You do also have to keep in mind that the leader of the race currently, the #93 Peugeot 9X8, could suffer the same issues. The gear selection troubles have been an Achilles heel for Peugeot. They have had this issue at varying degrees for a whole year. There is instruction on how you should rejoin. He could not take the option to rejoin, stuck in gear. We are now looking at a battle for ninth place in Hypercar. Alex Lynn in the #2 blue Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series R has ninth place, and Le Mans 24 Hours race winner Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, the winning car from the great race last month, wants it.
In the second chicane there is a defined line you have to follow. If you go straight on you have to go through the bollards. If you had brake failure, hopefully you are not penalized. I think there is leeway to account for things like brake failure. Car #94 reported to the stewards for not respecting the Race Director's instructions. OK. Well, that will amount to absolutely nothing, truthfully. No further action. The reason the stewards take longer to look at off track excursions, well, hold that thought. We have the #94 Peugeot and the #5 Porsche in the lane now and it could be that Peugeot #94 is indeed being put on the dollies and rotated back into the garage.
No. Never mind. #93 Peugeot had a gearbox change before qualifying. What damage has been done to the race position for the second group of cars. The first group of cars that hit the lane for service early doors is now 30 seconds behind the race leader. So, they are very likely digging themselves out of a quagmire. Make that a delta of 20 seconds. Not as severe as I thought. Jota Porsche were the first to stop. It is actually more of an ice cream headache for those who did not stop yet. Peugeot #93, Ferrari #50, Toyota #7, and the #708 Glickenhaus will be back in the pack.
The #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche should lead the motor race as they are out of sync. Toyota #8 in the lane for the hold and then for the full service. They had to wait ten seconds. Fuel only should be the call for both the #93 Peugeot and the #50 Ferrari. They have to make it quick. The dollies are going under the #93 Peugeot. No. Don't push the panic button. The car is just being squared up in the box. But they will still lose the lead. The cars that stopped under the safety car have stopped and lost less time. Ferrari #51 with a big lockup going down into the Lesmos and has to take evasive action.
He is behind the #2 Cadillac and has to slither down the escape road. Mike Conway in Toyota #7 leads the motor race, 14 seconds to the good over the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 in the hands of Antonio Felix Da Costa. Da Costa is two seconds ahead of the #6 factory Penske Porsche 963 in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor. Conway is getting stymied by slower traffic on his in lap. That is going to make things a wee bit unnerving in the #7 Toyota camp.
0% energy in the tank, now that is real Formula E fuel economy on the part of Toyota. Yikes! An early pit stop, too for the sister Jota #28 LMP2 Oreca which did make a pit stop under the safety car period we just came out of. Meanwhile, Antonio Felix Da Costa in the sister Jota car, the Porsche Hypercar, he takes the lead of the motor race. David Heinemeier Hanson still in the LMP2 car and we will honestly have to check over what the minimum drive time for a Silver rated LMP2 driver is. An hour and five minutes I think. So, Toyota #7 in the lane and has had some smearing of the Michelin tire logo off the side. Goodyear, for the 125th anniversary is using their original logo on the tires.
The #93 Peugeot tries getting past the #7 Toyota. I don't think he made it stick. We'll have to look at a replay. Speaking of replays, a good battle is afoot in the GTE Am category. Corvette #33 passes Ferrari 488 GTE #21 into the second Lesmo chicane. Sara Bovy leads Christian Ried in GTE Am but the two of them have not pitted yet. Ahmad Al Harthy in the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin has made his pit stop and runs third in class. He runs ahead of Ben Keating in the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R Now, Keating has his hands full with the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 car.
Yikes! Keating gets chopped by another prototype! Blimey! That was a close shave! The #83 Ferrari in the lane. Will Stevens says Monza is a super busy track and the races can be chock full of safety cars and yellow flags. Expect the unexpected. Jota Sport went off strategy and might have to do a splash and a dash before the end of the race. Keep plugging away. That is the plan. Take a gamble if you don't have the pace to win outright, switch up the strategy. Once again, the camera shot if you are following the race at home, shows the orange ORT Aston Martin right up behind the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche. GTE Am is hot and heavy right now.
