Bom dia. Hola. Good morning and hello from Brazil, and the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil, hosting a round of the FIA World Endurance Championship for the first time in a decade. "Interlagos" means, "between the lakes", so, there are lakes within this region in Brazil. This is race number five of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship as we have Martin Haven and Graeme Goodwin in the broadcast booth, and Bruce Jouanny reporting from the pit lane. The fans have flocked to the circuit to witness the first FIA WEC endurance sports car race here at Sao Paulo in a decade. Ten long years since we were last here. Many of the drivers are making their first appearance and some are returning. 15 of the drivers on the grid raced here in 2014. This is the beginning of the second half of the 2024 season for the four remaining flyaway races outside of Europe.
So, it is today's race at Sao Paulo, followed by the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, then the 6 Hours of Fuji in the middle of September, and finally, to round out the calendar, the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain, which, I might add, will be taking place on the birthday of yours truly, November 2nd. This is one of the great and historic circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, and now, we have the sports cars back to run their own race here. Let's have a good look at the track description.
The first turn is the Senna S. You dive downhill off the elevated start/finish line into the first two corners on the road. We are in thin air, 700 meters above sea level, so the air is thinner. 700 meters is equivalent to almost 2,300 feet above sea level. Through the Curva do Sol at turn three, then charge down the backstretch known as the Reta Oposta into turns four and five, a double apex corner known as Descida do Lago which I think might roughly translate to the lake descent. Turns six and seven are the next two critical corners on the road. Six is called Ferradura and seven is called Laranjinha.
Those two corners collectively are going to kill the tires no matter what compound you use. The tires will be trashed after a double stint slithering through those curves. Immediate after that, there's more S curves through turns eight, nine and ten. Turn nine is Pinheirinho and turn ten is Bico del Pato. Then another critical sequence of turns after a short jog. Turn 11, Mergulho, and turn 12, Juncao. There is a grave accent and a tilde over the letters to pronounce it right.
Then, you speed uphill out of Juncao through the last turn and back down to the esses again where we started the lap. We've seen a handful of weeks of damp and cold winter weather here in Brazil but Sunday morning for the race has dawned bright and clear. Thus, we have higher track temperatures than what was originally expected. We look at the sixth-place qualifier in LMGT3, 25th overall on the grid. This is the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 with native Brazilian Augusto Farfus in his home event sharing with Darren Leung, the starting driver, and Indonesia's Sean Gelael. The tire degradation will be a big deal. Farfus is the first of two Brazilian drivers both a part of the GT3 class. We also have Nico Costa aboard one of the two United Autosport McLaren 720S GT3's.
Fifth on the GT3 grid, the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R started by Australian Yasser Shahin, sharing with Morris Schuring from Holland, and Austrian Porsche GT class veteran, Richard Lietz. Nico Costa has driven the Interlagos circuit in Porsche Carrera Cup Brazil. But in 2014 he was at the kart track as a kid, who was a diehard fan of racing, watching the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, and that probably made him decide, I will be a racing driver as an adult, and now, here he is. In the GT3 points it is almost a dead heat between the two Porsche teams, Manthey Pure Racing and Manthey EMA.
Fourth on the GT3 grid is the first of the two McLaren's, the #59 car being started by James Cottingham from England sharing that car with the aforementioned hometown hero, Nico Costa, he Brazilian, at his home track in his home race, and the Swiss racer, Gregoire Saucy. Valentino Rossi is a huge draw for the Brazilian fans who have a lot of Rossi and #46 shirts on. Third, sees a lockout of the second row of the GT3 grid by both McLaren's. Another British racer, Josh Caygill is starting the #95 sharing with Marino Sato of Japan and another South American sports car racer, Nico Pino of Chile.
McLaren and United Autosports are very bullish about their chances in the GT3 class this afternoon. Alex Malykhin, the St. Kitts & Nevis flagged Russian driver for Manthey Pure Racing will start their #92 Porsche 911 GT3R and he is sharing with his usual teammates, Germany's Joel Sturm, and Austria's Klaus Bachler. This is the championship leading car with two victories in 2024. The Iron Dames are ready to go as well with the #85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Rahel Frey, sharing with Sarah Bovy, and Michelle Gatting. Bovy put the car on a dominant LMGT3 pole with a massive turn of speed!
Sao Paulo Mayor, Ricardo Nunes is here as an honored dignitary and to watch the race. The city of Sao Paulo, a major city, has set up this race with the racetrack. Between the lakes, Interlagos, and there are many lakes, and some swamp around here. It has its own microclimate and has been humid. It is sunny and dry, but it is midwinter here in South America. Another dignitary who is a key element of bringing the sports car racing community back to Sao Paulo is Sao Paulo city tourism President Gustavo Garcia Pires.
Here is a statistic for you. Brazil is the only nation, the only circuit where the FIA WEC visits, where every manufacturer on the FIA WEC grid sells cars. We have spotted another gentleman who has been a large part of the government relations with the motor racing community here in Sao Paulo, Edson Aparecido, who is the government secretary for the city of Sao Paulo itself. Brazil is the gateway to Latin America, to South America. We are racing in South America for the first time in a decade and the same deal will be in North America, in the United States at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. So, please do join us for that.
