Peugeot working on the car, and they have the same troubles as the sister car did. Meanwhile, speaking of Peugeot, the sister #94 9X8 is off the road, Gustavo Menezes, the American, at the wheel of it. Uffda! That was a slight lockup and he almost skidded into oblivion! A jolly good save that was, look. Wow! Sebastien Buemi is on his in lap and should pit next time by while the sister Toyota #7 is indeed in the lane, currently in the hands of Jose Maria Lopez. That is a scheduled stop for the boys at Toyota as we wonder why on earth Menezes got all crossed up and had to jam on the brakes. Mike Conway will take the #7 Toyota to the end of the race. We have seen Kobayashi and Lopez struggling for pace. Conway will be able to drive as fast as possible. But being outside of the chance to take the title with one race to go, you can bet dollars to donuts that the #7 boys are going to be told to hold station and they won't take the title with only one race left on the board before 2022 is over.
We have to have a Captain Cook at Toyota's protocol if they will let us. Fat chance of that. Menawhile, a scrum for seventh position in class in LMP2. Phil Hanson ahead of Charles Milesi. The Toyota blokes may be told to swap places. We look at that earlier pass. Here's the pass between Ferrari's #71 and #85 as we see it all again, in slow motion. Pierre Ragues hooks it right down the inside of Michelle Gatting and says, "merci beaucoup, Mademoiselle." Pierre really took her by surprise and also took the cameraman by surprise, or camera person, whoever it may be, who had to readjust their lens. Meanwhile, the Milesi/Hanson fight rages on.
Milesi is stuck behind Hanson. You just can't get enough turbulence on the nose to get past another car in LMP2. Peugeot #93 is set to get back on track. Voila! La voiture est prete. #94 went down 14 laps after repairs and the #93 boys have lost just five. Sebastian Priaulx aboard the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche had to spend a long spell in the garage because the driveshaft broke on the car. The Porsche is back on track now but it took a long while to fix the issue. Next year, Peugeot really will have to step up their game because the competition for 2023 is going to be hot and heavy.
Next year in Hypercar here is how things will probably shake out. We do not see a Glickenhaus on the list yet. We don't know. Will they or won't they be back? That is an open question. But we shall have two factory Toyota's, two factory Ferrari's, two factory Peugeot's, two factory Porsche's, two more privateer Porsche's (shades of Group C back in the 1980s), and one factory backed Cadillac GTP car. Toyota took what they knew and applied it and Peugeot is coming in with a clean sheet of paper as are other brands like Ferrari and Porsche. Ferrari's last prototype endurance car was the open cockpit spyder, the 333SP which ran in IMSA in the states, as well as overseas between 1994 and 2001 or 2002.
Toyota stopped dead stick at both Spa and Monza. Racing cars break down. Pure racing cars could not use hybrid systems because the deal is that they are using a road going hybrid system and nowhere near as complex as the old LMP1 cars. Racing will destroy parts more than a research & development car. The hybrid cars use less fuel than the straight internal combustion motor. It is about how to market this relevant technology in a way that is meaningful to the customer. Toyota #8 has now run 157 laps, 445 miles. Toyota #8 has a 39 and a half second cushion over the sister car with the Alpine in third over a minute down. The leading LMP2 entry is five laps farther behind in fourth spot for WRT. They have run 152 laps, 431 miles. Ferrari run 1-2 in GTE Pro with the #51 AF Corse entry now completing 147 laps, 417 miles. The two Ferrari's lead the two factory Porsche's and the Corvette as well.
In GTE Am, the leader is Aston Martin and the #33 TF Sport entry having completed 144 laps, 408 miles. Four hours in and two to go. So we are technically now into the fifth hour as Aston Martin is half a minute ahead of everyone else. Brendon Hartley has just handed off the #8 Toyota to Ryo Hirakawa. Hartley says that the team has put a great setup on the #8 and #7 has a different setup and are struggling. Sebastien Buemi had a great opening stint and Hartley has extended the gap while Ryo Hirakawa is going to take the #8 to the finish. It is hot and the tires are screaming.
No Full Course Yellows, no safety car scrambles. This race has been so clean, it has been a tad boring as Kazuki Nakajima is explaining how the team works, to guests, in the garage, via a megaphone so everyone can hear over the din of the engines. Corvette, the meat in a Ferrari sandwich in GTE Pro. Alessandro Pier Guidi is ahead of Tommy Milner. In a race here at Fuji which was run in a deluge and had to end early, one of the Audi's ran unrestricted with no power limiters but from pole, they lost the motor race after getting a tearoff stuck in the radiators. Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco are a car length apart.