There is a feisty LMP2 battle into Parabolica. Mathias Beche tries passed Filip Ugran but the Romanian driver has none of it and slams the door in Beche's face. Sara Bovy has also pitted the Iron Dames Porsche. Iron Dames have done a full fuel load, eschewing the opportunity to top up under the safety car. Here's the Hypercar running order in the class.
1. #38 Da Costa/Stevens/Ye Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963
2. #6 Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
3. #2 Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook Cadillac Racing Cadillac V Series R
4. #51 Calado/Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P
5. #99 Bruni/Jani/Tincknell Proton Competition Porsche 963
6. #50 Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P
7. #5 Cameron/Christensen/Makowiecki Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
8. #94 Duval/Menezes/Muller Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8
9. #7 Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid
10. #93 di Resta/Jensen/Vergne Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8
11. #708 Dumas/Pla/Berthon Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH
12. #8 Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid
13. #4 Guerrieri/Vautier/de Oliveira Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680
Porsche lead over Cadillac, Ferrari, Porsche, and Ferrari. Interestingly, the WeatherTech livery for the Proton Porsche 963 was designed by the one and the only Andy Blackmore. Three medium and one hard tire on the Jota car while the factory Porsche behind on four hard compound Michelin's. The hard tires are wearing less than the softer compounds currently. Through the Parabolica with Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963. Antonio Felix Da Costa is ahead and so the battle is on, factory vs. customer Porsche.
There is also a battle for eighth place. Nico Muller in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 has it and Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, wants it. Behind them is the lapped sister Toyota #8 a lap down in 17th spot. #8 is striving to get back onto the lead lap and hoping to catch a safety car to catch back up to the Hypercar queue. The teams choosing to stay out under safety car conditions have already lost a minute in this race so far as we see the #36 Alpine LMP2 car, their LMP2 Oreca, in the lane. This is the second of their two cars with the all-French trio of drivers, Julien Canal, Charles Milesi, and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Peugeot #93 of Mikkel Jensen is tenth. Nico Muller in the sister #94 entry is eighth and whatever the gearbox issues were that he was having, have not cost him as much time as first thought. The top five in the Hypercar class who have not stopped yet, are running low on energy and fuel right now. They need to hit the lane soon while the second half of the field has higher energy percentages as they were just in. That will come into play when this race ends. This is a combination of the sustainable fuel for the internal combustion engine, plus the hybrid power, the boost power that comes from the batteries and electric motors.
Good battle for the Hypercar lead between Jota Porsche, factory Penske Porsche, factory Ferrari, and factory Ganassi Racing Cadillac. There is another Ferrari back there. Antonio Felix Da Costa. Laurens Vanthoor, Alex Lynn, and Antonio Giovinazzi. The hybrid here is not a power boost. It is an alternative electric hybrid drive. There is a mysterious method to the madness for how these hybrid units work. Witchcraft, alchemy, and frogs, probably. It is a combination of electric hybrid drive and the internal combustion engine. The trouble for Jota and their specific Porsche 963 is, they are lacking in straight line speed and that is a bugaboo on a track like Monza.
Jota do have track position on their side. Traffic is where the lap time helps but it comes in the corners instead of in a straight line and the Hypercars, some will eat others alive as far as the speed. Nico Muller is still having downshifting issues. That was into the Variante della Roggia, and the #7 Toyota is flying. The slipstream, the draft, is critical here at Monza and it always has been even in the days of the old banking. Right now Mikkel Jensen is in double jeopardy because he is having downshifting issues. Because of that, he is two, maybe three gears higher than he is supposed to be which means he is losing speed to the other Hypercars around him and they can whistle by while he is struggling, rolling a boulder up a hill.
