A good morning too, to Calvin Fish. The track is in daylight now and we are seeing the track and the drivers in happy hour right now. Ferrari #50 making a ptt stop with Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel of it. #50 have not had the same fortunes we have seen with the sister #51 car. Takeshi Kimura and Thomas Flohr are the two oldest drivers in the field at ages 62 and 63 respectively. Our pal David Hobbs has become a grandfather and is here with his children and grandchildren to watch the race. Ferrari #50 and their team wants to continue to get up the ladder. Good GTE Am scrap. Ricardo Pera vs. Davide Rigon as they run over debris comng through Indianapolis corner.
Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, the top three in class through Arnage. The gap is now 8.8 seconds between Ryo Hirakawa and Alessandro Pier Guidi. In GTE Am, Davide Rigon and Ricardo Pera are scrapping. Hirakawa managing the gap to Pier Guidi. Alessandro Pier Guidi needs momentum and he is losing it to the Vanwall in the Porsche Curves. Ryo Hirakawa has been pushing and Brendon Hartley did the same thing too. Sebastien Buemi is going for a fifth win to try and tie Derek Bell, Frank Biela, and Emmanuele Pirro I believe. In GTE, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado did extremely well and now they are showing what they can do in Hyper Car.
Porsche are third behnd the Toyota and the Ferrari as Glickenhaus have one of their cars in the pits right now. Oy! A big off course ecursion for the #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor! Toyota, Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche, the top four Hyper Cars. Traffic is the key. The Porsche Curves have been opened up a bit more than they used to be. The gap from first to second is 6.6 seconds. Sebastien Buemi has done 35%^of the workload, Brendon Hartley at 35%, and Ryo Hirakawa at 30%. Ferrari seems to have the speed over Toyota currently. One driver might be feeling it more than another. The teams are back timing the race and now Tristan Vautier in the #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 has blown a motor and it could be game over. Dense smoke billows from the exhaust.
The moment a driver walks more than ten meters away from the car, it is over and out and it is that for the Vanwall. Good night. Such a shame to see that. Vautier believed he would have a ride with the JDC-Miller team but they went in a different direction in IMSA and so Vautier went with Vanwall when Jacques Villeneuve was released from the team I believe. Now then, IDEC Sport in the pit lane in the #48. Vautier helping the marshals to get the Vanwall to a safe haven. But it is game over as we said and we have a slow zone there. Paul Loup Chatin at the wheel of the IDEC Sport Oreca.
Experience is key. The Action Express team became a guinea pig for the other Cadillac's. You hope that Action Express will return to Le Mans and I sure hope they do since I am friends with the team. Tom Blomqvist went out on slicks and locked up through the gravel trap had no brakes into the Porsche Curves and it was damp offline. He tried to stop and couldn't, hit the barrier, and he trundled the car back too the pit lane and the impact was huge and the medical light went on in the impact. He went to the medical center and is just fine.
The lead advantage is shrinking as Alessandro Pier Guidi is closing down on Ryo Hirakawa. Toyota vs. Ferrari. Renger van der Zande in the #3 Cadillac has the fastest third sector time. We have not had rain for the last few hours. Eyo Hirakawa does not have the same experience but he did win with the #8 team here at Le Mans last year. Four wins for Sebastien Buemi and three now for Brendon Hartley. One of the LMP2 cars takes a shortcut at the Daytona chicane. Ryo Hirakawa knows the Ferrari is bearing right down on him.
Hirakawa will stay in the car. Driver change confirmed at Ferrari and James Calado is suited, booted, and ready to go according to Ferrari engineer Justin Taylor. Will this be a pit lane race? Will it happen on track? It will be a battle of the teams in pit lane. Toyota Gazoo Racing vs. AF Corse Ferrari. 60 kilmeters an hour in the lane. Fuel, tires, and a driver change. This is the case for both teams. The race is on for the overall victory. The announcement of Ferrari coming back to prototype racing created a buzz around the wrold as a new nose goes on the Toyota and the #8 is down and away, looking for a change in downforce balance on the car.
