Through the esses and now into Leeukop. BMW continue to run 1-2 in the lead of this motor race. We say hello to Maro Engel in the broadcast booth. Engel of course obviously knows how much pressure the Audi's are putting on their team. Keep fighting. Pit stop time for the #86 Mercedes AMG GT3. Regular service and a driver change. Marschall dives for the lane at the end of lap 69. Three or four laps from now the Mercedes boys should pit. This is an enduro, but it is a nine-hour sprint. This is a challenging race because of the high level of drivers and a small number of cars means more green flag racing without the safety car. Feller right on Grenier's six again. The lap times will drop when the temperatures drop as the day rolls on.
There will be minimal gains and the turbo cars (the BMW's) are going to have the advantage in cooler weather. Grneier half defending over Feller here for third place. Drive tidy and you do have to move offline, so the tires do pick up the clag, all the dust and rolled up rubber offline. Grenier has to defend for just half a lap before pitting. Use all the road. Down the hill, plunging downward. Kyalami is a busy but flowing circuit. The BMW's can go one lap extra and the same for Mercedes. 37 laps on a fuel load as Mikael Grenier is pushing with everything he has. I mean, everything.
Grenier seems to be totally unphased by what Feller is doing. Mikael Grenier is a seasoned professional and he is going for it. We might see double stinting later on. Raffaele Marciello should be into the #999 car next. In Formula 1, the original track was different. You were going way too fast in an open wheel car through corners like Clubhouse, Sunset, and Barbeque. Attention, Formula 1, bring back the South African Grand Prix and come to Kyalami! Thank you for visiting the booth, Maro. The leading BMW is in the lane, the braking to the pit entry is tough and now, it is time for tires, fuel, and a driver change.
Charles Weerts out, and Dries Vanthoor into the car. He is down and away. The SPS Mercedes team are baking their tires in the sun. WRT has their tires in the garage. Maxime Martin in the #33 BMW and Raffaele Marciello in the #999 Mercedes. Warm tires on the out lap make a massive difference. So, the sun is the natural tire warmer in this case. 75 laps now completed, 211 miles. Maro Engel is part of the Mercedes AMG One Hypercar. The grip on street tires, the power, and the powertrain is bonkers with 1,063 horsepower! Unreal! They beat the previous record by eight seconds on a partially wet track.
Raffaele Marciello will do a single stint and then Mikael Grenier will get back in I think. Maro Engel should run before the end of the race. So, at the end of this racing hour we shall be 1/3rd of the way through. It is very, very dark at night here at Kyalami and hard to see. Mikaeel Pitamber and Sun Moodly are extremely honored as native South African drivers to race against the best on the planet having finished 1-2 in the South African national GT3 race which concluded at the end of hour one. Mikael Pitamber says it is the best memory for him. Sun Moodley loves the speed and says the speed keeps him young. Congratulations, guys.
Jules Gounon has just uncorked fastest lap of the motor race and Stephen Grove has stayed out having done a tire stop. He is doing a double stint. The margin is 48 seconds right now. Gounon will be pushing indeed as Stephen Grove has stayed in the Grove Racing Porsche. It is pitch black at night and some drivers are more comfortable racing at night than others. Presumably Brenton Grove and Earl Bamber will do the night stints when it is cooler. Jules Gounon is the fastest man on the road with clear sailing ahead.
Maxime Martin is back in the BMW fold and is chasing teammate Dries Vanthoor. Martin drove for BMW at Marc VDS Racing years ago against WRT back when they ran Audi's. Marciello has Patric Niederhauser right on his six. A wide entrance into Crowthorne and into Jukskei. Maxime Martin is a class act and knows how to drive a race car. Could Dries Vanthoor have some kind of problem? His last lap around was a 1:44 dead and it is being matched evenly by Maxime Martin as we speak. Martin quicker than Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello is quicker than both BMW's currently. WRT will be monitoring this and getting on the phone telling Maxime Martin to move in.
Maxime Martin, like his dad and his uncle are 24 Hours of Spa winners mostly in Ford Capri's. Marciello does not have the pace compared to Gounon. 4/10ths of a second btween the top two, Vanthoor and Martin, who could be losing time to the Mercedes-AMG. 83 laps complete, 233 miles, into Mineshaft again. Patric Niederhauser has taken over the #66 Attempto Audi. The #80 Audi serves it's penalty and the #4 Porsche of Stephen Grove has pitted as well and is on his out lap. The Porsche is going to go a lap down. Nip and tuck stuff there, for Maxime Martin but he has racing room.
Luca Stolz is now at the wheel of the #20 SPS Mercedes. The darkness here at Kyalami is unbelievable. We've stated that fact, but it is indeed true. Alex Aka is just a wee bit behind Patric Niederhauser at this stage. Audi #99 did a short first stint and have locked themselves into that pattern and they might have to do an extra stop. They are going to be moving away from the top four. If we have a Full Course Yellow, the whole form book could change. We shall see. The BMW margin is now 7/10ths of a second with the brain trust at WRT looking on, studying the data. Through Leeukop another time. We talked earlier about a split strategy for Audi and Attempto but that could lose them time.