He has too much speed rather than not enough, stuck up in fifth or sixth gear instead of being down the box in first or second gear. The extra engine compression is part of the deceleration of the car, engine braking. When you are stuck in high gear it is like dipping the clutch and you lose your deceleration capability in spades. The lead quartet are all getting stymied because the two tone green Vanwall (one of the two non hybrid Hypercars, along with the Glickenhaus) is the cork in the bottle, and there, look, he is about to chop the nose off the Ferrari! Antonio Giovinazzi is told by Ferrari team engineer Justin Taylor, "the guys ahead are all on our strategy. So, this is for the win, mate. Push, push, push."
No further action for Peugeot and Nico Muller. It takes longer for stewards decisions because they have extra onboard camera footage, and the telemetry data from the cars as well. The data is what is being studied to be truthful. Steering input, speed, acceleration vs. deceleration, and more. When you make a decision, be thorough and be right. In LMP2, Oliver Rasmussen at the wheel of the #28 Jota Oreca is reeling in the similar car, the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Le Mans winner Fabio Scherer, who was part of that winning team, with a broken foot of all things. That's absolutely incredible. I think at some point on Sunday before the race ended, the car was dropped on his foot off the air jacks when the team was making a pit stop! Ugh!
His foot must be completely healed. Rasmussen is going too far into the second Lesmo. Clearly all four wheels off the track. The Ferrari in the meantime, is losing ground in the traffic and having trouble staying with the Porsche's and the Cadillac. It loses ground through the traffic, through the LMP2 traffic. Traffic giveth, traffic taketh away. Laurens Vanthoor gets stymied in traffic and Antonio Felix Da Costa bulls away. The Hypercar battle is splitting the LMP2's. There is a gap opening between two cars with similar speeds. Antonio Felix Da Costa is pulling a gap on the Penske Porsche 963. Alex Lynn is starting another lap but losing energy.
Proton Competition making their first pit stop with the #99 WeatherTech liveried Porsche 963, being cautious. Gianmaria Bruni is in the car and will do a double stint, pitting from fifth overall and fifth in the Hypercar class. They have not run this car until Free Practice here. Proton Competition and their team are joined by Multimatic, the company that built the chassis for the Porsche 963. The LMDh spec cars, so, the Porsche and the Cadillac, their chassis' of course, are built by outside companies in several ways. Multimatic built the chassis for the Porsche and Dallara built the chassis for the Cadillac. They have been handed the keys, Proton Competition. That is customer racing for you.
The #2 Cadillac makes it's way to the pit lane as they were running very low on energy and will now fuel up and so forth. Jota in LMP2, Rasmussen is reeling Scherer back in. At Cadillac Racing, there is a driver change, and Richard Westbrook is into the car. Le Mans was an amazing race last month with many, many cars. This is another golden era of sports car racing we are in. Miguel Molina has eked out seven seconds ahead of the #5 Penske Porsche 963. Miguel Molina is having a great race. So, we have at least three more Hypercar pit stops coming up. Jota Porsche 963 #38, Penske Porsche 963 #6, and AF Corse Ferrari 499P #51, the Le Mans race winning car of course.
The #51 is absolutely at 0% energy. There will be a driver change. Cadillac #2 made a second pit stop and has flown Plummet Airways down the order as most of the Hypercars will as they need fuel (energy replenishment) and service. The Cadillac team did not have the pit stop they wanted as the car stalled and then refired. Do we know it was a full service pit stop? Yes. I think so. Again, Richard Westbrook is now driving the #2 Cadillac as Miguel Molina assumes the race lead in the #50 Ferrari, keeping the Tifosi very happy indeed. Michael Christensen is second in the #5 Porsche 963 and in third the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in the hands of Mike Conway.
Half the field cycles up, and the other half cycles down. But those who stopped under the safety car cost them less time and those whol will have to stop later, are going to be playing catch up. Jota has now pitted and they are only 17 seconds behind. Ben Keating pits the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and will do the next half of a double stint. No driver change for that car just yet. Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone will be next into the car as the race goes on. Ahmad Al Harthy leads GTE Am in the #25 Oman Racing Team by TF Sport Aston Martin with Thomas Flohr in second spot at the wheel of the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. Flohr, the Swiss WEC veteran, sharing with Italian veteran endurance drivers Francesco Castellaci and Davide Rigon.
