Mikkel Jensen of course has the wheel of the #93 Peugeot. Nicolas Lapierre has taken over the #36 Alpine from Andre Negrao and the Frenchman is turning quicker laptimes than his co-driver was. The Jones and Frijns LMP2 saga continues with a large gap back to third place in class, Lorenzo Colombo in the #9 Prema Orlen entry. Colombo is not closing on Ed Jones. However, gradually, Will Stevens closes up on Colombo and furthermore, Alex Lynn is closing up on Will Stevens from time to time as is Filipe Albuquerque. James Calado leads GTE Pro ahead of Miguel Molina in a Ferrari 1-2. If Porsche cannot find speed, if they don't have anything left in the locker they can use, Ferrari will have a field day and leave Porsche in a real pickle headed for the season finale in Bahrain in November.
Miguel Molina is missing a lit position light on one side. He is second in GTE Pro and not in the lead. Meantime, Andre Negrao says that the tire wear and degradation has been a concern for Alpine, especially on the rear. They don't have the straightaway speed but are doing all they can to finish in the spot where they're at. He double stinted his tires because of what he said about the degradation. Take the pain for the gain. That is all they can do. It is a former LMP1 car. Timing and scoring has sorted itself out, telling us Loic Duval is now at the wheel of the #94 Peugeot. That helps clarify things a wee bit, thank you.
79 laps, 225 miles now on the board. Alpine are already working on their Hypercar program but it will not be ready for 2023 and will be for 2024. They will be back next year but will take a step back to LMP2 with a two-car effort. That is the plan or so we have heard. We could see an all-female team in one of the cars, but we'll have to wait and see how that goes. Oreca are building a new Hypercar for them and an in-house motor for that automobile for 2024 as well. A pit stop penalty has been assessed, five seconds added to their next stop time, for the contact with the GTE-Am Porsche #88 that we discussed already. So, we are within the third hour of this motor race and it has just started.
#28 LMP2 leader to the pit lane. Ed Jones still in the car and he is stopping a lap earlier and there shall be a driver change. Robin Frijns has a flying lap available as Lorenzo Colombo moves to second. We were worried that Ed Jones' stint was not going well. Yeah right! He was bang on the money the whole way through. An LMP2 car, Ed Jones, before he pitted, uncorked a 1:29 lap, the first of those in this race. More LMP2 pit stops at United Autosports as well for both Alex Lynn and Filipe Albuquerque. It appears that United Autosports are not able to keep up with Jota's pace. They are not as fast and can't go as far on petrol either.
Something is fishy in the United Autosports camp as Robin Frijns now leads Lorenzo Colombo by 11.3 seconds, a big margin. Will Stevens is third in class and closing hand over fist on Colombo. So Lorenzo Colombo best watch his six. The GTE-Am battle is now on for eighth in class between Mikkel Pedersen who wants the spot at the wheel of the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, chasing the similar car of Sebastian Priaulx driving for Dempsey Proton Racing. Twi very quick young Porsche drivers, both Pedersen and Priaulx as WRT are in the lane with #31. D'station Aston Martin pit the #777 from the GTE-Am lead and Japan's Satoshi Hoshino is staying in the car for a double stint.
TF Sport will pit from the lead and Ben Keating will finish his stint. He is going above and beyond with his driving as Sebastian Priaulx smells blood in the water. It is the shark vs. the minnow with identical cars. Poor old Pedersen is the minnow, and he could be swallowed whole here if Priaulx makes the banzai move to the inside. Well, not a banzai move, but a calculated one. Priaulx closes up and tries around the outside, but Pedersen shuts the door. He forces Pedersen to go deeper into the braking zone. Pedersen wants it! He will fight to the bitter end! Alas, he has to give it up.