In LMGT3, Goodyear have brought the yellow banded medium compound, the red banded Medium Plus compound, and the blue banded Wet tire here. We hope to not have to use the rain tires. This is the medium dry tire and Free Practice 1 had drizzle but we shouldn't need the wet tires today. But we have higher degradation to watch out for in the GT3 class. The pit walks and driver autograph session have been amazing and lots to keep everyone happy including the fan zone. Lots of things to see and do around the circuit. Fans are probably still trying to get here to the track before we go racing.
So, if you have your tickets, and find your seats, you will have a race to enjoy, for sure. The Hypercar tire allocation from Michelin sees us not using the soft compound but the yellow sidewall banded medium compound and the red banded sidewall hard compound tire in action, and hopefully, we won't need the rain tire, the wet. I believe the hard compound tire is going to do a boatload of heavy lifting here. But getting the heat into the hard compound tires is going to be very difficult. The Hypercar drivers tell us it might take as many as five laps to get temperature into the tires.
OK. From back to front, let's take a good look at the Hypercar contenders. In 16th place, the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8 will have Loic Duval starting the car and sharing with Paul di Resta and Stoffel Vandoorne. Peugeot are looking to claw back form with their new package. Both classes now have the color-coded tires which will help fans out. In 12th place, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 still in it's Le Mans livery which is the FAT Turbo Express sponsorship but in the white with the lime green flashes reminiscent of the Joest Porsche 962 Group C colors from the late '80s and early '90s.
The Proton #99 Porsche 963 relying on a two-driver lineup today with Neel Jani of Switzerland sharing with Julien Andlauer of France. Two drivers can manage this six-hour race. The other car which we will see soon, up the grid, with two drivers, is the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R. Harry Tincknell on duty in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship event in Canada at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with the LMP2 cars the featured class, and I plan to have that race here on the blog for you, at some point down the line. So, stay tuned for it. Mosport is an awesome track. It would be fun to have the Hypercars or their U.S. equivalent in IMSA, the GTP cars, do a race of their own there. Hypercars for a 6-hour race at Mosport? I'm game. IMSA, WEC are you listening?
It is the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park now. I don't know if they've changed the name of the Egg McMosport breakfast sandwich. I would probably order, the poutine, which is a delicacy in Canada, and of course that is beef, French fries, melted cheese, and gravy. Ugh. I am getting hungry! Meanwhile, back to the racing. Back to the starting grid as we were. 11th place in Hypercar is the first of the two Alpine's. This is the #36 Alpine A424B to be started by Mick Schumacher, the German, who's dad, Michael Schumacher had many successful Formula 1 races here at Interlagos. He is flanked in the lineup by his French co-drivers Nico Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Many teams got both cars through in Hypercar into the top ten while still others just got one. Take some succor from what your teammates managed to do. We break into the Hypercar top ten on the grid with the #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. Rene Rast of Germany is the starting driver along with season long teammates Sheldon van der Linde from South Africa and Dutchman Robin Frijns. The sister car #15 did not crack the top ten and get into Hyper Pole. That is the car of Dries Vanthoor from Belgium, Swiss-Italian Raffaele Marciello, and German driver Marco Wittmann.
Ninth on the grid, the first of the two Ferrari's, the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans winning #51 Ferrari 499P being shared by Antonio Giovinazzi of Italy, the starting driver, his countryman Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado from England. So interesting to see Ferrari have won just two races so far in the Hypercar era, the big ones, two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We see on the race control building a mural of the late, great Ayrton Senna, who has to be probably the most successful Brazilian racing driver of all-time.
Eighth on the grid is the second of the privateer Porsche 963's and the first of the Jota Sport cars, the #38 with Phil Hanson of England at the wheel of it to start the race, sharing with countryman and 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, Jenson Button, (so he has raced here before), and the Danish driver, Oliver Rasmussen. Jenson Button has not just raced here. That would be a gross understatement. He claimed his first F1 points, here. He won his World Championship here in 2009 at Interlagos, and he scored his last ever career Formula 1 Grand Prix win here. Next up is the sister #12 Jota Sport Porsche 963 entry. This is the car, you will recall, rebuilt in just two days after a massive accident prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team put in a Herculean effort to rebuild the car in that short amount of time, a process that normally takes three weeks!
Will Stevens will be the starting driver in the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 sharing with Callum Ilott and Norman Nato. Sixth place on the grid is the sister #50 Ferrari 499P, this year's winner of the most recent, and biggest event of the year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ferrari's second consecutive and 11th overall victory at Le Mans. Nicklas Nielsen, the Dane, will start the race and hand off later to Italian Antonio Fuoco (also known affectionately as "Tony Fire", the literal translation of his name), and Spaniard Miguel Molina. Time for the Brazilian national anthem, the title, Hino Nacional Brasileiro). The anthem, being sung by a choir and by all the fans, played by an orchestra.
The Brazilian Air Force does the flyover with their Embraer EMB 314 Tucano turboprop aircraft. Another magnificent pass by the aircraft as we get closer to race time. Let's resume our look at the top qualifiers. Fifth on the grid is the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. Kevin Estre of France sharing with Andre Lotterer of Germany and Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium. Laurens Vanthoor will start the race. The teams decide who starts the race for them. Hard tires and medium tires split on the Porsche. Fourth on the grid, the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R of Earl Bamber, the Kiwi, and Alex Lynn from England.