Flohr started the race, doing a double stint. An hour and 45 minutes for a Bronze driver in GTE Am and an hour for a Bronze LMP2 driver. All the Bronze rated drivers have started this race and are racing with their peers. Drivers like Thomas Flohr, Sarah Bovy, Mike Wainwright, Ben Keating, Efrin Castro, Lilou Wadoux, and Christian Ried for instance. The #33 Corvette have hard left side tires and medium compound right side tires. The left side takes the most punishment around Monza. A great scrap between Alpine and Prema! Charles Milesi is being harried by Andrea Caldarelli big style and Caldarelli wanted to try an outside pass, but Milesi says, "not now, sunshine."
Robert Kubica, the Polish veteran, who earned pole in LMP2, is next in line in the #41 WRT Oreca followed immediately by the #10 Vector Sport Oreca in the hands of Gabriel Aubry. Some of the LMP2 cars have their Gold or Platinum rated drivers vs. the Silver and Bronze rated drivers we saw earlier. Four and a half hours to go. We thought Roger Penske was going to be at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the IMSA race but he came to Italy for World Endurance instead. Penske Porsche have a pair of 963's in both championships, in Hypercar in World Endurance and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.
We have been racing for an hour and a half already. Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari leads overall and in Hypercar. It is a 1-2 for United Autosports in LMP2, and in GTE Am, the leading car is the #25 Aston Martin for ORT by TF Sport, Oman Racing Team. Ahmad Al Harthy currently driving. Half the GTE Am field and half the Hypercar field stopped under the safety car and so did the entire LMP2 field. Depending on when and if we have safety cars and Full Course Yellows, some Hypercars and GTE Am cars could be hung out to dry pn the fuel strategy. We have just seen the #94 Peugeot going off the road and gaining an advantage on track limits.
The trouble is that downshifting issue we were talking about earlier. Either fix the car, or start accruing penalties. A battle for second is afoot between Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche 963 and Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. There are a slew of red and white cars in the field and it is sometimes difficult to tell them apart until you see the nose design of each car, truthfully. Mikkel Jensen seems to be losing braking ability and regeneration of the hybrid under braking aboard the #93 Peugeot. Rear braking troubles, locking the rear brakes. Brake migration could be the overall extent of the issue.
We look again, as there is a kiss between Andrea Caldarelli and Andre Negrao, with Caldarelli succeeding. At any rate, the Hertz Team Jota Porsche came out of the pits, 17 seconds behind. Miguel Molina leads the motor race here at Monza by 20 seconds over Antonio Felix Da Costa in the #38 Jota Porsche. Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, Peugeot, Glickenhaus, Cadillac. We'll have more cars next year in Hypercar from Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini, and Lamborghini. The new Lamborghini will be debuted this coming week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. Miguel Molina leads the motor race with 49 laps, 176 miles, in the books. So, we have almost covered a full Italian Grand Prix Formula 1 distance thus far.
Meanwhile, Mike Conway is pressing Michael Christensen. Toyota vs. Porsche for second place in the overall and in Hypercar. We have split strategies between the top teams in Hypercar. Ferrari split theirs, Toyota had a couple forced stops. Nico Muller in Peugeot #94 has had one stop only and they are having rear end trouble with either the transmission or the brake balance and the #94 is losing track position to the lapped #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi. Perhaps Nico Muller is still having issues with downshifting.
Mike Conway is still harrying Michael Christensen as Thomas Flohr has completed his first stint of an hour and a half minimum drive time and pits the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. We've crossed over an hour and half. Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota, the top three. Ferrari have returned to factory sports car racing for the first time in 50 years and have been extremely successful judging from their triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month which is their tenth overall Le Mans win and their first since 1965. Peugeot #94 did run out of brakes in the first Lesmo chicane.