Priaulx makes the pass. Will Stevens to the pit lane in the Jota #38 car. Antonio Felix Da Costa looking on. It is not time for his stint yet as the #35 Ultimate LMP2 is also in the lane from second place in the LMP2 Pro-Am subcategory. Colombo in the class lead, but he has traffic ahead he shall have to negotiate. Colombo leads by nearly a minute with 81 laps on the board, nearly 231 miles. #38 back on track and now we also saw Ben Keating bringing the Aston Martin #33 in. Will it be Henrique Chaves or Marco Sorensen getting into that car? We don't know yet if it is the Portuguese or the Danish driver who took over from the American car dealer/racing driver.
Prema stops and now Will Stevens for Jota is slightly quicker. He is out of turn 12 and into 13, eight seconds in-arrears of Ed Jones, his Jota teammate. They will need dynamite to get Ed Jones out of that car. Prema resumes in the race and where is Will Stevens? Wow! Frijns takes the class lead! WRT was quicker than Jota. #28 of Ed Jones is now ahead of Lorenzo Colombo and Robin Frijns was stymied. Pit stop time for the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari. Sara Bovy has completed her drive time and is handing the car over to co-driver Michelle Gatting for the middle stint. Fresh Michelin tires going on that car. Drivers are knackered after their stints but have to help their teammates.
Francesco Castellaci brings in the #54 AF Corse Am class Ferrari. Thomas Flohr, the Swiss driver, will take over. Castellaci has done a marathon stint and brought that car up from eighth in class to the top of the tree. WRT were quick on their pit stop. But you know who was even quicker still? It was Vector Sport who had the best pit stop time in that round of LMP2 stops. Ah. It is Rahel Frey now at the wheel of the Iron Dames Ferrari as Sara Bovy and Michelle Gatting debrief at the back of the garage. Drivers have to communicate by yelling their feelings as it is so loud down in the lane! Can you hear me now?! Yes! I hear you! How is the car?!
Henrique Chaves is back in the race. Recall, last time out at Monza in Italy, poor old Henrique Chaves ended up on his lid in a horrible looking accident. But he is back now and back on the button. This is a replacement Aston Martin Vantage as most of the cars made their way directly to Japan from Monza as the shipping around the globe has changed, no thanks to the blasted pandemic. Ben Keating had a slower start to this race but found his feet quickly during his stint as we watch race leader Brendon Hartley who now runs ahead of the sister Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez in Hypercar followed by Nico Lapierre in the Alpine, and the Peugeot's of Loic Duval and Mikkel Jensen. Toyota, Toyota, Alpine, Peugeot, Peugeot.
So, Brendon Hartley is pulling away hand over fist over Jose Maria Lopez. At Iron Dames, Sara Bovy says it was a tough stint for her. The start went fine and maybe she pushed her tires a tad too hard. In stint two things got better but consistency and traffic management are both extremely challenging. So she hopes for a podium for her team. She was telling the team that tire management is the name of the game. Iron Lynx are developing their driver talent pool. They have struggled with depth of talent for the WEC program. But Sara Bovy has been running really well and Michelle Gatting too, is the same deal. She is running very well too.
The talent pool is deep, and they are competitive. As we see the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin running in the GTE-Am lead, they have now completed 81 laps, again, nearly 231 miles. The female racing driver talent pool is limited, but female racers are being inspired by groups like the Iron Dames. Ben Keating debriefing with the TF Sport team and now Henrique Chaves leads GTE-Am. The development program at Iron Dames centers around the Silver rated drivers. Michelle Gatting is one and Dorianne Pin is the other. The two of them have raced in Ferrari Challenge. Michelle Gatting was the 2021 champion and Dorianne Pin is dominating the 2022 championship so far in 2022. They are getting the track time.
Phones are ringing for lady drivers. We need to see older female drivers who believe they can still race on a Bronze level. In the future we will see a more Pro-Am centered structure in GT racing. Hartley's gap has stabilized in the race lead. He has the pace and does not want to make a mess of his tires. Car #8 seems to have the advantage now after Kobayashi in #7 bolted from the starting gate. So, Jose Maria Lopez is now 6.1 seconds down on Brendon Hartley. The gap ballooned rapidly. 1:31.7 for Hartley, and 1:32.2 for Lopez. It is ebbing and flowing and has now stabilized. But we can see Lopez is half a second behind. The #52 AF Corse Ferrari pits and Miguel Molina, the Spaniard, has finished his stint.
