Ciao a tutti e benvenuti alla 6 Ore di Imola qui all'Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 6 Hours of Imola here at the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy. One of the legendary racetracks of the world and the home of the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna and San Marino Grand Prix. With that single sentence introduction, that is all the Italian you will hear from yours truly today as we cover in full, last weekend's running of the 6 Hours of Imola, round two of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. I must apologize, because I covered the Qatar 1,812 Kilometers back in March, and since then, you have not heard from me about WEC. Well, there are two reasons.
First of all, this race, and the next event on the calendar after it, the 6 Hours of Spa, both clashed with a couple of IMSA races. Secondly, it took a while for the new home of the Motor Trend channel, on the Discovery+ app to have the races available for viewing. But, now, I have the chance to tell you the story. So, grab a cold beverage, and something to eat, and if you have the Discovery+ app, please do check out the race in the FIA WEC section on Motor Trend and join yours truly for this race as we delve into the whole story. It is a pleasure to have your company. Advance ticket sales of 65,000+ people to come and see the race. Toyota are on the back foot after Qatar. But Porsche and Ferrari are on pace.
Roger Penske is at this race in Imola supporting his Porsche Penske Motorsports crew on the other side of the pond. Of course, they have a team here in the FIA WEC and a team in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, both. Porsche lead the championship after their Qatar victory as we join our regular commentary team trio of Martin Haven, Graham Goodwin, and Anthony Davidson, calling the action for the race here on this Sunday afternoon at Imola. This is a narrow, old school track, three miles long with tight, slow speed corners, and lots of elevation change. It is going to be tight and frantic.
We just have the two classes now for most of the FIA WEC with the Hypercars and the LMGT3 class and as we have explained, and did so in March in Qatar, that makes things far less confusing, especially for yours truly, as I am telling you all the story. Let's have a Captain Cook at the circuit map. The first major section we will traverse is the Tamburello set of corners, and Tamburello is actually turn two. It used to be extremely fast but now has a chicane. Very sadly of course, Imola is the place, 30 years ago, where the racing world lost the fabulous Formula 1 world champion, Ayrton Senna, in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and since then, many changes have been made to the track. Godspeed Ayrton Senna, and Rest In Peace.
We continue around the circuit winding our way through Tosa hairpin and now we come to turn nine at Piratella. Piratella is a fast, fourth gear left hand corner. Now we plunge downhill towards the brilliant three apex corner set known as Acque Minerali, the mineral water corner, turns 11, 12, and 13. Then, the cars motor back up the hill towards the final turns on the road, the chicane at turns 14 and 15. I must say that the corner name Acqua Minerali sounds far better pronounced in Italian than in English. Believe me. Rivazza at turns 17 and 18 is the double apex final turn, and the corner is actually two in one. It is a double lefthand turn that will bring the action.
As we continue our discussion in the buildup before the race start, we are going to look at the top contenders to keep an eye on this afternoon over the course of the next six hours. 29th overall in GT3 is the first of the two black and orange United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3's. McLaren have their fingers in many racing pies as they have since the late, great Bruce McLaren founded the company. Endurance racing, IndyCar, Formula 1, and of course, back many moons ago, the original Can Am. This is the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 as United Autosports is also owned by the man who owns McLaren, Zak Brown. James Cottingham of England sharing with Gregoire Saucy of Switzerland and Nico Costa of Brazil.
Imola, it should be noted is one of the few predominantly left-hand counterclockwise race tracks out there. This is the first time in FIA WEC history that we have been to two new tracks for the championship within the first couple of races on the schedule. Now, here is another little nugget for your Italian car fans. Imola and the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari, we are located smack dab in the middle, between Ferrari's home base at Maranello... the home of The Prancing Horse, and... Sant'Agata Bolognese, the home of Lamborghini and "The Raging Bull", and of course, both brands have Hypercars now. This is going to be quite the competition because you will undoubtedly have some fans here who are Tifosi and bleed Ferrari red while others, the Lamborghini fans, swear their allegiance to Verde Mantis, Mantis Green.
Of course, Ferrari and Lamborghini both are represented in Le Mans Hypercar and in GT3. The other Italian hero the fans have come to see, though he is racing for the rondel of BMW from Bavaria in Germany, specifically, Munich, is Valentino "The Doctor" Rossi. Rossi raced here in 125cc and 250cc motorcycles in MotoGP, but he has not won here on four wheels. Yet, he has every possible opportunity to do that, today. Eighth in GT3 is the #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 being shared by Francois Heriau of France, American racer Simon Mann, and Italian Alessio Rovera.
We cannot forget Isotta Fraschini either. They are Italian as well but they have just come back to motor racing after being away for 90 something years. The grandstands, terraces, and fan zones are packed today. Other former F1 drivers are in this race like Jenson Button and Sebastien Buemi. Rossi is a household name in all of sports like a Michael Jordan or whoever. He is a global superstar. Now, seven in GT3 will be the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R (992). Australian Yasser Shahin is the starting driver sharing with Dutchman Morris Schuring and Austrian veteran Richard Lietz.
Rossi is an incredible human being in addition to being a great racing driver. He is an honest, pure human being. Sixth place in LMGT3 it is the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3. Giorgio Roda, another Italian driver, starting the car, sharing with a couple Scandinavian standouts, Mikkel Pedersen from Denmark, and Norway's Dennis Olsen. Jenson Button is here at Imola, and his mother has come to see him race today. Wow. Now, we also must speak about the all-female Iron Dames Lamborghini team in GT3. We will be seeing changes to their lineup for some of the upcoming races after this one including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans which is actually fast approaching.
