Jose Maria Lopez will box this lap. He stayed out longer on a hot tire. Track limits penalty for the #21 Ferrari and the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin in jeopardy of copping yet another penalty as well. Lopez in the lane for fuel but will there be tires? Porsche #6 through turn ten. This is going to be close. #7 going for track position while #8 playing the fuel mileage game. Medium compound tires and Jose Maria Lopez is still second. He cannot get past the Porsche and is still finding the sweet spot with the new medium compound Michelin tires. The day at Fuji is heating up. One of the Ferrari's is in and so is the #94 Peugeot. Toyota #8 in the lead, Toyota on medium compound tires and Ferrari going onto the hard compound Michelin's.
116 laps now completed by the Toyota. 329 miles. Ferrari #51 now in pit lane staying on the hard compound tires, I think. They might be able to live on the hard tires for the time being it appears. Ferrari cannot live on the medium tires. Ryo Hirakawa locks the brakes big style. This is two laps in after Porsche, stopping early on petrol. That is puzzling. That will cycle Kevin Estre back to the lead as the #23 United Autosport car has contact and spins off the road from the #4 Vanwall of Joao Paulo de Oliveira, the Brazilian racer who has raced here at Fuji for 20 years.
Jose Maria Lopez now making inroads once more on Kevin Estre. The Argentinian vs. the Frenchman. de Oliveira tags Ben Hanley in the #23 United Autosport Oreca and that will not make the pain of the race go away, Joao Paulo. Sorry there, my friend. You can make that move in a GT car but not in a prototype. Kevin Estre under pressure from Jose Maria Lopez. In LMP2, Oliver Rasmussen is the leader at Jota Sport and the Iron Dames Porsche leads by eight seconds over the Corvette in GTE Am with Nico Varrone at the controls.
Jose Maria Lopez is catching Kevin Estre hand over fist. Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor, watching their teammate. Lopez in the slipstream but not quite close enough. With the lead battle steaming along, Ryo Hirakawa in Toyota #8 is moving in on the sister #7 and if this battle continues, which it will, Hirakawa will be knocking on the door. Ben Hanley will be overtaken by the Hypercars but Estre has Hanley as a pick to balk Lopez. Poor old Ben Hanley will give no chance to have his nose chopped off again.
Lopez is stymied behind the LMP2 cars. The gap to Ryo Hirakawa is halved to 6.6 seconds in four laps. Estre is balked by the GTE Am and the LMP2 and does so but now Lopez will have to deal with the Iron Dames Porsche and does so, but Iron Dames too will have a challenge in GTE Am coming soon. There is ebb and flow on the pit sequence. The next car in front is the #50 Ferrari 499P which will be about to be lapped and the same is true with the #51. This is the first track where Ferrari have not had a chance to test here at Fuji.
Estre was agitated seeing the Toyota in his mirrors but now he is getting used to running with the Toyota. Both of these chaps need to make their tires last. Do not overdrive the car. Lopez jinks to the inside and is very close to Estre but Kevin Estte slams the door in his face. Ryo Hirakawa is coming in a hurry with no lapped traffic to worry about. Porsche will have to hang onto their hollyhocks here. Every attack or defense move you've ever done at the wheel of any kind of car, comes into play, now. This is fun for the drivers and funs for fans and commentators alike, to watch.
Lopez off the road past the slower LMP2 car as Michael Dinan is under investigation for track limits and he will cop a stop and hold from the stewards in the #25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin in GTE Am. Just a wee bit over two and a half hours to go. Estre has cleared the traffic well and Lopez still is having issues. Lopez says the Porsche is too quick on the straight. Michael Dinan has to keep it on the gray stuff, between the hedges. Richard Westbrook in the meantime in the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac being harried by Paul di Resta in the #93 Peugeot 9X8.
Di Resta gaining on Westbrook. Westbrook runs wide and is off, and Di Resta makes his move. Track limits violation for Simon Mann in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE. 131 laps completed. 371 miles down. Two and a half hours of racing still to go. Car #7 is now being reeled in by the sister #8 with the same speed but saving more fuel. Toyota #8 are quicker than both their sister car and the #6 Porsche. Drive through penalty for the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac for abusing track limits. Jose Maria Lopez is going to begin looking at his rear tires or at saving them. Two tire changes are not helping in the Cadillac camp.
