Tiptoe through the tulips here, on the wet tires that are still stone cold. We don't have any slow zones and now, the rain is getting heavier and almost too heavy to go on slick tires. Wet weather Michelin tires prepared in the garage. This shower is drenching the circuit currently. Surely the Ferrari #50 must be losing time, Nicklas Nielsen. You cannot have hot tires. They have a set of wet tires ready to go but it might be a bit late for that. I think Ferrari have made a blunder at this moment as we thank Ben Constanduros before his break and welcome back our resident engineer Lena Gade. The rain is way too heavy for slick tires. Just like a year ago at this time, we have rain at Le Mans.
Slick soft compound Michelin's for Ferrari. This could be a short shower and it is concentrated on a single portion of the road. Nicklas Nielsen is told that the rain is decreasing as he is tiptoeing through Karting. John Falb has spun off the road and so has the leading Cool Racing #37 of Lorenzo Fluxa. Falb in the #30 Duqueine Team Oreca sharing with Frenchman Jean Baptiste Simmenauer and Australian James Allen. Less than 18 hours left. 17 hours and 51 minutes left on the board. The #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini has crunched the wall, Claudio Schiavoni at the wheel of it and now we have a Full Course Yellow. That Lambo has busted a radiator.
We have just gone back to geeen and the gap is almost two minutes between Robert Kubica and Nicklas Nielsen. The #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 has had a litany of problems and the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Nico Muller and the #38 Jota Porsche 963 of Jenson Button, they have copped penalties. We are into the darkness with no rain but a wet road. Valentino Rossi clatters into the #23 United Autosport LMP2 car, and... bang! Ben Hanley at the wheel of that car as the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has been pushed into the garage. There isn't anything you can do on a long straightaway. Robert Kubica has a gearbox alarm but has to keep going. Take out the traction control. It is a disaster if you are unable to control the car.
Neel Jani in the garage with the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963. Pipo Derani telling Peter Baron that he can go to slicks in a few more laps. This will be a net loss for the two Ferrari's going very slowly. Sebastien Bourdais in the #3 Ganassi Racing Cadillac must stay away from the curbs in Tertre Rouge, setting the rollbars for softer in the wet, stiffer in the dry. Jenson Button chasing Nyck de Vries in eighth place. Jota Porsche vs. Toyota. Sector one is relatively dry. BMW M Hybrid V8 #15 has gone off the road for a brief moment. Rain has disappeared in sector one.
The factory Ferrari's were forced to use the slicks during the rainshower. The #24 Nielsen Racing LMP2 Oreca off the road with Kyffin Simpson and now, Sebastien Bourdais is off the road in the gravel but he is rejoining the race between Indianapolis and Arnage. He locked up the rear axle, suffering on soft tires on an out lap. Maybe the conditions are nt' as crazy as we think. The #5 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 has swapped to slick Michelin tires.
Porsche #5 will be on slicks and ahead of some of it's rivals. The #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 9t63 is off strategy as Maxime Martin and Ben Hanley are both under investigation, the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the #23 United Autosport Oreca 07. Three retirements now from the race. Both Alpine's, out. One of the GT3 cars is also out but I cannot remember which one. The #50 stayed out, the #51 pitted for soft slick tires. The pit timing is similar for everyone.
Offsets on usable energy are negated by the weather as the #7 Toyota pits in the hands of Nyck de Vries, the Dutchman. Toyota want a win back from Ferrari. #83 is in the lane in the hands of Robert Kubica. Porsche 963 #6 still on wets has run a 3:49. The Ferrari 499P is tougher on it's tires compared to the other Hypercars. Maybe the #50 boys have pulled a masterstroke as the #8 sister Toyota is in the lane now. The Ferrari have had their middle sector top speed come back to them down the Mulsanne straight and into the speed trap at Indianapolis in sector two. The track has dried out very quickly.