Amy Barrett, who is part of the Iron Dames team, she is actually the daughter of Nigel Barrett who was the very first driver to win a title in the British GT Championship. How fascinating, another little nugget of information. We are looking at the pink #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and of course, the drivers here are Sarah Bovy from Belgium, Doriane Pin from France, and Michelle Gatting from Denmark. The Iron Dames, inspiring others to race. Iron Lynx running Lamborghini's in GT3 and in Hypercar.
We are also looking at Polish racer Robert Kubica who is part of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P painted in bright yellow. Ferrari, in Hypercar, they have satisfied The Tifosi and locked out the top three places on the grid. Fourth in the GT3 class is another BMW. This is the sister BMW Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 to the car Valentino Rossi is driving, the #31 entry being shared by Darren Leung from England, Brazilian Augusto Farfus, and Sean Gelael from Indonesia. Third is the sister BMW Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. This is the #46. This is Valentino Rossi's car he shares with Ahmad Al Harthy, from Oman, and Belgian Maxime Martin. Ahmad Al Harthy did the qualifying.
There are houses nearby to the circuit so many people can watch the races from their homes. Second on the grid in LMGT3 is the rapid Aston Martin for The Heart of Racing Team driven by American domiciled British driver Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, another Italian in his home race here at Imola, and Spaniard Alex Riberas. Nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen is here and so is one of his former Audi teammates, Rinaldo "Dindo" Cappello. On the LMGT3 class pole is the #92 Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, for the Lithuanian based team. Alex Malykhin, the Russian born and St. Kitts & Nevis licensed racer who is sharing with Germany's Joel Sturm, and Austrian Klaus Bachler.
This is the car that won in Qatar. After pole, Bachler gave his co-drivers, Malykhin and Sturm, all the credit for setting the car up and said he just went out and did the qualifying laps. All of the LMGT3 cars are using spec Goodyear Eagle tires. There are Medium and Medium Plus specifications for dry weather and a wet weather compound. Medium with yellow lettering, Medium Plus with red lettering, and Wet with blue lettering. Hopefully we won't need the wets today. Medium Plus we have not seen yet. The autograph session was jam packed and well supported earlier today. Massive cues at Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota, Lamborghini, and for Valentino Rossi, too.
Every table crowded by well-wishers looking for signatures and pictures with the drivers, young and old alike. For the Hypercars, every one of them is on the Michelin Pilot Sport tire. There are three options as well as a wet tire we hope to not use. The Michelin wet is designated by a blue or lavender sidewall which the soft compound has a white or gray marking on the sidewall, the medium is yellow, and the hard compound is red. A change for the tire branding because it is much larger to be able to see which tires are on the cars in Hypercar, probably predominantly hard. Vincent Vosse, the boss of WRT along with Kurt Mollekens and Thierry Tassin, with Vosse wearing his signature flat hat.
This race happened on April 21st, on May 1st, 1994, Imola was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons for the death of Ayrton Senna after Roland Ratzenberger lost his life the day before in qualifying on Saturday. This is the closest race weekend to that fateful day, 30 years ago. As I said, we are thinking of and honoring Ayrton Senna and his entire family in our hearts today. Let's check out the Hypercar contenders. In 15th place, the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8 with Swiss driver Nico Muller taking the start, sharing with Danish driver Mikkel Jensen, and Jean Eric Vergne of France.
Here at Imola, inside Tamburello corner, there is a memorial to Ayrton Senna. In the Villeneuve chicane, there is a memorial to Gilles Villeneuve, the great Ferrari Formula 1 driver. Inside Tosa corner, there is a memorial, too, to Roland Ratzenberger. Next on the Hypercar grid is the sister #94 Peugeot 9X8. Scotsman Paul di Resta taking the start and sharing with Loic Duval of France and Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne. We thank the city of Imola and a banner to celebrate Ayrton Senna. In 13th place, the first of the two BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8's. This is the #15 car with Germany's Marco Wittmann taking the start, sharing with the Belgian Dries Vanthoor and the Swiss-Italian Raffaele Marciello.
Five-time Le Mans winner Emmanuele Pirro, paying tribute, in Italian, to Ayrton Senna. We are now taking a look at the only Hypercar with a two-driver lineup in this race. This is the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R to be driven by Alex Lynn from England and New Zealander, Earl Bamber. Emmanuelle Pirro is the grand marshal who will wave the green flag before the formation lap. He sums up perfectly, all the emotions drivers and teams go through on the grid before the race today, focusing on the job at hand but also paying tribute to our dearly departed, dearly beloved heroes of motor racing's past who we lost so tragically, here at Imola on that fateful day in 1994 and Gilles Villeneuve's fatal accident at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, on the Dutch side of Belgium, very much near Holland, back in 1982.
In 11th place, the first of the two Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963's. Phil Hanson, the British LMP2 veteran, stepping up to Hypercar in 2024, taking the start of the race, sharing with Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button, from England, and with the Danish racer, Oliver Rasmussen. Calm your nerves, get yourself in the zone, before we get started. There are so many unknowns. The unknown is giving the drivers butterflies in their stomachs at this time. We enter the top ten in Hypercar, with the #99 FATurbo Express liveried Proton Competition Porsche 963. Neel Jani from Switzerland is the starting driver, sharing with Britain's Harry Tincknell, and France's Julien Andlauer.
We are ready now for the Italian national anthem. Ninth place on the grid is the sister #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. Will Stevens from England is starting the car, sharing with fellow Brit Callum Ilott, who is an IndyCar and sports car veteran, and with Norman Nato of France. Holy smokes! Singer, Jade, has just delivered a fabulous rendition of the Italian National Anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani. We are so close to being ready to go. Eighth place on the grid, the first of the two Toyota GR010's as we are truly beginning a new era of the FIA WEC this year, in 2024. Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi will start Toyota #8 sharing the car with Brendon Hartley from New Zealand, and with Ryo Hirakawa of Japan.
