Portugal's Algarve coast near the seaside welcomes the FIA World Endurance Championship back for another go at it, here, at the Algarve International Circuit today, for the 6 Hours of Portimao. This is round two of the championship after opening on the historic, car breaking old concrete of the fabled Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida, last month. There are some altered driver lineups we are going to talk about considering today's race is back to back with the IMSA race at Long Beach, California, which we brought you coverage of yesterday of course. Any and all driver switchovers will be highlighted as we work our way into the 6 Hours of Portimao on this Sunday morning.
This is actually the first of two races back to back within two weeks for the FIA WEC. After racing here at Portimao, we will be headed off to the Ardennes forest of Belgium and the traditional date (moved back one week) for the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, which is always the precursor to the Le Mans 24 Hour race and that too, is coming up soon. We are about to really get our money's worth as the FIA WEC brings the action here for a wee while. Of course we will also see some special entries coming into the equation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and no doubt you have read about those already as we have talked about them. That is in the future. This is now. Portimao is on our radar today.
The question on everyone's minds is, who on earth can take the fight to Toyota? For the last number of years between the LMP1 era and now the Hypercar era, they have been incredibly dominant with both the #7 and #8 cars. One has to wonder if any of the other top contenders, the Porsche's, the Peugeot's, the Ferrari's, the single Ganassi Racing Cadillac, can take the fight to them. There are also the specialty cars, the Glickenhaus and the Vanwall of course. They have speed. The question remains if they have the competitiveness and reliability to keep up with the factory teams. You have the full fledged factories racing against the hobbyists, the "garagistes" who are building cool race cars for the pure joy of it.
That is the beauty of this Hypercar idea. This rekindles the magic seen in the early glory years of sports car racing and what it was all about during the '50s, '60s, '70s, and at least part of the 1980s until, of course, like today, the factories and the major car brands came on like gangbusters. That was really started in the '60s with Ford and Ferrari if you have seen the movie of course, or actually saw the races back in those days, and continued to the '70s with Porsche taking on Ferrari as they do now. Round two of seven in the FIA World Endurance Championship for WEC.
Roger Penske and Hughes de Chaunac having a discussion. Laura Wontrop Klauser for GM, Jim Glickenhaus, they are all here. The drivers are getting ready. Natalie Robin is the new CEO of the FIA. Good luck to her. This is of course round two of the championship and part of the European tour part of the season. This is a traditional but different European track and believe me, it is a hot one today too. There's a stiff breeze or was in the days befre today. This track uses the hilly landscape. This track is up hill and down dale.
Turn one, turn five at the hairpin, these are great overtaking place. Turn five is traction limited and the tires will be squirming. Turns ten and 11 are very important and also look out for turn 13. It is convoluted and tight. Toyota, Jota, and Cetilar won the last time we raced here in 2021. That was in the pandemic lockdown period racing behind closed doors. But now, the fans are back to see the race and they are definitely rooting for Antonio Felix Da Costa. He is in his home race for Hertz Team Jota saying goodbye to their LMP2 car before they say hello to their new Porsche 963 Hypercar in two weeks.
The key is to enjoy this race and give the old girl a good run before she heads for the museum. We are seeing the Iron Dames vs. Ben Keating. It is a respectful rivalry between Keating and Sara Bovy, like brother and sister almost. 36 of the 37 cars are on the grid. Look at, in GTE Am, the #54 Ferrari 488, the Vistajet car for AF Corse. That will be one to watch as the grid is in echelon formation for the time being before we get started. We have a lot of ex Formula 1 drivers i this race. AF Corse has a GTE Am car in addition to the Ferrari 499P. Second spot, the bright pink Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19. They had a minor off at Sebring which ripped the rear diffuser out.
Roger Penske of course, won the IMSA race at Long Beach with the Porsche 963 yesterday. Will they double up? Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO, the boss of Peugeot is talking to him. Tavares is also a racing driver. Peugeot #93 is in the garage and they might just make the start but they have some steering trouble right now that they are solving before we get started. Everyone is peachy right now, but believe me, when everyone gets strapped into their cockpits, we are going to see the battle commence. It will be a sword fight. Roger Penske says that the competition in sports car racing is amazing.
