Now, under the #94 Peugeot at the front, is an airbag, because the onboard air jacks are not working. They have put some kind of a bag under the car and inflate it with the compressed air line that would normally go to the air jacks, or to one of the rattle guns for the wheels, like pumping up a football to the right weight. This is a massive time loss because the airbag solution is not as quick as the onboard air jacks coming up or going down. So, the #94 Peugeot now has fresh medium compound Michelin tires. Loic Duval now in the car. Hertz Team Jota are 1-2 but have not yet pitted. They went two laps longer in the first stint and are doing it again. In the meantime, Joel Sturm has passed Francois Heriau for the GT3 lead and Valentino Rossi is closing, 3.1 seconds behind both of them. Heriau left the steering open and saw Joel Sturm was going to make the move, so he knew he had to give it up and that discretion was by far the better part of valor.
Heriau is not there to take on the Pro drivers. He is battling only with similarly rated drivers. So, Jota run 1-2 with Will Stevens ahead in car #12 while Joel Sturm leads for Manthey Pure Racing, also in a Porsche. It is Porsche uber alles in both Hypercar and GT3 currently. The sister #38 Jota Porsche is in the lane as #12 has now run 72 laps, 220 miles. Phil Hanson has brought the sister #38 Porsche 963 to the pit lane and is handing over to either Jenson Button or Oliver Rasmussen. Economy and efficiency are the strong points of the Jota Porsche's it looks like. Unless something changes, going long and not having to fuel just before the six-hour mark at the end of the race, might be their saving grace.
So, now, both of the Ferrari's are motoring back towards the front. In the meantime, we have three penalties being assessed to various cars and teams by the stewards. All three cars are copping the same penalty for not respecting the Full Course Yellow procedure. Car #27, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin, car #87, the Akkodis ASP Lexus, and car #88, the Proton Competition Ford Mustang. Heart of Racing and Daniel Mancinelli driving, will have the harshest penalties. Jota has some very good drivers. #12 has Will Stevens, Callum Ilott, and Norman Nato. #38 has Jenson Button, Phil Hanson, and Oliver Rasmussen.
The battle is on now, look, for second in GT3 between Francois Heriau in the #55 Vista Jet AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of "The Doctor", Valentino Rossi. Penske Porsche were humbled last year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by the Jota Porsche team. Jota led Le Mans last year, with Yifei Ye. Yifei Ye of course, has since moved to Ferrari and is in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, the yellow Ferrari, also driven by the two Robert's. Robert Kubica and Robert Shwartzman. A penalty called for the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin, ten seconds for a pit stop infringement.
Valentino Rossi is a motorcycle racer, but he is resolutely left foot braking. Rossi is being told the position in front can be taken, fighting the #55 Ferrari. Rossi wants to get on the podium. They got tantalizingly close in Qatar. He is applying himselfto the car racing side. He has driven rally cars in the offseason. What will give him a boost is that Jorge Lorenzo, another former two wheeled world champion, he had a brief car racing career but struggled mightily with it. Rossi is going for an inside pass on Francois Heriau. Let's see how this is going to work out.
He can't quite commit. Rossi is doing the right things with car placement and trying to get inside Francois Heriau's mind. Rossi raced motorcycles for a quarter of a century. He is a racer. He is just now doing it on four wheels instead of two. The Jota Porsche 963 has now split them briefly. That is the #38 car in the hands of Oliver Rasmussen. Be careful to not run wide through turn 19 and that is one of the corners that is very risky. A lot of the track is self-policing. Corner 19 is the second half of Rivazza. The only car that has been pinged for track limits at all, has been Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963.
It is not Jani's fault, because he is a true professional driver who has been at it a long time. It is more about how the car is set up and how it is handling through the corners. Heriau is the Bronze-rated driver aboard Ferrari #55 Rossi is a Silver rated driver coming into the four wheeled part of his racing career. I don't believe the motorcycle federation, the FIM, has any kind of rider ratings, which the FIA for car racing, does. Rossi has nine world championships. Actually, ten. He has won the motorcycle Grand Prix at Le Mans on the Bugatti circuit for motorcycles. The poor old #88 Ford Mustang GT3 has become one of those transformer superhero robot toys that kids play with all the time, an action figure.