Lopez was right on Estre's six, but they got split by an LMP2 back marker! Lopez is going to be more desperate and wants to get to the front. Ryo Hirakawa enters the picture! Well, well, well. Estre blocked and used the Prema #63 LMP2 car as a pick. Hirakawa goes underneath the #10 Vector Sport LMP2 Oreca as we approach the end of hour four. Three and a half hours now on the board. We have now had a race under full green with no safety cars. No Full Course Yellows. Now, that could be the kiss of death, the commentator's curse. Warning. Don't touch the red button. The Cadillac is struggling for grip, working the tires hard around Fuji Speedway.
Lopez is driving to stay ahead of Hirakawa, and this will allow Estre to motor away. Drive through penalty for the #4 Vanwall for the contact with the #23 United Autosport Oreca and Esteban Guerreri serves the penalty. Even though it was indeed Joao Paulo de Oliveira who earned the penalty. Lopez in the slipstream of Estre and no dice. But Estre has lapped traffic and has to go 'round the outside of the Corvette. They are in the middle of the Iron Dames vs. Corvette GTE Am lead battle. Nico Varrone has run a stonking stint! Insanity from Ben Keating and now Nico Varrone is continuing to push, push, push.
Ryo Hirakawa is pushing Jose Maria Lopez and Kevin Estre can punch it and drive away, run to the hills. Run to Mount Fuji and back, sunbeam. Great GTE Am battle for third between Daniel Mancinelli and Scott Huffaker followed by Mikkel Pedersen in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 sharing with team boss Christian Ried. That is a wonderful battle we are seeing in GTE Am. Ben Keating has had a supersonic drive. Keating is a right foot braker, and so he is on the throttle a lot less using a lot less fuel. Turn one and turn three are downhill and you can save petrol without giving up lap times.
Nico Varrone hit the lane for fuel and tires and is down and away back into the race. They will have just one more pit stop to do. 141 laps now complete by the leading Porsche. 400 miles. WRT #41 in the pit lane in LMP2. Louis Deletraz in the #41. Nico Varrone gets four brand new tires, which were stone cold on the out lap. Estre has held off the charge from Lopez and Lopez is saving fuel because Ryo Hirakawa is now getting the best fuel mileage in comparison to both Lopez and Estre alike. Porsche, Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, Cadillac, with BMW, Lamborghini, Alpine, and Isotta Fraschini joining the party for next year.
Ten laps left in Lopez's stint before full service and a driver change. The Porsche will have to stop before Toyota #7 and #8 will have to stop a lap later. If you stay out, the car is lighter. Lopez got absolutely sliced by Hirakawa there! Oh my gosh! Hirakawa is screaming on the radio that he is losing the tail of the car and touched the curb through turn in to the corner! Holy cow! He got behind in his steering, handfuls of opposite lock! A double change of position as Will Stevens tries the divebomb on Stoffel Vandoorne, locks up, and it does not work. Peugeot #94 and Jota Porsche #38.
More friction to the tires driving harder means your tires are dead. That has to be happening with Lopez I think, or even with Hirakawa. Lopez, actually, because he is losing time to the #8 with fresher tires and more fuel. We are coming close to the end of another racing hour. Scott Huffaker and more GTE Am cars hit the lane for service. Kevin Estre should be on his in lap. One more lap for Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer will get into the car for the next stint. Slower cars being shown a white flag, a move over flag, not a flag of surrender.
Hirakawa has had clear air and has fresher tires and he goes by and makes the passs. Este coming back or trying to make it work. It is his in lap and Toyota have taken the lead on the trace track after almost four hours of racing! Holy moly! Now it switches to be a battle between the pit crews in the pit lane. Estre speeding into the lane. Andre Lotterer will finish this race out as we said. There was a fuel issue for #6 earlier on in the motor race. It was totally necessary. Corvette #33 can do an hour and seven minutes for it's remaining stints and everyone else in GTE Am will stop twice. Jose Maria Lopez off the road.
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