Earl Bamber was having a chat with fellow New Zealander, Brendon Hartley, for Toyota. Cadillac have the only car to qualify in the top four positions in the last four races in FIA WEC 2024. Third spot belongs to the sister #5 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963. Matt Campbell, the Australian, set to start the race sharing with Fred Makowiecki of France, and Michael Christensen of Denmark. For the first time in a long time, we have a Toyota front row lockout in an FIA WEC race. Car #8 in second place, started by the aforementioned Kiwi, Brendon Hartley, another New Zealand driver. As usual, he shares with co-drivers, Sebastien Buemi of Switzerland, and Ryo Hirakawa of Japan.
Toyota were here to race in the previous races we saw here at Interlagos for three consecutive seasons in 2012, 2013, and 2014. On the pole, the sister #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. Mike Conway, from England, starting the pole position car, sharing with Japan's Kamui Kobayashi, the player/manager for the Toyota team, and Dutchman Nyck de Vries. Mike Conway is back driving after missing the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to injury sustained in a cycling accident. Before the race even begins Sebastien Buemi was called to Race Control for monitoring tire temperatures with a probe in the pit lane.
No, no, Sebastien. That is a job for a mechanic, not a driver. We will have to confiscate your tire thermometer. One minute before the engines start. No tire warming allowed. Tires must be kept at ambient temperature in the shade. 30 seconds before we fire the engines. All tires absolutely stone cold. Green flag at the ready. The cars roll off. Interlagos has much more elevation change that television makes it look.
A lot of the corners are slow and very tight. Inerlagos is a bowl. It's awesome for spectators but not so great for the drivers especially in the wet. Wintertime here in Brazil can be wet as we have a look at the starting grid. Like Spa Francorchamps, the darket patches in the pavement allow for water drainage. The track surface has been machined just for that purpose. We're going to talk to a couple of Brazilian racing drivers of the past about the reason why the pavement here at Interlagos was machined and what they think of the track. Felipe Giaffone is one of those drivers. Drivers are scrubbing heat into their tires and the critical thing is the long straightaway and the braking zone.
Your front tires need to be warm, so you don't go off the road in the first corner, so the Hypercar and GT3 drivers all are weaving around to get heat into their tires. We are onto the second formation lap. We are supposed to start the race at 11:30 A.M. sharp and six hours of motor racing will take us to 5:30 P.M. this evening. The last time we were here with the FIA WEC a decade ago, the 2014 Interlagos race was the final ever professional motor race for the great nine-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Tom Kristensen of Denmark, who we have had join us in commentary for some of the Le Mans races in recent years.
Kristensen finished on the podium that day when Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson won. Our mate Anthony Davidson is not here because he has been sick and unable to travel. So, get well soon, Anthony. We're thinking of you, buddy. Former Brazilian Formula 1 driver Tarso Marques is ready to wave the Brazilian flag to begin the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo. We'll hear from Tarso Marques later on in the broadcast booth. We have seen so many Brazilian drivers and there are so many great ones. Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet. Senna, like Pele is a name who transcends the sport, a global icon. One word and people know who you are talking about.
Here comes the field. We are ready to race for the first time in a decade, in Brazil! The Brazilian flag waves, the lights flash green, and away we go! Holy cow! A big, big lockup on the outside from Brendon Hartley going into the Senna S for the first time! It looks as though he might get back in front of Mike Conway in the sister Toyota. Was that an unsafe rejoin? Toyota, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, Porsche. Two factory Toyota's, a factory Porsche, the lone factory Cadillac, and the first of the customer Porsche's are the top five so far.
Ferrari #51 poking his nose into the fight, and we see a relatively clean start in the GT3 class field. The Iron Dames #85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 leads from the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R. Will Stevens has moved from seventh up to fifth past one of the Ferrari's. No turn one dramas! Amazing! Well, well, well. They head out of the tight turn ten, Bico de Pato, and plunge down the hill. Then through 11 at Mergulho, and then corner 12, Juncao. Then, crest the rise like Tosa at Imola. Cold tires on lap one streaming down the hill.
Into the first corner at the end of lap one the two Alpine's try swapping places and one of the two blue Hypercars loses control and spins! Paul Loup Chatin gets the worst of the deal as Mick Schumacher passes through cleanly. Chatin got on the dirty side of the road. Darren Leung in fifth in GT3 is right in the thick of the action. He has the BMW behind both of the United Autosports McLaren's and just up the road from them are the Manthey Pure Racing Porsche and the leader in GT3, the Iron Dames Lamborghini.