Everyone is in the car business and this is what sports car racing around the world is about. Penske won last night and they are hoping to win again. Porsche under the Penske organization won in 2008 at Miller Motorsports Park and the 12 Hours of Sebring back then with the Porsche RS Spyder. The architecture of the V8 engine from the RS Spyder which is the same motor, bigger displacement, with a turbo, the same basic architecture of the old engine. We are looking at the LMP2 grid. We have United Auospirt, Inter Europol Competition, Jota, and many more.
Because of the scheduling with IMSA, there are some other drivers filling in especially for the United Autosports team. #22 has Ben Hanley in an all-British team with Fred Lubin and Phil Hanson. Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson will have Dutchman Giedo van der Garde joining them in place of Tom Blomqvist who raced at Long Beach for Meyer Shank Acura yesterday. Time for the Portuguese national anthem. Beautifully done. The Algarve is the holiday (vacation) region on the Atlantic Ocean. This is a gorgeous place and a great circuit and we will see Natalie Robin wave the greeen flag to get the drivers underway. Tom Dillman starts for Vanwall.
Olivier Pla will start for Glickenhaus as we hear Peugeot have fixed their power steering troubles. At Peugeot, the feal was having to change the steering rack. They are going to have to lose a lap and work their way back. They are going to be at pit exit. Next up is the Cadillac, Richard Westbrook starting from eighth place. We are going to see more Cadillac's coming in for a few races soon. Dane Cameron starts the #5 Porsche 963 next up. All the Hypercars have a maximum of 700 horsepower between combustion and hybrid energy. Nico Muller next up in the #94 Peugeot.
There is a 1/10th scale Lego Technic model of the 908 Pegueot. Laurens Vanthoor in fifth starts aboard the sister #6 Penske Porsche 963. Ferrari are next with James Calado in the #51 Ferrari 499P for AF Corse with James Calado starting the motor race. Nicklas Nielsen in the sister #50 Ferrari is third. Mike Conway second in Toyota #7 while the #8 Toyota has the pole. One minute until we fire the engines as we welcome our pal Anthony Davidson to the booth. It is hot indeed. We have Martin Haven, Graham Goodwin, and Anthony Davidson in the broadcast booth and Louise Beckett in the pit lane for today's event.
The command is given. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! The cars roll off. The new rule today is track limits. You've got four jokers, five over your driving period and at five strikes, you will cop a penalty for the entirety of the race for each driver. No wipeouts. So, boys and girls, no whammy's today. No whammy's. Whatever you do. Six hours, the standard distance and we have a second formation lap. The driver's requested this because of the fact we don't have tire warmers and the tires will be stone cold. We have a virtual energy tank we will be looking at on percentages, hybrid, fuel etc. Of course, this fuel is partially made from wine residue, and no, it is not the wine you drink for a romantic evening at dinnertime. It is the residue from making it in the vineyard I believe.
OK. Here we go. The safety car is in the lane, and we are green! Let's go! Sebastien Buemi takes the lead and the Ferrari's are screaming their way to the front right now as we speak and the LMP2 leaders are scrapping and scruffing as well, look. Down to the hairpin for the first time. Porsche #6 and Toyota #7 scrapping and passing the Ferrari's. Sean Gelael leads LMP2 from Doriane Pin and Ben Keating gets outfoxed by Diego Alessi in GTE Am as well. Ferrari over Corvette and then Porsche for the Iron Dames and Sarah Bovy. The Vanwall has been swamped and now, the two United Autosports cars nearly run into each other! Ben Hanley is getting feisty.
Now then, the battle is on between Porsche and Cadillac for seventh as well, look. Mike Conway has opened the lead to 1.4 seconds and wants to make his escape as the #93 Peugeot is on the road and poor old Claudio Schiavoni was down the order in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 as well. Paul di Resta will be tiptoeing through the tulips for a wee while on those frigidly cold tires at Peugeot. Sebastien Buemi says he went off the road briefly and maybe tagged someone else. We see an even race between Sebastien Buemi in the Toyota and James Calado in the Ferrari. Overtaking is going to be a bear here at the Algarve and we are going to see a bunch of marbles at the highest corner energy track. Buemi tries to send it into turn 11 but decides discretion is the better part of valor.