OK. Both Alpine's are retired and so is the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Maxime Martin has taken over the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 33 seconds ahead of the class, but with the sword of Damocles hanging over him. We have not been able to get a proper stint for any of these tires as Jenson Button hits the lane for soft tires. Will he be able to turn these soft Michelin tires on? The tread blocks have been rolling over themselves and absolutely melting. Taking the pain for tire warmup, Robert Kubica is firing his tires up.
Nicklas Nielsen, too, in the sister #50 Ferrari is catching up hand over fist after taking gobs of pain earlier, needing sweet relief that he now seems to have. Jenson Button tries to get a second bite of the cherry, or bite of the bullet, if you will, on these tires, trying to turn them on. Car #9 team manager, Proton Competition LMP2 team manager, summoned to the Race Director and no, it is not for espresso and biscuits. Dries Vanthoor in the #15 has smashed into the barriers and ripped the front end of the car off, on an outlap and, oh my word!
A slight touch pounds the spinning car into the wall and yanks the rearview mirror off it's mounting! Wow! That car I think is toasted and the race leading Ferrari almost gets hit! So, Team WRT might have one bullet left in the Hypercar gun. Safety Car scramble. Safety Car scramble for the first time in the 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with three safety cars catching up to the class leaders in Hypercar, LMP2, and GT3. #83, #10, and #46. AF Corse, Vector Sport, WRT. The #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S is in the garage, steaming!
That car, Brendan Iribe, has radiator damage. This will be a longer safety car than normal. The BMW was given no room and theres big damage on the outside and also in the cockpit. Dries Vanthoor is OK. That car is out. Pipo Derani is told by Peter Baron, we are bunched up and back in this thing. The Armco was what Vanthoor hit. With the McLaren, they will change the radiator, boiling away, but also doing a brake change. New pads and new discs done at the same time. This is a full safety car so McLaren and Inception Racing could get back in this thing in the GT3 class. A handful of cars including the two red Ferrari's are going to pit more than likely but they need to time things with the safety car.
#50 is in and so is the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Sean Gelael, Darren Leung, and Augusto Farfus. Alex Palou is not used to being in an endurance race but he is getting into a rhythm. Ferrari #50 has now lost track position. The target now is to save fuel and energy and wait for the merging, the marshals inspecting the Armco. If you come into the pits under Safety Car A, no one had a debris related puncture, queuing up for Safety Car B. The #15 BMW absolutely clobbers the barriers, Dries Vanthoor is fine, but shocked and disappointed. That was a massive crunch. Stephane Richelmi brings the #10 Vector Sport Oreca LMP2 to the pit lane and is in and back out after tires and fuel.
Maxime Martin given a warning flag for his incident with the #23 United Autosports car in the Porsche Curves, and that was Ben Hanley he ran into as I recall. We need to make sure the barriers are repaired before we can go back to racing. Laurens Vanthoor is told that his brother Dries Vanthoor is out of the race and that Robert Kubica pushed Dries Vanthoor into the barriers. This is going to be a safety car intervention that is going to go for a long time. We are into the second century of this race. Pipo Derani worried about his tires, and Peter Baron tells him, "you will have time to warm the tires up again, mate." The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is in the pit lane now.
Three safety cars on track. Ollie Webb, Alex Jacques, and Lena Gade, with us in the commentary box as we are at 11PM or a little after, French time. In the simulator, practicing fuel saving is not exciting but do indeed keep working on what gear do you need, what engine mode, what rev range, what is the shortest way around the track to save the combustion energy and the battery energy. Everything you save, saves one full pit stop at the end of the race as the #46 BMW M4 GT3 is in the pit lane. It is painfully slow to circulater behind the safety car doing cold, hard laps, at slow speeds. It takes forever as the tractor is snatching the wrecked BMW M Hybrid V8 and helping with repait to the Armco barriers.
Dries Vanthoor got out of the car under his own steam. Maxime Martin will now go take a break and the #46 BMW M4 GT3 is getting serviced and new tires. Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche is second in the GT3 class. We are taking you through the night here at Le Mans. Antonio Giovinazzi is being told that he has nine laps of fuel in the car.
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