The BMW drivers at WRT in the two M4 GT3's are not fancying chances they could keep their tires alive for a double stint in the first portion of this motor race. Everyone in both classes is worried about tire degradation as poor old Paul Loup Chatin is buried down in 33rd place and must work his way back to the end of the Hypercar train having to carve his way first through GT3 traffic. Toyota, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, Porsche. The two TF Sport Chevrolet Corvettes are running well early with the #81 in the hands of Tom van Rompuy of Belgium, the better placed of the two, and then comes his teammate in the #82, Hiroshi Koizumi of Japan, just a few places behind.
van Rompuy is right behind the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Frenchman Francois Heriau. That is the #55 car, I think. It is, the second of the two Vista AF Corse cars, to give the team it's proper name. Heriau sharing with Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera. Tom van Rompuy sharing the #81 Corvette alongside Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood. van Rompuy was the first pole winning driver in LMGT3 in FIA WEC history. Meanwhile, at the top of the shop, Brendon Hartley is dropping away from Mike Conway in the battle of the Toyota's.
Brendon Hartley is complaining he is having trouble under acceleration. You don't need that only two laps into the race. This will be a long race for the Toyota #8 team, 3/10ths down on new tires against the sister car. We'll have to watch his acceleration off turn two, on corner exit of the Senna S. Is there a traction problem? Is there a hybrid drive problem? Earl Bamber is running ahead of this Porsche battle between Will Stevens and Laurens Vanthoor. Again, a scrap between the customer Porsche and the factory car. Jota vs. Penske.
Toyota remains 1-2 as Mike Conway leads Brendon Hartley by 2.2 seconds. Fred Makowiecki third in the #5 Penske Porsche 963 followed by Earl Bamber in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac with the blue nose. Will Stevens and Laurens Vanthoor bring up the tail end of this first pack of cars in the top six. Then comes in seventh and eighth, the two factory Ferrari 499P's, #51 and #50, the respective cars that have won the last two consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races in successive years. That is right where they qualified.
Behind them in eighth is Phil Hanson in the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963 and the third, privately entered AF Corse Ferrari 499P, the #83, with Polish ex Formula 1 and rallying driver, Robert Kubica at the wheel of it. That was the one AF Corse Ferrari that didn't make it into Hyper Pole after the initial qualifying session yesterday. Oh, my heavens! Big news! The #11 Isotta Fraschini picked up four places in the melee we saw at the start of the race. So, the #11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione is running well, being shared by Antonio Serravalle from Canada, Carl Watana Bennett from Thailand, and Frenchman, Jean Karl Vernay.
Jean Karl Vernay is the starting driver. Isotta Fraschini is making it clear the gap is closing between them and the rest of the Hypercar field. Now we move back to the battle for honors in GT3. We are watching a battle between Ferrari, BMW, and Corvette, very early, only three laps into the race, eight miles. Darren Leung glued to the tail of Francois Heriau with Tom van Rompuy right behind. Three different cars and three different brands and models. Ferrari 296 GT3 vs. BMW M4 GT3 vs. Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. van Rompuy taking a good look to the inside. Plus, there is now a challenge from Ian James in the #27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 on Ahmad Al Harthy in the second Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.
This is the #46 car that Omani driver Al Harthy is sharing with "The Doctor", Valentino Rossi, the undisputed king of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and with the Belgian sports car ace and BMW stalwart Maxime Martin. Al Harthy in turn is dropping away from the Le Mans winning GT3 car, the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R which has been started by Australian Yasser Shahin. Toyota #8 back on the button and accelerating properly. The team changed the engine map on the car or had the driver fiddle with the knobs on the steering wheel that change the electronics for the engine mapping. Maybe the system didn't switch from a slower setting into race mode.
Six minutes on the board, and over five hours and 53 minutes to go. High tire energy, high tire degradation, directional changes, sidewall abuse. The hard compound tires are going to be a major part of the equation at least with Michelin in the Hypercar camps. Also, with Goodyear on the GT3 side. This circuit is anticlockwise, so the right side takes a pasting around here. New medium Michelin tires on both Toyota GR010's. New medium Michelin's on the Ferrari's on the left side and hard compound tires on the right side. Same setup for the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and so, medium compound tires on the left and new hard compound tires on the right side.
Everyone is using the one available Goodyear slick tire in GT3. No real options for the production-based automobiles. There are no compound differences. Not enough tires to change four tires on every stop but enough to change the right-side tires, so two tire changfes for the most part as we see the Ferrari pass the BMW, Francois Heriau passing Darren Leung on lap one through the Senna S. Yasser Shahin is coming in a hurry aboard the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche. Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 continues in the GT3 class lead ahead of the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R with Alex Malykhin driving, which has been a dominant force in GT3 racing in FIA WEC so far in 2024.
The two United Autosports McLaren's are running well as we see Laurens Vanthoor closing on Will Stevens. Porsche vs. Porsche. We're going to see where the tire strategies go, not in this first stint of the race but definitely as we get closer to the second stint later on. We can see from the onboard camera on one of the cars under the rear bumper, where the pavement has been cut away to allow the water to escape if it rains here at Interlagos. There are grooves cut into the track surface to allow for that to occur. Meanwhile, check this out! A battle for third place in GT3 between the two McLaren's! Josh Caygill squeezes past teammate James Cottingham! A battle of McLaren's two British drivers.
