Erwan Bastard has now taken over the #25 Audi and we are trying to find out what on earth is up with Mercedes #98. Less than five hours to go yet. James Calado cycles to the race lead. 191 laps in the bag, 626 miles. Ramzi Moutran in the pit lane for service in the #92 Porsche 992 Cup car. Ferrari #55 spins off and gets back on. This is the Jamie Stanley, Laurent De Meeus, Alex Fox, and Stefano Constantini car. Stanley and De Meeus have run in GT Open, British GT, and other championships. De Meeus had contact with Martin Berry in the #20 Mercedes AMG GT3. James Calado continues on his way in the lead, 26 seconds over Simon Gachet who has done six pit stops, all of them imposed I believe. Al Faisal al Zubair has also done six pit stops as well.
Mattia Drudi, it sounds like he is back into the #66 car? No. It is still Dennis Marschall. One of the corner marker bollards has been dragged onto the circuit as we have the Team Baron Motorsports Ferrari, car #91 in the pit lane with a new set of tires. These cars are getting very dirty as we head towards sunet and the last vestiges of daylight disappear from the sky and we will be into darkness soon. I think the #66 Audi is still one pit stop ahead of everybody else. This put them in the pound seats or so it seems. Al Faisal Al Zubair is still pressing on as we have the SPS Automotive Mercedes of Martin Berry with a big shark bite out of the right hand side of the car between the grille and the headlamp.
Al Faisal Al Zubair gets a free pass as Simon Gachet locks the brakes and gets all crossed up, knowing the car just was not going to turn as Kevin Magnussen has just pitted the #43 MDK Motorsports Ferrari. Work going on on the Martin Berry driven mercedes. I think this is the D2 liveried Mercedes, or the 2 Seas Motorsports entry, one of their Mercedes AMG GT3's is having real trouble. Their brake disc just exploded on one corner of the car, and they had a litany of more trouble throughout the weekend. David Fairbrother is smiling but his arm is bothering him, and he tossed out a pair of striped underwear as a joke. That was weird. Striped trousers I should say.
He is uncomfortable and so is Hunter Abbott who has had a sore neck after his driving stint. Maro Engel had gone back out on the track and come back into the garage. What the blank is that all about? That is perplexing. Maybe the team heard he had gone for a swim and they needed him to come back and do a tad more driving! Aye yaye yaye. Lewis Williamson had an exploding brake disc that went through the Pirelli tire and the bodywork. Matus Vyboh was also having a few issues.
Mercedes #20 of Martin Barry is back on track now after SPS Automotive Performance fixed the car and Dominik Baumann is now driving. Here, look, the Sainteloc Audi's are sorting themselves out through traffic with Simon Gachet passing Erwan Bastard. Have a Captain Cook at Alessio Rovera as well. Maro Engel and his team know they have to regroup for the rest of this race with far less than five hours to go. Porsche #44 in the pit lane for service. GruppeM has just put a message in, Dear, All, I have to retire both cars #89 and #98 from the race. Thanks, and goodnight, everybody.
Sorry, mates. That line came out before I thought about it. Now then, Ferrari #91 lost a tire and instantly had to go to the garage. I have a tendency to want to pronounce it in the British fashion and say 'garridge'. Mercedes #77 are doing a long pit stop for full service, tires, fuel, and a driver change. Al Faisal al Zubair at the wheel. 200 laps completed by that specific car, 656 miles. Morgan Tillbrook is back on track with the RAM Racing Mercedes, now seven laps down and running in fifth in GT3 Am. OK. That takes care of things and answers our questions. Alessio Rovera's car is being reported to the stewards for track limits.
Luca Stolz is off the road! This is at turn five and he is back on track now but he ran off the road in the same place where Klaus Bachler did it earlier, and just outbrakes himself and has to slow down without crunching the wall! Well, talk about giving yourself the rough end of the pineapple and losing a bucketload of time. Martin Konrad now leading the Pro-Am class for his first stint with just over four and a half hours to go. Jeez! There are one or two blokes who will never get to drive in this race but Martin Konrad was taking his sweet time. We saw Philip Ellis earlier driving the wheels off that #75 Mercedes. Yikes!
Konrad has been driving in Creventic, Formula 3 open wheel cars, and other things. James Calado continues to lead the motor race, 35 seconds ahead of Simon Gachet. Mattia Drudi running fifth but still in contention, one step up. That is the real Mattia Drudi, not his double in the former of co-driver Dennis Marschall. Double? No. Just kidding! James Calado is making his debut in this race in the Gulf 12 Hours, the car completing 203 laps, 666 miles. The wheel nut on the Baron Motorsports car was not threading properly. I see. More duct tape (gaffer tape) going onto the #20 SPS Automotive Performance Mercedes AMG GT3.