This is a brilliant circuit which will be tough to drive, but the drivers are set for the challenge ahead. Seventh on the grid is the second of the two BMW M Hybrid V8's for Team WRT. Rene Rast of Germany taking the start of the motor race sharing with Dutchman Robin Frijns and South African Sheldon van der Linde. We have an Ayrton Senna liveried helicopter from the Italian military, the Militaria Italiana, flying over the circuit. In sixth place, as everyone has goosebumps before this race begins, is the sister #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. Mike Conway from England, a former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, is starting the car, sharing with Kamui Kobayashi of Japan, who shared the victory with Conway in 2021 I believe, and with Dutchman Nyck de Vries.
This is a traditional, old-school racetrack. The tires will be screaming for mercy later on in the stint. Trust me. Five minutes until we get the race started. That leaves us just enough time to highlight the top five Hypercar qualifiers. In fifth place, the first of the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963's. Frenchman Fred Makowiecki will be taking the start, sharing with Australian Matt Campbell, and with Michael Christensen of Denmark. Fourth on the grid, the sister Penske Porsche 963, the #6. Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium, taking the race start, sharing with Germany's Andre Lotterer, and France's Kevin Estre.
Right now, you have seen it in IMSA, and we see it here in WEC. This is the golden era for endurance sports car racing, perhaps even more so than the halcyon days of Group C prototypes in the 1980s or in those days in the '60s and '70s of cars such as the Ford GT40, the Ferrari 330P4 and 512S, and the Porsche 908 and 917. I dedicated an entire blog, which I will link, to the Group C era, recalling that, during the 1980s, but this has to be even better, now. Group C really lasted for a decade to a dozen years, give or take a few, between 1982 and 1992. Third place, this is the home team, Ferrari. This is Antonio Giovinazzi, starting the car that is the defending champion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with he and his fellow drivers, the defending Le Mans winners, alongside fellow Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Britain's James Calado.
There has never been as many cars, in terms of variety and quality in the endurance racing top class and the LM GT3 class has nine brands as well. The depth of manufacturer and driver involvement is a high watermark. It is going to keep on going because we have Aston Martin coming into the fold with their new Valkyrie Hypercar, next year, perhaps on both sides of the Atlantic, in IMSA and in WEC. We have three minutes before the formation laps start and a 1-2-3 for Ferrari of course as well. On the pole, the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P with the Danish racer Nicklas Nielsen taking the start, and sharing with Antonio Fuoco from Italy and with Spaniard Miguel Molina.
Fuoco was four and a half tenths of the other Ferrari's. The top three alone will be tight and close together. We surely are going to see three Ferrari's at the front, but do not count out the other manufacturers. Porsche, Toyota, BMW, Cadillac, and the rest, have all answered the bell, and are going to give The Prancing Horse, a tough run for their money this afternoon. Porsche #6 won in Qatar and are the leaders of the championship. 19 Hypercars, 18 LMGT3's. Points only go through tenth spot. So, half the grid in each division will fail to score any points after this race is completed today. The same was true last time out in Qatar. Their championship must start here. Starting it in Spa Francorchamps in Belgium next time out will be too late.
14 of 19 Hypercars have featured in Hyper Pole while the only make in GT3 that has not made Hyper Pole in the class is Lexus. The engines have fired. BMW have the exact same car, the M Hybrid V8 that they have run in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship since last year, and the GTP cars stateside also use Michelin tires. But those tires are different and the team does not know any of the tracks here in WEC as Emmanuelle Pirro, the proud Roman, waves the Tricolore, the Italian flag. The cars roll off the grid. Tire warmup will be crucial to get the temperature into the brakes, the tires, the suspension upright. Be careful with the weaving. Preserve the tires.
We have a look at the green Lamborghini SC63 Hypercar. Mirko Bortolotti spun the car in the Tamburello corner leaving the pit lane. The tires are stone cold and they will need two to three laps to come to proper working temperature, and there are no electric tire warmer blankets allowed at all in the FIA World Endurance Championship. This is going to be a rollercoaster ride in the opening laps on stone cold tires. In LMGT3, the tires will come up to temperature quicker. This is the pinch point. Dealing with traffic, the cars are fundamentally different. Ferdinand Habsburg, hurt in testing, will not race with Alpine today, replaced by their test and reserve driver, Frenchman Jules Gounon, sharing the #35 Alpine A424B with Paul-Loup Chatin and with Charles Milesi.
Two warmup laps completed. Safety Car lights off. Pedro Couciero is the safety car driver. Survive lap one. Track position is crucial in this six-hour race. Don't be fighting fires. Ferrari 1-2-3. The fans in attendance in for a real treat. Porsche won the opener at Qatar. Ferrari want to win this race. Then come the two Penske Porsche 963's followed by Toyota and BMW with Hertz Team Jota's Porsche, and the two revised Peugeot 9X8's that now both have rear wings on them. We've got the red lights on, and now we go! It is already three deep behind the Ferrari's and there has been a crash in the middle of the pack! Ferrari run 1-2-3 as Robert Kubica runs wide aboard the #83 yellow AF Corse Ferrari 499P. Oh my gosh! We have mayhem in the first corner as one of the BMW's is turned around.