Whoa! Josh Caygill just hung onto that car, look. Francois Heriau in the #55 Silver and red AF Corse Ferrari ahead and the magenta Lamborghini for the Iron Dames still leads the white and yellow Manthey Pure Racing Porsche at the front of the GT3 field. Whoops! Yasser Shahin in the Porsche has spun and so has Tom van Rompuy in the #81 Corvette! That was a close, close shave, because they almost collected the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac Hypercar and the first of the Jota Porsche 963's in that little shemozzle through Curva do Sol!
That is a critical portion of the circuit as it leads you right onto the Reta Oposta, the backstretch, here at Interlagos. Earl Bamber has been delayed substantially by having to take evasive action. The prototypes make their way by the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 as well. That is the car being shared by Giorgio Roda of Italy, Mikkel Pedersen of Denmark, and Dennis Olsen of Norway. Now we revisit the Manthey EMA vs. TF Sport incident. Yasser Shahin vs. Tom van Rompuy, from Shahin's onboard camera in the Porsche. He tries to look down the inside, and... wallop! van Rompuy had just passed Darren Leung in the BMW, and the Porsche tried following through. Well, contact was made and all three of them into the spin cycle and facing the wrong way on the circuit.
Three into one didn't work and poor old Yasser Shahin will need to go see the stewards and no, he will not be rewarded with tea and biscuits for that. Francois Heriau is now ahead in GT3 by five seconds over Ahmad Al Harthy in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Earl Bamber locks the brakes into the Senna S but now Will Stevens and Laurens Vanthoor in the two Porsche's are steaming up right behind him. All three GT3 cars we saw make contact with one another are still running. No worries. Many tire strategies being employed with a wide range of combinations.
The #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 is using one hard compound Michelin on the left rear of the car. You'd think it would be on the right rear which is the tire that really takes a pasting around this circuit. A battle for eighth has ensued in Hypercar as Nicklas Nielsen now stays ahead of Phil Hanson. So, this is the #50 factory Ferrari 499P ahead of the #38 Jota Porsche 963. Now they come up on a massive wad of traffic. This is multi-class sports car endurance road racing at its pinnacle, ladies and gentlemen. I keep saying it over and over and over again. But it is true.
So many car designs, different engines sounds, and different engine and chassis layouts. GT3 has a huge variety. The Hypercars, they have a wide variety of engines and a wide variety of overall designs. However, each of the cars I think drives via the rear wheels. I think the Ferrari and the Toyota and perhaps the Peugeot are actually front wheel drive. I know one of the Hypercars I believe is front wheel drive. It depends on if the car is built to LMH or LMDh specifications. Wow! Here's a battle of exactly what we're talking about between the #83 Hypercar Ferrari 499P and the #777 D'station Aston Martin Vantage GT3! Ugh! The Ferrari is off in no man's land in the dirt!
Let's hope that's not too much damage to that Ferrari Hypercar. But speaking of Ferrari's and speaking of damage, one of the silver Ferrari 296 GT3's is in big, big trouble! Car #54 has spun. Thankfully, not as big trouble as I thought. I overexaggerated there. He's spun off. You can see the skid marks on the green painted asphalt that is supposed to look like grass, but trust me, it's not. Poor old Thomas Flohr was facing the wrong direction. That was through turn two in the second half of the Senna esses. Full Course Yellow. We are under Full Course Yellow. Oh dear.
We've got a replay. Let's see what happened. Flohr was alongside the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 with Takeshi Kimura of Japan, the starting driver. I think he just lost the car. It could be that Kimura gave him a nudge. Incidentally, that is the sole Lexus entry in the GT3 class in today's race because the #78 sister car was eliminated from action due to a massive accident in Free Practice. The trio of Arnold Robin of France, Clemens Schmid of Austria, and Kelvin van der Linde of South Africa, brother of BMW Hypercar driver Sheldon van der Linde, did not take the start of the race today.
They had a heavy crash that wrote off the car. We are under Full Course Yellow with everyone running at 80 kilometers an hour, 50 miles an hour. Marshals are on track at turn four cleaning up debris from the accident. Turn four, that is Descida do Lago right at the end of the backstretch, at the end of the Reta Oposta. So, a ton of action just within the opening quarter of an hour of this race. We've gotten quite a bit more than we bargained for. Sheesh. 15 minutes, and it seems like we've been racing for an hour already, but of course, that's not quite true.
We look at the replays of the start especially from the onboard cameras and we are going back to green in 30 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Green flag. Full Course Yellow removed. Now, the two Porsche's go either side of the McLaren and the #12 is hanging on. Will stevens staying ahead of Laurens Vanthoor as they go past the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Alex Malykhin who runs second in the GT3 class. Under the Full Course Yellow, tire temperature will have dropped away and now the drivers are working again to retain the heat in the tires. Stevens and Vanthoor, the Penske and Jota Porsche battle, for fifth remains behind Earl Bamber, in fourth place right now, in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac.
11 laps now on the board. 30 miles. We've got a long, long way to go yet. Every fraction of a second counts. Mike Conway leads the motor race eight seconds clear of Brendon Hartley in the sister Toyota. The gap from second to third is now down to 1.3 seconds as Brendon Hartley has been held up in traffic being harried by Fred Makowiecki in the second Penske factory Porsche. Half a dozen cars as we speak, are under investigation by the stewards for improper Full Course Yellow procedure. These include but are not restricted to the leading #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Darren Leung in the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, #55, the Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francois Heriau, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, and perhaps another.
