Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW and Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #36 Alpine battling and a drive through penalty has been called for the #7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez. Wow. Ditto of course, too for the Porsche. We see this battle between Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 and the Matthieu Vaxiviere driven sole Alpine left in the race, the #36 Alpine A424B. Drive through penalties for #7. #11, and #66. Jose Maria Lopez cops a drive through penalty and so does the #11 Isotta Fraschini and the #66 JMW Ferrari 296 GT3. Yifei Ye is leading Le Mans in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P. One of the Jota Porsche's is now in the pit lane. Jose Maria Lopez has been penalized for a slow zone infraction. Valentino Rossi continues to lead GT3 in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. That is pretty incredible.
Rossi leads over the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Joel Sturm at the controls of the #92 Porsche. Matthieu Jaminet did tag Sarah Bovy and it is under investigation by the stewards. Jose Maria Lopez takes his drive through penalty. So he will drop behind the the #12 Jota Porsche 963 of Norman Nato of France. 81 laps completed and the lead gap between the two Ferrari's is 17 and a half seconds. This is a very cold Le Mans and it will get colder as we close in on the nighttime. Tire compounds and tire performance will be critical as we are hearing from the brain trust at Ferrari AF Corse. We have a pit stop now for the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Kevin Estre is told he is getting late front lockup on the brakes for managing brake migration and regeneration of energy.
Which end is locking up and where is the car locking up insofar as brake migration. Somed drivers learn all the settings for braking with the Hypercars with an LMH or LMDh. Other drivers leave the settings alone and they thrash the car and deal with the brake lockup. Do I fettle it? Do I use car control knowing one end will lock up and I can recover? So delighted to have your company today. Vista AF Corse Ferrari #54, out. Alpine #35 of Ferdinand Habsburg, out eliminating both Charles Milesi and Paul Loup Chatin.
Ferrari #83 of Yifei Ye is in the lane and here comes the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 of Matty Campbell. Toyota #8 takes over the lead. Meanwhile, at the #38 Jota Porsche team, they changed tires or didn't and Jenson Button is now in the car on the older one stint old medium tires Oliver Rasmussen had on the car. A whole strategy would be new driver new tires, in the old days. Today, double stint your tires. So, Brendon Hartley is now in the lead of the motor race. Yifei Ye told he will be going for a 12 lap stint, a full stint.
Phil Hanson is due to do a triple stint, but he was interrupted by the rain we saw earlier. He took on dry tires after two hours and did a quadruple stint. The cold tire issue they have has locked the tire strategy in completely from now on. What is the plan for the night? How are you going to handle all of that? Cold driver, cold tires, not the best strategy. Coming into the lane, the #183 AF Corse LMP2 car, Franocis Perrodo, Ben Barnicoat, and Nico Varrone in that car. Valentino Rossi has now been passed for the GT3 lead by Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.
They finished 1-2 last time out at the 6 Hours of Spa. Pure Racing were GT3 champions in the Asian Le Mans Series, it is actually Pure RX Racing I think partnering with Manthey Racing and their Bronze driver Alex Malykhin. Rossi braking impossibly late with the ABS over the curbs. The GT3 cars have antilock brakes. The BMW is very heavy, but Rossi is able to swallow the brakes and just hammer te brake pedal, very much in a different manner to the Hypercars I think. It really depends on the car to be honest and how the systems are set up.
Alex Palou in the #2 Ganassi Cadillac chasing the sole Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere. brendon Hartley leads the motor race by 26 and a half seconds over the Ferrari. Alex Palou, the two-time IndyCar champion. He is chasing the sole remaining Alpine as I mentioned. Jose Maria Lopez has brought the #7 Toyota into the pit lane for scheduled service. The Toyota's over the last stint have been flying compared to the Ferrari's and the Porsche's. Brendon Hartley is talking to the team on the radio trying to tell the next driver Ryo Hirakawa, to manage the tires. If you lock the rear tires, you are going to be in a spot of bother. Hartley has done a triple stint.
Coming up to the halfway mark in the sixth hour. Yifei Ye leads the motor race in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari. Goodbye to the #4 Penske Porsche 963's number plate! Oh boy! They will need to replace that number panel just like they did with one of their cars in Qatar at the beginning of the year. Alpine in the lane for the #36 sole remaining car on their team. Yifei Ye leads the motor race after Robert Kubica did his stint and Robert Shwartzman as well. In 13th it is Renger van der Zande being chased by Dries Vanthoor in the #15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. In LMP2, the #10 Vector Sport Oreca of Stephane Richelmi has the #37 Cool Racing Oreca of Lorenzo Fluxa right on his six.