The Jota cars have swapped places in LMP2 and Antonio Felix Da Costa has made a pass on Jonathan Aberdein who got stymied in traffic. RealTeam by WRT are in the lane. Ferdinand Habsburg has hopped out of the #41. Robert Kubica, it appears is returning to the car. Norman Nato has completed his stint. Trouble in this race for the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 that has been seriously delayed in the GTE Am division, with gear selection woes. So, Mike Wainwright has now taken over the wheel of it from Ben Barker. That is the car running caboose on the field, tail end Charlie as it were.
However, here at Fuji, we have yet to see a single retirement with an hour and 45 minutes left. #86 has passed by the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche still in the garage being repaired due to the driveshaft problem. TF Sport are 27 or so seconds ahead of Spirit of Race in GTE Am. Henrique Chaves should be driving #33 as we speak, and it looks like Marco Sorensen is going to take that car to the checkers before we are done and dusted here at Fuji this afternoon. Afternoon? Well, OK. The wee small hours of Sunday morning here stateside. Afternoon in Japan, to be fair.
Pierre Ragues is at the controls of Ferrari #71 and shall have to hand the car back over to Frank Dezoteux to finish the motor race. The Iron Dames will make inroads in that case because they are four seconds down to the Spirit of Race Ferrari, and from now to the end of the race, they are doing single stints between Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey. Peugeot #94 is in the pit lane. It has almost passed all the GTE Am cars entered in the race. After the massive spin we saw from the #94 Peugeot you have to wonder if the boys at Peugeot TotalEnergies are going to change all four tires because they have to be cubed by now, or in the shape of cubes.
Yes. The pit crew has the rattle guns ready, but we have Mr. Director cutting away from the pit stop to show us more scrapping in GTE Pro. Antonio Fuoco is still chasing down Alessandro Pier Guidi. He is happy just to stay there and hold station. Maybe team orders are in effect. #51 could indeed win the title and both Porsche factory cars have drivers who could take the title. Gianmaria Bruni and Michael Christensen. Ferrari #52 is not in the fight. Fuoco is playing blocker, playing running back to clear other cars out of the way. Franck Dezoteux has a Michael Schumacher tribute helmet and he will take his final stint.
Have a Captain Cook at third spot in GTE-Am. Inheriting the spot is the #777 D'station Aston Martin in the hands of Englishman Charlie Fagg and he is 15 seconds down on the second place running Iron Dames Ferrari. Satoshi Hoshino has done a double stint aboard the #777. Schumacher's helmets changed during his career and Dezoteux's helmet has a specific era of Schumacher's Ferrari F1 years. Was tic tac a sponsor of Michael Schumacher like Dekra was? We want to know what era helmet Dezoteux's is paying tribute to from the F1 world champ.
Into the pit lane now is the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 Oreca and Charles Milesi has completed his driving for today's race. Gustavo Menezes is now at the controls of Peugeot 9X8 #94 rejoining the field in 25th place. The sister #93 Peugeot is now in 12th place. Jonathan Aberdein has to be the "iron man" on the #28 Jota team and finally, Oliver Rasmussen can get into the car and complete his driving stint, taking the car to the checkered flag. Frank Dezoteux had trouble with the tires and now has spun off the road. The Ferrari wheel has an integrated wheel nut of course and I wonder if the nut is busted. Ah. Car #71 and #54 have had a clatter and t is under investigation by the stewards.
The #22 United Autosport car has come in and gone back out again in LMP2. Phil Hanson I think has gotten out of the car and Filipe Albuquerque will take it to the flag. Paul Loup Chatin is now aboard the #1 car for Richard Mille Racing as both Ferrari's go off the road and back on. Game over for the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 thanks to the busted driveshaft. Sebastian Priaulx, Christian Ried, and Harry Tincknell, headed for the bench just before the conclusion of the race today. Well, well, well. That contretemps we saw between #71 and #54 was indeed for position! Holy smokes! Yours truly was caught napping on that one! Aye! Dezoteux and Francesco Castellaci came together.