Iron Dames lead the GT3 class still as we see Earl Bamber just barely ahead of Will Stevens, Laruens Vanthoor, and Antonio Giovinazzi ahead of Nicklas Nielsen. Behind him is the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963 and then, Robert Kubica in the yellow #83 Ferrari 499P who races ahead of Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche now wearing the predominantly white Joest Racing lookalike colors with the lime green trim very much like their Porsche 962 Group C cars from the early 1990s that ran at Le Mans.
What is so wonderful about this unification of sports car racing between America and Europe and the rest of the world is that teams can use the same kit, the same cars, to race in different places. The IMSA rules and the WEC rules have subtle differences. However, as far as cars, the cars are pretty much the same across the board except for class nomenclature because you have the LMDh prototypes and the GT3 cars on both sides of the pond. In a battle for 12th spot, we see Rene Rast in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 for BMW Team WRT ahead of Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine A424B for Alpine Endurance Team.
The better of the two Peugeot 9X8's at the moment is the #93 car started by Nico Muller of Switzerland. Peugeot do well in mixed conditions and tend to be closer to the front. I wonder if they are slightly lighter than some of their rivals. Toyota run 1-2 with a gap between them of 8.6 seconds and now, Thomas Flohr in the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 is in a scrap with the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 in the hands of team boss for Iron Lynx, Claudio Schiavoni. The Iron Dames Lambo is at the back of the field in GT3. Mick Schumacher in the Alpine showing intent to pass Rene Rast in the BMW,
Mick Schumacher taking to endurance sports car racing like a duck to water after coming from Formula 1. He could be racing again in Formula 1 in 2025. We'll see. Experience and variety to learn new cars and new forms of racing is good for a driver. Alpine knew that going into Le Mans they'd have reliability woes with the Mecachrome turbo V6 motor, but these issues should not crop up in a six-hour event. Keep in mind, the 3.4-liter V6 turbo engine used in the rear of the Alpine LMDh is the same engine fitted into the Formula 2 open wheel race cars as a spec power unit for them, with the turbo. Year one of the program with a brand-new car working on simulation data.
Mike Conway's lead has ballooned to eight seconds out in front. Now we move to have a Captain Cook at the fourth-place battle in GT3. Francois Heriau in the #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 followed immediately by James Cottingham in the #59 United Autosport McLaren 720S GT3, and Ian James in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. Francois Heriau having a great opening stint having gotten ahead of one of the McLaren's and the Aston Martin. Be careful how wide you run and we can see from the bumper camera on Cottingham's McLaren with the 3.8-liter turbo V8 in it, the striations in the track surface climbing the hill to channel away water when it rains.
They are prevalent through turn 14, the final corner on the circuit, Subida dos Boxes and the actual final turn, turn 15 called Arquibancadas. Right now, in 14th,15th, and 16th, the Isotta Fraschini of Jean Karl Vernay is the meat in a Peugeot sandwich. He has Nico Muller ahead of him in the #93 and the #94 sister Peugeot 9X8 right behind. Loic Duval at the wheel of it. Three French drivers. Jambon et fromage. He is basically the ham and cheese in a grilled Croque Monsieur sandwich here. OK. We saw this shemozzle earlier and now, Yasser Shahin incurs a drive through penalty at the wheel of the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R after clattering into the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the hands of Tom van Rompuy, the Belgian racer.
That was cut and dried. The marshals looking at the data and the cameras. Yikes! Rene Rast gets a windscreen full of brake smoke as it is Neel Jani locking everything up in front of him in the Proton Competition Porsche 963. So, the BMW driver could have to take evasive action. No. He'll be OK. He has Mick Schumacher in the Alpine behind. The tires will not like being abused over the rest of this stint and into the second stint. That's for dead sure. We are looking at stint lengths of 34 laps for the GT3 cars and 38 laps for the Hypercars. The Hypercars ought to run longer here because of the short distance around the circuit at Interlagos.
We haven't talked about Balance of Performance. Now that is a touchy subject. Sports car racing fans know this. It is something we can chunter on about all day long. But a lot of it is around equalizing the stint lengths for the cars and the Hypercars running lap times in the 1:26-1:27 range. Most of the shuffling of position has been taken care of for now but it is into that phase of the race where it is a long grind to not only make up places and make up time, but also to keep the tires under you so at the end of a stint the driver isn't slithering around on tires that have turned to jelly.
What tires will be in use? Medium compound? Hard compound? A mixture of both? We'll see. Ian James has squeezed past James Cottingham for fifth in GT3 as the leading #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini has put 15 laps in the book, '40 miles. All the starting drivers in GT3 are the Bronze rated drivers and there are Silver drivers as second drivers and either Gold or Platinum drivers as third drivers I believe. Ian James has moved up from ninth on the GT3 grid to fifth in class. Jean Karl Vernay and Isotta Fraschini are under investigation for a technical infringement. Maybe one of the torque sensors is out of balance or the tire pressures are erroneous. The FIA are not happy about it. It is usually a warning by the stewards.
