Pit stop time as we head into the third hour. Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, and others. Antonio Giovinazzi will take over the #51 Ferrari 499P from James Calado and Calado seems to have a cramp. That can happen with the braking, the leg presses, brute force to get the stopping power. Trouble at Proton Compeition, down off the air jacks, and he cannot get the seatbelts to stay put. It does not have to be a driver, a driver assistant can help. The center clasp is not working. He had to loosen the belts and then tighten them up and they are still not working. He cannot leave the pit lane if he does not have his belts on. They're going to have to go to the garage. From second place, Loic Duval pits the #94 Peugeot 9X8.
What an utter disaster for the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963! My gosh! Peugeot doing a driver change as well as fuel and tires. This is #93. Loic Duval and Mikkel Jensen have done their stints and so it should be Paul di Resta next up. Toyota #8 has not made their second pit stop yet. They will be three laps shorter on fuel for their final stop. Tires, fuel, and they are down and away. Drivers will need a splash and a dash before the end of the race as the #8 Toyota is in the lane. They are saving fuel trying to get rid of the splash and dash process. Porsche Penske, leading, have now run 79 laps, 225 miles. Loic Duval has completed his stint and I believe it is now Gustavo Menezes in the car.
Scott Huffaker and Matteo Cressoni have come together in GTE Am. Harry Tincknell says that the seatbelt came out of it's mounting. That's an oddity, but the Proton team fixed it. Side to side contact between Ben Keating and Thomas Flohr. The earlier incident we saw was Matteo Cressoni tagging Scott Huffaker and both of them spinning. At Proton Competition, the seat belt buckle clasp fell off and maybe went down into the foot box or something. That was really strange. Good battle in LMP2 between Bent Viscaal, Gabriel Aubry, and Charles Milesi.
Ben Keating leads Ricardo Pera in GTE Am. Corvette #33 vs. Porsche #86. Maybe those two are running on fairy dust at this point. The righthand side of the Corvette, maybe has lost the leader light panel, the three lights for leading class or whatever. Ryan Smith at Corvette Racing says they have more in the tank by eight laps than everyone else. Ben Keating has to be in fuel save mode. Currently, Ben Keating is a minute and 14 seconds ahead of the second place GTE Am car. Keating is crushing it. He has 28 or so car dealers in Texas and the only way to pry him out of the car is if there is a customer on the phone! Tee hee!
Gabriel Aubry has the potential to maybe become a part of the Alpine Hypercar program for next year. We'll have to see. Charles Milesi is alerting the team to a fuel light but is told, "just hang on for one more lap. It's a short lap. Don't worry." Filipe Albuquerque summoned to the Race Director immediately and Ben Keating summoed at the end of the stint. #36 now in the pit lane. Filipe Albuquerque has not been in the car. Fred Lubin just finished a stint. Edoardo Freitas might tell them, "boys, keep a nominal gap at the start. You had too much of a gap between the classes." The Race Director does not want a third of the field strung out.
Tristan Vautier has taken over the #4 Vanwall from Esteban Guerreri. Peter Collins is overseeing the operations at Vanwall, the former manager in Formula 1 at Williams and Bennetton I believe. They are 50 horsepower down on the other Hypercars and they still have development room as the car has proven reliable in some places but not in others. They had incidents at Portimao and Spa and they need to change the driver ID on the car. Stoffel Vandoorne is now in the #94 Peugeot as Vector Sport are in the lane. Kevin Estre now leading Jose Maria Lopez. Lopez is eating away at the gap. Porsche vs. Toyota at the top of the shop.
We still have three hours and 40 minutes left on the board. The Hypercars are not nailed to the road. They move around a lot. The driver has to fight the car. The Hypercars are easier to drive in terms of downforce but the weight of the steering is a lot heavier and wrestling the car around compared to the LMP1 cars. They are more mentally fatiguing to drive being heavier, increasing from 900 kilograms to 1400 kilograms. A current Hypercar weighs as much as both of the old LMP900 and LMP675 open cockpit cars that ran 20+ years ago.
Satoshi Hoshino, warned about track limits, catching Daniel Mancinelli. Claudio Schiavoni cops a drive through penalty for spinning Scott Huffaker. 1,030 kilograms is the minimum weight for a Hypercar. Daniel Mancinelli has taken over from Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin. Mike Wainwright is now in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. Mike Wainwright went for 20 minutes extra on fuel I believe even after he changed over from Ricardo Pera. Corvette #33 will cop a 30 second penalty after a driver change and a door change. The leader lights are on the door. It is a second stop they will need to do.
Information to the pit lane, car #33 has a 30 second stop and go penalty for causign a collision with car #54 according to Race Director Edoardo Freitas as Ollie Caldwell is in the lane for a nose change for the #35 Alpine Oreca in LMP2. Corvette in the lane now, not clear if it is the routine stop or the penalty. I think Nico Varrone will be next into the car and have to cop the penalty as the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin for their third stop for tires and fuel. The gap has come down to 6.1 seconds with three and a half hours to go.
