Penske vs. Jota at Porsche. Vanthoor vs. Da Costa, and they catch the GTE cars just before the Ford Chicane! Yikes! Don't put up your adrenaline. Don't go too deep on the brakes. Be careful out there. The #13 Tower Motorsports LMP2 car is out of the race. Heartbreaking for Ricky Taylor, Rene Rast, and Stephen Thomas. Cadillac lead two of the Porsche's. We are watching the strengths and weaknesses of the Hypercars with the fuel being an Achilles heel for the Cadillac, the Porsche sketchy on it's tires, and the Toyota's under control in a relative sense. Ferrari are mega quick on one lap pace but they have loaded up their tires and gone through degradation and the Peugeot's are just not quick enough yet. They do have the reliability. All this week the radar has said things about rain. We had wet conditions but it was just a drizzle. That's it.
The soft tire just wore away in the dry. Everyone is doing different things as we watch Mike Conway bounding over the curbs in the Ford Chicane. A battle at Porsche again between Vanthoor and Da Costa. Hello to Alex Jakes. So, we could see the Alex and Alex show here in the commentary box before too long. Great to have your company today. Quite the lockup from Antonio Felix Da Costa. Yikes. That was through Indianapolis, I think. We are catching up now with more slow zones. Hopefully we can keep under green. We are over two hours into this race just beginning the third hour. We have seen slow zones and more wrecks with Nielsen Racing and Tower Motorsports in LMP2. We also saw the #21 GTE Am Ferrari wreck of Ulysse de Pauw, the Belgian, sharing with Julien Piguet and Simon Mann. Earl Bamber leading Michael Christensen and Felipe Nasr and all of them need to pit. Robert Kubica leads Charles Milesi and Pietro Fittipaldi in LMP2.
In Am, Matteo Cairoli leads Ben Barker and Rahel Frey. The #708 Glickenhaus has begun moving up with Olivier Pla driving at the rear of the Hyper Car queue. Pit stop time for the #2 Cadillac of Earl Bamber for scheduled service. Earl Bamber has a retro white helmet. More battling between Milesi and Fittipaldi. The Brazilian chasing the Frenchman. Sebastien Buemi has four Le Mans wins to his credit and we have seen success too for Brendon Hartley at Toyota and Earl Bamber at Cadillac who used to race with Porsche and won with them eons ago in the LMP1 era. Antonio Felix Da Costa remains in front of Laurens Vanthoor, currently.
Bamber was out of the lane after full service at 1:15. Fuoco and Conway battling each other but Conway is slower than we have seen. Fuoco much quicker as the #5 Porsche 963 pits from the lead. We have a driver change to Dane Cameron, the American, and he will go out on a new set of boots as well. Cameron chosen by Penske Motorsports along with the factory talent. Cameron drove as a rookie last year in LMP2 for Penske before the LMDh program came online with Porsche. Sebastien Buemi says on the radio that he continues having braking woes.
He had regeneration issues earlier affecting how the car feels under braking. They do lead the motor race now that everything has come out in the wash. Mike Conway continuing to probe Antonio Fuoco. Braking systems are regenerating to the batteries. The Peugeot has four wheel drive basically with energy being put into both axles and all four wheels. The LMDh cars are rear wheel drive per the rules, per the IMSA rules mostly. Toyota are in a battle. They want to beat Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot, Cadillac. A GTE car has spun and made contact! That is the #16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 and we have seen two Porsche's. Ryan Hardwick with damage. Ditto for Claudio Schiavoni!
Schiavoni spins, and... boom! Hardwick had no place to go except slamming into the right front of the other Porsche at the forest esses! Antonio Felix Da Costa has passed Laurens Vanthoor. Facotry Penske car vs. Jota. Fuoco and Conway want a bite of the cherry into the kink and into Mulsanne! Wow! That's bonkers! They've taken the underground lines and now have converged at the same station. Narrow quarters in Indianapolis and Arnage. Slow zones two and three both active between the Dunlop esses and onto the Mulsanne straight.
Bear left at marshal posts six and seven. Over the top of the hill liner stern for a slow zone. Hurry up and wait. A race in slow motion through the forest esses. The crane is out ready to recover the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19. There are barrier repairs to make as well. Again, Lamborghini and BMW are coming to Hyper Car next year and Iron Lynx will be one team to race for Lamborghini in a Hyper Car. No LMP2 cars next year in FIA WEC except at Le Mans. Epic racing between Ferrari and Porsche! Shades of the early 1970s between the 512S Ferrari and the 917K Porsche! Hello to Tom Kristensen and also to Michael Christensen who has just finished his stint.