This car is transforming into some weird hybrid of a Matchbox car and an action figure as it continues shedding bodywork or having the rear tail section twisted and contorted all over the place. It has a flat right rear tire, and the team has tried mightily to fix the mounting point for the rear diffuser but whatever they are doing with it, it isn't working. Francois Heriau has now driven for two hours and 10 minutes and has not had a driver change yet. The #88 Mustang GT3 has had a puncture and clattering over the curbs on the way back to the pit lane has ripped the diffuser out from underneath.
Mikkel Pedersen is way down the order. Christian Ried, the team owner, his brother, Michael Ried, co-owns the team and is the technical director at Proton Competition. This will not be a quick fix for the #88 Ford Mustang GT3. Meanwhile, we are having a Captain Cook at the battle between the two United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3's. #59 ahead of #95. It is the Nicolas and Nicolas show, or the Nico and Nico show if you prefer. Nico Costa of Brazil in the #59 ahead of Nico Pino of Chile in the #95. There is something about seeing the black part of the livery on the front of these 720S cars that you see the old McLaren F1 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.
Then, when you look at the tail with the orange which was McLaren's original color, that evokes memories of the Can Am monsters driven by Bruce McLaren himself and Denny Hulme, as well as their early Formula 1 and IndyCars. So, yes, the history really comes flooding back. Both of these cars are in the points paying positions in GT3 and the whole deal for United Autosport to run with McLaren came together very late, even though the team boss, Zak Brown, he is also the head cheese at McLaren for both their Formula 1 and IndyCar programs, today. So, they are doing the same as in their heyday. They race in Formula 1, IndyCar, and sports cars.
Costa, being a Brazilian, he has an Ayrton Senna tribute livery on the rear wing of his car and has an Ayrton Senna tribute helmet. We lost Ayrton Senna, here at Imola of course, 30 years ago, on May 1st, 1994, in a horrendous accident in the Formula 1 San Marino Grand Prix. Nico Costa was not born yet when Senna was killed in the accident. But he knows the history of Ayrton Senna, as does everyone in Brazil who is a racing fan. This is a battle for ninth and tenth in GT3. United Autosport have no GT racing experience in the FIA WEC nor does McLaren. They are learning while racing.
Traffic is now ahead as Valentino Rossi is chasing down Francois Heriau. They are dealing with one of the Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3's, car #87, and a couple of Hypercars. One of the Ferrari's runs ahead of these chaps while the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac is also trying to play through. Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche, his gap has doubled. It was three seconds, and it has now ballooned to six seconds. Heriau is now in clean air ahead of Rossi. Some great slow motion replay action here at Imola. A clash of some music on that replay reel, some synthesizer and hard rock theme music to go with the pictures.
Great conditions for the cars and for the fans. It is warm but not windy. We have had two hours of clean racing as we approach two and a quarter hours into the race. We are continuing to watch the battle between Heriau and "The Doctor". Heriau gets the door slammed in his face as the Proton Competition Porsche 963 Hypercar plays through past the GT3 battle. Rossi in the BMW is very good under braking. However, I don't think the BMW M4 GT3 has the top end speed to match the Ferrari 296 GT3 on the straightaways. Both cars are running 3-liter displacement turbocharged six-cylinder engines. I believe they are both in a V6 cylinder configuration.
The Ferrari peels off into the pit lane and now Rossi will put the welly down. Rossi made his living and won his races and championships, balancing a motorcycle. Most of where you catch and pass fellow riders is under braking. He has incredible sensitivity to braking. Francois Heriau is now finished with his stint for the day and so his co-drivers in the #55 Ferrari will alternate for the rest of the race. It will be American Simon Mann and Italian Alessio Rovera carrying the car to the end. A warning about track limits is now issued to Frenchman Erwan Bastard who is at the wheel of the #777 D'station Aston Martin he shares with Marco Sorensen, the Danish racer, and fellow Frenchman, Clement Mateu.
Francois Heriau has kept car #55 in the hunt and has dropped Valentino Rossi in the BMW farther behind Joel Sturm in the Porsche, the #92 Manthey Pure Racing car. Ferrari run 1-2. Antonio Giovinazzi in #51 and Nicklas Nielsen in #50. They are on completely different tire strategies. Giovinazzi is running on four medium compound Michelin's that have been on the car a long, long time, for 80 laps! At the same time, Nicklas Nielsen has four brand new medium compound Michelins on his car.