Giancarlo Fisichella and Francesco Castellaci have been doing a lot. Dezoteux is wearing a 1999 replica Michael Schumacher helmet. We need the F1 encyclopedia, Karun Chandhok here to help us out. Of course, Karun Chandhok drove Formula 1 and also LMP1 and LMP2. He is a walking encyclopedia about 1990s Formula 1. So is yours truly, although, I wish I could find the time doing more Formula 1. The sports cars have been my main focus recently. Oh dear. A young bloke trying to use his mountain bike has wiped out. Be careful there, kiddo. Meanwhile. Pier Guidi, and Fuoco are still running together and the deal is here that Fuoco is not going to make a move.
I think he will just hold station. Pier Guidi is also cruising. Nothing to really worry about. Now then, the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 entry is in the pit lane. The Ferrari's are 37 seconds up on the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen, but they are running out wide on all the exits of all the corners and might want to clean up their apices a wee bit. They are just over the limit on the gap of 37-38 seconds if they got a drive through on track limits. If they got a drive through penalty now, it would be foolish to the core. Marco Sorensen has taken the wheel in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin.
The Iron Dames will take over the erstwhile lead. Miguel Molina says everything is under control in the #52 camp. They are fighting hard for position to try and catch the sister car. Everything has to be perfect to make overtaking moves. #52 is running well. Jota in the lane for a driver change in #38. Antonio Felix Da Costa finishes his stint handing off to Will Stevens. This is the last event for 25 points earned for victory while the finale in Bahrain will be points and a half. That will be an eight-hour event. Prema, car #9 pitted from the lead in LMP2 to change drivers after Robert Kubica completes his stint and so, the lead is now resumed by the #31 WRT entry with Robin Frijns at the controls.
Dries Vanthoor was into the car. #38 have already done their driver change, or rather #28. Frijns leads Will Stevens in LMP2. Check that. I think Robin Frijns is staying in the car to the end. Final warning for track limits for the #1 car and for another and I am not sure which one. Nothing, and I mean nothing will happen with the AF Corse Ferrari's unless they have a catastrophic issue. An hour and a half to go. Ferrari will likely take driver's titles if #51 can win. At the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the points between first and fourth is a 20-point spread. Permutations dictate that if this happens, Porsche could beat Ferrari. Although, we'll see. Michelle Gatting in the lane and she will doa double stint. Rahel Frey should step in to take the car to the end of the motor race.
Sara Bovy may finish out the race for #85 but that remains to be seen. #777 and #54 have moved up in the GTE Am order. Charlie Fagg is tooling around the speedway while Gatting was in the lane. Will Stevens meanwhile is going for it in LMP2 chasing down Robin Frijns. This is a battle of two coulda would shoulda Formula 1 drivers. Stevens has F1 experience and Frijns does not. Stevens has attracted attention of big teams in North America and has run well in the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing as well. Track testing is not allowable anymore because of the budgets being a concern and being capped.
Aberdein ragged his tires and overloaded them while Da Costa was easier on his set of boots. A battle for seventh in LMP2, look, as Filipe Albuquerque is doing all he knows to get by Paul Loup Chatin. Alex Lynn is also chasing down Louis Deletraz in the Prema Orlen entry, car #9. Stevens has Frijns ahead as a carrot dangling on the end of the string. Wow. Ferrari #52 has gone ahead. That's an interesting deal. Fuoco passes Pier Guidi. Albuquerque, meanwhile, making a pass on Chatin, or going for it. He's probably got the momentum. Chatin, you little fighter! Oh no! Paul Loup Chatin spins the #1 car! They make contact and around goes the Frenchman!
Albuquerque was brave there and the curb is a risk. Here's it all again, in slow motion, and I think Chatin tagged the rear wheel of Albuquerque's car. That's probably a racing deal. He knew (Chatin), that was the squeeze play. Esteban Guttierez is back on the road in the #34 Inter Europol LMP2 car and ahead of Matthieu Lahaye in another LMP2 car who drove in LMP1 for OAK Racing. Meanwhile, in GTE Am, Frank Dezoteux is coming back into the picture, and he is right on David Pittard's six right now, the British driver at the wheel of the #98 GTE Am class Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR. Just an hour and 20 minutes to go. We accept the incident we just talked about as a racing deal.
Chatin and Albuquerque's collision under investigation. It is only fair. The stewards are privy to data and camera angles we don't have on the various apps to watch racing. In Hypercar, we go on board with the surviving #93 Peugeot and Paul Di Resta, the Scotsman, has his hands full! The car steps out into the corner, and he does at least a half spin. That was not a full spin or a "Swiss Roll". It was a half spin at best. Di Resta could very well have Fred Flintstoned his tires on that deal, but he remains in ninth place. Everything is good, though and he just dipped a wheel spinning the car.