I am not sure. It is one of the two Italians now into the car. I cannot say if it is Antonio Fuoco or Davide Rigon, however. Corvette C8.R #64 has already pitted, and now, in Hypercar, Nico Lapierre has passed back by the #94 Peugeot of Loic Duval. Lapierre is now 15 seconds ahead of the Peugeot 9X8, their second car. The Alpine seems to be better on worn tires at the end of a stint compared to the Peugeot. They are learning tire management for sure. Ferrari #51 in the pit lane now too from the GTE Pro lead and there will be a driver change. James Calado finishes his stint and Alessandro Pier Guidi takes over.
Of course, at most of the races save for Le Mans and possibly the finale we are going to head for in Bahrain, the Ferrari team at AF Corse usually uses only two drivers as opposed to three. Mikkel Jensen has strung together some great laps and was the quickest Hypercar before Jose Maria Lopez stole the fast lap. It is odd to see Loic Duval fighting the tire battle or the battle with the car itself in the #94 9X8 Peugeot than Rossiter was during his stint. Mikkel Jensen is the bloke with the speed at Peugeot as now we see it is pit stop time for the #92 Porsche from the GTE Pro lead. 88 laps completed, 251 miles. So, the Porsche's can go longer on petrol.
Oh no! Commentators curse done struck again. Smoke billowing out the back of the #94 Peugeot! So, one of the lions could very well be headed for the house here. This tells the tale of why Duval was slowing down. Uh oh. Will you look at that. One bank of cylinders is slowing choking itself. If it is from the left-hand exhaust, then it is the right bank of the V6 motor that is in trouble. That is not tire rub. It is engine smoke. In Porsche land, Kevin Estre is handing the #92 entry over to Michael Christensen, his Danish co-driver for the next stint.
There will be no chance for "Gus", Gustavo Menezes, to get a drive in the Peugeot today at Fuji. Such a shame after James Rossiter put yeoman work in earlier. Duval will have to get off the racing line because that Peugeot through the smoke is puking oil all over the road and onto the windscreen of the following United Autosport LMP2 car, the #22. He has to pit now. There's no choice. The crew chief comes on the radio and says "box now, Loic. It's game over, mate." Now, wait a second. Wait a second. We might have gotten the diagnosis of the Peugeot issues all wrong. My apologies in advance. This could be a really bad tire rub and not oil escaping from the tank in the back of the car.
Maybe the engine has life left in it. OK. The team will box the car, so it is more than tire smoke. That was oil chucking out the back. Three and a half hours to go. Porsche #91 completes routine service. For James Rossiter, he got to start the race, but it won't be for Loic Duval and Gustavo Menezes. They have one more race as a dress rehearsal at Bahrain for 2022 and can put this season behind them. But next year they will have to come out guns blazing because they are looking to win Le Mans next year for what could be the fourth time. On the radio, the mechanic says that the turbo has gone bang on the car.
Was it the turbo? Or, was it a seal for the turbo that came loose or went bad? That would not be the car's fault. That would be a supplier/component issue to be dealt with. It is not a fundamental flaw in the motor. Now, as the #93 car bounces and porpoises its way down the straight, they have the same turbocharged lump in the back of that car, the 2.6-liter V6 engine. Could they too perhaps encounter the mechanical gremlins? We hope not. We can hope that the Peugeot #93 will get home with no dramas. Not playing any favorites. Just wondering if indeed the sole remaining Peugeot will make it to the flag after this litany of woe for the sister car.
