The sun is setting at Le Mans, and we are nearing darkness. We'll have to give you an update on the rest of hour six if we can. Miguel Molina was a longtime pilot at Audi in DTM. Porsche #75 in the pit lane now. They are going for a driver change. At Action Express, we too are pitting and still down at the end of the table in Hypercar. We are continuing to push. Matthieu Jaminet takes over the #75 Porsche 963. The Porsche boys change the steering wheel on the #75. So much of the car's brain is controlled through the steering wheel on these modern race cars. We have AF Corse Ferrari 499P's running 1-2 ahead of Peugeot and one of the Cadillac's, and the rain has arrived as we go into the darkness. Slick tires in the rain are going to be a bear.
Nick Tandy is worried for teammate Matthieu Jamnet. Wippers on. Brendon Hartley was told the rain would come and it has. Wow! Off the road for one of the GTE Am cars! Yikes! It is raining a ton now. Look at this! It is tipping down with rain ladies and gentlemen. This is a bear as the Glickenhaus is now in the garage and the Penske Porsche team have to swap to wet tires. Action Express, we can see the Cadillac going through Mulsanne corner. The #48 IDEC Sport LMP2 of Paul Lafargue pitting. Jose Maria Lopez has passed by Brendon Hartley. #7 ahead of #8 and now, damage for Oliver Rasmussen in the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 car! One of the favorites in trouble. Ferrari #50 pits for wets. He is right behind the #98 Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
Both Peugeot's pit for rain tires and have the wet weather performance while the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac is in. Alex Lynn finishes his stint and now Richard Westbrook, I believe it is getting behind the wheel. Alessandro Pier Guidi leads in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Porsche #75 still in the lane and is now released. An LMP2 scrap and the #28, in replay, oy, oy, oy, we saw Oliver Rasmussen spinning and getting clipped by Oliver Jarvis in the #23 United Autosport car. Bear right for debris in the middle of the track at marshal post 14. Slow zone four declared. This is between two spots and now Alessandro Pier Guidi is bottled up behind the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 going to the pit lane.
This has been an eventful opening six hours of this motor race, let me tell you. Oh boy! That is the Porsche off the road and the other Ferrari and more! That is the #66 JMW Ferrari 488 GTE off the road. This is similar to the deluge we saw earlier today. Lopez almost goes off the road in Toyota #7! It is like being on a wet floor in your shoes. The #38 Hertz Jota Porsche back to the lane with right rear trouble but sent back into the fray. Everyone scrambling for rain tires. Aye yaye yaye yaye yaye. Wet tires too for the #777 D'station Aston Martinand both the #22 United Autosport and Prema #9 LMP2 cars off the road and the #923 Racing Team Turkey Oreca slams into the barrier at Indianapolis! The #66 JMW Motorsports Ferrari is still off the road, Thomas Neubauer, Louis Prette, and Italian Giacomo Petrobelli.
Some drivers are going way too fast for these conditions as Alexander Sims is now at the wheel of the #311 Action Express Cadillac. Chandler Hull too off the road in the #100 Walkenhorst Motorsports Ferrari 488 GTE. Nico Varrone lets his team at Corvette Racing knows about how the rain is falling like crazy. This is a dangerous game. Into the slow zone. We have two slow zones and not the full safety car conditions. The damaged #9 Prema Oreca is back in but they'll have to change the rear suspension. A tough deal for Bent Viscaal, Filip Ugran, and Juan Manuel Correa. Gravel all over the place.
Watch the white lines in the slow turns with the rain. Ferrari, Peugeot, Cadillac, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, Porsche, Porsche, Peugeot Glickenhaus, Glickenhaus, Porsche, Vanwall, Cadillac. We thought we would have a clear forecast but on race day the rain is what we have. This is through Karting and into the Ford chicane. Be careful so you don't lose traction. Renger van der Zande should be driving the #3 Cadillac for Chip Ganassi Racing who is on the tail end of the lead lap. Half the field are LMH with four wheel drive and the LMDh with rear wheel drive only. In this weather I think the full on Hyper Cars are going to have an advantage with four wheel drive compared to the LMDH cars in Hyper Car with just rear wheel drive.
Richard Westbrook being very cautious, feathering the throttle except in a straight line. You can barely see in these conditions where the marker lights are on the Mulsanne straight as you are flirting with aquaplaning. Renger van der Zande went straight off the road. He does not have good visibility. Memorize the circuit from the dry conditions as we are nearly six and a half hours into this event. Hopefully no further damage to the car. In the LMP2 class, FGabio Scherer leading this race in class. Richard Westbrook has done so well in the rain especially in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship and Westbrook spins out.
