Dennis Marschall has to be very upset with himself. At pit exit, something happened to the car and maybe the crew chief came on the radio and said, "stop the car, Dennis. Stop the car." I think Marschall misjudged the closing rate between he and the Cup class Porsche. Has the wheel not turning broken the suspension? That would be my guess. No chance of a result. Game over. It's not worth it, and we have also seen struggles for the sister #99 Audi at Attempto. Poor Mattia Drudi and Kelvin van der Linde. They knew they could have won. This is the seventh Full Course Yellow and will bring in the sixth safety car intervention. We have had more incidents and mechanical woe than we expected to see as Antonio Fuoco is your leader under Full Course Yellow, by 35 seconds over the #75 SunEnergy1 by SPS Mercedes of Philip Ellis.
Third is the #77 Al Manar Racing with GetSpeed Mercedes with Luca Stolz at the controls. Antonio Fuoco drives through the pit lane for a possible penalty he had to serve for 21 seconds. Luca Stolz third, Lucas Legeret in fourth place, and Christopher Haase fifth, followed by the #50 Ferrari of Davide Rigon, Kevin Tse in the Garage 59 McLaren with the sister Pro-Am entry of Alexander West next. Ninth is the #43 MDK Ferrari of Kevin Magnussen followed by the #1 Two Seas Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 of Hunter Abbott. A pit stop penalty for five seconds added to a future stop for Christopher Haase. Goodness. Those penalties really pile up fast. Team manager, please report to the stewards office, and no tea and biscuits for you, mate.
The marshals have been forced to change the goalposts on these penalties of course. Stop ignoring track limits. Take your medicine boys and girls. Don't agonize over it. You just have to do it. Dominik Baumann with the crash damage on the SPS Mercedes has been in the lane for quite a while as we go to the safety car and form up the crocodile before we go back to green. We still have a deal where the #58 MP Motorsports Mercedes is still being repaired with the fuel pump problem. Was there a re drive through penalty hanging over Antonio Fuoco in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari? That is what we want to know.
Fellow GT3 driver Dennis Lind thinks that the toe link of the suspension broke. We have seen that with NASCAR too because the new generation NASCAR cars are constructed similarly to a GT3 car. No noticeable suggestion of a penalty for the #71 Ferrari. Game over for the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes. Too much damage. Impossible to continue. It's been a long day and folks, it's not over yet! Me eyes are getting bleary, but we shall just have to continue. Dennis Marschall, out. Dominik Baumann, out. Safety car scheduled to be in this lap. Shoot. We've missed Peter Kox again! We want to get an interview with him but we are always missing him and his daughter! Dang it!
Jan Magnussen has also left. Green flag. Antonio Fuoco still leads the race and the top three run right together. The tp four, actually. Fuoco, Ellis, Stolz, Legeret, and Christopher Haase. Mikael Grenier is finally driving the #8 Mercedes for the last portion of this race. Fuoco, Ellis, Stolz etc. Ralf Bohn has to serve a penalty for a pit stop infraction while Kevin Magnussen is monstering the many laps down RAM Racing Mercedes of Mikael Grenier. That is the D2 classic liveried car.
Philip Ellis to the lane, allowing Luca Stolz to move up and he can still win a title should he win tonight. Davide Rigon muscling his way through the traffic. Ferrari ahead of Mercedes. Fuoco, Stolz, Legeret, Haase, Rigon, the top five. Phil Ellis stays in the #75 and the #1 Mercedes of Hunter Abbott, who won the old Blancpain GT Asia series a few years ago, now called GT World Challenge Asia of course. Alfred Renauer in the sister #44 Herberth Porsche is in the lane, too. #71 Ferrari was given a five second penalty for track limits ajd not a drive through penalty. OK. That's interesting and baffling at the same time. Scratching my head, and my chin on that one.
#91, the beleaguered Ferrari is being pinged for a short pit stop. That is the Baron Motorsport Middle East Ferrari in the hands of Axel Sartinger. Luca Stolz is losing time to the leader, being harried by Martin Kodric. So Kodric has taken over that car from Hunter Abbott. Luca Stolz wants to play through and is flashing the lights to the next car in line ahead. Stolz is three seconds behind Antonio Fuoco as we speak. 258 laps now done and dusted with two and a half hours left on the board. Lucas Legeret in third is dropping away from Luca Stolz and Christopher Haasse is closing in but he has work to do to get to Lucas Legeret as well. They are both coming up to the end of their stints or so I would think.
For Luca Stolz, I think he has done a double stint. Fabian Schiller is the other quick bloke in that car as Alexander West is pushing his way through traffic as Martin Konrad is eking out a gap and they need Marvin Kirchhofer and Benji Goethe to push, push, push. Jamie Stanley and the #55 Ferrari are climbing up, but they need massive chunks of time and need to reel off the laps like no tomorrow in GT3 Am. Class leaders include Antonio Fuoco, Martin Konrad, Philippe Prette, and Alex Fontana. Chris Frogatt is back at the wheel of the Sky McLaren #93. Jamie Stanley has had enough of Alexander West, doesn't want to play anymore and says, Alex, let me by!
