Kamui Kobayashi finishes his stint and now, Jose Maria Lopez, nicknamed "Pechito", "little chest" is into the car. Antonio Felix Da Costa is now into the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963 with fuel going in the tank and tires being changed. That was a clean stop. Sarah Bovy has completed her drive time and Michelle Gatting is back in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche. That is Rahel Frey, my apologies, as James Calado comes into the pit lane from second place. They have a new cool seat to help with cooling the driver. It will be Antonio Giovinazzi in the car. Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota now as well. The overcut and the squeeze play, between Jota and both the Ferrari's! Ferrari #50 on hot tires and the overcut hurts the #51 Ferrari 499P! Big lockup from Nico Varrone after being dusted by Casper Stevenson and Michael Wainwright. The Jota Porsche locks up and Da Costa runs wide.
A slower pit stop for the #51 AF Corse Ferrari! The Le Mans winner, in trouble today. Julien Andlauer from France, the professional driver from Porsche is closing on Nico Varrone after the Argentinian has been passed by both Casper Stevenson and by another rival. Nielsen ahead of Da Costa now. Ferrari #50 vs. Porsche #38. Traffic could help but Nielsen drives around the inside. Mike Wainwright won't want to be divebombed by Hypercars but Da Costa parks the #38 Porsche ahead of the Ferrari and now, here comes the Ferrari onto the racing line, and Nielsen makes the mnove under braking!
He had to rotate the car and Da Costa comes back again! Now we are seeing a motor race! Boys and girls, this is what endurance racing is all about! Da Costa keeps his nose clean even though he was almost pushed off the track. Nielsen has been an LMP2 champion. Sarah Bovy looking on. This is phenomenal action! The Hypercar class will be chasm like next year with more and more cars coming. Da Costa is doing all he can to make a move and has enough because poor old Nielsen brakes too late and there goes Antonio Felix Da Costa! Wowzers!
Hertz Team Jota up to third overall. Breathe. Wow. That was close! Sarah Bovy says that she has indeed finished her drive time and it has been OK and the GTE Am drivers feel the intensity of the Hypercar battle. No mistakes thus far and a good pace for the Iron Dames but it is only the middle of the race. Time will tell. Rahel Frey is in her first stint of the race, and they will be pushing to the bitter end. The gap is a minute and 26 seconds to the #60 Iron Lynx car, and they have not had their Bronze driver Claudio Schiavoni in the car yet. Rahel Frey pinged for track limits as Julien Andlauer passes Nico Varrone and both of them have gone by Mike Wainwright.
Varrone passes. Take that, you little rotter. Tristan Vautier under investigation for abusing track limits in the #4 Vanwall. A battle for second place between Jota and WRT. Excuse me, second. Maybe Jota's indicator lights are not working but it is a WRT 1-2. Da Costa sold Nielsen the dummy and the Dane braked too late, and Da Costa went for the cutback. That was Piquet vs. Mansell in Formula 1 back in the 1980s. Good stuff. Gunnar Jeanette and Esteban Masson scrapping in GTE Am. "Rexy" the Project 1 AO Racing dinosaur Porsche and the #57 CarGuy Racing Ferrari.
The team performed archaeological, paleontological surgery and brought the prehistoric beast back to life. Alpine eighth and tenth in LMP2. They have just not had the best luck. Too many Alpine valleys instead of Alpine peaks. Good pun. Ryo Hirakawa extends his lead over the sister Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez. We are four hours and 20 minutes into the race, and everyone is mostly in class positions. The #35 Alpine is in the lane. All 36 cars are still running. We have not seen any retirements yet. Fuel and tires for the #35.
Matteo Cressoni is back at the wheel of the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche. Claudio Schiavoni will have to go in at the end no matter how he is feeling. The sister Alpine Oreca in the lane and Nico Varrone in the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, he gives the place back to the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. Fifth place for #77 and sixth place for the #33. 50 seconds is the gap between the two Toyota's. Just over three and a half hours to go. Toyota #7 does not have the luxury of going longer on it's tires but the #8 sister car can drive slow enough to save their tires, Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel of it. Andre Lotterer in the #6 Porsche 963 for Porsche Penske Motorsports is chasing down the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi.
This Hypercar battle between Ferrari and Porsche is for fifth place. Andre Lotterer is starting to push. He and Antonio Felix Da Costa are pushing hard. No Roger Penske here in Bahrain. Tim Cindric is here I believe. Roger Penske is in Phoenix, Arizona, for the season finale for NASCAR this weekend. Penske have learned boatloads about this car in the Porsche 963 having four cars, two here in WEC and two in IMSA. Esteban Guerreri now takes over from Tristan Vautier in the #4 Vanwall. Ryan Briscoe says the chassis is stiff and is a good platform but is down on power, and yet, it is also completely different from anything he has driven.