However, there is some contact then into turn 13. The Glickenhaus is still bottled up behind the LMP2 car of Doriane Pin who actually got passed by Romain Dumas and then passed again. The overtake is on and there you go. Buemi makes the move on Calado has he brakes late. Toyota 1-2 again, and Mike Conway is making good his escape whistling off into the distance. Nico Muller in the #94 Peugeot is losing a wee bit of ground and Nicklas Nielsen in the sister #50 Ferrari, he is right on Laurens Vanthoor's six in the #5 Porsche 963 right now. Vanthoor vs. Nielsen. Toyota are really on top of their car while everyone else like Peugeot, Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, they are really coming to grips with the new cars, the new Hypercars.
The #6 Porsche is the strawberry jam in the Ferrari sandwich currently. Ferrari can do fully automatic energy recovery or they can cntrol it via the cockpit. Dorianne Pin is pressing Sean Gelael as Olivier Pla in the Glickenhaus is doing all he can to push. Of course, the Glickenhaus does not have hybrid boost. It is all internal combusion engine on that car. Nickjlas Nielsen continues to monster Laurens Vanthoor, trying to get inside the Belgian's head. Again, this is a rekindling of what we first saw with the Porsche 917 and the Ferrari 512 back in the 1970s in the halcyon days of prototype competition. Calado started scampering away. The Porsche has uncorked it's best lap so far and Vanthoor is creeping away from Nicklas Nielsen. Now, Nielsen is crawling all over the Porsche and sends its past.
He carried the momentum, had the energy on braking, and ducked to the inside. We had Porsche vs. Ferrari in GTE Pro and now, we have the same deal in Hypercar. It's awesome. There was animosity in the old days in GTE Pro but now, it is just hard racing. Well, well, well. The LMP2 cars are staying ahead of the Glickenhaus. Ben Hanley is catching Olivier Pla hand over first. The Hypercars, believe it or not, are slower than the LMP2 boys and girls out of the corners. In the meantime, it is Corvette vs. Porsche and the Ben Keating vs. Sarah Bovy show. The Iron Dames won the European Le Mans Series finale here last fall that we brought to you a wee while ago.
Traffic time and things are getting spicy as Mike Conway dives past the CarGuy Ferrari 488 GTE. Eyes on the mirrors and the traffic is going to be a bugaboo! It is so tough to spot the apexes and the blind brows of this circuit. Richard Westbrook chasing Dane Cameron. One Cadillac this weekend but there will be a second Ganassi Cadillac for Spa Francorchamps in two weeks and a three Cadillac entry at Le Mans. We will have the two Ganassi cars and my pals from Action Express at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. AXR did not have the best race yesterday at Long Beach but we will be in the fight. Watch this space.
Dane Cameron reminded about track limits and now, Dane Cameron has to be careful defending against Richard Westbrook. Westbrook, too, has already used a joker on track limits. Uffda. Well, well, well. The Cadillac looks after the rear tires better than the Porsche and maybe the launch for them is not as good as the Porsche. Doriane Pin has been passed and there goes Westbrook ahead of the Porsche. Sean Gelael and Ben Hanley are top of the shop in LMP2. A spin there for the #88 GTE Am Porsche 911 RSR-19! There could have been contact between that car and the #5 Porsche of Dane Cameron making do or die moves. Ah. It was #86, Mike Wainwright for GR Racing, making contact with poor old Ryan Hardwick.
The Cadillac is moving up. Laura Wontrop Klauser, the head of GM Racing, looking on. She has the Corvette programs in GTE Am and in GT3, the Cadillac programs for Ganassi and Action Express, and the Garage 56 Gen 7 NASCAR Camaro ZL1 program we will see at Le Mans as an exhibition. Mike Wainwright has a loose right front fender and headlamp and that will be a meatball flag from the stewards for dead sure. Sarah Bovy is right up on Ben Keating's six. Peugeot #93 is making progress. Meanwhile, Olivier Pla gets a run on Ben Hanley in LMP2 in the #22 United Autosport entry. He is scrapping with Olivier Pla in the Glickenhaus as Satoshi Hoshino in the #777 D'station Aston Martin has spun and the front fender of the GR Racing Porsche is on the road.