Jose Maria Lopez is coming through lapped traffic and in another half hour we'll be halfway through the motor race. Jose Maria Lopez is running well while Kevin Estre is getting stymied. Toyota ganging up on the single Porsche. Estre has trouble upshifting. That seven speed Xtrac gearbox is not working properly. Sebastien Buemi says Toyota are better on tire management. He was saving fuel in traffic, and they knew they needed a splash and a dash. Ryo Hirakawa, I think is in the car. But they did more than two hours in two stints. He was saving fuel at the start due to not having a Full Course Yellow or a safety car intervention.
Jose Maria Lopez is catching the Porsche which could be dealing with an electrical issue. Corvette have done their routine stop and their door replacement and stop and go penalty. They have dropped from the lead and way down to 11th place and a lap down. Mikkel Pedersen chasing Thomas Flohr for third in GTE Am. Bronze on Bronze. Michelle Gatting over Daniel Mancinelli and then, these two blokes going at it. The Peugeot whistles by, the LMP2 car goes by, and the GTE Am cars get dusted. Miguel Molina had a tough stint. It was a great start, but then they chose the wrong tires and struggled through their stints.
Nicklas Nielsen is back on the tires they wanted to have and have more pace in the #50 compared to their sister car, the Le Mans winning #51. Ferrari haven't been to Japan and have not been to Fuji until now. They worked on the simulator in Maranello, but the simulator sometimes is not enough. Scott Huffaker right on Thomas Flohr's six for fourth spot in GTE Am and now, Huffaker has the preferred line. Kessel Racing/CarGuy vs. AF Corse I believe. 3.5 seconds the gap between Kevin Estre and Jose Maria Lopez inthe Porsche vs. Toyota scrap, the scrap we thought we'd see at the Le Mans 24 Hours last summer.
The Porsche is still out of sequence with the Toyota. Huffaker passes Flohr. He is fourth in GTE Am chasing down Mikkel Pedersen in the #77 Dempsey Porotn Porsche 911 RSR-19 and a moment ago we saw Gianmaria Bruni stopped on track in the #99 Proton Compeititon Porsche 963 and now, some biff and barge between the #5 Penske Porsche 963 and the #777 D'station Aston Martin. Gunnar Jeannette has passed Satoshi Hoshino. The Proton Porsche 963 went off the road but then came back on and it was thought to be off the road, but right at the end of the sector.
Jose Maria Lopez now stymied between a couple of LMP2 cars but he is still closing on the #6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre. Estre will stop before the Toyota's do as in the pit lane is the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. Fuel and tires but they are going back into the garage. I wonder if there is still a problem with the belts. They are cleaning the windscreen. Gianmaria Bruni has vacated the car. We are seeing a probable electrical problem in Porsche #6 and that could also exist in the #99. Different teams, but the same car. Both Penske and Porton running Porsche 963's of course.
Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari passing Mike Wainwright for ninth in GTE Am aboard the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. Oliver Rasmussen being chased by Fabio Scherer. Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota is experiencing both understeer and oversteer through the final two turns on the course at 15 and 16. We have had a dry race and have not had any yellows since the very start of the race. Porsche 963 #99 back on the pit apron. Jose Maria Lopez gets loose having the downforce under braking taken away from him by the GTE Am car.
Proton Competition have replaced the seat belt in the car. Is it the actual belt bolted to the chassis? It is the bit attached to the chassis. Have you ever? No, I've never! So Proton Competition have indeed flown Plummet Airways into the LMP2 field. Drivers are pulling three and a half, 4G's which is four times your body weight. Unbelievable! The reason you are nailed to the seat is so you are not white knuckling the steering wheel, and if you have a loose belt, you will be disqualified. Honestly, without that seatbelt, and you wreck, you're dead. Extremely unsafe.
Michael Dinan in the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin, penalized for track limits. Michelle Gatting stays in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 on their scheduled pit stop. Kevin Estre runs a tad wide and he is pushing with energy running out. He is coming to the pit lane and is on his in lap and these two are coming up on the #93 Peugeot 9X8 which is in ninth place. It is the #94 Peugeot 9X8 in sixth place! The six place car is going a lap down!
\Porsche continue? No. He did come in along with Daniel Mancinelli in the #98 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. This will be tight with the Toyota #7 taking the lead. Track position is critical. Estre doing a double stint. I think they will do just left side tires. United Autosport has both cars in the lane and the same is true for the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963. Lopez has more space on track than Estre. However, this is the overcut. Cadillac #2 in the pit lane for service. Richard Westbrook doing a double stint and left side tires onlynon this car having battled with a couple of the Peugeot's.
One more lap for Toyota. #7 of Jose Maria Lopez leads over the sister car of Ryo Hirakawa by 12 seconds.
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