Nyck de Vries is flying in car #7. He is told the gap by his team. He is 2/10ths of a second faster than the second place Ferrari and is 5.6 seconds behind Nicklas Nielsen. Antonio Giovinazzi is 7.3 seconds to the good over his teammate and has completed 81 laps, 247 miles. Oh no! The #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 is in the barrier! Callum Ilott is at the controls, and he is backing up out of the gravel trap going up through, I believe that is Tosa, the uphill right hander. It appears he just locked the brakes up and just kissed the barrier, barely. The problem for Callum Ilott is that he reversed back onto a live track with other cars coming.
I think the stewards might take a dim view of that maneuver. Although, he was not driving the wrong way. Illott calls on the radio to the team, "I just got an engine oil pressure warning!" Did that happen before he went off the road, or did he get it while idling in the gravel trap? He was a star driver in Qatar at the beginning of the season. Maybe the telemetry is back to normal but there is no pressure while the engine is idling. He thankfully did not just spin the wheels and bury the rear of the car in the gravel trap. That is an easy thing to do.
Nicklas Nielsen still driving the #50 Ferrari and started the car from pole that Antonio Fuoco set the time for and Fuoco has not driven in the race yet. Nyck de Vries in third is quicker than the two Ferrari's. Nielsen has fastest lap of the motor race thus far at 1:32.4 while de Vries is very close behind at 1:32.6. The gap between the Ferrari's is 8.6 seconds and de Vries is a further 2.7 seconds down. de Vries is adjusting the anti rollbar from front to rear. You can soften or stiffen the car mechanically. Both the Hypercars globally and the GTP cars in IMSA in America, have this same feature.
Ker-runch! There's contact through Piratella betwen the Lexus and the BMW Hypercar! Wow! That is Robin Frijns in the #20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. I don't think any harm was done, but give the GT3 cars some room. At Toyota, the drivers have had pace and the team has not put a foot wrong technically or strategically thus far. Bruce Jouanny interviews Mike Conway who says he was trying to stay out of trouble in turn one, managing the pace while passing the Porsche of Makowiecki. He thinks the Ferrari's are quicker but they are catching the Porsche, the factory car. One of the Ferrari's is doing a triple stint on a set of tires and the race is pretty open. They are hoping to gain places.
The strategy call not to take tires by Ferrari #50, on the pit stop exchange, it gained them 22 seconds. We watch a slow-motion replay of the #11 Isotta Fraschini going off onto the grass, bounding over the curbs. Carl Watana Bennett off and back on. So, Nyck de Vries continues chasing the Ferrari. Nielsen has a pace advantage but maybe, he is still on the same tires he was on before and now, de Vries in the Toyota is catching him. Joel Sturm now has an 11 and a half second gap in GT3 over Valentino Rossi. Sturm has completed 77 laps, 235 miles. Nyck de Vries is quickly closing the gap to Nicklas Nielsen, and it is a second and a half. Only ten and a half seconds separates the top three Hypercars.
At Pure Racing, Klaus Bachler and Richard Lietz are discussing. Bachler is the most experienced of the trio along with Joel Sturm and Alex Malykhin. Sean Gelael is driving the other #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Gelael might not be as popular as his teammate Valentino Rossi unless we race in places like Indonesia or Malaysia. Malaysia has the Sepang circuit. I am not sure if there is a racetrack in Indonesia or not. We are riding aboard the #27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. Daniel Mancinelli of Italy at the wheel of it sharing with American domiciled Brit and team owner Ian James, and Alex Riberas, the Spaniard.
Mancinelli in fourth in GT3. It has had a drive through penalty and yet, they maintain fourth in LMGT3. Full push for Nicklas Nielsen to keep the #7 Toyota behind. Nielsen is on triple stinted tires. He can be let off the leash, managing energy well, so now he can give it the good stuff, and put the welly down. The gap is three seconds, and he is now being closed in on by Nyck de Vries but still has some space to work with. de Vries is being challenged by the #2 Cadillac in the hands of Alex Lynn who has been driving since the race began.
Oliver Rasmussen is warned about track limits, aboard the #38 Jota Porsche 963. Bruce Jouanny interviews Alex Malykhin. The start was hot with many incidents. He saw smoke in the turn one incident and avoided the incident by driving smart. He had a hard time overcoming the pace of his rivals. They are pushing, trying not to get pinged for track limits. Fingers are crossed for the next stint, and they have the track position, handing all the praise for pole position to his teammates. Hello, to everyone watching in Long Beach, California, at the IMSA race. Of course, we covered that event for you here on the blog, last month.