Is it a quality control issue? I wonder how many thousands of kilometers of testing they have done. They will have run this car a lot. Porsche for the 963 have already done some 5,000 kilometers. No turbo worries for the Peugeot team in testing. Penalty handed to the #83 LMP2 car for AF Corse by the stewards for multiple direction changes. That will be a ten second pit stop penalty added to the overall time of the stop itself and they may have to sit there in the lane for ten additional seconds after being dropped down off the air jacks. I am not sure. AF Corse, and Ultimate, the two untroubled LMP2 cars in the Pro-Am part of the class, are now pinged with these penalties.
We are also watching closely, the battle for second in LM GTE-Am between the Aston #777 of Satoshi Hoshino and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Thomas Flohr. The Ultimate penalty, he had all four wheels of the car over the white demarcation line separating the track from the wall. That is verboten. You cannot do that. However, he really had no choice as the other LMP2 Pro-Am car in the picture squeezed him all the way out into no man's land. The straightaway squeeze play is pointless. That is not professional and is more common in junior racing or karting. Come on lads, you aren't kids in the sandbox anymore.
This is world championship motor racing and not Formula Ford. No need for the zany antics. Nico Lapierre in the Alpine is third, 53 seconds behind Toyota #7. Brendon Hartley is cooking right now in Toyota #8 cutting a personal best lap of 1:30.859 which is not the best lap the #8 has done in this race but it is still a good one. Kamui Kobayashi set best lap fo the whole race in Hypercar way back on lap two at 1:30.735. The gap has now increased to 7.1 seconds. #7 gains a second as #8 is scything through traffic. #8 is also a minute up on the Alpine #36 that we see on screen right now flying down the straightaway.
Alpine must remain ahead of Peugeot not just in the constructor's cup but also in the driver's championship and their three drivers, (Negrao, Lapierre, and Vaxiviere), to maintain an advantage on both of the driving crews at Peugeot. Ferdinand Habsburg is suited and booted ready for his stint coming up in the #41 RealTeam by WRT LMP2 car. He is set to relieve Norman Nato who is finishing his stint. They run fifth in class in LMP2 and ninth in the overall. Oops. A spin there for Sebastien Bourdais in the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 car.
Bourdais maybe coming towards the end of his stint, and he wandered across the track forcing Sara Bovy to take evasive action and she too, goes off the road! Yikes! Rahel Frey, excuse me, at the wheeel of that car. Bourdais just overcooked it. Sebastien Bourdais may be one of the drivers racing here at Fuji for the first time. Robin Frijns leading LMP2. Vincent Vosse and Thierry Tassin, two legends of Belgian motor racing and of sports car racing in general, taking care of things at WRT. Any Belgian racing legend who hangs it up might be able to work with WRT. Kurt Mollekens is another Belgian racing legend but I don't think he is working with WRT. You never know. I remember Mollekens in the Belcar GT championship several years ago and Vosse and Tassin go back to the days of the FIA GT Championship and further back than that, into the lore of the 24 Hours of Spa being a touring car race.
Nicki Thiim, the Dane, who's dad, Kurt Thiim, is another racing legend of years gone by, he is doing all he can to pass Rahel Frey for fourth place in GTE Am. Ollie Milroy now at the wheel of the #56 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE Am being warned for track limits in the car being prepared and run by Project 1 as well as Inception Racing. Let me correct myself. Sebastien Bourdais has raced at Fuji Speedway before and did so for Toro Rosso in Formula 1. Of course! He may have raced at Fuji. Only two F1 races were run in F1's modern era at Fuji in 2007 and 2008.
We can see how the Ferrari with the mid/rear engine configuration and the Aston Martin with the front engine layout make speed so differently through the final corner. The Ferrari has straightaway speed but approach VMAX or maximum velocity, the Aston is still holding it's own. Frey defends to the inside. What is Thiim going to do? Thiim tries the line but then realizes discretion is by far the better part of valor. Bovy takes the line. Tommy Milner in GTE Pro is next up. The Corvette is not necessarily quicker than the Ferrari or the Aston Martin. There is a difference in tires though.
