Chad Knaus from Hendrick Motorsports tells us that everyone is learning about the merge and the safety car procedures. They have maintained pace all day. The sun will be coming up soon. We could see rain and Knaus says that a large car like the NASCAR Cup car might not perform as well in the rain. In the dry they definitely have the advantage. The #80 AF Corse LMP2 car is now in the pit lane with a run near the front in class, now 11th in LMP2, 23rd overall with Norman Nato driving. Hertz Team Jota continue their work on the #38 Porsche 963. The car is still so new to them because it is only their second race with it. We welcome Martin Haven to the broadcast booth. Antonio Fuoco now in 11th in the #50 Ferrari. Buemi, Calado, Menezes the top three. Still Toyota, Ferrari, and Peugeot at the top of the tree with Alex Lynn next up in the #2 blue Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
Francesco Castellaci handing off the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE to Thomas Flohr of Switzerland. Gunnar Jeanette has the T Rex Porsche in second with Daniel Serra next up in a Ferrari in the #57 Kessel Racing car. Buemi is still adjusting the antiroll bar on the car. Toyota #8 and Ferrari #51, the gap is toing and froing everywhere. The #3 Cadillac of Scott Dixon goes through the gravel. A five second penalty for the #94 Peugeot for a pit stop infringement to be served on the next pit stop. Marshal post 11, a yellow. Peugeot #94 has stopped and wrecked I think. Gustavo Menezes has bounced off the barriers. He went in side on, running wide on the damp part of the track.
He went on the damp section after being told to stay off the damp patches and the wet surface with the paint. We have not heard yet about the #38 Porsche and the black box that is the crash detection system failed and the ACO said no, you can't race. #94 is busted up. He is a padiddle, with one headlight. We can drive it home, with one headlight according to The Wallflowers. Whoops! You've picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel, at the exit of karting going clear across the road. Who's wheel is it? The Peugeot has equal sized tires. Most of the Hyper Cars have smaller front and larger rear tires.
Peugeot preparing a new nose. The Peugeot can deploy their hybrid above 150 kilometers an hour while the rest can deploy hybrid at 190 kilometers an hour. There is a maximum total amount of energy measured by torque sensors on the driveshafts. When the electric power is come in, the power is cut away briefly or reduced from the combustion motor. Alex Lynn pinged for abusing track limits and the wheel we saw rolling away was from the #45 LMP2 car, the Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of George Kurtz, James Allen, and Colin Braun.
Stay on the gray stuff, sunshine. That is what it is there for. #50 has their recent pit stop under investigation and the #50 had to change a cooler for the energy recovery system. The Peugeot is still trundling 'round, sparking. These are super sophisticated cars, the Hyper Cars. Someone else had to stop for repairing a power steering cooler. Just as he gets to the pit lane speed limiter, pop goes the right front tire! Oh dear! Ir delaminated just through the pit lane entry. Only four cars now left on the lead lap. Has someone gone off at the Porsche Curves? Are tey rescuing the tire? He goes in, carrying speed, missing the apex, and crunching the wall. He got in a bit too hot and ran wide.
The first chicane on the Mulsanne straight has been calamity corner all day long. The wheel machined it's way through the tread of that Michelin tire but thank God it isn't the carcass of the tire that got damaged. The Buemi and Calado battle continues. Toyota GR010 vs. Ferrari 499P. Calado and Pier Guidi won three GTE Pro titles in four years. They just squeaked by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre. Amato Ferrari, not related closely to Enzo Ferrari, and team manager Batti Pregliasco. The #93 Peugeot sister car is stepping up with 12 and a half hours remaining.
We are closing in, in 38 minutes, on the halfway mark in this motor race. Olivier Pla and Franck Mailleux are still going with both of the Glickenhaus 007s. His plan was to design and build his own cars just like Carroll Shelby and Luigi Chinetti. Last year, one of his cars was on the overall podium at Le Mans. He wanted to have customer cars but that never happened. He is not supported by an OEM budget. They are producing a roadgoing version of the 007 hyper car as well. The windscreen tear offs are layered, a dozen of them with all the bugs and the black smears of rolled up rubber, rolled up tire clag.
Henri Pescarolo, the hero of Le Mans, he earned his first of four wins in 1972. He ran with Graham Hill and won in a Matra Simca MS670. He did the same thing in '73 and '74 and then in 1984 won with a Porsche 956 sharing with Klaus Ludwig and ran 33 Le Mans races in his career up until 1999. The leaders are going to pit. Calado will take fuel only and Buemi is taking tires and fuel both I think. There thyey are, look. AF Corse is a mélange, a mixture of Ferrari GT mechanics and Ferrari Formula 1 mechanics. 12 and a half hours to go.
Toyota in the lane for fuel and tires. Ferrari as well. No tires at Toyota. Toyota gets fresh tires but Ferrari leapfrogs the Toyota. How fresh are Calado's tires? The NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is now 36th overall as Cadillac take the lead in the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Cadillac #3 are down a lap and want one back. Kessel Racing have taken over the GTE Am lead from Project 1 with P.J. Hyett now driving. Vincent Vosse at WRT looking on. Alex Lynn continues to lead and is told to box and will have a driver change to Richard Westbrook. No tire change, eh? Hmmm. That's very strange as we hear these comments from Martin Haven and 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith.
Westbrook will go out on the same tires. Le Mans is not abrasive and not hard on tires. It is the tire structure I guess is what will be looked at. Nico Pino, the Chilean driver is a very good one. The #28 Jota LMP2 car is in with David Heinemier Hansson, the Danish driver, at the wheel. Five seconds added to the pit stop for Toyota #8 for a pit stop infringement. James Calado outbraking himself into the Dunlop chicane. Calado is hauling the mail even with Buemi on fresh boots. A great shot of the moon.
Buemi edging closer to Calado but not making massive inroads. Pit crew members will sleep anyplace. Mike Rockenfeller still running well in the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup car, the ZL1 Camaro. Miguel Molina into the #50 Ferrari 499P. It is a very cool race, and it was warmer today. Many years ago the GT cars were a ton hotter than they are now with the cockpit temperatures. Races in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Fort Worth, Texas, in the old American Le Mans Series, were extremely hot. At night, there is less long range vision for a driver and cars clump together. Iron Dames in the lane in GTE Am from the class lead. Rahel Frey has finished and I believe Sarah Bovy is next.
Cadillac #3 of Scott Dixon has a pit stop investigation at Ganassi Racing. No Porsche's got into Hyper Pole. Ugo de Wilde takes over the #43 DKR Engineering Oreca 07 in LMP2 and the all-Belgian lineup has had a fraught race, the second to last running car in the field. Jan Magnussen in the #32 Inter Europol Oreca still in the garage. At Garage 56 at Hendrick Motorsports, they are like any other athletes. They train and analyze technique and everything else. Ferrari continue to lead this race. Charlie Eastwood brings the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin to the lane and Esteban Guttierez does the same in the #709 Glickenhaus.
Le Mans, the circuit here, is made up of public roads. There is a crown in the road that holds water and you have to be so careful. You don't have to touch the curbs to find the water.
No comments:
Post a Comment