One of the Peugeot's has also been involved in this mess, and skittering through the gravel trap is the #11 Isotta Fraschini with Jean Karl Vernay, the Frenchman, the starting driver, sharing with Carl Wattana Bennett of Thailand and Canadian driver Antonio Seravalle. Some of the GT3 cars have made contact and spun around already. Cars are spearing off the road. I apologize, everyone. It was not the Isotta Fraschini. Both of the Alpine A424's were off the road! Paul di Resta in Peugeot #94, Marco Wittman in BMW #15 also off the circuit. Yasser Shahin in the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R barely got across the start/finish line before being tagged.
Paul di Resta trailing some very expensive smoke as he is trundling back to the pit lane aboard the #94 Peugeot. It was three-wide around the green slow starting Lamborghini with Mirko Bortolotti at the wheel of it. The safety car has been dispatched. One of the Alpine's desperately struggling it's way back to the pits having picked up the signage from the side of the track in the form of a Goodyear tires banner. #91 is back up and running. Terrible scenes into turn two. This is all about trac position. BMW and Peugeot made contact with each other, there's smoke everywhere, nobody can see anything.
One of the Alpine's taken out in this mess after the Peugeot does a complete 360. One of the Alpine's skittering through the gravel trap. Perhaps the BMW got clonked by the Isotta Fraschini. di Resta got tagged from behind. In the Alpine, he tags the back of the Peugeot, and then, unsighted, the BMW spears across the bow, and... ker-runch! It was the Alpine into the Peugeot. I think the #35 Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere actually got out of that shemozzle unscathed. Now we watch from aboard the Isotta Fraschin who hit the Alpine. It was a total domino effect. #11 into #35 and into #15 and into #94. The cars are running behind the safety car into the pit lane to avoid the debris field from the separate incident for the #91 Porsche, the Manthey EMA car.
Now, watch the view on the onboard camera for the #15 BMW of Marco Wittmann. Ugh! The engine goes quiet, and he is spinning right into the path of the Cadillac and one of the other Hypercars, carbon fiber and metal crunching everywhere. It all goes quiet, and now he is facing backwards, with the absolute daylights scared out of him, praying silently, "dear God, don't let anyone hit me!" Marco Wittmann is a lucky luck boy! The Porsche and more heavily damaged Alpine have made it back to the lane with the Alpine trailing the Goodyear billboard.
The Peugeot team is now trying to change the left rea tire of the #94 car, but they cannot get the car jacked up in the air. Marco Wittmann has steering damage to the BMW and the whole right front corner has been sheared off the Alpine as well, look. Charles Milesi says the steering is straight but the car still has front and rear damage that needs to be checked. Debris from the shredded tire and brake cooling ducts all wrapped around the suspension and the bodywork. The Alpine team are changing the bodywork on the front left corner. The Peugeot is back out but still with damage and they have beaten the safety car.
Porsche #91 in the pit lane, and the #36 Alpine in the garage along with the #15 BMW. The #35 Alpine sister car continues to circulate but has fallen to being within the pack of LMGT3 cars. Don't drop another lap down charging around in front of the safety car. This is the same as American racing, doing anything to avoid going a lap down. We see this in NASCAR, IndyCar, and in IMSA as well, in the states. Through that melee, the Ferrari's have moved up and they run 1-2-3. Manthey Pure Racing continue leading in LM GT3. Thomas Flohr has started, after being persuaded by the team to do so, the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 that he shares with Francesco Castellaci and Davide Rigon.
We are about to go back to green flag racing. We did not see when Antonio Giovinazzi made his move on Robert Kubica. Green flag. We are back to racing. The orange lights were flashing on the starting gantry which means there may have been a false start, just like a flag for the same penalty in American football. The green flags are waving. Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 makes a power move on the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 in the hands of Harry Tincknell, I think. In LMGT3, James Cottingham in the McLaren passes the Ford Mustang GT3 of Giorgio Roda.
The Mustang seems to have rear end damage after the shunt. Alex Malykhin leaps past Ahmad Al Harthy. Porsche 911 GT3R vs. BMW M4 GT3. The #94 Peugeot has returned now to the pit lane. They are taking the tail off and replacing it with a new one. Good news for Alpine but bad news for Peugeot. The leader is coming out of Rivazza and they need to beat the Ferrari's. No dice. Nicklas Nielsen leads Antonio Giovinazzi. Only ten cars will score points at the end of the six hours. Trouble now, too, for the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. That could be a puncture for them.
Sarah Bovy is going very slowly. Rahel Frey looking on, who will be on the team next time out at Spa Francorchamps. She missed the pit lane. So, she was deep into Rivazza and hung out to dry. I think the gearbox went to neutral. She bounces over the chicane at Variante Alta. Robert Kubica says that the ALS system is not working and the V6 turbo motor is not running well. He has the #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, right on his six, no pun intended. It is Corvette vs. Mustang in LMGT3 into Tosa corner. Giorgio Roda loses a place to the TF Sport Corvette.
Meanwhile, the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Frenchman Clement Mateu makes a pass on the #77 sister Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, with American Ryan Hardwick at the controls. He is sharing #77 with Englishman Ben Barker and Canadian Zacharie Robichon. Mateu down the inside of Hardwick and he loses two places through the gravel. This race is turning into a sword fight. Porsche #6 and Toyota #7 both breaking free of traffic as Mike Conway is chasing down Laurens Vanthoor. Into the Villeneuve chicane the Aston Martin, the D'station car is passed fair and square by one of the two Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3's.
