the Mercedes got tagged into a spin that was getting to the lane. Jonathan Hui gets the worst of that deal. He would never have seen another car tap him. Gounon loses out to Vanthoor and he also loses a spot to Vanthoor. Wow. All looks good right now. He is quicker than Vanthoor in the middle sector. Jules Gounon has won Spa and Bathurst, both. He did get spun off the road. Then he saved it. So, Nikki Thiim is 4.7 seconds up on Vanthoor. Steijn Schothorst moving away from Davide Rigon. The gap is growing. Laurens Vanthoor in fourth. Aston Martin last won the 24 Hours of Spa in 1948 I believe, and they have not scored any IGTC points or GTWC Europe points.
The gap is stretching out between the Porsche and the Aston and now we are into the intense heat of the daytime with four and a half hours left to race. Thiim steams through the traffic and now, Thiim is chasing Davide Rigon. Schothorst leads on the road. Benjamin Goethe is 12th and is the highest placed Audi in Silver. Stuart Hall looking at Goethe while Hall's brother races in Formula 3. Lucas Legeret is doing all he can to keep the Aaton Martin and the Michelle Gatting Ferrari at bay. The #46 Audi has been repaired and is back out. Four and a half hours to go. #57, Lucas Auer, is back on track. Jens Liebhauser had a whole catalog of trouble with that car yesterday.
Auer is Gerhard Berger's nephew, the ten-time Formula 1 race winner. Michelle Gatting, if she is fastest, use her sparingly and get the other drivers in before the very end. It is similar to the 24 Hours of Daytona we see every January where it is a sprint to the finish more often than not. Michelle Gatting driving her way through Les Combes. The road is cleaner than it was. We have had 14 Full Course Yellows and a dozen safety cars. Theo Overhaus, age 17, new to GT3 racing for Walkenhorst BMW. He leads the Bronze Cup as Valentin Pierburg is serving his drive through penalty. Theo Overhaus has raced in DTM Trophy, their GT4 sprint series.
The BMW M4 looks big but it does not feel big. Much like the Bentley Continental GT3. Jules Gounon has caught Laurens Vanthoor. It is predicted the #88 Mercedes could win but we are a long way from the end. The Porsche teams maybe have a handle on their tires as the punctures are less common than we saw early doors yesterday. Laurens Vanthoor has won two 24 Hours of Spa races and Jules Gounon, one. Gounon in fifth spot right now. That onboard ride through Raidillon is something special. He is closing up through Les Combes but is driven crazy that he can't make a pass!
You know he wants it. Speaker's corner has new pavement and Pouhon old pavement and so, the grip levels are totally different. The #31 WRT Audi is in the way of the leaders and the Porsche has been wriggling around far more than the Mercedes but Jules Gounon is closing up on Laurens Vanthoor again and the move is on between these two. They are really motoring. Vanthoor in fourth and Gounon in fifth. Jules Gounon might expect more oversteer. The Mercedes engien in the front, and then the Porsche is mid engine.
Steijn Schothorst still has to do more drive time to keep Maxi Gotz or Raffaele Marciello for the last couple stints towards the end. He will stay out for one more lap. He will get one more lap in. Nikki Thiim is cutting similar laps to Steijn Schothorst. Davide Rigon will be next into the Ferrari as Jules Gounon is side by side on Laurens Vanthoor and Gounon makes the move and clears away. Vanthoor did not fight it. Gounon very brave and now Schothorst to the lane at 64 minutes for his stint. Jsut down to the wire. Maxi Gotz takes over and he will have a full tank of gas and four fresh Pirelli skins on that car.
Gotz won this race in 2013 and is also a Blancpain Sprint champ, a DTM competitor, an ADAC champ and a Formula BMW champ. Davide Rigon is the erstwhile leader before pitting in ten minutes or so. As the temperatures rise, then the Ferrari's lose a bit of pace. Maxi Gotz is now back on the track. Gotz putting heat and pressure into his tires. 20 second time penalty for the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Mercedes. Jonathan Hui was involved with Jules Gounon. #47, Laurens Vanthoor, to the lane after only 42 minutes. Maybe it is strategy. Maybe new tires will help the car. New tires are ready and the car is refueled. Vanthoor will do a double stint.
Vanthoor comes through and he could stretch the time of the stint and cut it very close. Endurance racing makes your brain work with the strategy as they sweep through Pouhon and into Fangnes. Miguel Ramos has retired. Three cars have not officially retired just yet. Vanthoor at the wheel of #47. Tandy and Olsen will be saved for the final stints. Tandy is a scrapper and he could come into the car. Nick Tandy nursed the Rowe Racing Porsche to win two years ago with a gearbox that sounded like it had stones in it. Uphill to Les Combes and Augusto Farfus is running decent lap times and so is Maxi Gotz. We have lots of evenly matched, competitive cars as Davide Rigon is on his inlap or so it appears. Rigon has run an hour and a minute. He is at the end of his stint. Nikki Thiim will be the new leader, the erstwhile leader.
Rigon running good lap times but not stellar lap times. Do not push too hard because you could use a splash and a dash. Rigon should be coming into the lane very soon. The race car has an antenna on the car, a transponder that knows where it is on the car so that the marshals do not have to be stationed all the way around the track. Rigon runs it right to the ened, 64 minutes and 43 seconds. Nikki Thiim is back into the lane as well. Some teams choosing to roll the dice. The team pulls a tear off from the windscreen. Ferrari and Aston Martin nose to tail. Rigon and Thiim are back on track. Will Maxime Martin take the Aston to the flag? The hometown hero?
Jules Gounon leads on the road and now, he will pit in another ten minutes or so and there is still a window. Tire freshness is alll that makes a difference. Take a gander at the stint time. You will have to pit if you go too long. Gounon leads on the road. Goetz is ahead of Rigon and Thiim, both. People have done drive through's to reset the stint clock to keep the driver's in the cars for two stints, but I believe that idea has been outlawed.
No comments:
Post a Comment