Ferrari in front on pit lane exit. Calado joins British drivers like John Surtees, Mike Parkes, Brian Redman, and Derek Bell, who all drove for Ferrari in the glory days. The real key is that for Toyota, they are in the third year of their program while the Ferrari 499P is an unproven car over 24 hours at Le Mans. Ryo Hirakawa has a new right rear tire and a new front nose on the GR010 Hybrid. Happy Birthday today to Sir Jackie Stewart as the #56 Project 1 - AO Porsche spins the dinosaur livery race car. Ryo Hirakawa is informed he had a right rear tire changed only on the most recent pit stop.
Ryo Hirakawa has to react to James Calado. Cadillac and Porsche battle. Sebastien Bourdais in the #3 Ganassi Racing car vs. Kevin Estre. Ganassi Racing vs. Porsche Penske Motorsports. Alex Lynn has taken over the #2 Cadillac V Series R. Sebastien Bourdais wants to get a lap back. Kevin Estre all over the shop trying to make a pass on the Cadillac! He made it stick! Wow! That was bonkers commitment! Kevin Estre still thrashing that Porsche 963 through the esses and into the Porsche Curves! Holy cow! Fast hands there for Kevin Estre! Alex Lynn had to wonder what that whole deal was.
James Calado and Ryo Hirakawa are headed for Arnage while Sebastien Bourdais and Kevin Estre are approaching the Mulsanne straight. Earl Bamber has finished his stint in the #2 Cadillac V Series R. Earl Bamber jumped into one of the Cadillac's at the 2021 Petit Le Mans when Kevin Magnussen was not feeling well and he went extremely well that day. Stay with it and keep pushing. The safety car grouping for the wave by will allow someone to get back on the lead lap and that is why these guys are fighting so hard. Estre looks like he is cutting qualifying laps! Unbelievable! Sixth gear through Tertre Rouge. Sebastien Bourdais and Kevin Estre, two Frenchmen in their home race flying at 340 kilometers an hour before the chicanes and then punch it on the second half of the straightaway.
Ryo Hirakawa hit debirs and sustained damage to the nose necessitiating the nose change. Estre is going to try and attack Bourdais. Estre in full attack mode! He is threading the needle and is going to push. Bourdais is also a four-time IndyCar champion, not just a sports car expert. Eight hours and 16 minutes to go but you'd think it was the last lap. No dice in the entry to the Ford chicane. Kevin Estre wriggling all over the road. What a drive! This is for fourth place but Estre is driving like his career depends on it.
Calado now leads Hirakawa by 8.1 seconds. Kevin Estre taking all the risks he can and that he has to. A lot of tools to work with on the bybrid systems. In LMP2, as we see the #50 Ferrari being serviced with slight trouble on the left front tire. Fabio Scherer leads Robert Kubica, Rene Binder, and Paul Lafargue in LMP2 and Takeshi Kimura leads Michelle Gatting and Mattoe Cairoli in the Project 1 - AO tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur Porsche. Tje Cadillac seems equal to the Porsche. Sebastien Bourdais has a tow from the Glickenhaus in front.
Factory cars going for it but have dropped out or dropped back as Kevin Estre gets stymied by Andrew Haryanto in the #100 Walkenhorst Motorsports Ferrari 488 GTE. At Glickenhaus, Glickenhaus Racing has both cars in the top eight of 16 Hyper Cars that started this race. Borudais not fazed by Estre who might be losing a wee bit of steam at least temporarily. Urs Kuratle and Thomas Laudenbach at Porsche looking on.
Travis Law from Team Penske is there as well, crew chief and car chief for Josef Newgarden in IndyCar. Porsche and Penske have run four Porsche 963's. Two in the United States in IMSA and two here in Europe in the FIA WEC. You have to have the confidence in a team to act on your own behalf. Mike O'Gara at Cadillac Racing with Chip Ganassi Racing telling Sebastien Bourdais he is running well. Will Stevens in the #38 Jota Porsche 963 is down the order but is still running extremely fast. The Dunlop esses have a very good rhythm to them. A beautiful sector through Chapelle and into the esses.
Rahel Frey is set to take over the Iron Dames Porsche from Michelle Gatting. Le Mans uses public roads. The corners are named after different villages of course. Mulsanne, Arnage. Iron Dames are running extremely well and have continued showing promise in GT3 competition at the 24 Hours of Spa and in the European Le Mans Series. We'll see Iron Dames with Lamborghini in Hyper Car and in GT3 next year. James Calado now leads Ryo Hirakawa by 12 seconds.
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