She is protected by an LMP2 car and now, Thiim tries but gets the door slammed in his face. It is too tight from right to left. Thiim is muttering under his breath, "go away you wretched yellow Corvette!" Remember now, Thiim has won championship titles in both the Pro and the Am GTE classes in WEC before. He knows the Aston Martin like the back opf his hand but will allow the Corvette through. Bourdais was not offline but Bovy was offline and onto the clag on the outside. The middle of the track is the racing line and someone kicks up dust in turn five.
TF Sport continue to lead, head of Aston Martin Racing, looking on. The GTE Am orer is TF Sport, D'station Racing, AF Corse, Iron Dames, and Northwest AMR, which is the scrum we are following, currently. The Alpine is catching this clump of cars. The Alpine is the slowest Hypercar in a straight line but still dusts the GTE cars. So, Sara Bovy has gone by Nicki Thiim but is now reeling in Thomas Flohr. The #33 Aston Martin for TF Sport in the hands of Henrique Chaves, he is about to inherit 22nd in the overall from Loic Duval in the stationary Peugeot, the much beleaguered #94 car we have already talked about at length. Henrique Chaves now leads Satoshi Hoshino by 23 seconds. The #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE also in GTE Am, has Matteo Cressoni at the wheel of it.
Cressoni is in hot pursuit of Henrique Chaves because he wants his lap back. Cressoni wants to unlap himself and he is the next fastest driver through the speed traps in GTE Am other than Rahel Frey. Alessandro Pier Guidi continues to lead in GTE Pro in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari while the sister car in second in class, runs wide. That was Antonio Fuoco running wide out of turn six. Watch the track limits in that turn specifically. 97 laps on the board for the GTE Pro leader, 276 miles. The tire degradation for Ferrari has not been the best in the race itself. During practice and qualifying they were better. The mid-engine cars like the Ferrari and the Corvette have both been kind to their tires although the Corvette has just cataloged way too many penalties to be contenders at Mount Fuji on this day.
Fuoco in the meantime was making his way past the #83 AF Corse LMP2 Oreca. We ride onboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Dane Michael Christensen at the keyboard. In a pit lane report on the #94 Peugeot from Louise Beckett, they will see how the car runs and can't give a definitive answer on how they are doing. They have a long road losing yet another lap and plummeting 11 places from 22nd to 33rd in the overall. Christensen third in GTE Pro. The crew chief tells him the tires look far better in this stint than they did the last one. A routine pit stop for Patrick Lindsey aboard the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
Tommy Milner running fifth in GTE Pro for Corvette aboard the #64. Of course, they have one car here in World Endurance and another car in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and that is how their team was split up for most of this season. Milner has had a lonely race today so far and so has co-driver Nick Tandy. They've lost yet another minute or minute and a half behind the class leader in GTE Pro. So, Corvette having a fraught race at Fuji today. Pit stop time for the #41 RealTeam by WERT entry from eighth place in LMP2, Norman Nato of France, at the wheel of it.
A tiny bit of visible front left corner damage on car #41 but it does not look too bad. After the fuel fill the mechanics are poised and now, they can go to work with changing tires and so forth. The headlamp is covered in tire debris. Not much activity in the Peugeot garage for #94 which tells me they very well could be done for the day. Oh no. You know something, they might just be able to restart the car. Loic Duval is instructed that he will be brought out on the dollies and then to restart the engine when they get back into the box, the pit box that is, not the garage. In racing parlance, to box, means to pit, or, to go to the garage. Actually, box is pit, or retire the car is just that, retiring from the race.
It seems they have completed the turbo change and are going through systems checks before getting back out. We aren't even halfway through the race. Now, for Peugeot, it is a test session, an extended test session. Peugeot will be going for wins in the FIA WEC and Le Mans. We have Ferrari and Porsche and a number of other brands coming in both IMSA and FIA WEC for next year. A renaissance in sports car racing and the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #94 gets new tires and is back on the road once again. You just don't want to pit for unnecessary service. Hopefully the turbo was only an anomaly.