The gap between second and third is 4.3 seconds. Working lap 87. 244 miles. Arnold Neveling in the #86 Mercedes is serving a penalty and Clint Weston took his safety belts off while in the fast lane. Clint Weston runs the AMG Driver Academy here in South Africa. He is learning as a racing driver and finding tips for his students just the same. Every cloud has a silver lining. You can loosen your belts but not undo the buckle until you stop in the pit box. Arnold Neveling is ninth overall in the #86 Mercedes as Jules Gounon is running 1:43.3s. Earl Bamber at the wheel of the Porsche lapping quicker than Maxime Martin. Jules Gounon leads Pro-Am. Bamber has to find time to get on terms with Luca Stolz.
Stolz in seventh coming through Leeukop. Any time that can be gained back will be taken. Luca Stolz second in Pro-Am a lap down on the SunEnergy1 car of Jules Gounon. Right now, we see the battle between Raffaele Marciello and Patric Niederhauser through Sunset and Clubhouse, and the Audi is just a very pointy race car. 90 laps now in the bag. 253 miles. Raffaele Marciello came out of open wheel racing and was Euro Formula champion ten years ago in 2013. Through Crowthorne they go, and Alex Aka is fifth behind Marciello and Niederhauser. Pit stop strategies can converge and we'll have to see what happens in that department.
We do not have stint time available on timing and scoring here at Kyalami. Ingwe is leopard in Zulu by the way. The gap from Marciello to Niederhauser is a second as they turn again through Sunset. The Audi's have been in hot pursuit of the #999 Mercedes no matter if it is Engel, Grenier, or Marciello driving. Marciello is unable to close up on Maxime Martin just the same with Dries Vanthoor whistling off into the distance in the race lead. Alex Aka aggressive over the curbs through Cheetah. Just trying to tell the story of the race here, folks. What can I say?
No pressure at the top of the shop for BMW. Just over six hours to go. We have now run 103 laps, 289 miles. Now, Niederhauser is coming back into the picture as we are closing in on the end of hour three here in South Africa. Niederhauser getting a shade unstable over the curbs. Alex Aka in the second Attempto Audi is the one to watch and he might just pit now or stretch the stint length a bit more. BMW vs. BMW. Aka stays out for another lap. Marciello third, Niederhauser fourth, Aka in fifth. OK. They are getting back on pace with their sister car. Dries Vanthoor pushing hard and sets his fastest lap fo the race so far. Marciello is having a bear of a time trying to get on terms with the Porsche of Earl Bamber at this stage.
Patric Niederhauser closing up under braking from the Crocodiles, into Cheetah, and then into Leopard. The WRT BMW team does not want to have to stack the team cars and the same is true for Attempto Racing. Alex Aka will dive to the lane soon and Patric Niederhauser can go as far as lap 112. Will Alex Aka pit now? The answer is no. He stays out for another lap. Okie dokie then. He has to be very careful to not be outside the 65-minute stint time. That is what they have to worry about as Luca Stolz sets his fastest lap at 1:43.3. Jules Gounon, check that, uncorks another fastest lap it appears.
Alex Aka in fifth place running his 38th lap of this current stint for the leaders. If the Audi can make fuel, who needs electric cars? All the other teams will now be forced to push the envelope. 39 laps now for Aka. 38 done and dusted. Aka is continuing on the road. Maybe the temperatures are cooling off a wee bit. The air gets denser as it cools. The ambient temperature has not changed much. Track temperatures, more so. What on earth does the team know that we don't?
Aka rattles over the curb with no intention of pitting. Everyone else will stay on the road for a long time. Arkin Aka, Alex's dad, is calling strategy. They are playing a wait and see game and hoping their rivals are going to make a mistake. The Audi has the advantage as an all-around car compared to some of the others. The Mercedes and BMW seem to have the speed, the performance in sector two. Arkin Aka says he is happy with how the team is doing but believes the BMW M4 GT3 is a bit too strong compared to the Audi. He hopes for technical issues at BMW.
Earl Bamber will have to move over and let Raffaele Marciello by. Bamber pulls aside to let Marciello by. No pain, no gain. No muss, no fuss. Nothing to gain or to lose. Vanthoor leads Martin by 1.6 seconds. Raffaele Marciello might still be in the fight here but at night with denser air, the BMW will have an advantage with the turbocharged engine. The #999 has not been convincing through the race which it was during qualifying but was not quite to the level of the #75 Mercedes either. Clip the curb to shorten the corner but doing so aggressively deflects the car to the left side of the road and gets junk on the tires that has to be cleaned off.
Maxime Martin has now gone through and cut a best time in sector one. Personal best sector one time by Dries Vanthoor as well. The BMW drivers are trying hard to not overdrive the car. That is why they are picking up and setting down better lap times than we expected them to. anthoor is a tad slower than before. The gap is 1.9 seconds between Vanthoor and Martin.
No comments:
Post a Comment