He said it has been cool to battle and we had a wet first lap of course. He says he has a good car and they are focusing on their own deal and we are seeing one of the Glickenhaus cars in the lane. Trouble in LMP2 land as the Ferrari is doing everything possible. Fuoco deciding discretion is the better part of valor. Maxime Martin is aboard this LMP2 with rear damage on the wing. More slow zones. Jota and Ferrari to the pit lane. Ferrari #51 in as well. #51 has to nose in. Slow Zone. The total number of kilowatts is what we see for energy consumption, not necessarily gallons or liters of fuel that is part petrol and part residue of alcohol from winemaking.
Down the Mulsanne there is a slow zone with debris and the stopped car for DKR Engineering. They have to take the full Slow Zone distance, at Slow Zone three of nine. Back to green as Toyota #8 passes the #24 Hendrick NASCAR Camaro. Race Control expecting rain in seven minutes or so in the Porsche Curves. A double yellow into the Porsche Curves. I wonder what is going on there. Jota passes the #94 Peugeot with Gustavo Mneezes as Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche has a slow puncture! Oh boy! That was a fuel stop with no new tires. They will have to hit the lane and change tires. Disaster for Laurens Vanthoor. Aye. Sacre bleu!
Mike Conway in Toyota #7 is battling with Laurens Vanthoor and it appears both are pitting. 11 laps for Conway on the latest fuel stint. Conway has driven the car since the race began. Mike Conway will have to do a double stint. Laurens Vanthoor exits the Porsche and Kevin Estre will now drive. Fuel only it appears. Yifei Ye now taking over the #38 Jota Porsche 963, the customer 963. Mike Conway pointed out he was at a point on the track with double yellows. Oh! Big crash for the #22 United Autosport LMP2! Oh my! A massive accident crashing into one of the Porsche's! That's Fred Lubin at United Autosport and he clobbered the Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 #77 of Dane Mikkel Pederson!
Don Yount at the controls of the sister #88 car. #77 is Mikkel Pedersen, Christian Ried, and Julien Andlauer while #88 is Don Yount sharing with Harry Tincknell and with Jonas Ried. The rain has indeed come now and changes the race's complexion because one part of the road can be wet and the others can be bone dry. Buemi is the first to pit. The slick area is under a slow zone currently. This is just going to be drizzle in one part of the track between Indianapolis and Mulsanne on the south end. Lubin got off in the dirt, hits the floor, loses traction and crunches the #77 Porsche. He is a Formula 3 open wheel driver mainly as well as in LMP2.
These conditions are a real bear because it is not completely wet or completely dry! Peugeot wants in on the battle between the Penske and Jota Porsche 963's. Carbon brakes refuse to work in the wet and we have hybrid regeneration as well. These Hyper Cars are stiffly sprung and very heavy. So they are a bear to drive and it is not easy at all. The rain is tipping down even more! This is maddening stuff as the other half of the track is dry! The GTE cars have intermediate tires but the Hyper Cars and the LMP2's don't. Peugeot are loving all of this! Pit stop time for the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac from the lead.
No more intermediate tires for the sake of sustainability and having tires that are not necessary. Tire warming was canned at Spa Francorchamps but in the cold, for safety, tire warmers are being used here at Le Mans. The #74 Ferrari 488 GTE skating off the road, the Kessel Racing car of Naoki Yokomizo in an all-Japanese lineup. Yokomizo, Kei Cozzolino, and Yorikatsu Tsujiko. Alex Lynn now driving the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac as we go to the safety car. We have the Glickenhaus #708, the #3 Cadillac, and the #86 Porsche spinning out! Wow! Now then, we have the #32 Inter Europol Oreca off as well, look. The #31 WRT Oreca hits the barrier
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 off the road as well! Egad! Alpine #35 off at Arnage. A tail change for the #31 at WRT driven by Ferdinand Habsburg. Glickenhaus having a conference about how to get the #709 car back into action. Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac on wet Michelin tires. Scott Dixon is now in the #3 Ganassi Racing Cadillac and we see the #85 Iron Dames Porsche in the lane too. Rivers of water. The Ferrari staying on the road. Peugeot now in the lane but I cannot tell if it is #93 or #94. It is #94. Cadillac #3 serviced and sent. Action Express now in the lane too in Cadillac #311. #3 for Ganaasi Racing running on slicks I think. The rain is getting worse on the south side of the circuit.
Felipe Nasr pits the #75 Porsche 963. Ditto for the #5 Porsche. We have been running for 25 minutes or so under the safety car. This mass of rain is moving across the track as the Toyota crew chief is telling Sebastien Buemi what is going on.
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