Green flag! Less than three hours to go now. Toyota ahead of Glickenhaus and here comes the #8 Toyota while the Alpine is right there, balked in GT traffic, look. The chase is on now between the #708 Glickenhaus and the #8 Toyota. Brendon Hartley and Mike Conway now in the Toyota's and Conway is in the race lead right now. Olivier Pla at the wheel of the Glickenhaus. Porsche overtakes Corvette too, in GTE Pro, for the class lead. All kinds of chopping and changing and Hartley wants past Olivier Pla. That's for dead sure. Many cars in many categories scrapping for position. A close shave for Hartley. Glickenhaus are now taking their penalty. Olivier Pla (or Pipo Derani who was driving the car before) was in clear air, and now they can cool the brakes on the car.
How far will they be behind after this drive through penalty which feels like an eternity. Toyota #8 took four fresh tires and #7 took two left side tires and now #708 is caboose on the field. Erase. Reset. Rewind. Poor old Olivier Pla is now the car in the bottle as opposed to the cork in the bottle. Alpine and Toyota have to get their heads down because the Glickenhaus will be pushing hard. Toyota have what they want, a 1-2. Brendon Hartley locks the brakes at Prima Variante. Nico Lapierre is coming as well. Drive through penalty for the #83 AF Corse Oreca LMP2. But they won't lose a spot in LMP2 Pro-Am. Lapierre has a deal where the Alpine does not bring the tires up to temperature as quickly as the Toyota does and makes the lap time under braking and in the turns.
The Toyota is blindingly fast in a straight line. Good battle in GTE Pro as Tommy Milner in the #64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is diving to the inside of Porsche #92 of Michael Christensen into the Rettifilo. There is just not enough traction. Build speed into Curva Grande. Traffic ahead on the first lap of this green flag run. The leaders are having to carve through traffic. Massive Aston Martin battle in GTE-Am for sixth and seventh place. #777 D'station vs. #98 Aston Martin Racing and then you have the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari right behind. Two AF Corse Ferrari's behind, that have both been nerfed off the road.
Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 unlaps himself as does Charlie Fagg aboard the #777. #83 is pinged with a five second stop and hold and so is the #71 Ferrari as the #94 Peugeot is in the lane. The #94 Peugeot is pitting now. Peugeot TE stands for Peugeot TotalEnergies. TotalEnergies is the sponsor of Peugeot, and they are the official fuel supplier for the whole FIA World Endurance Championship as well. 100% renewable fuel that comes from the byproducts of the wine making industry. Well, well. I'll drink to that. One cab sav, please. More wine for with a fancy meal, more fuel for cars, and less chances of waste being in a landfill. Racing is probably the only area, where the idea of green energy is being done right.
Olivier Pla screams past the battle in GTE Pro. Holy guacamole! That car is a freaking rocket ship! Fred Makowiecki has James Calado right on his six. Toyota #7 has cleared traffic and so has the Glickenhaus. Olivier Pla loses zilch to the leading cars but he has to scythe through the LMP2 field. He is the safari explorer, the Indiana Jones, if you will, scything through the bush with his trusty sceptre on a journey. The Alpine is going to have a harder time going past the LMP2 cars. Nico Lapierre has to take a more conservative approach. #83 in the lane now to serve one of it's two penalties.
The Glickenhaus has plummeted down behind the GT cars and Olivier Pla is in trouble! He is in limp home mode. Deary me. There's smoke off the right rear. Punctured tire! Oh man! It is more than that. Olviier Pla is losing steam. The motor is coughing and spluttering. This is the first time we have seen the Pipo Moteurs 3.5 liter V8 get sick. This is a terminal engine issue and it's gone bang. Toyota run 1-2 with Alpine third and Peugeot in fourth spot. Peugeot could get a podium on their return to sports car endurance racing.
Porsche #91 holding up the Ferrari's at the moment and it looks like it is game over for Glickenhaus. Poor old Lapierre is getting stymied like crazy as they drive through the hazy smoke of the Glickenhaus which has just blown a motor big style. It is just like the turbo eras in the 1980s for Group C prototypes or Formula 1. After 96 hours of trouble free running mechanically at Le Mans, Glickenhaus have now experienced a massive engine failure. Now we move to have a Captain Cook, a Bo Peep, at the LMP2 shemozzle. There are about four or five LMP2's in one clump here nose to tail. The main battle here sees United, Prema Orlen, Jota, and WRT all scrapping with each other. The Pro-Am subclass LMP2 leader from Ultimate is also in the fight.
