Pit stop time in LMP2 for the #9 Prema Oreca as well. New driver, new tires. The new driver might want hot tires. The Alpine has passed the WRT LMP2. One of the United Autosports entries is in. GTE Am leaders in as Nico Varrone is now at the wheel and one of the Porsche 963's goes off the road and back out, the #5 car. ORT by TF Aston Martin #25 in as well. Double stint for Michael Dinan and it should be Ahmad Al Harthy into the car as the #93 Pegueot is in and so is the #4 Vanwall which needs to pit to serve a penalty after their service. Tom Dillman serving the drive through now. #48, David Beckman, for Hertz Team Jota, is going longer than everyone else and is at the top of the tree in LMP2. Driver change for the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. The #60 Iron Lynx Porsche and the #21 Ferrari move up as Lilou Wadoux is in the lane as well. Frantic action at Portimao and close stuff for the #48 as well.
Davide Rigon has taken over the #54 Ferrari. He was a factory GTE Pro driver with Sam Bird for many years. Ben Keating says after his stint that he feels he did his job, taking care of the car, getting four track limit warnings. One more and he is aware he will have a penalty and so understandably he worried about the penalty and changed his driving to a more conservative approach. He has been pushing like mad. Close shave as #41 goes past #36. WRT vs. Alpine. Josh Pierson leads Daniil Kvyat by a dozen seconds with David Beckman next up. Inter Europol running well. In Hypercar it is Ryo Hirakawa ahead of Miguel Molina and Antonio Giovinazzi, followed by Porsche and Cadillac.
Richard Westbrook vs. Dane Cameron I think. Yes. Miguel Molina now has the wheel of the #50 Ferrari 499P. The pavement is scrubbing the tires all the time. Loic Duval at Peugeot in #94 says Portimao is a better venue for Peugeot and they are having a good race as Nico Muller put in a good double stint. Peugeot hope for more reliability and they might just be having it here compared to Sebring last time out which was not set up well for the bumps. The Peugeot looks easier to drive after they tested the car at Paul Ricard in the south of France. At Le Mans, in the Group C era, the rule was never cross the white line in the crown of the highway.
There is no gap over the crown between the pavement and the floor. Most cars were flat bottom for 30 years. But now, the Hypercars have ground effects just like the old Group C cars did. The crown of the road will dictate the ride height. The Peugeot's still have more ground effects than most other Hypercars and of course the distinctive factor of the 9X8 Peugeot is the lack of a rear wing. Robin Frijns chasing Charles Milesi in LMP2 as David Beckman is under investigation by the stewards for something. Alpine vs. WRT is for eighth in class. At Ferrari, Antonio Giovinazzi is worried about a long brake pedal.
He is told to push the brake by wire reset button. Lift and coast and give the brakes a break. BBW is brake by wire, not brake balance. Remember, the new Hypercars both here and IMSA GTP are using brake by wire systems. LMP2 scrapping, getting stymied by the Ferrari. Filip Ugran and Phil Hanson. The Philip and Philip show it is, look. Louis Deletraz is coming in a hurry as well. Happy Birthday to Robin Frijns' grandma. 100 years young, yesterday. Louis Deletraz right behind Phil Hanson who tries to send it on Ugran but no dice. He would have been pinged for track limits by the stewards. Robin Frijns goes right by Hanson. Ooh! Frijns had no choice but to back out of it. Hanson has definitely tucked up Deletraz like a kipper there!
The Iron Dames are two some odd seconds ahead of Luis Perez Companc and Simon Mann. United, Prema, Jota and others in LMP2. United now leads Prema and Jota followed by WRT and Alpine in LMP2. Pit stop time for the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series R. They had a half stint due to that flat spotted tire. I think he will hand off to Alex Lynn. For Antonio Giovinazzi, charge the system and do not deploy hybrid from the front. They are having issues with brake by wire and the front electric motor. That is the high pitched whining noise you hear from the front of the car. That is deploying or harvesting energy. On cars like the Cadillac and the Porsche it is doing that, but you cannot hear the motor. SOC, state of charge. You will be familiar if you do drive a fully electric car.
Again, fully electric cars are still coming online. With these Hypercars, they are not fully electric. It is part electricity and part internal combustion engine. Fully electric cars, are going to be a bear. I digress. The hybrid does not produce more power. It is transformed to a mix of power. The LMDh cars produce 50 horsepower while the Hypercars produce something between 150 and 270. You do not have to run a hybrid system. Glickenhaus and Vanwall don't. Antonio Giovinazzi is struggling right now trying to find a new way of driving.
Ryo Hirakawa leads over iguel Molina. 90 laps completed. 253 miles. Toyota #7 is catching the sister car to unlap itself but will not score any points. An investigation into the pit stop for Hertz Team Jota, no further action. No worries. Car #51, Antonio Giovinazzi in the Ferrari 499P is told to lift and coast. The front brakes are helping the stopping power without assistance of the elecric motors. Battle for fifth, look, as Phil Hanson has his hands full with Louis Deletraz! Robin Frijns is going to try making a move. Nope. Nope. Hanson gets a run and pushes hard. Up the inside, look, the #41 passing the #9. Filip Ugran has been mugged by two cars!