Lorenzo Fluxa from Spain sharing with Malthe Jakobsen of Denmark and Ritomo Miyata of Japan. Dries Vanthoor passes by Renger van der Zande for position of course with the precious metals-based driver grading system. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum in LMP2 and Bronze, Silver, Gold in GT3. Jota Porsche on Jota Porsche. Jenson Button reeling in Norman Nato. Nico Lapierre in the #36 Alpine A424 in the garage with trouble. They are looking at the engine. The 3.4 liter turbo V6 engines are having reliability woes today.
The car sounds lovely! But reliability is their Achilles heel. We are now onboard with the #11 Isotta Fraschini of Carl Bennett, the Thai American. Jean Karl Vernay is the professional driver sharing with Carl Bennett and Antonio Serravalle. We will hopefully see two of those Isotta Fraschini's next year so they can be eligible for the FIA WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. This is a car with a 3-liter V6 turbo motor engineered by Michelotto who have done a lot of work with Ferrari for years. David Heinemeier Hansson is off the road in the #24 Nielsen Racing Oreca and trouble with an open passenger side door on the #65 Panis Racing Oreca.
The latching bolt is locked in it's own mechanism and you need to get at the second handle. Corvette #82 off the road as well. Nico Lapierre in the Alpine did a single lap before heading back to the garage. The #65 Panis Oreca has Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche, and Scott Huffaker, two Americans and a Swiss driver. You cannot tape the door. So, they are spraying the door bolt with WD-40 to see if it stays and doesn't budge. They are using the spare door available on the passenger side. That should help.
We are watching #777, the D'station Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen. Harry Tincknell in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche is caboose on the Hypercar field and now we see the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini as we are closing in on 1/4 distance. Michelle Gatting now at the wheel of the Lamborghini. Sara Bovy always lives with the emotions and wants to win. I totally understand. The special livery on the car was drawn by kids for the team and now, Charlie Eastwood, the Irishman is at te wheel of the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R sharing with Tom van Rompuy and Rui Andrade.
Jonas Ried in the #9 Proton Competition Iron Lynx Oreca is stopping at the end of the Porsche Curves! Dear, oh dear. P.J. Hyett is pitting the #14 AO Racing Oreca as well, "Spike" the dragon. Sam Hignett, co-owner of Jota Sport explains how unbelievable the effort has been in getting the #12 Porsche 963 back into action after the accident at the end of testing. They were in touch with Porsche, got the replacement chassis by 11AM Thursday morning and had the car fired up by Friday midday, they checked the car on the Le Mans airport runway last night, and now are in the race.
Porsche Penske Motorsports #4 Porsche 963 is in the garage being worked on. Jota have a loo, a bathroom, themed on the Olympics coming up. Tee hee. That was a deadpan response! Slow zone at the end of the lap, with rain coming in the next five minutes. We'll have to see what on earth is going to happen because this rain is going to throw a spanner in the works. Porsche #4 back on the track or in the pit lane. When Jota did their shakedown, it is short, bumpy, and wet! You have to get through all gears, all seven gears, in the gearbox. Absolutely bonkers! Kevin Estre runs wide in the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight.
We are looking at rain and have found the first signs of it. Rain at the exit of Arnage. Rain lights in low mode, and the #50 AF Corse Ferrari is in the lane for service and Nicklas Nielsen gets in to take over from Miguel Molina. We do have a wet road. Well, well, well. I think there was a delay on the #50 Ferrari pit stop. Rain at Arnage and it is tipping down! Ferrari on soft compound slick tires. Rain is falling and now, the #50 Ferrari has missed the window, and they will just have to live with this slick tires situation for the soft compound. They can indeed keep the pace. Cadillac #2 and Porsche #6 are in the lane with just over 18 hours to go.
Action Express now back up to seventh with #311 past Ganassi Racing Cadillac #2. Porsche #4 also in and out. They are back in the lane for wets after only two laps and Jenson Button in the #38 Porsche, they too have trouble. From the lead, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P is in as well with Yifei Ye out and into the car should be Robert Kubica. It is. Yellow flag at marshal post three. McLaren #95 for United Autosport is off the road and in the gravel trap. Toyota in the lane and so is the #22 United Autosports Oreca in LMP2. Jonas Ried's car should be well of the track now, the #9 LMP2 Oreca. OK. We are back to green with a slow zone attached to that. Ferrari #51, Toyota #7, and the #311 Action Express Cadillac stayed out on slicks Jean Eric Vergne in the Peugeot under investigation for not getting slowed down into the slow zone properly and if you don't get tire temperature you are going to be in a world of pain.
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