We have gone to safety car conditions after the Full Course Yellow. So, we should be readying for a restart it appears and of course the pit lane is now closed. Double drat! I can't pit! We will have a wave around under the Full Course Yellow? Heads up. Everyone be aware as we'll do a wave around as the safety car driver does not cue anyone. That is up to the team, the crew chief, to tell the driver. Hugo Cook has finished his stint in the #19 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini he shares with Mateo Llarena, Baptiste Moulin, and Haytham Quarajouli. They ran well for a while and then had a failure of a rear brake that needed to be fixed and they have been in catch up mode ever since and under the safety car that is difficult to do.
The more running you have behind the safety car, the less you can catch up. Years ago, he was racing TCR touring cars but then launched himself into GT3. Sebastien Baud and his teammates have fallen to the bottom of the order. The wave by is completed and other cars that have not pitted can do so now. For some reason we cannot establish a solid pattern to this race and have had a lot of stopping and starting. Full Course Yellow speed is 80 kilometers an hour and under the safety car is much faster. Safety Car in this lap and we'll turn them loose another time. Green flag. Back to racing we go. A challenge for third as Klaus Bachler passes by Luca Stolz who was jumped at the restart through La Source and Eau Rouge. Warm up the brakes and the tires. Matthieu Jaminet now under pressure from Klaus Bachler.
Bachler now up to second place. Luca Stolz has moved past Max Hesse with Raffaele Marciello next up and the early racing leading #48 Mann Filters Mercedes went off the road. Daniel Morad at Les Combes, I think he grazed the barriers. Klaus Bachler has taken the lead of the motor race going ahead of Matthieu Jaminet and on the restart, the #60 2 Seas Mercedes has hit the wall and has damage on the right front headlight. So, he copped a whack from somebody. Frank Bird at the wheel of it. He was caught out in the queue. He was the leader of the Gold division. Klaus Bachler leads Matthieu Jaminet and Raffaele Marciello.
Max Hesse squirming all over the road in the wet. He is using the windscreen wiper. Aye yaye yaye. Xavier Maassen has big damage to the fornt of the Aston Martin after the tank tape has come off. The #998 BMW M4 GT3 has a drive through penalty, Max Hesse. So, this is a bad deal for Hesse and company. What can he do in the dry? Daniel Morad had trundled back to the pit lane. I believe he is serving a penalty. He is. He trundles through the lane and now, the #48 Mercedes that led early doors has a flat, punctured left rear Pirelli P Zero.
That is the second left rear puncture on that automobile. Holy cow. Mann Filter Mercedes have had a fraught race today. At WRT, BMW #32 was hit from behind at turn one at the La Source hairpin and maybe just maybe Frank Bird clattered into the back of Charles Weerts who is 15th and big damage for the CSA Audi! Arthur Rougier has absolutely cone off the road and clobbered the right front of that car! Jeepers creepers! That will be a long repair. Colin Braun is only 4.2 seconds behind Alex Buncombe.
Big damage to the #60 Mercedes and Frank Bird says that during Full Course Yellow, no, the wave by, there was a concertina down the main straight and he ran into the back of another car. The bonnet flew up so it was far more than just bodywork damage. Just one of those deals. Bird says he made contact with another car but will not specify who it is. I would suggest that maybe he plowed into the #32 BMW. Bachler leads Jaminet by 4.8 seconds. Max Hesse serving the drive through penalty through the Formula 1 pit lane and into the endurance pit lane. Dan Harper earned the penalty. Box, box., box, drive through penalty.
More contact between the #48 Mann Filter Mercedes and the #111 CSA Audi with Arthur Rougier who had that king size, massive damage and we hadnt found the replay. We'll have to see if the tape apes can get a hold of it. Sven Mueller in 30th place for the #96 Rutronik Racing Porsche is a lap or so down and needs to make up time. Max Hesse is ahead. Yellow flag at turn 12. What's this? We don't know yet. The #90 car is in strife in the first bit of Piff Paff, the #90 Mad Panda Motorsports Mercedes as Karol Basz of Poland has gone off the road. Full Course Yellow in 20 seconds. Full Course Yellow in 10 seconds. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow, now.
Car #90 in the gravel at turn 13. No wave by and we should be going to the safety car? I don't think so because the Manitou crane is there. This is the turn 12 marshal post and is very busy. Luca Stolz in third spot. Behind the Full Course Yellow the gaps remain the same. Pit lane is open under Full Course Yellow. We have seen wholesale pit stops and now we go back to safety car before going back to green and in 15 minutes, teams can start taking their five-minute technical pit stops to check the car between the end of the 11th hour and the end of the 22nd hour, so there is plenty of time to execute it. The GT3 cars have historically not made it through this race without brake changes and that is why the technical pit stop exists.
You don't necessarily have to change brakes but don't gamble with safety. Green flag as Thomas Preining, Klaus Bachler, and Matthieu Jaminet lead. It is a Porsche 1-2 now with Luca Stolz in third with Raffaele Marciello and Yannick ettler followed by Mattia Drudi, Dominik Baumann, who is dropping places, and so, it is Luca Stolz, Raffaele Marciello, abd nire, Has the lead changed? It is raining from Fangnes to Campus to the Paul Frere curve. Yellow flag through Rivage (Jacky Ickx curve). Raffaele Marciello has passed Luca Stolz. All sectors now green. OK. That was just a small issue.
Porsche #92 went to the pit lane. Mettler, Weerts, and Hanafin are still on wets. Everyone on the lead lap went onto the slick tires, the slick Pirelli P Zeros. Yannick Mettler will be grinning like a stuck possun, Local Yellow at turn three at Eau Rouge as the #92 Porsche is in for wets as it is starting to rain again. Matthieu Jaminet makes another decision on tires as Mattia Drudi is now in 11th place in Aston Martin #7. Some drivers have taken more pit stops than we thought they would and some of them have been penalties and don't count necessarily towards the original pit stop sequence.
Some drivers drove through the pit lane to restart their stints. Yannick Mettler now leading the race in the #3 GetSpeed Mercedes and Matthieu Jaminet is on wets. A ton more cars have come back into the pits for wet weather Pirelli tires. The #3 GetSpeed Mercedes of Yannick Mettler needs wet tires. He has been caught by Charles Weerts and Dylan Pereira. The lead group stopped for slicks and then they knew they needed to change over to wet weather tires. Almost everybody who came in on slicks, and here comes the rain, again.
Dylan Pereira is chasing Yannick Metler I believe. Those who are on the right tire will cruise away from the other cars that didn't change over. A 40 second penalty for the #48 Mann Filter Mercedes of Daniel Morad, again. He got clonked by Arthur Rougier on the restart and maybe he came in before the pit lane entry light was turned on. Or he crossed the white line on the pit lane exit. We are still an hour away from the halfway mark. The spray is considerable and now the rain is coming back. Charles Weerts has overtaken Yannick Mettler and Mettler gets passed too by Dylan Pereira. Someoe is crawling out of La Source maybe on the wrong tires.
Nobody is out there on slicks in this weather. Are you kidding me? The #163 Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper still is on the lead lap but in 22nd in the overall. Now we have more spray on the roa and the darkness of the Ardennes Forest with the rain and the spray is beginning to look disgusting again as opposed to acceptable. Charles Weerts now about to lap Jordan Pepper. They must avoid that happening or they will be in a world of pain. Weerts, 2:43 and Pepper was on his out lap.
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