United Autosports have now run 88 laps, 247 miles. #7 Toyota in the pit lane. Three and a half hours to go so we should end the race today by Noon Central Standard Time in the U.S. Kevin Estre is catching Antonio Giovinazzi. Porsche vs. Ferrari and Giovinazzi is lifting and coasting trying not to run out of braking power. Estre and an LMP2 car both pass the Ferrari. Penske Porsche won at Long Beach in IMSA yesterday of course. #51 should hit the pit lane and try to fix the car. They need to learn how this all works. If you are two and a half hours into Le Mans and the car begins going on the fritz, you really need to know what to do. Big lift and coast, working on an idea to run sans the brake by wire unit.
The trouble with not having the friction of the MGU on the front axle, the brakes will heat up quicker and the blanking has to be removed from the front radiator to try and cool the brakes off after the stint is completed. Glickenhaus in the lane and are out of sequence just like we saw with Cadillac. Glickenhaus also having issues with overheating brakes but again that car does not use a hybrid system on it. All internal combustion engine power for Glickenhaus. Earl Bamber now has to work on Jean Eric Vergne and Bamber is faster than Vergne and we have not seen a safety car scramble yet.
Gustavo Menezes is told he is quicker than the Ferrari and can reach for him. Yes Sir! I shall do that! Vanwall pinged for energy usage. Each LMP2 car is the same and yet, some teams are quicker than others. It should be up to the drivers in Hypercar as well. Giovinazzi brings the #51 Ferrari to the lane to take out front blanking. Cleaning the windscreen, loading the car with fuel. Driver's door not open. Antonio Giovinazzi is doing a double stint. The brakes are steaming, smoking hot right now. No tires. Antonio Giovinazzi is back on track again.
#10 and #35 also pit in LMP2. Fred Makowiecki in the #5 Porsche is now chasing one of the Ferrari's it looks like. Daniil Kvyat will hand off the #63 Prema LMP2 to one of his co-drivers. Rahel Frey leads Nico Varrone and Davide Rigon in GTE Am. Lilou Wadoux pitted from the GTE Am lead and she says the car was very good. Lilou is getting much more comfortable speaking to us in English. The issue that gave the penalty to the Vanwall was a second offense on excessive braking and the #50 Ferrari is on their first, so a similar issue. Oliver Jarvis has just taken over the #23 United Autosport LMP2 car. Ryon Hirakawa leading Daniel Serra and the Porsche is in third place. Toyota GR010, Ferrari 499P, Porsche 963.
GTE Am sees a battle between Aston Martin and Ferrari. Axcil Jeffries vs. Scott Huffaker. #22, the LMP2 leader at United Autosport is in. He stays in the car and the sister car of Oliver Jarvis in car #23 sweeps into the LMP2 lead. #22 is still in the lane. Phil Hanson drops to third behind Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Prema Racing car. #48 Teamm Jota in the lane, David Beckman finishing his stint and handing off to Yifei Ye sharing as well with Antonio Felix Da Costa. David Beckman should have another LMP2 drive soon maybe in WEC or maybe in IMSA. We'll have to see. Sean Gelael too has run Formula 2 races in open wheel cars.
He has won, Sean Gelael, in the Asian Le Mans Series. Yifei Ye off the road in turn five, still on cold tires. They are half the temperature of a tepid cup of tea. For the drivers there is so little grip it is like driving on ice. Dunlop and now Goodyear have done a lot of tire testing for LMP2 tires here at Portimao. A Hypercar on cold tires is easy pickings for a GT car in turn five. No grip for the Hypercar is a real bugaboo. Luis Perez Companc has taken over the #83 Ferrari from Lilou Wadoux and Simon Mann is piling on the pressure. The American driver vs. the Argentinian driver. Louis Deletraz now passes Albert Costa in LMP2, sliced through by the Cadillac.
Both teams from Ganassi Racing for Cadillac will be testing at Portimao in a wee while. You can exceed track limits only four times per driver throughout the race and five times, you get a penalty. Deletraz is catching Yifei Ye hand over fist. Deletraz in his second stint and the Chinese driver will have his hands full indeed. Next time out in two weeks at Spa Francorchamps, we will have 13 Hypercars in the field. Deletraz passes Yifei Ye and he is not comfortable in the car but he is going to try and push, but no. Not this time.
Albert Costa is in the zone to make a move. Jota are lifting and coasting and Deletraz takes a good shot on the brakes. Yifei Ye had to open his hands not expecting Deletraz to inch inward. Oliver Jarvis leading LMP2 still. Miguel Molina in for service in the #50 Ferrari having set the fastest race lap and now, Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche 963 is beginning to turn it on as well. Toyota vs. Porsche vs. Ferrari. Peugeot and Cadillac are also in this fight. Estre fighting the wheel big time and he will be in the lane very soon.
We are approaching halfway and the first half has been thrilling. We have been green all the way. No safety cars yet. But, I have maybe just jinxed this. I hope not. Ferrari #50 has pitted and so has Peugeot #94. Ryo Hirakawa in the lane in the #8 Toyota, checking the drink bottle and the air scoops on the sidepods. Kevin Estre now in the lane in Porsche #6 as well. Ryo Hirakawa has been blaked by the LMP2 lead battle! Phil Hanson and Robin Frijns! Wow! That was so close! Porsche #6 in the pit lane. I think they are doing to the left side tires. The hybrid on the LMDh cars is driven by the rear wheels. That is how the Porsche and the Cadillac are set up. They are fully rear wheel drive.
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