Robin Frijns leads LMP2 right now for WRT ahead of Jota, Prema Orlen, the second Jota car and both United Autosport cars. At Corvette, they are fifth in GTE Pro with Tommy Milner at the controls. Nick Tandy is not happy. They have had so much craziness going on today at Fuji. It did not look bad at the beginning, but they are getting swamped by the Porsche's and the Ferrari's. They spent time checking for performance in Free Practice and could not get long runs in. Tandy is puzzled asking, where on earth am I going off track and abusing track limits?
He knows he is not the only driver doing that. Corvette knows they can't have good races every weekend, but they have learned a lot from Fuji. This track is so different in the surface and there is long, tightening corners that don't suit the Corvette and what it can do. Tandy sounds despondent. No one likes to talk about track limits. The circuits are great but there has t be an edge to the track. It is hard to rely on demarcation lines. Know where you are with grass or gravel. But the white lines are very poor reference points. Both Jota and United are in the pit lane for service.
Drivers wish a lot of circuits had definite track limit markers like gravel and some tracks do. Just look at how Spa Francorchamps has been totally redone with gravel traps. Sanctioned races are not the real way these speedways make their money and earn their bottom line. They have corporate drives and manufacturer promotion drives, track days, and so on. People like me who would like to drive a race car and do so quickly, are not the same as professional drivers who make their living driving a race car.
A meter of grass is the best possible deterrent. Now then, the #31 WRT car has a slow pit stop but gets back out. Speak to experienced drivers. Put some grass in as a deterrent before the pavement and the gravel. Look at what other tracks do and talk to other drivers. So, the LMP2 lead battle resumes with Lorenzo Colombo leading Will Stevens. Rahel Frey and Nikki Thiim are moving up and Frey is right on the tail of Satoshi Hoshino. Peugeot #93 is in the lane for service. Both the #33 Aston Martin and the #85 Ferrari, they have used up all the allotted time for their Bronze rated drivers. So, they will have to stick with their higher rated drivers for the remaining portion of the race as we have just over half of the event left. Rahel Frey is now right on Satoshi Hoshino's back door. Check that. Frey is passing Hoshino and she forces the issue down the inside, and, oh my! There's a bit of contact there! Frey bangs doors with Hoshino! That was hairy!
Hoshino then adds insult to injury and gets mugged by Nikki Thiim as well, look. Frey is fending off the challenge from Thiim as well. He has pulled back two seconds. He is absolutely booking it right now. Thiim tries again. No dice. Through the final corner. Can he make the move on the front straightaway? The answer is... not yet. Down the straight to turn one, he is within striking distance. He is going to dart to the outside into turn one and can't get the slingshot yet. Frey defends and runs wide and then cuts back again! No one is giving this up. The Aston Martin does not quite have the straight line speed compared to the Ferrari.
These two are 33 seconds down on Henrique Chaves in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin. Now then, Prema Orlen in the pit lane from the LMP2 lead. A driver change as Lorenzo Colombo vacates the seat. Antonio Felix Da Costa by the way is now at the wheel of the #38 Jota car and in the #31 WRT car, Dries Vanthoor gets behind the wheel. Driver changes a go go because of other sports car races in other parts of the world this weekend as well. Frey seemed to have the legs on Thiim. Prema appears to have been leapfrogged now by both Jota cars, the #28 and the #38.
Jota got snookered on pit stops, again. Toyota #7 is also in the lane as we speak. In LMP2 now, Dries Vanthoor is leading with Jonathan Aberdein second aboard the #28 Jota entry. Pit stop time in GTE Am as well for one of the AF Corse Ferrari's. That is the #54. Thomas Flohr has finished his stint, so it is either of the two Italian's, Francesco Castellaci or Davide Rigon taking the wheel. I want to say that it was indeed Castellaci getting into the car.
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