Peugeot, their cars are five and seven laps down respectively as we look at the Hypercar running order and the #8 Toyota continues in the lead of the motor race with 181 laps now on the board, 513 miles. Toyota #8 leads the sister car, and the margin has ballooned to a comfortable 45 and a half seconds. Find the limit and stay on the knife edge. We are closing in on the final hour. Toyota own this track at Fuji just as Honda owns the Suzuka circuit in Japan. #52 is now four and a half seconds up the road and poor old #51 is hemorrhaging time hand over fist. Porsche #92 still runs third in GTE Pro as the #64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is in pit lane and Tommy Milner is handing off to Nick Tandy.
No further action to be taken for the fracas between Dezoteux and Castellaci. For sixth in GTE Am, Dezoteux in the Spirit of Race Ferrari is passed by the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche being driven now by Matteo Cairoli. Cairoli sharing with Nicki Leutwiler and Mikkel Pedersen. An Italian, Swiss, and Danish driver each in that trio. Alpine #36 to the pit lane with Matthieu Vaxiviere driving. Fuel and tires for the Alpine. They will be racing just one more event in Hypercar before they move back to LMP2 for 2023. They are not in as close of a battle with Peugeot as they thought, and it is a shame the Peugeot's have run into trouble. Alpine are still in the title fight as we head for the finale in Bahrain.
The Hypercar class will see Toyota winning the manufacturer's cup. The fight might not be on and Toyota should have an insurmountable lead having come into this event with a 17-point lead. Matthieu Vaxiviere giving it a good drive. He passes a lapped Porsche over the bumps. We have about nine hours or so of racing for the final LMP1 car in existence in WEC. Ryo Hirakawa now leads Mike Conway by 48 seconds. Hirakawa has opened a lead by eight seconds over Conway. Everryone speculates that #7 is having trouble but the Toyota team deny this. Maybe the suspension is off on the #7. Strangely, earlier, we saw #7 dominating and then there was a change at the end of hour one.
No changes in track temperature or anything like that. A slight improvement in circuit grip. Have they forgotten how to save the tires? Something is about to be discovered after this race finishes this afternoon. The gap has ebbed and flowed this whole 2022 season and of course the #8 team won Le Mans. No further action for the incident between United Autosport and Richard Mille Racing in LMP2. So we can put that one to bed. Many track limits abuse warnings have come up and we might see penalties before the race is over. Ollie Milroy is the latest driver to be warned aboard the #56 Team Project 1 car.
That is the car he shares with Ben Barnicoat and Takeshi Kimura for this race. Two Brits and a Japanese driver. Battle for fifth between Prema and United Autosport. Look for traffic. Louis Deletraz has the preferred line and the preferred spot over Alex Lynn. Lynn has found a place for his career in sports car racing after also running very well in open wheel racing but is at home in sports cars. Ferrari #52 in the pit lane. Will #51 follow? No. #52 may be stopping early or the #51 is now a lap up on everyone else as Porsche #92 is staying out an extra lap. It looks like fresh Michelin tires go onto the #52.
They made a mess, nearly, of the tire change. #92 moves to second and we should see #91 and #51 come in. Oliver Rasmussen makes a pass chasing down Will Stevens in the #28 and #38 cars. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey, I guess. That was a four-tire change at Ferrari and now, James Calado will drive the final stint in the #51. Alessandro Pier Guidi finishes his stint. Will it be squeaky, squeaky time for Ferrari in the final hour? Norman Nato pits the #41 WRT LMP2 car from fourth place in LMP2 and eighth in the overall. Deletraz has to follow Lynn through, but United Autosport have had a fraught race at Fuji today.
Both #22 and #23 have been hovering around the middle of the top ten places. Porsche #91 to the pit lane. The #92 Porsche stays out and inherits the lead. Gianmaria Bruni into the pit lane. I think he will take the car to the end of the race as we are getting into the final hour here. For Ferrari, they made a mess of the strategy at Monza and the deal is that Corvette's fuel calculations were where they went longer than Ferrari did. Ferrari in this race have likely made their final stops. We have been all green flag so far. Ooh. Lapped traffic as the Toyota scythes through and Louis Deletraz moves ahead, look. Alex Lynn is pushing hard, trying to make gains.
We are fast approaching the final hour of the motor race. Prema, hanging onto fourth place over United Autosport by the skin of their teeth! This is going to get spicy in the final hour. Stay tuned!
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