Fabulous motor racing currently in all four divisions. Porsche have out fumbled Ferrari in the lane. Posche #91 though in the lead, he is barely hanging on by his fingernails over the #51 Ferrari. Peugeot #93 has made another pit stop. LMP2 are really all over each other. So, in LMP2 it is Filipe Albuquerque, Jonathan Aberdein, Lorenzo Colombo, Robin Frijns, and more. Aberdein is the stopper in the bottle. Sean Gelael at WRT has had his penalty erased and Robin Frijns in the sister car is also in the mix. The GTE-Am lead scrap is heating up with Rahel Frey just ahead of the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
So, the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari is now running ahead of Sebastian Priaulx. Priaulx has gradually been making inroads as Brendon Hartley locks up trying to pass the GTE-Am cars and here comes Nico Lapierre! Peugeot #93 has gone straight on at the chicane. More teething problems for the Peugeot 9X8? That is what it looks like. A bad case of the new race car blues. JEV, Jean Eric Vergne parking it up on the grass. The seven-car crocodile for LMP2 is raging on. Another drive through penalty for the #83 AF Corse car. Jeepers creepers! Olivier Pla out of the Glickenhaus, and the team is retiring the #708 Glickenhaus. Team boss Jim Glickenhaus and the rest of the team are investigating. But it is game over.
They will have to come back at Fuji in Japan and see how they do there. United and Jota scrap for LMP2 honors. Sebastien Bourdais now at the wheel of the #10 Vector Sport entry. United gets stymied in traffic! This is close! Be careful, boys and girls! Yikes! Albuquerque vs. Aberdein vs. Frijns. If you move the wrong way, your race is over. Now, Nico Lapierre is going to gof or the pass into turn one right on top of Brendon Hartley. He is going to lose the spot through Curva Grande. Lapierre is kicking himself and now he's gone straight on and has to regroup. The car is good under braking but the Alpine just does not have the straight line speed of the Toyota anywhere it truly needs it.
We have two hours and 40 minutes to go, the standard duration of an IMSA WeatherTech sprint race, left. Aberdein right on Albuquerque's six as they slice through GTE Am cars like Patrick Lindsey and Simon Mann for Dempsey Proton and AF Corse. The LMP2 battle is really heating up. Vector Sport is really quick and Bourdais is now challenging Jonathan Aberdein for the lead as the Peugeot is wheeled back to the garage. Bourdais, extremely experienced, as we see RealTeam WRT and United Autosport in the lane now.
Vector Sport is another team that has had members unable to travel due to the cursed virus. Olivier Pla takes his helmet off and chucks it back into it's cabinet. He is disgusted, and understandably so. Chances to win have to be precious as the Hypercar leaders catve their way through the GTE Pro traffic with Ferrari and both their cars ahead of the Corvette. It is doubly brutal for Glickenhaus retiring as half the team, roughly, are Italian, who work on the car, for Podium Engineering. They are based here in Italy. Podium Engineering have built all the cars for Jim Glickenhaus and it is no accident that the car looks like a vintage Ferrari race car from the 1960s. I stand corrected on my assertion from earlier that we shall not see Glickenhaus racing at Fuji in Japan next time out.
Oh dear, oh dear. Trouble for United Autosport and Phil Hanson maybe has hit something on his out lap into Variante della Roggia. But the pit lane speed limiter might have been on. Maybe not. What has happened there? Prema Orlen now in the lane for full service on the #9 car. Glickenhaus could have been at Bahrain. We may or may not see them. They are getting so, so close. We'll wait and see if they come back before the end of the season. The Glickenhaus is a great team and a very cool car. More LMP2 cars heading for the pit lane as we see this battle between Hartley and Lapierre. Lapierre just cannot pass and it is driving him crazy.
Brendon Hartley is driving for his life. This is a massive scrum. Lapierre can also see Mike Conway four seconds up the road. Lapierre is the quickest of the top three. The rapid Frenchman is putting everything on the table. I mean everything. The leaders are catching the #34 Inter Europol LMP2 into the Lesmo's. At first we thought it was Alex Brundle, but it is indeed Esteban Guttierez at the wheel of it. A change of position in GTE-Am. Porsche on Porsche. Patrick Lindsey in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche passing the #56 Team Project 1 entry, also a Porsche, in the hands of Brendon Iribe. Meanwhile, we resume the lead battle between the Toyota and the Alpine. That is the one to keenly watch.
