No tire warmers are allowed this year at Le Mans or in the WEC. Now that we don't have those, you must improve the out lap and build heat and pressure into the tires. A good battle for fifth spot between Ferrari, Antonio Fuoco, Jota Porsche, Callum Ilott, and the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi. We have just seen the #19 Lamborghini SC63 pit. That is the Romain Grosjean, Andrea Caldarelli, Matteo Cairoli car. Make the sidewalls work to heat the tires. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari pits as well. When you send a car out with heated tires not at their optimum condition on the out lap, as a race engineer, you will be told about it by your driver. Robert Shwartzman has a standard pit stop and is back on track. Rain expected in seven minutes from now.
Rain expected soon as we said. Ilott chasing Kobayashi. This will be light rain and some cars will stay out for as long as possible. Kamui Kobayashi has a pit stop in his future on this lap and he is going to pass the Ferrari into Mulsanne corner. We could see a driver change for the #8 car, or maybe the #7. Ferrari #50 has been holding up these drivers. There is cloud coming and some rain and at marshal post #35, the #37 Cool Racing Oreca 07 just spun and is back on track. That is third. It is not the #37 it is the team car #47 I think. Fred Vesti, Matt Bell, and Naveen Rao sharing that car. Pit stop time at Toyota. We need to see if there is a tire change and a driver change as the sister #8 has taken the lead, Sebastien Buemi going around Robert Shwartzman.
The top three is Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche. Sebastien Buemi is chasing his fifth victory at Le Mans which would put him in company with Derek Bell, Emmanuelle Pirro, and Frank Biela. So, Sebastien Buemi will pit, and the #83 Ferrari will resume in the lead of the motor race. Shwartzman told to move brake balance 1% forward. Brendon Hartley, the New Zealander gets into the #8 Toyota as the tires are changed. Buemi has won Le Mans four times and Hartley has won three with them I believe. Ferrari #51 in as is the #12 Porsche 963. The #50 has stayed out. They clean the windscreen and the front splitter for the airflow and the radiators being cleaned out. Don't let gravel, grass, or any debirs get in there and adjust the front nose, the splitter on the bottom of the car.
In the rain, you cannot put too much bias on the front brakes and take the bias over to the rear brakes. Shwartzman, Christensen, Fuoco, Tandy, the top four. Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche. New soft tires for Alessandro Pier Guidi with more rain expected as the defending Le Mans champions are going about their race. The Lamborghini's are on the medium Michelin tires while most other Hypercars are on softs. So much going on. No rest for the weary. James Calado says it was a mistake to go onto wet tires. He went onto the medium and had massive trouble in the slow zones with tire temp dropping.
They need a safety car in the #51 camp to be able to come back if they want to replicate their triumph from the centenary last year. We are joined now by another Le Mans winner, as Marc Lieb is in the booth. He has done so much and he has retired from driving. It is challenging to be in the car at the beginning and is more relaxed and enjoying following the race currently. Loic Duval in Peugeot #94 is told rain is expected in ten minutes. The two Lamborghini SC63's are running nose to tail and a slide off the road and back on for one of the red Ferrari's.
We don't know yet if the next shower coming will be light or heavy. Jack Aitken now chasing Andre Lotterer in the #6 Porsche 963. So, the #311 Cadillac is running well and gaining steadily. Stay calm. Be patient. Put yourself into a rhythm. When it rains at Le Mans, it is difficult because of how long the circuit is. Eight and a half miles, 13.6 kilometers. It can rain on one side of the track, be bone dry on another end, and raining again on another end. We will have a light shower and then sun. Oliver Webb, or pal who has driven at Le Mans is back in the booth. Marshal post 35 is meant to have the worst rain but it is not so bad. Rain in the pit lane will make the teams panic.