Five laps now completed, 15 and a quarter miles. The Lexus is finally on a track that suits it. Clement Mateu is passed by his French countryman Esteban Masson. Masson at the wheel of the #87 car sharing with Takeshi Kimura of Japan and former Toyota LMP1 and Hypercar driver, the Argentinian, Jose Maria Lopez. Lamborghini on Lamborghini. Iron Dames on Iron Lynx, teammate on teammate, as Sarah Bovy passes Claudio Schiavoni. The Manthey EMA Porsche remains in the pit lane. Esteban Masson is the Silver ranked driver in the Lexus and they need their Bronze ranked driver to do a minimum of a double stint, an hour and a half.
So, the battle for third in Hypercar between Ferrari and Porsche is raging on as Laurens Vanthoor is chasing down Robert Kubica. Vanthoor has his hands full with Mike Conway in Toyota #7. Now, the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang as we go onboard with the roaring 5.4-liter V8 Mustang, has the diffuser flapping around behind the car. Somehow it has worked its way loose. That is really hurting the aerodynamics and the tire wear. The marshals should put out the meatball flag because the whole diffuser is loose. The team are ready to make repairs and the Iron Dames Lamborghini is in the lane, too.
Heading for the traffic we have a Ferrari 1-2-3 ahead of Porsche, Toyota, Porsche, BMW, and Toyota. The team tells Sarah Bovy to remain in the car and not worry about talking to the team on the radio because they are investigating what she reported as a vibration on the car. The Iron Dames were dominating the opening race of the 2024 European Le Mans Series the weekend before this race happened which yielded heartbreak. The recovering #36 Alpine is now making its way through the GT3 traffic and yes, the wounded Ford Mustang GT3 is now in the pit lane. Somehow, the wiring that holds the diffuser, has come off and the whole diffuser is loose.
The leading queue of Hypercars are catching the GT3 pack. Mike Conway is told to think about saving energy. If you can't go faster, go longer. But this is frustrating. Now, the Proton Competition pit crew is working on changing the diffuser. Everything behind the rear bulkhead needs to be changed for safety, for the handling, and for the rear tires. Mike Conway is not listening to his engineers because he knows that he is in this hard-fought battle with Laurens Vanthoor in the Porsche and that they are both coming up to a huge stream of GT3 traffic. No DRS on a sports car to help with overtaking. Only Formula 1 cars have a Drag Reduction System.
Mike Conway scrapping for third place while in a battle for seventh, Sebastien Buemi is closing steadily on Rene Rast. Conway aiming to pass Laurens Vanthoor in the Porsche, aboard the #7 Toyota while the #8 sister car is harrying the BMW driver. Momentarily we go onboard the Alpine and now, the two Ferrari's running 1-2 are about the run headlong into the GT3 traffic. The #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 now rejoins the motor race. Mike Conway set fastest lap and then his teammate, Buemi, sntches it away while the Ferrari's are scrapping through Piratella corner. Eyes all over the place looking everywhere through the traffic. We have Full Course Yellow on course in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
This is for debris on the racing line at turn four, a quick Full Course Yellow, a maximum of no more than two laps. The marshals recovering bodywork from the Mustang. The Iron Dames team is still searching for a source of an electrical problem on the Lamborghini, currently. Robert Kubica from Poland, and co-drivers Yifei Ye from China, and Robert Shwartzman from Israel. They scored more points than the factory Ferrari's and the #50 is the better placed factory car. They need to outscore their team cars. This is true pressure on teams that did not score big in the Qatar 1,812 Kilometers. Full Course Yellow now removed. Green flag.
Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let's get back at it! Sebastien Buemi is getting racy. Fred Makowiecki is now inching towards Mike Conway who could be slowing down but he is free to go after Robert Kubica. Have they lost heat in the tires? Nicklas Nielsen is now chasing Antonio Giovinazzi. Conway did not overtake one of the Porsche's. Now we will see Conway's speed because he is in clear air. The GT3 cars allowing the Hypercars by before the first chicane. You don't have to be much more than a tiny percentage off the road to lose ground. Imola is a narrow circuit for these wide sports cars, particularly the Hypercars.
One of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R's goes off the road and back on after plowing through the gravel trap. We now hear for the first time from our pit reporter, Bruce Jouanny, who is speaking to Iron Lynx. One of the Peugeot's, car #93, is off and back on. We cannot hear Bruce yet. We'll have to get an update. Iron Dames and Manthey EMA both in the garage as Mike Conway is chasing down the championship leading #6 Porsche which has dropped away from Robert Kubica in the #83 Ferrari 499P. Hiroshi Koziumi was the driver of the Corvette who went off the road. So, that is the #82 TF Sport entry, and the Japanese driver is sharing it with Frenchman Sebastien Baud, and Spaniard Daniel Juncadella.
Nico Mueller went off in the grass and back on in the #93 Peugeot 9X8. Matthieu Vaxiviere, has brought the repaired #36 Alpine A424B back on track and he has uncorked the fastest middle sector time of the race thus far, so the repairs made by the French team in the national French racing color of blue, have stuck and seem to be working out fine at this stage. The whole field is spread out and the order has reshuffled back to how it was. Yasser Shahin in Porsche #91 and Iron Dames #85 Lamborghini are both penalized. So, the #85 Iron Dames Lambo has been forced to the garage with a damaged torque sensor and without that, they cannot drive the car. The rulebook says that the torque sensor must be connected and working for the car to be drivable because this gathers data for the FIA and ACO stewards to study.
Sarah Bovy at the controls still. The torque sensors monitor maximum limited peak power in Hypercar and in GT3. This is monitored live in real time by the FIA and the ACO. IMSA does the same thing here in the states. 12 laps now completed in the LMGT3 ranks by the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, 37 miles. Porsche #92 leads the #46 BMW Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 by almost three seconds, by 2.844 seconds, precisely. We are watching now the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6C Hypercar and Isotta Fraschini was pretty much one of the original Italian carmakers because they existed long before Ferrari or Lamborghini were even thought of or heard of. Enzo Ferrari was a racing driver before he built cars and Ferrucio Lamborghini began his company by building tractors, not cars.
