Milroy and Mapelli out of the pit lane but are rushing to catch the queue. Green flag. Back to racing we go. Mies on his toes to unlap himself as Fabian Schiller and Jim Pla both go by. The track seems relatively dry and on slick tires. Mies can't gain places losing out to Fabian Schiller and Jim Pla passes and Drudi gets by Jim Pla for third. Book it! Mies cannot get on the racing line and again, he is in a world of pain but staying in the game. Drama as the #63 Lamborghini has lost a patt of the car, Andrea Caldarelli, and we could see a Full Course Yellow and it has a gaping gap at the front. Is it purely cosmetic. Full Course Yellow coming. Beretta and Jaminet off the road and in the gravel! Mercedes #77 and Porsche #92! I think the three of them have made contract. The #26 Audi has massive damage, Ivan Klymenko of Ukraine at the controls of it.
A puncture for the #158 McLaren! Oh, my heavens! This is ugly, ugly, ugly! No wave by! Jeepers creepers! The #92 SSR Porsche is back in the fight. But the Audi #26 of Klymenko and company is on it's way to retirement with damaged suspension and now we have more drivers pitting for fuel. Poor old Alban Varutti is way off the pace. Kevin Tse is now in the lane as well, car #16. Ivan Klymenko says he has damage on both corners of the Audi and has brought it to the pit lane. He clattered the wall on the left and has right side damage and he got clipped and got into the back of the McLaren!
We were just talking about the sister Aston Martin, the #11 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Kobe Pauwels, John De Wilde, Dante Rappange, and Job van Uitert. Let's see. Some joker fuel stops happening for the #48 Mercedes, and we have also heard team radio on strategy for the #16 Uno Racing Team with Landgraf. We go to the safety car procedure as the Lamborghini is suffering from a leaking radiator. As I was saying, the #16 car has David Pun, Rio, Kevin Tse, and Indy Dontje. Well, Sainteloc Audi going to work, and we are going to have the safety car coming back in and the tadiator of the Lamborghini is destroyed.
The radiator is punctured, and I think that car is done, it is out of contention. Andrea Caldarelli, Matteo Cairoli, and Mirko Bortolotti may continue in the race, but they are not going to be contenders. I could've been a contender! Now we go back to green! Ferrari leading Mercedes. A three-car battle for the race lead. Fabian Schiller being monstered by Mattia Drudi! Leading the motor race is the Ferrari of Alessio Rovera. Jim Pla, Ross Gunn, Lorenzo Patrese, next up. Down through Bruxelles they go. Sainteloc Audi have won this race overall in the past. Oh dear. Philipp Eng, last year's winning BMW M4 GT3 in the pit lane about to go a lap down! Oh no!
I wonder if he picked up debris! Staying on the lead lap is the raison d'etre for every team here. Four and a quarter hours into the race. Now, Thomas Neubauer fends off Max Hesse for ninth and tenth. Ferrari vs. BMW. The BMW Bank car won at Paul Ricard in the spring at the beginning of the season at the 500 kilometers. Maxime Martin is making progress in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 passing by the now plummeting #64 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3. Off the road again, the #78 Lamborghini, the new owner of Lola, Till Bechtolsheimer driving, off into the gravel trap at Fangnes.
We have a yellow flag, sponsored by Dane Fortune. Full Course Yellow in 20 seconds. Yellows breed yellows. Full Course Yellow in ten seconds. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Couese Yellow now. No wave by. No wave by procedure. Bechtolsheimer says he was tagged by a Mercedes. The hit wason the right side of the car through part one of Fangnes corner, a.k.a. the "Piff Paff" or "Flip Flop". The red Mercedes is the #3 car, the GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 James Kell driving, sharing with Yannick Mettler, Anthony Bartone, and Aaron Walker. Max Hesse to the pit lane, from 12th place.
Philipp Eng in the lane for ten minutes. Radiator trouble persists for the #63 Lamborghini, and we do not know yet what is wrong with the #98 BMW and there is gravel all over the place. A water leak for the #98 BMW M4 GT3 as there is tons of junked rubber offline as the next set of cars pits. A coolant leak, not a water leak, beg your pardon. A quick fuel stop for Maro Engel in the #48 Mercedes and now, Till Bechtolsheimer has been dug up out of the gravel but he has gravel under the car he needs to dispense with. Hard to assess at a reduced pace, and there, look, the #48 Mercedes Mann Filter Winward Racing car, Maro Engel, in for a splash and a dash.