New tires for the #88 and the #86 team is ready to repair the car. Poor old Ryan Hardwick has Fred Flinstoned his tires. Luis Perez Companc is fourth in the #83 Richard Mille Racing Ferrari 488 GTE. Perez Companc sharing with Alessio Rovera and Lilou Wadoux. f course this is the final year of the Ferrari 488 and we will see the LM GT3 class next year with the Ferrari 296 GT3 that we are already seeing in other championships. Goodyear will supply tires for the new class in FIA WEC and in European Le Mans Series racing. Kessel Racing Ferrari and D'station Aston Martin, under investigation by the stewards.
#86 Porsche in and out of the lane. New bodywork on the right front and a repair to the new right hand door, or with a new right hand door actually. No further action on the race start from the stewards. Mike Conway is being told to avoid the curbs as he has the #7 Toyota in the race lead. Team WRT are leading in LMP2 and have run 14 laps now, 40 miles. Nicklas Nielsen getting on terms with James Calado as the two Ferrari 499P's will be in formation for a wee while but they are down on the leaders. Are they going to work together? Will Nicklas Nielsen have a Captain Cook at this at all? We are going to see safety cars. So far we have avoided Full Course Yellow situations so far. Ben Keating held offline trying to make the pass on the LMP2 car.
Sarah Bovy has a head of steam in the Porsche. The prototype drivers always try to use the traffic to their advantage. Rahel Frey, looking on, Sarah Bovy's co-driver. Tom Dillman slicing through traffic in the two tone green Vanwall Hypercar. This is our second visit to the Portimao circuit and there might be fans still trying to get into the track to see the race. Hopefully you all can see it. #9 does the squeeze play, Juan Manuel Correa in the first of the Prema Oreca's. Diego Alessi was a second and a half in front but he is being reeled in by both Keating and Bovy. So, those two will be on his six soon. 18 laps now complete and it is a Toyota 1-2. Conway vs. Buemi and Conway leads the motor race by seven and a half seconds.
Buemi damaged his right wrist in a crash in Formula E. These Hypercars do have power steering but it is nowhere near as boosted as a production car. It sounds like Buemi is doing fine but Mike Conway was driving away, and now, Buemi I think, he is going to reel in his teammate. That wrist is not going to give him much trouble, hopefully. Peugeot #94 is slicing through the traffic and the sister #93 is still in recovery mode passing the GTE cars. Paul di Resta seems to be doing fine. Richard Westbrook in the #2 blue Ganassi Racing Cadillac is beginning to push and Paul Dalla Lana has been warned for the final time on track limits.
He will have to do two stints for minimum drive time and has no jokers left. No more excuses or the stewards will ping him for a drive through penalty. No get out of jail free cards. Meantime, Calado being reeled in hand over fist by Nielsen. Calado to the inside and Nielsen taking a wider arc through the turn. Paul di Resta is struggling with locking rear brakes and he wants to shift the brake bias forward and needs an answer from the team. Usually it is to the driver's discretion. But di Resta is very concerned about it. You just have to be clean all the time. No luck for Bovy trying to pass Keating in the GTE class. Paul di Resta is three minutes off the lead.
Ben Hanley leads Giedo van der Garde in LMP2. Iron Lynx/Iron Dames are engineering the Prema LMP2 team and they are going to be running the new Lamborghini Hypercar program beginning next year both in IMSA and in the World Endurance Championship. One car in each championship beginning next year it sounds like as pit stop time it is for the LMP2 cars. United, Prema, Vector, and Inter Europol. Jota as well, and others. It is a Pro/Am formula in LMP2 as far as the drivers. This is the in lap, out lap push to overcut, to leapfrog Doriane Pin.
Again, Jota are moving to the Porsche 963 next week getting set for the 6 Hours of Spa in two weeks. Hanley leads Da Costa by almost five seconds. Cold tires as many of the drivers in LMP2 are staying in the car for the double stint strategy. Antonio Felix Da Costa focusing on the long game for fuel doing lift and coast. In Ferrari land, 23 laps done and he says he has a small vibration but it is nothing to worry about. Calado tries to pass but can't quite make it work. Nielsen I think has more pace in the sister 499P. Calado ahead of Nielsen at the present time.