LMP2 in the lane with the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 on new slick tires. We are ow going to see dry weather for the next stint. Robert Shwartzman leads by 23 seconds over Michael Christensen in a battle of Ferrari vs. Porsche. Book it. Jack Aitken passes Andre Lotterer in the Porsche Curves. Jack Aitken is catching Earl Bamber in the second Ganassi Cadillac, the #2. Full Course Yellow but we don't know what is causing it. We need to investigate. I was downstairs on my lunch break just recently. More LMP2 cars spun off and put the circuit under Full Course Yellow. The gaps spread out again and Robert Shwartzman remains the race leader.
I am afraid I cannot tell you which LMP2 cars spun. I think it was one of the United Autosport cars and I could not see the others. We have bright sunshine this evening as the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco is back into the lane and we have a driver change as he hands off to the Spaniard, Miguel Molina. So, all three drivers in #50 have had stints at the wheel. Callum Ilott late on the brakes almost cut the corner, edging in on the left wheel and the rear almost coming around. Yikes! The lapped LMP2 and GT3 cars are whistling off into the distance but now, Fuoco is having trouble. He was stuck on the pit lane speed limiter for a wee while.
Now he is back on full power. I wonder if there was a strategy call to use the rev limiter. I might be overthinking that. A weird situation. The Porsche Curves are absolutely unreal with lots of grip on the car. Two laps to go for Robert Shwartzman on his stint and his pace is good. He might be able to do a double stint. Are you able to push? The answer is, yes. Shwartzman lost five seconds but only due to the Full Course Yellow. A driver change for the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Valentino Rossi making his debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans replacing Ahmad Al Harthy, I think. We have seen one of the Porsche Penske 963's in too, the #5. Rossi has had a win in a different GT3 championship already this year.
Lamborghini #19 is in. Valentino Rossi started go karting as a kid and then he went to motorcycle racing, to rallying, and to GT racing. When he ran at the 24 Hours of Spa, he did not have to deal with other cars because at Spa, the race is made up of all GT3 cars. Robert Shwartzman is now in the pit lane. The rearview camera is using radar to show positions of cars behind. This helps at Le Mans for traffic management. Rossi is back on track, second in the GT3 class to Yasser Shahin, the Australian, at the wheel of the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R. Tom Kristensen and Valentino Rossi have known each other for a long time and he started, Rossi, with a go kart as a kid.
His way was towards cars because his dad, Graziano Rossi was a motorcycle racer, worried about his son. The swap from a motorcycle to a car for Rossi is far easier compared to going the other way around. Rossi won the Road to Le Mans race, the support race, in 2023, in a BMW M4 GT3, the same type of car he is racing in the big one this year. Do not take La Chapelle after Dunlop which leads you to the Bugatti circuit for the motorcycles who have their own 24 Hours of Le Mans, in the springtime. Ryan Cullen is now leading in LMP2. The SRO and the ACO have a different way in the GT3 cars being balanced between here at Le Mans and in the Spa 24 Hours in Belgium in two weeks. Goodyear tires here and a different tire brand for Spa and the same for the Nurburgring 24 Hours a couple weekends ago.
Matt Campbell now being chased by Miguel Molina. Porsche have now taken two of three victories in WEC this year so far. Ferrari passes Porsche. Molina passes Campbell. The Ferrari can overtake well over some of the other cars. The Ferrari has lost ten kilograms and a touch more power. The Peugeot's had the biggest weight break. Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota is now second and Ben Keating has gone off the road in the #23 Wynn's sponsored Oreca 07 for United Autosports in LMP2. Pit stop time at Toyota but I am not sure which. The #12 Jota Porsche is in, and then comes the #12 Jota Porsche 963. Penske Porsche #6 in for routine service with Andre Lotterer out and Kevin Estre in.
Coming to the end of the fourth hour. Miguel Molina may have had difficulty with new tires and the same is for Robert Shwartzman. Medium tires on the #6 Porsche as the #36 Alpine comes in and we have sun back out on the track as we get into the evening. The soft tires are beginning to be used and this is troublesome when we get to the night and sprinkles of rain in the wee small hours of the morning on Father's Day. We saw Miguel Molina go past Matt Campbell who is on pace now on new tires.
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