Everyone now running the same pace in the 3:53 range. Antonio Giovinazzi brushing the wall through the Porsche Curves! Egad! That was so close! There was the thickness of a piece of A4 paper there between him and the wall, pressing on trying to pass by Norman Nato in the #12 Jota Porsche 963. The car forces itself towards the wall and the GT3 cars tripping up the Hypercars. Hello again, to Ben Edwards, now that we have action really picking up. Under the trees around Indianapolis with new tarmac, is far wetter. Car #7, at Toyota will be going for slick Michelin tires, to be a rabbit, or a guinea pig more fairly. Nyck de Vries will go out on slicks on car #7 at Toyota. The car being refueled as well. Out goes car #7. The timing of this pit stop might work well for Nyck de Vries.
If he can make this work, he is the pioneer, and everyone else will see the deal. The #3 Cadillac passes by the Toyota and the Toyota of De Vries squirms! He will want a sensitive throttle map and to program the traction control and he is not losing as much time to the Cadillac, the #3 Ganassi entry of Sebastien Bourdais. Robert Kubica feels he should pit as Nielsen Racing spins down the unside clobbering the signboards and the Armco. He grabs reverse and the right rear is damaged, the car is crabbing to the right. The right rear toe link is busted, Kyffin Simpson, the Barbados licensed American/
Hiroshi Hamaguchi in the #95 McLaren passes by Michelle Gatting in the Iron Dames #85 Lamborghini. We are seeing a local yellow. Algarve Pro off and on at Indianapolis and the DKR Engineering LMP2 car off as well. The cars look very stiff over the curbs. Nyck de Vries is running the same sector times with most of the leaders in sector one. The slicks are being ready because the slicks were matching performance of the wet tires. Ferrari 499P #83 in the lane for slick soft Michelin tires for Robert Kubica. Hr is now back on track for a double stint.
For the last 45 minutes we are seeing this amazing battle between Toyota #8 and Porsche #6. Antonio Giovinazzi will pit and there will be a driver change for the #51 Ferrari 499P. Toyota #8 is in for the scrubbed Michelin slicks with six and 3/4 hours to go. The four hours of trundling around behind the safety car hekped. It takes a lap to get the release modld off. The #4 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr has walloped the barriers into the Indianapolis corner! Oh my gosh! He is on skcicks. H eutnrs in, the car snaps around and... boom! He clobbers ther wall. I think it is game over for Nasr and company. He was actually on wets that maybe were worn and overheated.
Ferrari #51 also came in. Sebastien Bourdais pits the #3 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac from tenth place. Nyck de Vries was the first driver to take this risk. New soft tires for Bourdais in the #3 Cadillac. Porsche #6 in the lane now too from the lead. Laurens Vanthoor will go to slick tires trying to chase down the Toyota. This is going to be a race that is going t come down just the way I thought, Toyota vs. Porsche. Ferrari are also still in the game. Trouble on the Mulsanne straight for the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of the Belgian, Tom van Rompuy. Excuse me, it is Charlie Eastwood, the Irishman, and the marshals pull the car behind the barriers which tells me on thing. Game over.
The #4 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 being craned away. Penske now has two bullets left in the gun instead of three. They have one contender racing against Toyota. Matthieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy, and Felipe Nasr are out of this one. Isotta Fraschini still running in 19th with Jean Karl Vernay at the wheel of it, in 19th place in the overall. Porsche vs. Toyota with six and a half hours to go. We have a slow zone between Indianapolis and Arnage I think. Nico Costa, the Brazilian, in the #59 Garage 59 McLaren says the restart was bonkers even though the long caution was definitely a good move for safety. The crossover point on the rain tires is very noticeable. Goodyear tires on the GT3 cars.
That was a squeeze play between the Hypercars and the GT3 cars. We are entering a slow zone, a Full Course Yellow, actually. No. A slow zone, pardon me. Laurens Vanthoor leads the Toyota by 18 seconds. Green flag and back to power. Nyck de Vries defending from Antonio Fuoco and Robert Shwartzman. Nyck de Vries is opening a gap. There is balance between the combustion engine and the battery with Hypercars but no hybrid boost button like we saw with the old LMP1 cars. It is hard to go offline to make a move in the dry and the slow zone is still active at Indianapolis corner. Traffic ahead.
Indianapolis slow zone removed. Oh my God! The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 has rolled onto its roof! Thank God Mancinelli gets out of that car! Holy cow! The safety car is deployed immediately. He clobbered the tire barrier and turned upside down. He plowed backwards into the tire barrier and rolled over. That was a massive hit but he is going to be OK. Yikes! This is a tough one for The Heart of Racing. Mancinelli out of the car under his own steam.
We are back under the safety car and the marshals will turn the car over. Ferrari #50 and #83 have pitted. Robert Shwartzman has passed by Antonio Fuoco as they wait to pick up the safety car, safety car A. The top three are right together. The #6 Porsche and the two Toyota's as the #51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado, eighth place for the defending Le Mans champions. In LMP2 there are some wholesale pit stops happening now.
Opt for new tires and knock the release agent off behind the safety car. Malthe Jakobsen exits the pit lane. Marino Sato has pitted and had a fuel load and tire changes. Pipo Derani asks Peter Baron about fuel strategy at Action Express and Baron, team strategist says, "save everything you can." The track is now much dryer than it was during that four hours' worth of rain bucketing down. The drivers were just trundling around as one of the Lamborghini Huracan's pits. Overtaking will be more doable now that the sun is out and the wind is up. When we go to green we will see more ovetaking maneuvers.
Porsche #4, out. Aston Martin #27, out. We will be entering the final quarter of the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans soon. Safety Car A will pick up the first class leader when the merge and the pass around are completed. If Toyota pit now along with the #6 Porsche 963 as well. Reshad De Gerus who is part of the IDEC Sport LMP2 team says that the line is drying a bit. He is fighting for the top five in LMP2 sharing the car with Paul Lafargue and Job van Uitert. Toyota #7 into the pit lane. Nyck de Vries tells the team where the most dangerous spot on the road is. Kamui Kobayashi into the car.
Both of the Jota Porsche 963's are in the top ten. The Isotta Fraschini has been amazingly reliable. Recall, last year, Jenson Button drove the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 exhibition car here last year. The tire barrier is very nearly repaired. No metal barriers have needed to be repaired. Ben Barnicoat, Francois Perrodo, and Alessio Rovera, can win both the overall and Pro-Am LMP2 classes. Strategy and safety car situations really coming into play in the class. Francois Perrodo has cleared up his driving time and Ben Barnicoat and Nico Varrone. P.J. Hyett has also completed his drive time leaving Louis Deletraz and Alex Quinn.
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