Down to Variante Ascari, the Alpine is faster through this section and we will have to see how braking goes into Ascari or one of the chicanes past the Toyota. Peugeot #94 in the lane with Gustavo Menezes at the controls. Toyota run 1-2 here at Monza with two and a half hours to go. The top three in Hypercar are covered by six or so seconds. So, it is a close race. Yours truly has been blabbering on and on and on. But trust me, I think what we have seen has been remarkable and relevant all at the same time. There is a fabulous scrap too for second in LM GTE Pro. Glickenhaus were really turning it on and moving into a massive lead, but of course, they are out of it now.
As the lead battle rages, we can see one of the Jota LMP2's in the way. It is the #28 of Jonathan Aberdein. We thought it was #38, but no. Alpine cannot overtake the Toyota on the road. Can they pit earlier? They should and do have the speed over the Toyota, but will they be able to make a pass without using some kind of strategic tool in their toolbox? The French blue car is looking to double stint their tires. That is exactly what they want to do. The Alpine has the legs through the middle of the corner. Tit for tat, because the Toyota has better drive off corner exit and has more top end speed. Well, well, well. We needed a well, well, well, and now we have one, because I am afraid the #94 Peugeot has been languishing in the lane for too long.
So it very well could be game over for James Rossiter, Gustavo Menezes, and Loic Duval. Trouble in paradise for the triple seven D'station Aston Martin as they have been handed a track limits warning. Charlie Fagg at the controls of that car. Now then, Nico Lapierre is still going for it. He is closing through the Lesmos, but then, Brendon Hartley can push the bye bye button. Peugeot #94 is in the same situation as Glickenhaus as both of these teams are dropping like a stone down the running order. Oh criminy! More trouble. WRT #31 in LMP2 is crawling. Robin Frijns, the Dutchman, at the wheel of the car, sharing with Sean Gelael and with Rene Rast. Could it be game over for them as well?
No tire puncture on that car. Is the engine running? It loses speed before gaining it. Pit lane speed limiter left on? That could have been the same deal for the #22 United Autosport car. Through into the braking zone at Variante del Rettifilo and no way for Nico Lapierre to move past Brendon Hartley, still. So you haven't missed anything. Lapierre has not lost any time to Mike Conway either, who is all by his lonesome and can dictate his own pace in the race lead. Brendon is going to have one eye on the road ahead and one eye behind on the idiot in the blue car. No disrespect to Nico Lapierre at all! That is not what I meant.
But it seems like this is a situation like you are driving on the road and you look in your mirrors and some wingnut is tailgating you on the motorway because he or she thinks you are driving too slowly. Brendon Hartley does not want to be overtaken in a braking zone. Overtake the GTE cars before the corner. Deary me. Trouble in paradise again for the #22 United Autosport car. I believe this has happened on tack again. #23 was in the lane, and oh! That was #38 off in the gravel again! Antonio Felix Da Costa really made a pig's breakfast out of uit. Lapierre vs. Hartley again into the first turn. On the brakes into the turn with a Porsche in the way, and yes! Nico Lapierre has made the move! Not too cleanly, but he's made it nonetheless.
Brendon Hartley is not taking this sitting down. Down the straightaway, he is going to use that Porsche as a pick, and trap Lapierre as the meat in the sandwich. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with you... as the song says. Lapierre is doggedly determined and he will not roll over and play dead. Curse that long straightaway before the next chicane! Never give up and keep pushing. Keep attacking. He is trying to take Hartley by surprise. Hartley had the room at the exit of the turn with the Porsche in the way. Lapierre let Hartley go 'round and now it is round two. Inside, no, outside, sneding it, and no! In desperation has to go straight on.
In the meantime we see the white flags, not for surrender, not for last lap, but for telling a backmarker to move over as we continue to watch the United Autosport entry still crawling at a snail's pace on the road. Jeepers creepers. You'd think that car would've made it back to the lane already. Not a chance. You can't have a car trundling 'round the track without a Full Course Yellow. #31 is in the garage. For a wee moment both Jota cars were 1-2 in LMP2. Is that hydraulic fluid or coolant? It is coolant. That car has punctured it's water jacket. But it did not come off the rev limiter, or there was zero percent throttle response.