Robin Frijns is told in the #20 BMW that rain could arrive on the radar and at the track in half an hour. The plan is to stay on the current tires if it remains dry. He is in his first stint on these tires. Rain is indeed possibly on the way with a bit of a breeze. It rained heavily on Saturday afternoon. We will need to see what happens. Callum Illott going through Piratella and Acqua Minerale. He is being pursued hotly by Edoardo Mortara in the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63. Three and a half hours of racing remaining.
Antonio Giovinazzi says he can run another stint on his current tires with the rain possibly on the way. Are you going to keep Giovinazzi in the car? Or will you hand off to a new driver on old tires? If you are keeping the same set of tires on the car, there won't be enough time to change drivers because then it would be just a fuel only strategy. It is a big risk with the tires. He didn't commit either way. The engineers can see the rain is coming soon. A couple of GT3 cars are being penalized now for not respecting blue flags on the circuit. #91, the Manthey EMA Porsche of Dutchman Morris Schuring, and the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini of Matteo Cressoni, the Italian.
Zacharie Robichon, the Canadian, is at the wheel of the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 and he has had to complete a third penalty for the same track limits offense, sharing that car with Ryan Hardwick and Ben Barker. Edoardo Mortara is only two places away from being in the points. The Lamborghini's struggled a lot in Qatar, but the team has not tested the car since then. Excuse me. That is the Isotta Fraschini. The Lambo has gone testing and has run in one of the IMSA endurance races, making it's North American debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. They need to understand the car and the tire.
Oliver Rasmussen gets crossed up going through the corner and now, for 11th overall, it is Edoardo Mortara chasing down the #12 Jota Porsche 963 of Callum Ilott. They are six seconds behind the last car in the points in Hypercar which is the #93 Peugeot 9X8 in the hands of Mikkel Jensen. Edoardo Mortara has plenty of breathing space between himself and the next Hypercar which is Alex Lynn in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R. Alex Lynn though is a second and a half quicker than the aforementioned pair of Ilott and Mortara. The Cadillac is flying but is eight seconds behind the Lamborghini.
The #88 Ford Mustang GT3 that became a Transformer earlier on, is being transformed into a kit of parts. This is a restoration project, for lack of a better description. Proton Competition are examining the scope and the scale of the task ahead of replacing the diffuser. The car is low to the ground even when it is up on the jacks, on the jack stands, for the crew to work on it. Pit stop time for the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 out of third place in GT3. Sean Gelael is making his first pit stop in his stint. Now, before we get back to the #31 pit stop, I might inform you that it is still a Ferrari 1-2 at the sharp end. So, you have missed nothing, and this is currently making the Tifosi happy.
Car #51 of Antonio Giovinazzi has completed 92 laps, 281 miles, and he is nearly six seconds ahead of the sister car of Nicklas Nielsen, 5.7 seconds to be exact. No driver change. The Goodyear engineer is examining the tires as the car is being refueled. Cars #19 and #20 are under investigation by the stewards for separate technical infringements. So, the second Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 and the first of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63's. #20 has Robin Frijns. There isn't a #19 car in the field I don't think. Hang on a second. I think it is the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R of Morris Schuring. I beg your pardon.
For 11th place now, Edoardo Mortara is monstering Callum Ilott. Porsche 963 vs. Lamborghini SC63. Never give up. Keep pushing. Mortara on a charge. Drivers are definitely frustrated because they just cannot overtake here at Imola. Now, the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 is pitting. So is the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Valentino Rossi stays in the car for a double stint. A small heat soak left front brake fire, no harm no foul. Tires for the #54 Ferrari. Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche came in earlier than the BMW #46 but will take a later stop the next time he comes to the lane. So, at Manthey Pure Racing there is some different strategy being played.
Joel Sturm could have the more efficient car compared to Valentino Rossi and I don't think it is down to the "horses for courses" debate. I think it is just the driving styles between Sturm and Rossi. Sturm might just have the more efficient car as the BMW and the Ferrari come in. Excuse me. They exit the lane. Now we are focusing on the progress of the #63 Lamborghini SC63, Edoardo Mortara at the wheel of it. Alex Lynn pitting and Earl Bamber could very well step into the car. Sebastien Bourdais joined them in Qatar back in March. Peugeot will have a clash with their drivers participating in Formula E competition, when we get to the next event on the calendar at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.