The Peugeot has led the race on merit but due to reliability woes, they are losing time hand over fist. Francesco Castellaci, on cold tires, has taken over the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE from Thomas Flohr and the third driver who will run the final stint for them is Davide Rigon of course. Thomas Flohr tells us that it was very hard work on his stint. He has been doing a lot of training and can handle the heat, but he has done very well with his stint. He is used to racing in the heat after being a rally driver in his previous career. He still has another stint he needs to do, and has to make up 12 minutes of drive time apparently.
So, Flohr could jump in right at the end of the event for a splash and dash. He could also catch up on drive time if we have another safety car intervention. That could help. Get him in the car, run about a dozen or so laps behind the safety car, or half a dozen, and then he'll have his drive time in the book to qualify for points. 1 hour and 45 minutes is the minimum GTE Am drive time. Francesco Castellaci is driving the #54 right now as we said. Sara Bovy goes back to the GTE Am lead in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche. The cards have been flung in the air for a game of 52 pickup with all this chopping and changing.
Michael Christensen is doing a triple stint and he is aware of that. I wonder if the Porsche boys will triple stint tires as well. It could end up winning them the race, or conversely, it could bite them as well. We saw a third fumble for the #94 Peugeot and so, the #8 Toyota is in fight back mode and has to catch their sister car #7, the #5 Porsche, and the #50 Ferrari to get back on the lead lap. Michael Christensen has double stinted these brand new tires. So, will he get four tires or just two left side tires? That is the big question on the strategy at the Porsche camp.
Great battles in LMP2 as Oliver Rasmussen screams past Fabio Scherer for position. These two have been scrapping now for a wee while. What I don't understand is a point Martin Haven rightly brings up. That is, how on earth could he have caught Scherer napping because he has been pushing Scherer bumper cars style, with a little bit of argy bargy for the last 20 minutes. That's puzzling and well, the plot thickens. 52 laps now completed by the LMP2 leading United Autosport #23 car with the sister #22 16 and a half seconds in-arrears. Fred Lubin is in the second United Autosport car and once again, Nico Muller will have to be cautious on the brakes. He does not want another severe lockup.
Scherer was held up by the Iron Dames Porsche out of Ascari down to the Parabolica and that is how Rasmussen got the run. Rasmussen catching Freddie Lubin hand over fist. What on earth did Rasmussen have for breakfast this morning? A super power protein shake? Maybe he powered up with a couple of bananas this morning. Rasmussen goes across Lubin's nose and gets off in the fuzz! He hits the gravel trap with two wheels, but saves it! Scherer is pulling the pin as well and is going to make a move on Lubin on the outside. Freddie Lubin is getting mugged at least twice here by his competition. Meanwhile, Scherer is defending from Lubin and not trying to attack Ollie Rasmussen, but let's see how this ends up.
Will this end in tears? Poor old Freddie Lubin has lost two spots and now, back on the outside through Parabolica, Oliver Rasmussen is using up Fabio Scherer, beating him like a rented mule here. Now, I'm sitting here, telling the story, behind my computer, cackling like crazy because the two of them, after their titanic battle just decide to hit the pit lane. Oh boy, oh boy. I'll never understand the logic of racing drivers. That was some mega motor racing! Absolutely mega motor racing! Clean the windscreen, and there is a driver change. Three minutes until the pit window opens officially in GTE Am.
Imagine if you will, Freddie Lubin bluing on the radio about the two blokes up in front of him having a row. All of that to go into the pit lane! He is probably screaming, before muttering a string of expletives under his breath. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Grrr. He was into the braking area before completing his discombobulated rant venting to the team about being held up like crazy. This is epic racing from equal machinery in LMP2 of course and the pit crew after listening to their driver carrying on for a wee while will be like, "head down, mate. Eyes forward. Focus." All LMP2 cars have the same Oreca 07 chassis, Gibson V8 motors, and Goodyear tires.
In replay, we see Rasmussen turn into the corner, go offline with some opposite lock to boot, and then indulge in a touch of rallycross before getting back onto the circuit. Ferdinand Habsburg has moved to third place and is right on top of Freddie Lubin. Josh Pierson though is steaming away 20 seconds ahead of everyone else in LMP2 while Ferdinand Habsburg is at the wheel of the #31 WRT Oreca, the Austrian royalty descendant shares with Robin Frijns from Holland and Sean Gelael from Indonesia. Coming to the pit lane is one of the two Prema Racing LMP2 cars. Behind Lubin in the #22 United Autosport Oreca is the final Hypercar in the serial.