The same thing happens with the GTP cars in IMSA since they essentially of course, run to the same formula. It is only a reprimand for the #11 Isotta Fraschini. The FIA are doing a great job of explaining things just as IMSA does stateside and a lot of sports car racing fans love the technical details. I know I eat it up and that is why you see my lengthy race reports and every bit of information I can squeeze onto the page. I mean, these endurance races are like novels. They unfold like a good book, for the most part. Sometimes they are more boring and more like a periodical, a magazine. But usually, they unfold like a good novel where maybe fans want to know, watching, or reading, what happens next.
Yet, the chapters are always unwritten. That is the beauty of writing about live motor racing. You never know what will happen. It is unpredictable. Nicklas Nielsen comes diving down the hill as the two factory Ferrari's are running together now in seventh and eighth spot respectively. Also, the Race Director, Edoardo Freitas, he does not hand out the penalties. He takes the advice of the race stewards who deem a car might have broken a rule and needs to be penalized and he is only the messenger, so, don't shoot the messenger, as they say.
In certain cases, the Race Director does and can apply a penalty, but more often than not, it is at the behest of the stewards. Half an hour of racing completed equaling 20 laps, 53 and a half miles down. Earl Bamber aboard the #2 Cadillac making his way through traffic followed by the #12 Jota Porsche 963 of Will Stevens, the #6 factory Penske Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, and the #51 AF Corse factory Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi. Manthey Pure Racing and the #92 Porsche 911 GT3R continues to lead LMGT3.
Oh boy! Antonio Giovinazzi forces his way down the outside of Vanthoor in the Porsche heading for the Senna S! Not quite. Vanthoor slams the door in his face. Here's it all again, in slow motion. Giovinazzi trying to find the wriggle room to make a pass with one of the GT3 Ferrari's on the outside, look. Side by side argy bargy between the Porsche and the Ferrari! That was a good old-fashioned slipstreaming or drafting move that didn't go according to plan. Lapped traffic was not a factor in that pass. Great pass, too! Vanthoor under real pressure from the Ferrari through traffic as they work their way past the second #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.
Nicklas Nielsen in the sister #50 Ferrari right behind. There's a timing glitch as we thought Sarah Bovy was dropping down the order. Just the timing and scoring making a mistake. Will Stevens in the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 makes a decisive pass on the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Now, Earl Bamber might try getting him back, but honestly, the Kiwi didn't defend. Poor old Bamber could be in a spot of bother with tires because suddenly Laurens Vanthoor in the second #6 Penske factory Porsche 963 is all over Bamber like a cheap suit. Bamber on used medium compound Michelin tires, he might be taking the pain.
Definitely a late send, but Bamber was in no mind to just slam the door in Laurens Vanthoor's face. Vanthoor goes around Bamber to the outside. Honestly, 22 laps of a projected 38 lap tire stint, Bamber's Michelin's are 2/3rds of the way through a stint so they must be getting a little slimy. That move was like taking candy from a baby. The medium compound tires were the ones Bamber used for qualifying compared to the hard compound on the other side and the mediums did seven more laps because of being run through the qualifying cycle. Laurens Vanthoor has fresh hard compound Michelin's. Two different cars from two different manufacturers, with different chassis designers.
Neither car is strictly built by Porsche or Cadillac. The Porsche is a Multimatic chassis, a Canadian race car building firm, and the Cadillac is designed and built by Dallara in Italy. They are all LMDh cars with the same hybrid drive system to the rear wheels. So much of this comes down to the overall package and so on. The body shape and the engine are determined by the manufacturers. Loic Duval in the Peugeot and Marco Wittmann in the BMW under investigation by the stewards and now we see the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, Thomas Flohr, facing the wrong direction and getting his footing back to continue in the motor race.
Yasser Shahin ahead in the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R, he just served a penalty, but in this replay, look, he too is in trouble. Both of these chaps are in a world of pain coming into the turn. Blimey! The Porsche and the Ferrari in GT3 made contact with each other! Well, well, well. One of the Toyota Hypercars was steaming up behind the GT3 scrap and they didn't see the prototype coming through. This is why it is critical for the GT car drivers to use their mirrors, rearview cameras, whatever they have, to be fully aware of a Hypercar coming up behind them.
We've got another replay off the back of the Ferrari with the camera mounted above the bonnet. Under braking, and... wham! That was significant contact from the Porsche and, bang! Yasser Shahin was not expecting Francois Heriau to brake that early into the turn, and... ker-runch! He walloped right into the back of the Ferrari! Oh dear. The Toyota was jolly lucky to get away from that unscathed and now we are seeing significant damage to the front end of the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche. The rear of the Ferrari will also be damaged, big.
Five seconds added in penalty time to the next pit stop for the #94 Peugeot 9X8 for contact with one of the BMW Hypercars, one of the two Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8's. It has to be Mike Conway, the race leader, who just barely avoided getting clattered by Yasser Shahin. The #8 Toyota is farther back. I mean, Conway almost got taken out and there was contact from Shahin, clipping the #50 Ferrari! Nicklas Nielsen running ahead of the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Robert Kubica. So, I wonder if Yasser Shahin's Porsche's steering is cattywampus. I think it is. He had to have clonked the steering arm and the car is wallowing all over the shop, and he might not even be aware of that.