Looking at the Lambo, I don't see any damage on the screen. Heavy rain scheduled from 10PM-3AM Sunday morning in the wee small hours. Team must secure their pit lane equipment as high winds are also expected. It is getting gloomy as Albert's mother. Now, I haven't the faintest because I am not from northern England, so we'll just leave that one alone. Time for another cheap pit stop round. Alessio Rovera has pitted, and Jules Gounon takes the wheel of the #2 Mercedes after Fabian Schiller's stint. Hello again to John Watson, joining Ben Constanduros topside. Then we will have Martin Haven, and Bruce Jones in the commentary box with Ryan Myrehn reporting from the pit lane.
Thunderstorms are the bane of golfers because of carbon fiber club shafts and lightning. Hello to Ralf Aron who has just run his single stint under green. He is sharing with Fredric Vesti and others in the #130 Mercedes-AMG GT3. That is the Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM car, Ralf Aron, the Estonian, Frederic Vesti, the Dane, and Spaniard Daniel Juncadella. It is getting cold, and we are seeing a little bit of rain and of course there was fog at the Nurburgring and there was very little night running. Safety Car in this lap and we are headed back to green one more time.
Alessio Rovera is now down to ninth place and the new leader is, well, the erstwhile leader should be Mattia Drudi in Aston Martin #7. These restarts are extremely frenetic. The wind is picking up, it is getting cold, and we could see more rain soon. Tire pressures on these Pirelli's will be key. Jules Gounon now behind Rovera fighting for ninth place. Heinrich leading with Drudi in second place. Miguel Ramos is third and Raffaele Marciello fourth. Marciello, Drouet, Weerts, and now, fastest of all in sector one is the second Ferrari, the #71. I believe it is Thomas Neubauer, the Frenchman, at the controls.
Miguel Ramos leads the Bronze Cup. Full Course Yellow! Full Course Yellow! Why? What's going on? We have had some misty rain and the Aston Martin, excuse me, the McLaren, is bandaged up. Laurin Heinrich in the #22 Porsche can also get serviced, the Schumacher CLRT car the German shares with Turkish driver Ayhancan Guven and Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci. Miguel Ramos, the Portuguese driver, is very experienced in the McLaren and he has the knwoledge to fall back on and he has had a long association with the Garage 59 team with team bosses Andrew Kirkaldy and Chris Goodwin, both former racing drivers themselves.
Till Bechtolsheimer explains tring to go through the first section of Piff Paff and he got spun around. Still a long way to go for the American driver and his team. Their sponsor is a tequila company. Dama Fortuna tequila. All I can think of is that instrumental song, "Tequila". They have a quick car, and a great driver team. So they are fighting to get back on the lead lap and stays there. The rainstorms might not bother them too much. The cars come down through the pit lane according to Race Director Alain Adam's instructions.
The #4 CrowdStrike Mercedes-AMG GT3 is in the lane, and I think Colin Braun will be getting out and now, there is trouble for the Porsche, the Dinamic GT Porsche. It is the end of the road for the Dinamic GT Porsche #54 of Philipp Saiger from Austria, Marvin Dienst from Germany, Guillherme Moura de Oliveira of Portugal, and Christopher Zochling of Germany. Game over. What's the trouble? They have had an electronics problem. They did their technical pit stop but now, they are out of it with a well -prepared team and a great car. Game over. We'll see Dinamic GT next year.
Henri Pescarolo went 160+ miles an hour in a Matra Simca prototype sports car on the old eight mile circuit which was absolutely insane! Eau Rouge is a massive corner, but the old circuit with corners like Burnenville, and the Masta Kink must have been incredible. Those corners still exist if you turn off the modern circuit with a roundabout halfway down the straightaway. It just goes on forever. The cars are going through the pit lane. Mattia Drudi continues on in the lead of this motor race as we complete another racing hour.
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