Both Peugeot's are back in the race. In GTE, Christian Ried runs behind Nico Varrone as the #48 Jota Sport car is in the pit lane. The #28 Jota Sport car has pitted and the #38 has dropped as well. Oliver Rasmussen I believe will stay at the wheel and now, Mirko Bortolotti is now in the lead. The #4 Vanwall has dropped behind the top seven LMP2 cars and Tom Dillman is back in the car, picking up time but dropping places because he is off strategy. I am a bit confused on time. I think we are in the fifth hour of eight hours in the race and so we have gone past halfway. Ryo Hirakawa is losing time to Jose Maria Lopez. Hirakawa raced with Toyota last year and of course the #7 car had a huge crash here last year where the car barrel rolled into the tire wall.
Toyota #7 to the pit lane. Again, they are the race leaders but Ryo Hirakawa is the erstwhile leader with the World Endurance pit on the backstretch. Cool Racing and LMP2, that will be the other racing program for Jose Maria Lopez in 2023. Cadillac #2 into the pit lane. The #63 car is in the lane as well. Daniil Kvyat is now into the car at Prema Racing. Fuel and tires. Jose Maria Lopez, Nico Lapierre, and Cool Racing, they could be building up to a Hypercar program but let's not go there because we just have no ideas and we still have one 2022 ELMS race to talk about yet. Stay tuned for that, next week. Toyota #8 into the lane.
Hirakawa cann ot keep pace with Lopez. Am battle between Satoshi Hoshino and Francesco Castellaci. Aston Martin vs. Ferrari. All season last year, as a Bronze rated driver, Hoshino really performed. Lopez passes Hirakawa after pit stops. Castellaci passes into Sunset Bend over Hoshino. The shadows growing long and the sun will be blinding the driver's eyes for the final hours of this motor race. A battle in LMP2 between Robin Frijns and Fabio Scherer. As a driver lineup, the Iron Dames are far quicker than their Iron Lynx teammates. In sports car racing you have top flight pros and you have others who are also pros but they are bringing other talent with them for Pro-Am drivers, less accomplished drivers shall we say.
Just over two and a half hours to go as Jose Maria Lopez is in the zone and still under pressure from the sister Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa. Hirakawa, I think, he has fresh tires and now, Hirakawa is closing in. The #35 car is in a place of safety but it is not behind the barriers/ LMP2 and the battle between Frijns and Scherer continues but Nicklas Nielsen has to play through in the #50 Ferrari 499P. Fabio Scherer is catching Robin Frijns hand over fist as Olli Caldwell is off the road in a safe zone. Ryo Hirakawa has cleared the traffic. It seems like Hirakawa is turning it on in the battle between the Toyota's. Olli Caldwell raced two years ago in Bahrain with ARC Bratislava.
Phil Hanson inside Fabio Scherer. Hanson and Scherer are both catching Frijns and both are in their first stints of the race. But Frijns' tires are falling off the edge of a cliff. Two and a half hours to go yet. When will we see Frijns pit? Scherer falling into the clutches of Hanson. Daniel Serra has uncorked fastest lap of the race fpr tje CarGuy #57 GTE Ferrari. Scherer safe but Hanson is not moving aeay. He is still pushing. Hanson shall have to think about all of this and see what is going to happen. Scherer still has dust on his tire wriggling through turn 16 down the Ulmann straight. Into Sunset Bend they go.
Porsche and Ferrari still battling and Andre Lotterer gives it up and hits the pit lane in the #6. Hanson goes the long way but can't quite pull it off. Hanson does not want to get impatient. Driver change for the #6 Porsche. Hanson almost gets stymied by one of the Porsche 911 RSR's! Yikes! Hanson making move into turn one with these two behind Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963, the cork in the bottle. Scherer has to be late on the brakes, and Hanson cannot get by! He gets stymied! Frijns is moving ahead. The Hypercar is as slow as a slow GTE car when it is on cold tires.
Jose Maria Lopez not inching away from Ryo Hirakawa. #7 has to save more fuel, more energy. Save the brakes too, lifting and coasting. The less you sttess them, too, the less you stress the tires. Hip and shoulder in turn 16 between Dempsey Proton and D'station! Frijns to the lane, Scherer's speed compromised, and Phil Hanson pops his way right through. This is the third rearrangement of the pit lane between the prologue and this race after a massive accident between Thomas Flohr and David Heinemeier Hansson.
Nicklas Nielsen in the lane in the #50 handing off to Antonio Fuoco while the sister #51 goes ahead with Antonio Giovinazzi at the wheel. Richard Westbrook in the #2 Cadillac V Series R. Cadillac believe they are far better on tires than Porsche and Ferrari. Porsche are dropping down away from Ferrari. Danger in the lane for Iron Lynx. Filip Ugran brings the #9 car. Hirakawa continues to reel in Lopez. Maybe one of the Toyota's have dug themselves into an energy management hole, lifting and coasting. Fabio Scherer passing Scott Huffaker's Ferrari. Scherer doing everything he can to catch Hanson,
Ferrari #51 to the lane. False alarm for the #50 Ferraro 499P having a gearbox alarm. No trouble I guess. #51 is in the lane. Peugeot #94 into the pit lane. 170 laps of the race now done. Gustavo Menezes in the #94 which had ERS issues earlier on. Yifei Ye out of the Hertz Team Jota #38 car as we head to the final two hours of this motor race. We're getting close. Daniil Kvyat into the LMP2 lead as Michael Christensen brings the #5 Porsche 963 into the pit lane. No worries on the Ferrari gearbox alarm for Antonio Fuoco who uncorks a 1:48.4. The brakes on these cars get really, really hot. The tire rubber catches on fire, occasionally.
Tom Dillman is handing the Vanwall back to Jacques Villeneuve. He is the one doing the single stints. This is a relatively uncomplicated car, the 4.5 liter Gibson Technologies V8 for power. Vanwall have plowed their own furrow. Every car is different in how they look and how they sound. Can Jacques Villeneuve go for the Triple Crown of Indianapolis, Monaco, and Le Mans? We'll see. Albert Costa is now back into the #34 Inter Europol Oreca after Kuba Smiechowski has done his stints. Jakub "Kuba" Smiechowski. The #63 Prema entry is in the lane now. Top two in LMP2. Daniil Kvyat and Phil Hanson.
#63, #22, and now, the #48 car of Will Stevens takes the lead. This is of course, not a full-season entry. Hertz Team Jota will have their Porsche 963 here by the time we get to Spa Francorchamps so they might join up with that car for Le Mans as we are getting close to the two hours remaining mark. No sign of bad weather like last year. Nicolas Varrone, the Argentinian, he is pressing on well, thank you. Jota did not pit. WRT split their strategy. Kubica stayed out and that is why they led in class at onje stage. Corvette to the pit lane from the GTE lead. OK then. They are a lap up on the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche. Nicky Catsburg now replaces Nico Varrone.
In LMP2, Will Stevens leads ahead of Kvyat, Kubica, Hanson, and Habsburg. Albert Costa and Pietro Fittipaldi next up. We have not had a yellow for some time now. Goodness. I just thought about that. Alessandro Pier Guiddi has gone off the road and clips the #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gunnar Jeanette. That tire and wheel are gone! Bad, bad news for Ferrari! Wow! Did the #56 get off scott free? That was a clonk! #51 smoking and he is running way too fast! Slow down, sunshine. Slow down!
In replay, he went right around the outside, and Thomas Flohr didnot see him. The #51 was going to go to the pit lane drifting out wide. The tire is gone and there's debris everywhere!
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