That is the #4 Vanwall of Esteban Guerrieri, the Argentine driver. He is two laps down to the leaders, as we watch the battle continue for second on the bard ties they have been on since the race began. It is the Michael and Michael show, Michael Christensen vs. Mike Conway. Christensen slides past the Iron Dames #85 GTE Am Porsche 911 RSR-19 into the Prima Variante and Conway has to do the switcheroo and go to the outside. Poor old Conway loses out through traffic but by the same token, he and Christensen both are reeling in the leading #50 Ferrari 499P, Miguel Molina at the wheel of it.
The trouble for Michael Christensen though is that the energy tank, the fuel tank in the #5 Porsche 963 is running on empty. So, he will have to hit the pit lane for a top up, a replenishment, ASAP. I think the Ferrari and the Toyota may be in that same boat. Ditto for Peugeot #94. Some teams are guzzling fuel while others are wisely lifting and coasting to save it. Maybe they are saving so they don't have to do the splash and dash at the end. Sebastien Buemi is closing up on the leaders as Buemi is looking still to get back on the lead lap. Four hours and 14 minutes left on the board.
Porsche are indeed pitting and now Mike Conway can go on a tear and try to catch up as we see the #22 United Autosport Oreca in LMP2 in the lane for service and a driver change. That is either Phil Hanson or Ben Hanley. Andre Negrao in for Alpine and Andrea Caldarelli for Prema as well. Mike Conway, chipping away relentlessly at Michael Christensen who has to pit in the next lap or two. The Porsche's built to LMDh spec have rear drive hybrid while the Hypercar spec Toyota along with the Ferrari and the Peugeot have front drive hybrid. The same is true for rear drive hybrid on the Cadillac. Conway showing his nose in the Ascari chicane.
I am close to you, and you are under pressure. He is slowing the Porsche up. Mikkel Jensen is in the #93 Peugeot. Kevin Estre making a pass on Mikkel Jensen and Michale Christensen pits. Claudio Schiavoni in the yellow Iron Lynx Porsche #60 the team car to the Iron Dames. The margins are razor thin as Alessandro Pier Guidi whistles by Mikkel Jensen who was the race leader out of Variante della Roggia. Goodness gracious! Where on earth has the speed gone from the Peugeot #93? He was motoring earlier on and now the car is trundling around looking like all it's earlier speed is totally sapped.
Oliver Jarvis takes over the #23 United Autosports Oreca from Josh Pierson with Giedo van der Garde the third driver. Normally we'd see Tom Blomqvist in this car, but of course, he raced and won in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship event at Mosport Park in Canada with Meyer Shank Racing which also was held last Sunday, the same day as this race at Monza. Paul di Resta did mention technical issues at Peugeot. New tires go onto the United LMP2 car. Mikkel Jensen's tires are starting to fall off a cliff. The lead Hypercar battle is now between Ferrari, Toyota, and Peugeot.
Mike Conway is taking the fight to Miguel Molina for the lead of this motor race here at Monza. Ferrari vs. Toyota just like Le Mans last time out. The Tifosi will be going nuts that their favorite car is in the lead but will despair if Conway goes by. They surely don't want to see an interloper messing with their home darlings at Maranello especially after the Le Mans victory. Molina struggling on worn tires, but let me tell you, he has had just about enough of Conway's antics, moves over, and squeeze Conway right off the road! That was on the run down to the Ascari chicane. Molina all over the shop through the Ascari chicane.