We will have more about that race for you, very soon. For now, the focus remains here at Imola as we close in on the halfway mark. So, Peugeot will have two drivers at Spa. It is doable in a 6-hour race to run just two drivers rather than three. Three driver lineups, when you get to Le Mans, there is continuity on the team. With two drivers, you are constantly driving and are in more of a groove. The third driver does not have the same routine because the third driver probably has not driven since the qualifying session or before than in Free Practice 3.
Oh! An audible groan from me, as I am writing this down, but Erwan Bastard, the Frenchman, clatters the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 over the curbs! Phew! That was close. He just served a penalty for track limits. Looking at the radar, the rain is there, but it is not at the track just yet. No rain expected, I suppose. Oy yoy yoy! Me and my brain, and my eyes, have just predicted that. Let's just wait and see and hope that we will see clear conditions for the rest of the race. Nico Costa is being given a weather update from United Autosport. They are still seeing rain that may hit at turn seven, Tosa.
Every corner here at Imola has a name. Teams refer to it by number. Fans know the corner names, the historic corner names. Seven seconds is the gap between the two Ferrari's. Antonio Giovinazzi leading aboard the #51 from teammate Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 car. Nyck de Vries in Toyota #7 is shadowing the two red Italian racers. The #99 FAT Turbo Proton Competition Porsche 963 is now in the pit lane. This should be scheduled service. At Proton Competition, Harry Tincknell has taken over the car. He is 13th in the overall and unfortunately, the Proton Porsche 963 has not been as competitive. It was involved in the shemozzle at the race start.
That being said, it has not been anywhere near as competitive as the other 963's, the two Penske factory cars or the two Jota cars. Has one of the drivers had a clatter on the circuit? Julien Andlauer was flying in the qualifying session yesterday. Qualifying pace and race pace can be different. But there isn't much they can do about it. Meanwhile, it is Lexus vs. Aston Martin in GT3 as Erwan Bastard, the Frenchman in the D'station Aston Martin swings past South African Kelvin van der Linde in the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus, and what did he do? He absolutely tucked him up like a kipper. I don't even think van der Linde knew the bloke was going to go by.
Isotta Fraschini in the lane and there is one tire being changed, the left rear. Side by side uphill into Tosa, ugh! This is Peugeot on Jota Porsche! That was a pass! I wish I had a video replay machine in here to show you all how that went down because there wasn't even a sheet of A4 paper between those two chaps into the turn! That wasn't the former, tucking a bloke up like a kipper. That was, "mate, I know you are there and now, I am going to pass you whether you dig it or not!" So, this is the Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 moving into tenth spot ahead of the #93 Peugeot 9X8. Nyck de Vries is running third aboard Toyota #7, 2.1 seconds in-arrears of the Ferrari boys at the top of the shop.
Now we have the three leading contenders for the privateer Hypercar World Cup liner stern? Hypercar World Cup? Nobody told me about a Hypercar World Cup. That's funny. Well, OK. Thanks for informing me, chaps. Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P goes by Robin Frijns in the #20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. #83 is the third, all yellow Ferrari, in the old Ecurie Francorchamps colors. In terms of distance, we have now crossed the century mark. 100 laps, 305 miles. Nyck de Vries is coming in a big hurry. Into the pit lane from 12th spot, the #63 Lamborghini SC63.
Ford Mustang fans, rejoice! After 32 minutes in the garage for repairs to the boot and the rear tail, the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 is back on the circuit! They will just keep on trucking. The sister #77 car came and went from the pit lane, the blue car. The #11 Isotta Fraschini is just finishing up a pit stop as well. The Mustang #88 is "a proper collector car." Why? You must stop and collect all the bits that fell off of the thing in the previous stint! Hardy har har. Thank you, Martin Haven! I am stealing that one, mate. Sorry.
The GT3 cars are having teething problems in these endurance races. Testing is so different from racing. People hit things. The Citroen World Touring Car Championship team, which was very successful many years ago, they would go testing for three or four days, and on the final day of the session, they would spend time making it a demolition derby, a crash, bang, wallop, just to see what bits fell off the cars and had to be replaced. Doing this bit of scientific experimentation, to encourage drivers to clatter into their teammates on purpose to test car durability was the most difficult part of the exercise.