They are in yet another spot of bother. The light level is getting darker as we are at 5:30 P.M. in the evening in the UAE and soon, it shall be dark and the floodlights will be turned on. James Calado still pushing with a last lap of 1:53.287 and Marvin Kirchhofer in eighth in the McLaren is running in the 1:52 bracket. The Moutran's are leading the Porsche Cup class and doing so by a comfortable margin of three laps. Four and a half hours to go and now darkness is setting in as we see the headlights of the cars becoming ever brighter in the last twinkles of twilight as the marshals tell everyone, "please turn on your headlights ladies and gentlemen."
Simon Gachet making a pit stop, a scheduled one, but had to also serve a five second penalty for something. 37 laps on fuel between stints for that specific Sainteloc Audi. Alessio Rovera in Ferrari #50 will also be pinged with a five second penalty. Gabriele Lancieri is having real issues with the loose diffuser on his Ferrari and he shall have to limp around and drag it until it can be taped up, orange sparks flying all over the shop. David Fairbrother says that when the rain came he went off the road and banged his shoulder. He will have to get rid of those striped trousers since we have been talking so much about them! Well played! Brilliant! ROFLMAO!
We have a serious race, but it is also relaxed. Some amateur drivers discover racing and want to do it but they build a business, and then discover racing through a track day or something. Alessio Rovera in the lane for new boots and fuel as well as a penalty to serve. David Fairbrother is a Yorkshireman, and he was tricking us with those striped trousers! Waste not want not. That's the end of the trousers story! Thank heavens! At Ferrari, at AF Corse, they have completed the seventh stop for the sister #50 car compared to the #71 sister car that has to have an extra stop that is not going to count. Will the #50 AF Corse Ferrari get a brake change eventually?
We'll see. A lot of pad changes but not as many for both discs and pads. 211 laps now in the bag. 692 miles. Mattia Drudi sneaks past Erwan Bastard for second place. Team Tresor, actually with Dennis Marschall at the controls, going to second and Erwan Bastard runs third. Ferrari #55 of Stefano Constantini pinged with a track limits penalty and Dennis Marschall is on a mission and pulling away. Morgan Tillbrook being passed by Tom Boonen and these backmarkers are being reeled in by the top runners. Luca Stolz needs a good finish, or if he wins, he could win the IGTC title. James Calado leads and Eddie Cheever III. is 11th in the #93 Sky McLaren but he picks up a penalty for track limits.
Morgan Tillbrook, too, will have to pay a penalty. James Calado leads by 45 seconds. Mercedes #58, the MP Motorsports car of the Gostner family, they are back into the race with David Gostner now behind the wheel. They need a well-deserved cup of tea after fixing that car. At the end of lap 214, James Calado dives for the pit lane. 214 laps, 695 and a half miles. #71 is now taking it's seventh pit stop and will lose the lead of the motor race due to the pit stop and we are in full darkness now, under the Abu Dhabi floodlights with just over four hours to go. Martin Konrad is the Pro-Am leader as we check in with Phil Ellis.
He says it has been a long day and that is true. Still over four hours left to race. Audi #66 has been taken over by Kelvin van der Linde, after Dennis Marschall finishes his stint. Stint lengths being reduced, but I wonder why? No Full Course Yellow. Maybe the teams are back timing the race with four hours and ten minutes left to run. Erwan Bastard now leads on the road in the #25 Sainteloc Audi. Martin Konrad has now moved to third spot in the overall. Philippe Prette pits and steps out of the #61 Ferrari. Audi #99, a ten second penalty for the Attempto Racing Audi driven by Pietro Delli Guanti. Dominik Baumann's Mercedes still being repaired as Erwan Bastard is being caught by Alessandro Pier Guidi.
Bastard to the pit lane for a driver change. He has run a relatively short stint, and now, the #71 Ferrari cycles back to the lead. We have seen 29 lead changes back and forth since this race started. Which car is going to pit last? We'll have to see. We have had five Full Course Yellows and we have had something like nine safety car interventions I want to say but I may be fudging my numbers there a bit. Sorry. Christopher Haase takes over the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc Audi and so, Alessandro Pier Guidi resumes in the race lead. Martin Konrad in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes could inherit second spot as we are coming up to eight hours completed. Whoops! We have the Gostner family Mercedes stopped on the road after fuel pump troubles and radiator maladies. It is not stopped in the safest place.
We are going to have to go to Full Course Yellow? Phew! Thank goodness! We can stay green! That's a major relief. Will that car head for the pit lane? We shall see. This has been an incredibly busy race. I mean, incredibly busy. So, please forgive me if I have missed out on a few details. My brain is just going a million miles a minute here!
No comments:
Post a Comment