Isotta Fraschini built supercars in the 1930s. Jean Karl Vernay is driving, running 15th, and he has a piece of the Alpine's bodywork stuck to the nose of car #11. Nicklas Nielsen reports on the radio that he cannot use the brakes and the car is not stopping. He has to lift and coast through the corners. Trouble for harvesting energy for the hybrid unit. Last year at the 6 Hours of Portimao, the #51 Ferrari had massive trouble under braking. Lots of braking zones here at Imola as well. He is relying more on mechanical braking and it is hard to stop the car. Pulling away from your teammate is not the best way to make it work because the brakes are just as important as the engine.
Mike Conway now is beginning to reel in Laurens Vanthoor another time. We have now gone through an extended period of green flag racing with almost half an hour on the board here at Imola. Everyone is now able to correlate what they thought they saw happening in practice, to what is going on in the race itself. There is now a battle in Hypercar for 13th place between two familiar old rivals. Peugeot #93 in the hands of Nico Muller, the Swiss driver, is chasing after Alex Lynn from England aboard the #2 Chip Ganassi Cadillac Racing Cadillac V Series.R. The repairs have been completed on the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R and it is about to come back out on track.
The mounting point, though, for the front bodywork, is not aligning properly. The last time around, all of the top five Hypercars have run identical lap times. Sebastien Buemi has uncorked his fastest race lap and so has Mike Conway. Oh dear! Trouble for the #93 Peugeot 9X8! This is Nico Muller going slowly. He has lost the gearbox. It is not a manual selector. It is the electronics. He seems now to have speed and shfiting capabilities. It's the electronics, I am sure. Coming down to Tamburello he slows down into the turn, and has the gears, but now he is moving again. Keep going, Nico. Keep going. Peugeot have now changed to hydraulic gear changes in the gearbox as opposed to the old system which was a pneumatic system.
Ferrari run 1-2-3 in Imola, but still with five hours and 28 minutes to go. Mike Conway continues in hot pursuit of Laurens Vanthoor. The rubber band is stretching out between these two. He has taken about a second out of Laurens Vanthoor or so it appears. One of the red Ferrari's and the yellow Ferrari are slicing and dicing their way through the GT3 traffic and have had a couple very close shaves! Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 has almost been caught by teammate Robert Kubica climbing out of Tosa and into Piratella and through the Villeneuve chicane. This is a chess game through traffic. The Porsche takes much more curb than the Toyota takes.
The Porsche now seems far more compliant over the curbs than it used to be. Some drivers have good knowledge of the circuit here at Imola while others have absolutely none. Thomas Flohr has now stopped the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 in the gravel trap. He is beached, the car squatted down and he has dug in. Full Course Yellow? Maybe so. He is a long way off to driver's left. He took too much curb on the left side of the track with too much yaw in the car. He tried reapplying the power to back out of the kitty litter but dug himself into a deeper hole in the process.
This is such a tough track to get a hold of. Meanwhile, Nicklas Nielsen in the lead has lost time to his Ferrari teammates who are bearing down on him as in 40 seconds we are going to go to Full Course Yellow conditions on the circuit. The gap is 2.1 seconds between Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Giovinazzi as Mike Conway through Tamburello, makes a pass on one of the GT3 Corvette's. Full Course Yellow in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We hear again from AI Eduardo Freitas... no, AI, Lisa, Edoardo's assistant, or worse, AI, me! Oh no! Heavens to Betsy! Let's hope that does not happen. Tisk, tisk, tisk.
The Mustangs are continuing to deal with loose bodywork, and this is happening now on the other car, the #77. We saw the factory cars go through this way back at the beginning of the year in IMSA at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and no question it has also reared it's ugly head in WEC competition as well. It tends to happen to cars with no real reason. So, Thomas Flohr is being craned out onto the gravel. We go back to green with 20 minutes left in the opening hour. Robert Kubica is stretching the gap out ahead of Laurens Vanthoor I believe. Rene Rast in the #20 BMW is being harried by Sebastien Buemi in Toyota #8. BMW are looking so much more competitive here at Imola than they did back in March at the opener in Qatar.
It is that old "horses for courses" deal we always talk about. The circuit here at Imola, suits the BMW so much more and trying to compare Imola, a classic, vintage, old school track, with Qatar, which is in a much newer mold, well, it is like comparing apples and oranges. Rene Rast is doing a good job of fending off Sebastien Buemi in the Toyota, a man who has now won four times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The pit stop window is going to open soon. The Cadillac was also involved in the earlier shemozzle and missing bodywork on the left rear corner. They will need to change the tail section of the #2 car at Chip Ganassi Racing.
Meanwhile, back at the top of the shop, the three Ferrari's are still ahead, although Robert Kubica is getting stymied in lapped traffic, and this is going to allow Laurens Vanthoor to bait him and reel him in. For Vanthoor, the #83 yellow Ferrari is definitely the cork in the bottle. Up to Tosa they come. Buemi reeling Rast in through Tosa and the Hypercars overtake the Lexus RC F GT3 before Piratella corner. Rene Rast has to take a defensive line and gets away with in on corner exit. Buemi is always thinking of where his next opportunity to pass. Where is the driver in front of me more vulnerable? Where can I make my move?