Maybe the car got hot. #22 is still trundling 'round to the first Lesmo. 95 seconds through sector one because he's rattling around on the speed limiter as cars are in literal meltdown mode. Jim Glickenhaus is obviously disappointed and explains that the car was fine, and they had a catastrophic turbo failure on the car. A brand-new part going bang for no reason. No oil leaks. No intercooler failure. Metal shavings were dumped into the turbo. If the metal shavings get into the oiling system that will cause the engine to digest itself. Glickenhaus should have two cars like they did at Le Mans. #708 had issues and #709 finished on the podium.
The company builds limited production cars and road legal Baja race trucks and spends a disproportionate amount of money to race. With shareholders, there are only so many goals they can have, and they need capital to expand into hydrogen powered zero emission pickup trucks. That is their game plan. Jim Glickenhaus is not sure. We do hope to continue to see them racing because of the passion of this company. Glickenhaus is an optimist, a realist, and a dreamer. The almighty dollar just does not stretch as far as it used to. But there is no way they are going to quit. Just take things with a pinch of salt with the realities of life. Don't think for a moment that they are throwing in the towel. No way. Far from it. They will be back.
Good battle here, look, for the fourth place in LMP2. Sebastien Bourdais doing all he can to hold off the challenges of both Robert Kubica and Norman Nato. Two hours and 21 minutes still on the board. Vector Sport has led a lap of this race already. Nico Muller, Sebastien Bourdais, and Ryan Cullen have all driven well today. The #38 Jota Sport entry is working it's way back up the order and more trouble for the #31 WRT car has meant they will fall down the order even though they are back on track. Rahel Frey off the road into the gravel and so has the #7 Toyota in the lead. Rahel Frey is holding her own in a ding dong scrap with Sebastian Priaulx right now in GTE-Am.
So, that Ferrari and Porsche battle will undoubtedly continue. The gap has been fairly static. The Iron Dames driver lineup has to be the strongest in the GTE Am division. Oh dear. The #56 Inception Racing Am class Porsche has spun into a very precarious position! That is a horrible spot on this track to go off the road especially if there is no fire in the hole to get the car to crank over again. Brendon Iribe has a bad case of limited steering lock and he has stopped in the most dreadful spot you can imagine! Yellow flags at turn six for obvious reasons.
Iribe does not have the confidence to punch it and get the thing rotated in the right direction. Stalled in reverse! Jeepers creepers! Lots of traffic coming through the Lesmo's right now as we see the overall leader go through. Iribe can pull the car to safety and almost gets creamed by the #98 Aston Martin! Mama Mia! Brendon, mate, you did not have to reverse that far back on the track! He could not see out the right hand side window of the car. I see that and I get the shudders! Okie dokie then. #8 Toyota to the pit lane from second spot. They will take no tires and they might go for a driver change. Alpine move up to second place. The Alpine will now be able to push with Nico Lapierre at the controls to try catching Mike Conway.
Brendon Hartley in the lane has four new tires or he did the last time he stopped. The Toyota has the top end speed advantage. Lapierre in the Alpine hits the pit lane and so does the #7 Toyota. OK. I wonder if this will put everything Even Steven again. Driver change at Toyota, look. No driver change at Alpine. Lapierre takes a much-needed drink. Car #8 is screamng through the Ascari chicane. Alpine will beat the #7 out of the lane. #8 in Parabolica. The Alpine gets out in front of both Toyota's! Hartley is pushing like mad to stay ahead of the sister car and motor towards the Alpine.
All the tire strategies are a big old candy dish right now with someone trying to choose what flavor they want. Chocolate, caramel, peanut brittle, peppermint. The Alpine is in clean air, strategies notwithstanding. The Alpine will not get stymied in the corners by a Toyota now that he is in clean air with free rein to drive as he wishes. Four green tires on #7 and only left side tires for the #8. Being clear of the Toyota, he is not compromised. Car #7 changed all four tires and they will be catching and trying to attack Lapierre.