Three and a half hours to go now. Da Costa and Nielsen ten seconds apart as we hear Martin Haven speaking about tire wear. I missed what he was talking about. So much vital information. We are talking about wear holes in tires if there is a puncture. Cold tires are not fast. Treaded tires can only work on a road car but with friction and loading, tread would have no grip for a race car. A slick tire has more contact patch. In the classes, the ebb and flow has been wild and in Hypercar, it has been different between the factory cars and the privateer cars.
No Bronze time yet burned for Iron Lynx. That is strange. They will have to hustle or they will not be classified. Bent Viscaal makes the move for second on Robin Frijns in LMP2 and there was nothing Robin Frijns could do. He had no reply. United and Prema at the top of the shop in LMP2. Mirko Bortolotti is closing on Frijns. Prema and WRT have both their cars and United Autosport, they are split. Josh Pierson now leading the LMP2 class. "Rexy" in pit lane, the #56 Project 1 - AO Racing Porsche. In 2024, Toyota Gazoo Racing, well, we'll see what happens. Akkodis ASP will maybe come into the LMGT3 ranks with the Lexus RC F GT3.
Julien Andlauer out and Mikkel Pedersen back into the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. Christian Ried is in his final race. He will not continue into the GT3 era. He will stop with the end of GTE today. He has run 85 consecutive GTE races, two European Le Mans drivers' championships, and a winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well. Christian Ried's brother Michael Ried and his father Gerold Ried have all raced and his sons are also racing including older son Jonas Ried. Proton Competition will have many cars including LMP2, Hypercar/GTP cars, a Ford Mustang GT3 in LMGT3 and even more.
The CarGuy Racing #57 Ferrari 488 GTE is in the lane. The Ried family and the Felbermayr father and son, Horst Sr. and Horst Jr., they were in it. Michael Fassbender, the Irish actor turned racing driver, and Michael Fassbender is racing this weekend in a six-hour race with ex Formula 1 drivers Tommy Byrne and David Kennedy in a Ford Fiesta at Mondello Park in Ireland! How did he know Tommy Byrne and David Kennedy?! That is a couple of legends right there and my gosh, that'll be a hoot! Michael Fassbender might take a sabbatical and is acting just like Patrick Dempsey did or Paul Newman or Steve McQueen, James Garner, Gene Hackman and others.
Richard Westbrook in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series R Hypercar as well, in another topflight sports car program having also raced for Ganassi in the Ford GT program. Another 90 second stop and go penalty for another LMP2 leading car, the #23 United Autosport car for a technical infringement. The tires are fitted and you pressurize them with nitrogen, it sits in the shade and cools down. They pressurized it in the heat, the the tire contracts and loses pressure. Two teams have made the same mistake. Fernando Alonso is another champion in two types of racing, in Formula 1 and sports car racing.
So, the #23 United Autosport car is in the pit lane. Oliver Jarvis has a penalty for a tech infringement, or he had one. It is again something to do with tire pressures. Vector and United have both been pinged for this. #23 has done their regular stop but will need to serve the penalty and this will destroy their race and cause them to fly Plummet Airways to the bottom of the pile. You are playing with fire and using the tire pressure monitoring system. Poor Josh Pierson! He worked so hard and then heard about this tire pressure penalty and obviously, his heart sank.
This is all for the sake of safety and so, Michelin will be setting the tire pressures, so the shoulder of the tire does not wear causing a catestrophic tire failure. Pit stop time for the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. Fred Makowiecki is chasing down Paul di Resta. This is Peugeot vs. Porsche in Hypercar. The tires are checked by Michelin for the pressure differences between the start and finish of the stint. Di Resta yields to Makowiecki and Makowiecki has to deal with the Vanwall and two GTE cars.
Iron Lynx and Iron Dames are 1-2 in GTE Am with Alex Riberas next up in the #98 Heart of Racing Aston Martin followed by Casper Stevenson in the #777 D'station Aston Martin and Nico Varrone in the #33 Corvette. No word on when we will see Claudio Schiavoni, Iron Lynx team boss, into the car, with just over three hours to go. In 34 minutes we will know if he is well enough to drive because it would be a rotten way to finish this campaign before they return with the Lamborghini Hypercar and GT3 programs for next year.
Proton Competition has 16 Porsche 911 RSR's in their collection. A divebomb move by the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 car on the #41 WRT entry. In a way it becomes a virtual race. Claudio Schiavoni wants to buy his car that Christian Ried has kept. That's interesting. Lilou Wadoux is back in for a single stint, We are just looking at the lower portion of the GTE Am class. Matthias Kaiser has had a fabulous race in LMP2. They will be bitterly disappointed with the penalty they had to cop. Oliver Jarvis for United Autosport is last in LMP2 while Vector Sport are seventh in class.
We need to know the deal with tire pressures and you get better performance with lower pressures.
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