BMW are going to squeeze everything and anything they can out of the M Hybrid V8 at any point on the road as this is a learning experience for them. Buemi in Toyota #8 is keeping his powder dry for the next stint of the race as the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 has rejoined the race. The plan for Robert Kubica in the #83 Ferrari 499P is to triple stint their tires as we have news from someone at the FIA, the sanctioning body for this championship and the one that oversees all world motorsport, internationally, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. It was not a broken torque sensor. There was no data at all coming off the car, the cam bus system which sends the data from the car to the computer systems, was not sending anything.
They were fixing it and the car is now stopped on the road. Is it? No. It isn't. Sebastien Buemi could be upset being stymied behind the BMW. But he is the strong and silent type at this moment. Buemi is being given an energy, a fuel number to hit. He will stop a lap earlier and has a lap of energy to use. So, the Toyota's cannot use maximum power. They are lifting and coasting while stuck in traffic. He has more fuel in the tank to play with at this moment. This is essentially more energy, usable energy, per lap. That clarifies things. Thank you very much.
It is also language that tells the driver "You have the energy, so, turn it on and apply the pressure, mate." Now, we have a good battle in progress for fifth place in LMGT3. Ian James in the #27 Heart of Racing Tea Aston Martin vs. Esteban Masson in the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3. Potential trouble for the third place #83 Ferrari under investigation for overtaking under Full Course Yellow as Nicklas Nielsen sets a new fastest lap of the race at 1:32.499 with teammate Antonio Giovinazzi within a second of his teammate. The Ferrari's dominating in Italy. Go figure. The battle rages on in earnest for fourth place between Conway and Vanthoor.
This scrap has been going on for 45 minutes, since the start of the race. The penalty is for not being at 80 kilometers an hour when the Full Course Yellow appeared. Mike Conway does not have extra power to get by the Porsche. So, he will have to use stealth, guile, or traffic, to make that move work. The pit lane here at Imola is very narrow and congested, so you don't want to be double stacking both cars in the box at the same time. That will put a team on the back foot almost immediately and make a pig's breakfast out of their race while giving team management the world's worst ice cream headache. 23 laps now on the board for the GT3 leading #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, 70 miles.
James Cottingham is pitting for McLaren and United Autosport. He is told to be careful and that it is safe for him to box, to pit, and he will stay in the car and do a double stint. A while ago it sounds like Cottingham was having tire trouble according to what he replied to the team on the radio, and they have a fresh Goodyear Eagle all set. The right rear tire is flat, as we can see here in this replay, and he picked up a puncture from some debris from one of those first lap shunts. Now, back to live pictures, and Cottingham has trouble on his hands as that right rear tire is starting to flail around and squirm.
Do not destroy the car. Drive slowly and live to fight another day rather than racing back to the pit lane. The tire is still intact, and it has not come apart and started flailing around like a sawblade absolutely shredding the rear bodywork. There will be a lot of carbon fiber all over. Now we focus on a positional battle in Hypercar. This is Isotta Fraschini vs. Alpine vs. Peugeot. #11, #35, #93 for 14th place in the Hypercar class and in the overall. That is how competitive this Hypercar field is in the 2024 FIA WEC. Shades of the old days in Formula 1 and even in the current time when you have tiers of top of the shop and mid-level teams.
This is for position, by the way. Yes, you can hear me in the background audibly chuckling when I say this, but it is also for... dun... dun... dun... revenge! Insert evil villain laugh followed by a real chuckle fron me. Now, as Charles Milesi is steaming up towards the Isotta Fraschini, it still has front end damage (the Isotta) and an unwanted "hood ornament" in the form of a chunk of carbon fiber still lodged on its nose. The Isotta Fraschini as it is running right now, is an embarrassed teenager with a face blemish.
Mirko Bortolotti in 11th place in the #63 Lamborghini SC63, is beginning to show that car has true pace compared to what it had in Qatar even though Bortolotti had a whoopsie on the way to the grid before the race began about 40 minutes ago. He spun the car around and couldn't find and engage reverse. Reverse on a race car especially on a sports car is difficult to find. Right now, he is fending off the challenge of the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 with Neel Jani at the wheel of it. He is just mere seconds behind the Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 in the hands of Will Stevens, the #12 car. Peugeot fighting it's French compatriot and rival, Alpine, for position. Peugeot's first guise of the 9X8 had no rear wing.
Now, this updated version of the car has a rear wing and and a different size tire, fat on the back, narrow on the front, just like all the other Hypercars. The aerodynamic footprint of that car has completely changed. The whole floor, the diffuser, on this upgraded 9X8 are totally different in comparison to the old car. It is another apples and oranges scenario for The Lion. 95% of that Peugeot 9X8 which looks exactly the same to the naked eye, is a brand-new race car. You would need a flashlight and a magnifying glass to get down to the finite details of everything changed on the car because the overall shape is no different.
That being said, only two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle for the new Peugeot for 2024 compared to last year's 2023 example, are the windscreen and the air intake inlet. That includes key components like driveshaft, suspension, transmission, wheels, brakes, aerodynamics, bodywork, everything. The tub, the engine and the gearbox are the same. Everything else is new. It should not still be called the 9X8. I think they should have at least called the car the Peugeot 9X9 so that fans and writers like yours truly are not totally and utterly confused by this 99% new motorcar.
Suddenly the drivers have a more raceable car, so the drivers are not scared out of their wits by the car twitching under acceleration and spinning like a top if they put the welly down on the gas pedal, too far. As the car spins, it obviously would also destroy the rear tires. The new Peugeot is preventing that from happening. The tires will not be reduced to pencil eraser shavings. So, the leading Hypercars have now tiptoed (through the tulips), no, through the GT3 traffic, with no worries. Sebastien Buemi and Rene Rast are both flying, and each one is aware of the other. We have not heard a squeak out of Hertz Team Jota from either of their cars, #12 and #38. So, this tells me that they are on strategy, and everything is going to plan early doors.
