At Ferrari, if it does not get better, both will pit for rain tires. Everyone else has changed to wets and the 499P's are still on slicks. Contact with the wall for Lilou Wadoux in the #83 GTE AF Corse Ferrari sharing with Luis Perez Companc and with Alessio Rovera. I think the plan is to go with full wets and of course there are no intermediate tires any longer. It is a catch 22. With merging the safety cars you are only putting yourself at the front of the queue. Ferrari 499P #51 to the lane. Pardon me. Make that both #50 and #51. It is so great to see all these manufacturers in Hypercar and look at the rain! The Garage 56 Hendrick Motorsport Camaro has also just pitted. You have to love that NASCAR Cup car, the Generation 7 racing at Le Mans. Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 is now leading this race. They are ahead of Jota #38, the Porsche 963, and the #50 Ferrari.
Tom Kristensen drove the first car to win Le Mans, the 1923 Chenard & Walker Sport. Drivers wonder why they are behind and the engineer tells them to focus and to keep driving. Your job is to drive, not worry. We have isolated showers around Le Mans currently. When it rains, it rains, but as a racing driver you are covering a massive amount of distance in short time. Mike Conway says the conditions are wild with aquaplaning everywhere through the Porsche curves. Brendon Hartley asked to give feedback to the team about tires and he notes how wet it is through Porsche Curves and another segment of the course with most of the circuit being relatively dry. Race Director Edoardo Freitas will let the race go for the time being I think and keep it in the hands of the teams for tire decisions.
Watch out for dry patches on the wet tires. Gustavo Menezes tells his team that the first chicane on the Mulsanne is very dangerous with no visibility. You have to be on a wet tire. It is just that simple. We are also looking at the virtual energy tanks are. They have a total amount of kilowatts measured with energy for fuel or not. When you have run out of energy you must pit the car even if the fuel tank still has some. This is our second safety car of the race and we had no wave arounds the last time. The #709 Glickenhaus and the #3 Cadillac could be waved by but I don't know.
There are not many cars a lap down. The full process is under discretion of the Race Director, of Edoardo Freitas. The supplemental regulations always tell us something. Peugeot lead Le Mans and the French fans love it and they are a lap or two up. Look at the dry track transitioning to wet into the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight. Be very, very careful down there. Gustavo Menezes leads the motor race ahead of the Ferrari's and the #2 Cadillac. Hello again, to Lena Gade. The rain always adds to all dilemmas you can have with 20 and a half hours remaining.
A long, long way to go. Don't take unnecessary risks. Loic Duval syas the Peugeot 9X8 can run well in the wet and that was shown in Free Practice at Spa last time out. Loic Duval might not have the pure pace in the Peugeot. They are going to push for sure. In the wet, things can be an equalizer. The hybrid in the Peugeot is activated above 150 kilometers an hour. Jenson Button currently at the wheel of the NASCAR Cup Camaro for Garage 56 and Hendrick Motorsports currently. The Hypercars, the Ferrari, Toyota, and Peugeot, have the four wheel drive systems. The speed at which it deploys was changed for Le Mans just a bit. Remember, the LMDh cars like the Porsche and the Cadillac have rear wheel hybrid drive.
Button and company are 44th overall and the safety cars have been unfortunate for Button, for Jimmie Johnson, and for Mike Rockenfeller. This is a very well optimized race car. They were not looking forward to wet conditions though. Obviously, Jenson Button is running well but in the wet, this bad boy is a handful. The GTE Am racers said they'd have to move the Cup car to the front of the queue. That car is fast! They have a good chance of maybe winning the GTE class even though they are an unclassified entry. Davide Rigon handing the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE to Francesco Castellaci. The Jota #28 LMP2 car also pits. Sara Bovy leading GTE Am for Iron Dames in the #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey. Pietro Fittipaldi came in and pitted from the LMP2 lead and he retains it.
He is ahead of the LMP2 field but may have to drop back into the crocodile. They are gambling on a long safety car. Peugeot #93 and Porsche #5 are pitting for scheduled service and so is one of the LMP2 cars. Cannot see which one it is. Ah. It is the #65 Panis Racing car shared by Manuel Maldonado, Tijmen van der Helm, and Job van Uitert. Jean Eric Vergne at the end of the pit lane in the #93 Peugeot 9X8. It is so easy to lose concentration behind the safety car especially before going back to green flag racing. Peugeot, Jota Porsche, Ferrari, the top three.
There are still risky choices as far as tire strategy and it is a real challenge if and when we go back to green as the #32 Inter Europol LMP2 car is under investigation by the stewards from their pit stop. Not sure of the penalty specifically. They are down the order after spinning off the road in the damp. Jota Porsche, both Ferrari's, and the #2 Cadillac to the lane for service. There will be a driver change for the #50 I think and I don't know about the #51. Everyone swapping to slick tires and the Peugeot's stay out for now. We wonder if there will be more rain to come. We were looking at thunderstorms earlier in the week.
Weather forecasts try being accurate but then miss the mark and of course there is the reality of the world's climate changing constantly as it always does and at a rapid rate. Oh no! The #93 Peugeot is in the gravel trap! Fresh tires on the car and poor old Jean Eric Vergne has beached it! Maybe it was a bigger gamble to go onto slicks than we first thought. Can Jean Eric Vergne recover? Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari is behind safety car A and the Peugeot #94 leading has stayed out and is facilitating the wave by. So, Gustavo Menezes is at the top. Safety car at 80 clicks while we recover the Peugeot at marshal post 20 with the Manitou crane.
Jean Eric Vergne could lose an entire lap. On a damp surface, the Peugeot just spins into Mulsanne with the mold release still on the slick Michelin tires. He barely had any speed and just dabbed the throttle before spinning around. Mikkel Jensen looking on and we have two LMP2 cars stopped on the Mulsanne straight with a closed pit lane so poor old Jean Eric Vergne is going to be stranded as we are going through the merge sequence. Iron Dames continue leading GTE Am while in LMP2 it is, well, we'll have to see. We have had four retirements from the race so far in LMP2 and GTE Am. Action Express may be out of the race. Dear me I hope not.
The rain has struck the track and we are in another sprint race here at Le Mans. It has been going bananas as of late but there is a lot left to come just yet. Cars forming up behind the safety car currently. Peugeot needs to cool down their electronic power steering system for the time being. The mindset of the race changes all the time.
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