Antonio Felix Da Costa pits from the LMP2 lead. Ben Keating warned on track limits. Corvette Racing may have to cop a penalty as Takeshi Kimura is also penalized for the incident with the D'station Aston Martin, #777. James Calado is told to let the sister car go and he argues, "they are no quicker!" You know, the manager tells him, "you need to open it up or you will hear from me again." Racing drivers do not like to be told by the boss to move over. Trust me. Oh dear! The Vector Sport Oreca LMP2 is slow. Does he have a puncture? The taillight is out. Calado, focusing forward. If you catch the guy in front, get on the horn, and go for it. But in two laps if you don't make it and eke out the gap, it's back in your box, sunbeam.
Driver response. "Oh no! Not the box!" Manager to driver, "take it easy. Don't get too excited. Long way to go, mate." Ben Hanley says that it is always tricky at the start here at Portimao and the car is running well as they are managing tires and fuel. He was helped by following the Glickenhaus for a wee bit. There is still a long way to go yet. James Calado had to let Nicklas Nielsen by because there was a lapped car in the way. Calado will be on a mission to pass his teammate back as they both get stymied behind the #777 Aston Martin! Criminy!
Diego Alessi is gapping Sarah Bovy who in turn is motoring away from Ben Keating in the Corvette. At Vector Sport they are diagnosing a probable engine issue but we don't know. I mean, the Gibson V8 motors in these cars are iron clad. So, it is hard to imagine why something went wrong. Spark plug failure? We'll have to see. Vector Sport have had the speed and it is a shame to see them in trouble. Ben Keating is on his final track limits warning. He is going to have to be careful for the whole rest of the motor race. The track limits exceeded penalty can really put you in the basement. Calado still argues he is faster than Nicklas Nielsen. "No!" says Calado. Manager, "it works both ways." It is pretty simple.
Mike Conway under massive pressure at Toyota from teammate Sebastien Buemi. Buemi is really applying the blowtorch now. Conway I think, he has put too much energy through his tires in this opening stint. How strange. Conway is stuck in traffic and now, Nicklas Nielsen has gained and James Calado has lost time. No wonder James was panicking on the radio. Sebastien Buemi told to swap with Mike Conway. Buemi has been on the radio and is quicker than Conway, or so he claims. #8 have beaten #7 on fuel economy before. We are going to see a swap. They have the Inter Europol LMP2 car in the way. If Conway is held up by an LMP2 or a GTE cluster, he can't come back towards the sister car.
Stick right with your teammate at all costs. Michael Dinan in the ORT by TF Sport #25 Aston Martin is chasing Luis Perez Companc in GTE Am. He is notified by the flag in the cab system showing the flag on the screen. Dinan slices and dices his way past Luis Perez Companc. Humans and cameras both monitor the corners for these track limits situations. What a gorgeous day here at the Algarve. Yukes. There is damage, look, to the #88 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Richard Westbrook in the #2 Cadillac V Series R is catching the #94 Peugeot 9X8 of Nico Muller. We have not seen the Hypercars pit yet. Richard Westbrook got right by.
Everyone is closing in on the pit window and we are monitoring the energy status for the Hypercars. 34 laps completed and a 1.1 second gap between the two Toyota's. One or two percent extra energy equals an extra lap. However, at Le Mans they will need far more energy because of how long the circuit is at eight and a half miles. Co-drivers are suited and booted to get the next stint underway. The Cadillac crew is ready to pit. So much can be gained or lost in the pit lane. Some minutes to go before we see the GTE Am cars in the lane as Sarah Bovy is pressing Diego Alessi and maybe Ben Keating' soft compound Michelin's are square. He has probably had the tires go away on him.
Toyota #7 in first before the #8 and we have both Ferrari's in the lane as well. Toyota, Ferrari, and Peugeot all in the lane. No tires for #8. Left side Michelin's for the Ferrari. Fuel flow monitored between different cars as the Cadillac is in as well. Good turn around from the Cadillac splitting the Ferrari's. No sign of the Peugeot's. Porsche #88, Ryan Hardwick, for Proton Competition being told to respect track limits. Toyota #8 in the lane and the Porsche should be in. No tires for the Cadillac. Just like in IMSA, double stinting the tires is the deal here but in GTE Am, they can swap sets of tires every time they pit.
You can make up track position from the pit lane as Buemi resumes ahead of Conway.
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