Jota ran a very different strategy compared to the factory Porsche team. But now, the #38 Jota Porsche 963 of Phil Hanson is beginning to catch Sebastien Buemi who right now is trapped behind Rene Rast. The BMW is now the cork in the bottle that Buemi must dislodge from it in order to get a drink of the next position. Alpine A424B #35 in the pit lane for service while yours truly is doing what he usually does, yammering away about the motor race at hand here, folks. After the imbroglio of the start of this motor race, it is time for the drivers to get their heads down, get their noses to the grindstone and start racing each other seriously.
This Imola 6 Hours is going to be a race of attrition. That is the first basic rule of endurance racing followed by staying on track, staying out of the pit lane, and not hitting things. Alpine #35 still in pit lane. What has happened to the #15 BMW? Well, Team WRT are assessing the damage, and doing everything in their power to repair the car and get back into the race ASAP. They need mileage. Alpine #35 in the pit lane. We have a lap or so before the pit stops really begin to happen. The sister #36 Alpine is making it's way through the LMGT3 order and the #35 is out of the pits. But Matthieu Vaxiviere in the sister #36 Alpine A424B is currently down in 22nd place. It is still chasing the top four in LMGT3.
Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane, he is about to give us an update on the situation at BMW M. #15 is about to rejoin after having repairs for severe suspension damage. This is the first run of any kind for the BMW on a European circuit as we see one of the TF Sport Corvette's coming to the pit lane. 31 laps of racing completed 94 and a half miles. We are closing in on the first hour being completed. BMW and Porsche continue battling for seventh place. Rene Rast vs. Sebastien Buemi as Buemi has been told by the team that he has more of a power map to use but it isn't enough. It is pretty incredible that BMW can stay ahead of the car, or cars, that are the de facto benchmark of the Hypercar division, the Toyota's.
We are into the pit window for LMGT3 and four of those GT3 cars have thus answered the bell. The #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin, the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3, and the second #82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. BMW #15 is about to rejoin the race. There was such huge damage to the BMW and the other Hypercars that went off the road one lap one, but such is the robust nature and reliability of modern race cars, they are still racing out there on the circuit as we are rapidly closing in here at Imola, on having an hour of racing already on the board.
The modern endurance sports car is built in a modular fashion like a Lego set for servicing in a way that most production cars are certainly not. The GT3 cars look like a car you can drive on the road. Yes, they have a central body tub that is shared with a road legal sports car. But, these machines are pure racing cars from the word go. The #92 Pure Racing Manthey Porsche is in the lane, from the lead. Ian James in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is in the lead in class but now, the #87 Lexus is coming in a hurry. Ian James is the minnow while Esteban Masson is definitely the shark in this situation. Where were Lexus in Qatar? They were getting bullied and wrestled by everyone else and tossed aside into the gravel traps.
Now, on a wholly different track, Akkodis ASP and their team leader, former driver Jerome Policand, the Frenchman, they have found the magic sauce here at Imola. Gosh, have you boys been eating your pasta or what? Maybe the carbo loading is doing the trick. The Lexus boys, here in Italy, they are looking a very different proposition than they did in the Qatari desert. Sebastien Buemi is ducking and diving in desperation to get through the GT3 traffic before Acqua Minerale. We have an update from the lane and Bruce Jouanny telling us that the #15 BMW is rolling and will be back on track momentarily.
It is time for the GT3 cars to pit as their energy levels are now running absolutely on fumes in ye olde gas tank. Hard tires on the rear, medium tires on the front. Triple stint the hard compound tires in moderately warm conditions. Not as cold or hot as it might be. Not freezing like ice or boiling hot, but not as cold as it could be, around 23 to 25 degrees Celsius. This is a range of 73-77 Fahrenheit. In the meantime, the two Ferrari's in the lead of this motor racing are getting stuck behind one of the GT3 Ford Mustang's. Wow! Three into one is not going to work with the Mustang definitely the meat in a Ferrari sandwich!
If Giorgio Roda, the Italian aboard the Mustang, would have stayed planted in the middle of the road, that would have been a lead change between the two Ferrari's. Apart from into the Tamburello corner, the Hypercars do not have such a speed discrepancy over the GT3 car here at Imola, in the same way we saw it present itself at Qatar from way back in March. In more of the corners, they are closing at a lower speed to the GT3 cars and compared to the old GTE cars, the GT3 cars brake deeper into the corners because they use antilock brakes, and their minimum corner speed is slower. They are a long term holdup to the Hypercar drivers.
Nicklas Nielsen almost lost the lead to Antonio Giovinazzi. Giovinazzi and his co-drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado need a victory for several reasons. They last won at the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. They need the points for the championship. So, Giovinazzi is trying to cleanly pass the GT3 car with every skill as a racing driver in his toolbox. Esteban Masson in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 car while the sister car has taken the class lead in GT3 but has not pitted as of yet. The #78 has Frenchman Arnold Robin, Russian racer Timur Boguslavskiy, and South African Kelvin van der Linde, on the driver's strength. Kelvin van der Linde is BMW Team WRT driver Sheldon van der Linde's brother.
In the meantime, the stewards have issued a penalty to the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R of Australian Yasser Shahin, a one minute stop and go, for causing a collision at the start with the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini of Sarah Bovy. In the meantime, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 is in the pit lane for service and this appears to be scheduled.
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