We watch the Iron Dames Ferrari, and Sara Bovy was the first woman to take a pole position. Keiko Ihara is the only woman to ever finish on an FIA WEC pdoium. Here at Monza, in the 1980 running of this race, Desire Wilson finished on the podium. In fact, she won, along with Alain de Cadenet in the World Championship of Makes in a De Cadenet Lola. We recently lost Alain de Cadenet who died on July 2nd of cancer at the age of 76. An avid sports car racer and racing historian. Rest In Peace, Alain. You will be missed. If the Iron Dames win this race, it will be richly deserved and long overdue.
Corvette chasing Ferrari in GTE Pro. The Ferrari has just not had speed in dry conditions. All the Ferrari's work better at this track than they have anywhere else this year. The Ferrari's overall lap times are good as we see Matthieu Lahaye who was leading the Pro-Am portion of LMP2 go slithering off the road and back on again. He got in way too hot, bounding over the curbs in Variante della Roggia. Brendon Hartley is closing in on Nico Lapierre hand over fist with Hartley having fresher left side tires. The pendulum swings again. The three-car scrap in LMP2 we saw earlier is still raging. Sebastien Bourdais for Vector Sport ahead of Robert Kubica for Prema Orlen and Norman Nato in the RealTeam by WRT entry. WRT and RealTeam are normal frontrunners and they are having throttle woes.
The #22 United Autosport entry remains in the pit lane as Robert Kubica passes Sebastien Bourdais. Norman Nato took over from Ferdinand Habsburg. The #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Michael Christensen takes avoiding action. Now then, these two are chasingPaul-Loup Chatin aboard the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca. You know Kubica wants it, with fresh tires on the car. The Prema entry has been extremely fast and they did race last weekend in European Le Mans Series right here. Again, stay tuned, because yours truly does hope to keep catching up with the ELMS action when time permits.
Jonathan Aberdein still has the lead in LMP2 aboard the #28 Jota entry. He is six seconds ahead of Esteban Guttierez at the wheel of the #34 Inter Europol Competition entry. Ooh. Kubica moves to the left and gets chopped! That could have ended in tears with the Corvette into the Parabolica, and oh no! It has ended in tears as Prema tags the Richard Mille car. Chatin brakes earlier, Kubica has nowhere to go, and guess what? Poor old Paul-Loup Chatin gets the worst of the deal and gets spun out. #85 in the lane. Rahel Frey is in. The #60 Ferrari is also in the pit lane but is not in contention.
In WRT land, Rene Rast says that they had a coolant leak and the engine temperature went skyward. They have lost tons of spots after fixing the cooling issue. They cannot fight for the LMP2 lead anymore and just have to see where the chips fall at the end of this race. Yikes! A king-size off-track excursion for Brendon Hartley! Yikes! That was the #7, and it was Kamui Kobayashi! Holy moly! Henrique Chaves is A OK and released from the medical center! Thank God! Whistling under the historic banking, we have just a couple hours left to run here at Monza and Brendon Hartley is closing in steadily, look, on Nico Lapierre for the lead of this motor race.
Again, this is round four of the FIA WEC and the last race in Europe this year, and the last European race ever for the GTE Pro class. It is also the final ever race for an Alpine LMP1 car in Europe in the Hypercar class befre they have an LMP2 spec car next year and a new LMDh in 2024. #1 is in the lane after the spin and the contact with Robert Kubica. Paul-Loup Chatin stays in the car. The rear light was broken in the incident so the rear tail may be being replaced while Jonathan Aberdein now leads LMP2 in the #28 Jota entry. They could be out of sync with the other LMP2 entrants. It is catching up but slowly. Ferrari #51 is in the lane as we have also seen the #22 United Autosport entry in the pit lane as well.
Kuba Smiechowski still has to drive another stint before the race ends in the #34 Inter Europol car. The gap is bigger than we thought in LMP2 while both AF Corse Ferrari's run 1-2 in GTE Pro, so the Tifosi will be happy. Iron Dames still lead GTE-Am competition at this stage as we are coming up on just two hours to go here at Monza. Stay tuned. There's plenty more motor racing still to come and you won't want to miss it. We also see the #94 Peugeot 9X8 back on track after a lengthy stay in the garage for repairs. We have to find out from Peugeot what the boys have been up to as they are experiencing their first FIA WEC race in over a decade with a brand-new race car. The #93 sister Peugeot is still in the garage, and it may well be game over for that one.
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