Normally, a driver would think, "are you insane?!" Of course, that is the number one, cardinal rule in motor racing of any kind. Don't wreck your teammate! Now we watch side by side stuff between two very different GT3 cars, the front engined Lexus RC F GT3 and the rear engined Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Matto Cressoni makes the pass, and Takeshi Kimura has to give it up. That was coming, being calculated all the way down the hill into Rivazza. When you hit the brakes and then pick up speed out of Rivazza two, it is 1.4 kilometers before you slam on the anchors again entering turn one at Tamburello. None of it is straight. There isn't a straight "straightaway" on this circuit. That is quite similar to the "No Name straightaway", the backstretch at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut here in the United States.
Now, the #83 Ferrari 499P is in the lane from eighth spot and we expect the #7 Toyota to pit as well. #50 Ferrari is in the lane, too. Robert Shwartzman takes over the #83 car from Robert Kubica, just so you can keep track on your driver change scorecard at home. Robert Kubica is internationally known as an ex-Formula 1 driver, and Ye Yifei is beginning to be recognized as a top flight sports car ace. Robert Shwartzman, the Israeli racer, his name might only be being bandied about for the first time now that he is in a Hypercar program, but he has been with Ferrari in Formula 1 testing and GT racing capacities for a good while. #50 is in. Shwartzman has been running well in FIA WEC. But he is a mega driver, because he shows his stuff in qualifying. Watch him drive. He has had great speed.
Now we watch the battle off the pit lane between Ferrari #50 and Toyota #7. The Toyota is closer to pit out as Nicklas Nielsen cinches down the belts and he gets out ahead of the Toyota. Miguel Molina is now at the wheel of Ferrari #50. Ferrari has believed the weather map. Now, #51 is in for a driver change as James Calado takes over from Antonio Giovinazzi. Miguel Molina has emerged, and I think he has split himself from the Toyota using the #38 Jota Porsche 963 as a pick. Calado on stone-cold right-side tires into turn two and someone has gone straight on and that is the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus of Takeshi Kimura. Kimura plowed through the gravel trap and has to lean on one side of the car.
Toyota #8 exiting the pit lane with Ryo Hirakawa at the controls and now, one of the Penske Porsche's is also in. That is the #6 car, the erstwhile race leader with 103 laps now on the board, 314 miles. #51 scored a big, fat zero in Qatar and they need all the results they can get. We are now going to hear from Antonio Giovinazzi in a pit lane interview with our mate Bruce Jouanny. Never mind. We've got action on track. No time for interviews right now. Ferrari vs. Ferrari and Porsche vs. Porsche. Porsche's in the pit lane, Ferrari's on the track!
This is #51 vs. #50 for the lead in Italy! The crowd at the track will be going crazy! Oh! Oh! Oh! Defensive driving from both of the Ferrari boys! Heads up! Be careful! Calado slams the door in Molina's face! Do not hit the red car! Molina is pulling the pin and is not playing games! Molina has to go the long way 'round through turns two and three at Tamburello. I should point out of course, turn one is the Variante Bassa. We have not mentioned that corner yet. Just though I'd point it out. Calado is a lucky chap and hangs onto the race lead, for now. With a birds' eye view, the Lamborghini and the Jota Porsche are both sticking to the two Ferrari's like glue.
Oliver Rasmussen is at the wheel of the #38 car. Molina and Calado are both aware of tire conditions. When Calado's tires come to optimum operating temperature, it might be curtains for his teammate as the Brit will be able to make the move on the Spaniard. Molina will be stymied here in a moment. Molina must be champing at the steering wheel but Calado, he is stretching out the rubber band, eking out the gap, driving his teammate crazy! Calado, ohhh! He is being attacked by the McLaren GT3 car! With that dust up with the McLaren, Molina smells blood in the water and he is going to be all over the sister Ferrari like a cheap suit!
When the Hypercars are on stone cold tires, they will be blocking the way for the GT3 cars and that is exactly what we have just seen. Porsche #5 now in the pit lane from the lead. Antonio Giovinazzi says he is feeling better and that managing the energy and tires is going fine. They have good pace and are being smart, running the scheduled strategy. Edoardo Mortara, in the #63 Lamborghini, he is looking to unlap himself, the first of the Hypercar contenders that is a lap down. So, he wants every opportunity to make that plan work. He thought he'd have a chance. But, it is too late. Mortara will have to hold station for a wee while.
Mortara might, and I emphasize, might, have the pace of the race leaders as their tires come to full temperature. But I don't know how long he is going to be able to hold it. 105 laps completed in the race, 320 and a quarter miles. Here is the top three in Hypercar.
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