He makes his move. Cooler air in the desert night is helping the engines immensely. 260 laps completed by our leader Antonio Fuoco, 3.9 seconds ahead of Luca Stolz. 853 miles. Luca Stolz has just uncorked the fastest first sector time, nine and a half hours into the race. He is a man on a mission! Racing drivers do not give up. Racing teams do not give up. If you throw in the towel, why even show up to race? 1:52.4 for Stolz, best lap of the whole race for that car. Pour on the steam. He knows he has to win the race if he wants the title. Pull the pin and go for it as Stephane Kox moves over for the faster car. Stolz closing up on Fuoco.
Antonio Fuoco has no traffic to worry about. I wonder if Stolz can bring the gap down just like the commentators are. Luca Stolz does need to win this thing if he wants the cup. You know that he has to know that and he is going to keep pushing hard. He has no choice. If he wins he ends up tying Dani Juncadella and they have to do a tiebreaker and Stolz based on wins and countbacks would be the champ. But he has to win in order for this arithmetic to compute. GetSpeed have show the way while GruppeM have had a litany of troubles for this w0hole event/ Luca Stolz did go off the road during his stint and that is why he is behind and is pushing hard.
The #93 Sky McLaren has a ten second penalty for offenses of track limits. Davide Rigon in the #50 Ferrari is lapping slower but coming back into the picture thanks to the safety car after we saw it in the lane for that frantic brake pad change. BMW #42 into the pit lane but they are many laps down, 21st overall and 21 laps down to the leaders. Century Motorsports are on the back foot but they have been going like crazy, have Daniel Harper, Eduardo Coseteng, and Darren Leung, as Mikael Grenier will hand the #8 Mercedes to Ian Loggie, the D2 liveried car. Ian Loggie, the 2022 British GT Champion. Ge was assisted to his title by Callum MacLeod and Jules Gounon.
Giorgio Sernagiotto vacates the pitting Ferrari sharing the AF Corse GT3 Am car with Gabriele Lancieri, Tanni Hana, and Alessandro Cozzi. More track limits warnings and the next transgression will be a penalty for Martin Kodric, and for Luca Stolz. Luca, cool it. Rein it in a bit, sunbeam. He has not been able to catch Antonio Fuoco lately. He has to be careful and will cop a time penalty if he isn't. Lucas Legeret gains a place with more pit stops yet to come. Tick off the final pit stop box before the final 45 minutes of the race. Your final 1:40 scheduled stop.
Dennis Marschall was really upset and he is gone. The car is busted up. Dennis Marschall does not want to be approached with a microphone. Alan, our pal in pit lane, good call to maybe not interview a very unhappy race car driver. He has to feel sick after everything went well. Msrschall will need a heartburn pill. That is for sure. Porsche #48 in the pit lane. So is Mercedes #77. OK. We will get a chance to talk to Dennis Marschall. He just has to gather his thoughts. Respect to you, Dennis, when you are ready, mate. Davide Rigon takes over the #50 Ferrari. Luca Stolz takes over the #75 Mercedes and the Audi is also in the pit lane; I think the #25 Sainteloc car. Tom Boonan, former world champion cyclist is back behind the wheel of the #48 Porsche, the Saalocin Racing car.
Antonio Fuoco has brought the #71 Ferrari back to the lane and there is a driver change. It should be James Calado getting into that car. Christopher Haase will be the ertswhile race leader. #25, we think, had to take a penalty. There was a looming penalty for the sister #26 and there was a penalty that maybe the #25 has already taken. OK. It is in now and Christopher Haase shall have a five second penalty and we should see a driver change to Patric Niederhauser. #42, the Century BMW is being looked at for a safety car infringement. The team has completed the service, the penalty is served and the car is released.
Ferrari #71 has had few penalties and now the #43 MDK Ferrari is in and Kevin Magnussen finishes his stint. The #59 McLaren will pit and it will be handed back to Marvin Kirchhofer or to Alexander West, I think. You have only an hour and 55 minutes to get your compulsory pit stops in and Alessandro Pier Guidi bounces off the Armco! Egad! That was right on the ragged edge and could have gone pear shaped! No marks on the bodywork as the two McLaren's squabble with each other. Pier Guidi making hus way through traffic with a couple of McLaren's. He knew to keep narrower to the wall through the corner. Jamie Stanley pits the #55 Ferrari, and in replay, Alessandro clattered the wall big style!
Yet, Pier Guidi is 6.9 seconds to the good over his nearest rival. That would be Fabian Schiller. Ferrari #55 has Alex Fox in the car I think after Jamie Stanley exits. Nope. Stefano Constantini is in the car now after dropping off the air jacks and exiting the lane. 273 laps now completed. 895 miles. Gabriele Lancieri's Ferrari has been sparking on certain parts of the track for hours now but is still going. #61 of AF Corse for Philippe Prette is into the lane for fuel and a driver change plus new Pirelli P Zero tires. They are going to do a brake change as well, look. It could be just pads. Maybe they have a disc ready as well. Ah. No rotors. Just pads.
Alessandro Pier Guidi increases his margin over Fabian Schiller to 9.2 seconds. Nicklas Nielsen is 33 seconds off the lead. Nielsen running third in the overall. Martin Kodric in the #1 2 Seas Motorsports Mercedes gets a ten second penalty for track limits. Finlay Hutchison pits the sole remaining Attempto Racing Audi as Alessandro Pier Guidi almost gets chopped by the Herberth Motorsports Porsche! Yikes! Alex Aka is actually replacing Finlay Hutchison at the wheel. OK.
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