These two teams, Ferrari and Toyota, do not like each other. Conway has been lifting and coasting properly, saving energy, while following in the wheel tracks of Porsche and Ferrari, but now, maybe the gloves are off and this is going to turn into a street fight. Conway will have a lap or so more fuel in the tank. Conway weaving inside and outside and Molina does not seem phased by all of this. Buemi is close by the two of them and is gaining ground. If Conway gets by Molina and Buemi does likewise, will Toyota get on the radio to Mike Conway and ask him to move over and give Sebastien Buemi his lap back? The logical answer is yes.
Molina to the pit lane for fuel/energy and a service, and Conway has extra energy in the tank going a lap longer than everyone else. Buemi into the lane in the #8 Toyota for fuel as well, so, the whole position swap plan we were thinking of is now a moot point. Driver changes at the #50 Ferrari and the #8 Toyota. Nicklas Nielsen will take over the #50 Ferrari. Fuel has to go in the tank before the tires are changed as the car is on the air jacks. Nielsen tightening the belts all the way down. These cars are not comfortable to drive.
Nielsen's out lap will be slow as molasses because he is on brand new, stone cold Michelin tires and the same is actually true for Conway's in lap as he is scything through traffic toward the Parabolica. Which of these cars will turn on the tires the quickest? Toyota #8 vs. Ferrari #50. Which Michelin tire compound will Toyota use? Porsche #6 comes through as Jose Maria Lopez takes over the #7. Kevin Estre passes the #51 Ferrari and the #38 Porsche. Ryo Hirakawa now in the #8 Toyota. Team manager for the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963 called to Race Control immediately.
No, it is not for espresso, gelato, cannoli, and biscotti. Save that sweet stuff for after the race. No dessert for you. This is much more serious, a reminder of a penalty or a reminder of something to do with race procedure. It has to be a pit lane infringement. The #38 Porsche 963 has all the flashers going, the turn signals. Maybe the power recycling is not working. The headlight indicators are flashing. Antonio Felix Da Costa is probably unaware he has hit the switch for the four way hazard lights. It's possible Race Control might discuss this hazard flasher issue with them.
The lights are linked to the speed limiter of which there are two. There's the pit lane limiter and the limiter for the slow zones and Full Course Yellows that takes the car to 80 kilometers an hour. I think both limiters are set at different speeds within the car's computer, the engine's brain so to speak. How on earth are those systems triggering with the car at full racing speed? I haven't the faintest idea. These Hypercars are so electronically complex that weird and wonderful things. Just like your phone or your laptop computer.
Claudio Schiavoni in the #60 yellow Iron Lynx Porsche is getting devoured by a phalanx of LMP2 cars. That is the Iron Lynx Porsche he shares with Matteo Cressoni, his fellow Italian, and Belgian Italian Alessio Picariello. The battle for second in LMP2 rages on as well between United Autosport, Prema, and Inter Europol Competition. Oliver Jarvis, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Fabio Scherer, with Andre Negrao not too far behind in the first of the Alpine team cars, the #36. Warning flag to car #50 of Nicklas Nielsen for forcing car #7 off track, which was that dust up we saw earlier between he and Mike Conway, or between Miguel Molina and Mike Conway.
We have had six different teams lead this race so far and now, Peugeot #94 is in big, big trouble. Gustavo Menezes is crawling down the road and this could be the manifestation of those earlier gearbox issues we were speaking of. What happened there at the first chicane? Peugeot management looking po faced down in the garage. Peugeot have done driver changes for both of the 9X8's. Jean Eric Vergne at the wheel of #93 and Gustavo Menezes in the #94. Menezes on the radio says the issue is getting worse as the Peugeot is now stuck in sixth gear. The car went into an anti-stall mode and won't get in gear, forcing the driver again, to dip the clutch.
This is computers and electronics playing up with the GCU, the Gearbox Control Unit. These cars do not use mechanical shift linkage, cables, like production cars do. The gearboxes and even the braking and so on in these cars is all controlled by electronics very much like how it used to be in a bygone era of Formula 1 with active suspension which I think was in the early 1990s. Miguel Molina says his stint was tough struggling on worn front tires at the end of the stint and the heat. This has been a very competitive race for the Ferrari team.
They are enjoying their home race at Monza looking to give the fans a good result.
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