Even in the rain, the best drivers can make a mistake. He was coming up on Jimmie Johnson in the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup Series Camaro and he has not had much rain racing in his illustrious career. He too will have to be very careful. The Michelin wet tire is very soft and not good in deeper puddles. Everything feels faster and your focus at night is more intense. You don't blink. Use your knowledge of where the circuit is in the daytime. Hit your braking marks to keep your brake and tire temperatures up. Here at Le Mans or at Daytona for the Rolex 24 it is the same way. There are reflective braking markers but a good driver is looking into the corner and the headlights in the mirrors are reflective and are irritating.
The favorite time at Le Mans is happy hour at dawn. We will get there but in a good while. We have a long night ahead here at Le Mans. Hello again to Ben Constanduros. This is wild and the race has just not settled down. This has been chaos and has not had any kind of rhythm. Ollie Caldwall fourth in LMP2 in the #35 Oreca for Alpine. Caldwell sharing with Andre Negrao and Memo Rojas. Kamui Kobayashi now driving the #7 Toyota and Le Mans has not seen rain since May 11th. Kamui Kobayashi will drive a Toyota NASCAR Cup car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the road course.
We welcome Alex Brundle to the booth for the nighttime hours. We'll have Calvin Fish here for a half hour yet before welcoming another analyst to the booth. Nico Muller at Peugeot says that the track is half wet and half dry and it has been extremely tricky. Focus forward and keep going as best as possible. Be brave but don't wreck in this rain. You can hear the traction control on the exit of the Ford chicane. We have found a settled order but it is tenuous. Peugeot's strength in second place has been a real surprise. Going offline vs. online has been wild. Duval loses time to the Ferrari.
BMW, Alpine, Lamborghini, are all coming, and Honda/Acura may come next year but we don't know yet. The wet weather red lights on the back of the car, are vigorously flashing. The red rain lights are so bright in the dark conditions and the same is true with the headlights because everyone uses white headlights now. Not long ago different cars had different colors such as a yellow amber light. We have gone away from the yellow tinted lamps. The Cadillac teams at Ganassi and Action Express have been able to use extra lighting on the V Series R.
Olli Caldwell vs. Ben Barnicoat. Barnicoat teamed with Jack Hawksworth at Lexus in IMSA in GTD Pro. Tower Motorsports and Nielsen Racing out of the event. Daniil Kvyat at Prema Racing says he and his team are still in the game, after coming across a Hyper Car accident and got debris in the radiator. Kvyat sharing with Mirko Bortolotti who is driving the car and Doriane Pin. Cars on their wet tires are searching for cooler parts of the track. It is a soft compound, not great in deep water. It gets a bit gummy, a bit squirmy, if it gets too hot. Inter Europol leads the LMP2 division currently.
You have to go early on looking after the wet weather tire. So you have to baby this wet tire. If it overheats you have to immediately get it back to an operating window. You have to feel it and don't overdrive the tire. With the wet weather and the slow zones, double stinting tires will be easier. A spin, look, with Ollie Caldwell! Caldwell did not spin, but he was close, having let Ben Barnicoat through. There are 14 rookie drivers in the LMP2 class and Ollie Caldwell will be another year older racing on his birthday today. Matthieu Jaminet stopped in the forest esses in the #75 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963.
The LMDh cars use common parts for the drivetrain, the battery and so on. This is a clear issue for the #75 Porsche 963. Survival of the fittest. Action Express still the final Hypercar ten laps down. Normally aspirated V8 motor for the Cadillac, with the 5.5 liter V8 with hybrid delivery. Westbrook reeling in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P. Duval two seconds faster than the leader. Drivers really have to lean on the car. The track might be drying out on the front side. Sketchy wet is scarier than just a consistently damp, drying track. Prepare your traction zones and go for it as Matthieu Jaminet is only running on hybrid power without the engine running.
He is crawling through Tertre Rouge. Jaminet will need to be covered with local yellows. He is able to keep the lights on. The #9 Prema Oreca heads back to the track in the damp. Fabio Scherer in the #34 Inter Europol car is complaining about a broken foot and is in pain. Ryo Hirakawa is discussing something with his team. Scherer's foot was broken by a Corvette? In the pit lane? In the paddock? I wonder about that. Inter Europol leading in class. Ferrari going for slicks from the race lead. Everyone will need to pit soon. Hard compound Michelin tires for the Ferrari.
The wet tires were not chewed up to pieces or overheated. 13 lap stints it appears in terms of the tires. Times have not fallen down much on wet tires running in the 3:55-3:56 range. But what about slick, soft tires. The wet tire will be on a plateau with the changes in track conditions for lap times. Mikkel Jensen to the pit lane and getting slick tires. Loic Duval will be told what is indeed going on. Alexander Wurz at Toyota, he was just 22 years old when he won Le Mans as a driver in 1996. Toyota looking for the sixth victory at Le Mans in their career.
The race is throwing things at everyone at this mment as we have talked abiut earlier on. This is motor racing and how it works.
No comments:
Post a Comment