Antonio Giovinazzi in Ferrari #51 for sixth. Earl Bamber is now being used as a punching bag by the other drivers, taking their frustrations out on the Kiwi. Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac, at least one of their drivers has to take the pain. Bodywork wise, the damage to the #91 Porsche 911 GT3R doesn't look bad. But, suspension wise, it could be fixable. The trouble is that the cooling radiators are likely going to be tweaked. The left rear corner of the Ferrari is gone. But the plus side is the modular construction of the Ferrari 296 GT3 being built more like a prototype, like a Hypercar, with the body coming off in individual segments like Lego blocks.
The Porsche 911 GT3R is not as modular as the Ferrari is and they will have to remove individual damaged bodywork and lining up the spare parts in place correctly to get the aerodynamics right. Talk about taking the pain! In this replay, we can see again what happened. Shahin pops his nose out from between the Toyota Hypercar ad the Ferrari and veers sharply to the left! Oh, my heavens! How close was that? There was no gap. Shahin almost smashed into the pit wall on driver's left and could easily have cannoned back across the circuit which would have been a disaster! That was what you call a lucky escape!
The Porsche and the Ferrari will not score points. Only ten of the 17 cars in the GT3 field will score points unless the two of them can claw their way back through the order up to the back half of the top ten. That is what you call a tall drink of water. Thomas Flohr has left the pit lane already. Did the AF Corse team repair that Ferrari 296 GT3 very quickly? That's a real surprise as we now have 25 laps in the book, 66 and 3/4 miles, with a gap of 7.3 seconds between the two leading Toyota's. Maybe the Ferrari team just threw new tires on the car. The Toyota's are on the medium Michelin compound. Third place is the #5 Porsche 963 factory Penske car. Fred Makowiecki driving.
Michelin knows and the specific team who has an engineer helping them, only they know their tire allocations and for good reason. But, speaking of factory Porsche's the sister #6 is in trouble! Flat right front tire for Laurens Vanthoor as he has had contact with the #12 Jota Porsche 963! Good grief! I think Will Stevens and Laurens Vanthoor both have damage. Stevens calls the team on the radio saying "Vanthoor drove into me!" To which, the team probably replied, "yes, we saw that one, mate." There's rear damage to the #12 as the #6 Porsche 963 is trundling back to the pit lane. Calm down. Take a deep breath. We've got a long way to go yet.
Don't freak out and let your adrenaline spike. Contact with the right front of the factory car to the rear of the Jota entry. Drama for Laurens Vanthoor early doors. Right side tires and fuel. The front nose and tail will likely be changed. Yasser Shahin, the Australian, at the wheel of the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R, he has also left the pit lane. Both championship leading cars in Hypercar and GT3 have run into trouble in just the last ten minutes. Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 leads the GT3 class to the tune of 6.7 seconds. The stewards will look at these incidents and adjudicate them. Many questions will be answered. The stewards will know exactly what is going on via the data points.
We have not seen the view of the camera yet. The #6 Porsche 963 is back on track, but I think one of the front corners of the car looks a bit off kilter and he is on stone cold tires as well, so, he'll have to gingerly bring the Porsche 963 back up to speed. Hard compound tires which are chattering because they aren't warmed up yet. He has all hard compound tires. The graphic is telling us there are 27 laps apiece on each of those tires. But they can't all be 27 laps old, can they? This is puzzling. We are working lap 29 so this data we see on the screen is two laps out of date.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mike Conway is inching away from the rest of te field. Brendon Hartley aboard the sister #8 Toyota remains in second place. We also are looking at a couple of battles here between Will Stevens in the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 and the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P factory car of Antonio Giovinazzi, while, on the screen, look, it is one of the two factory WRT BMW M Hybrid V8's running against the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 in the predominantly white with lime green trim livery scheme reminiscent of the early 1990s Reinhold Joest run Porsche 962's from the Group C days.
Up ahead, Robert Kubica in the yellow #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P is under pressure from the blue Alpine A424B #36 of Mick Schumacher. Schumacher beginning to look racy. We've been racing for 45 minutes. Neel Jani and Rene Rast were in that earlier scrap. Rast got in front and now we see from Race Control, a one-minute stop and go penalty issued to the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R for causing a collision on track. Aye yaye yaye. Lots going on all at once here. Yours truly has several balls in the air trying to figure everything out as we continue covering the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, and we are only in the opening hour! I said it once and I'll say it again. Blimey!
Mick Schumacher giving Robert Kubica all he can take down through Bico de Pato, turn ten, and then up into Mergulho, turn 11. There's grip to give away on those hard tires and Schumacher gets chopped by Claudio Schiavoni in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2! Schiavoni, a backmarker, a lapped car, should have tried to stay farther out of the way. To be fair, the narrow road on the frontstretch meant poor old Schiavoni would have copped a whack into the pit wall! I take that back. Schiavoni had enough room, but the Hypercars didn't!
The Alpine and the Ferrari look different and sound very different. Both are powered by turbocharged V6 engines but that's the end of the similiarity. The Ferrari's turbo V6 is smaller displacement than that of the Alpine. The Mecachrome Formula 2 derivative turbo motor in the Alpine is 3.4 liters while the Ferrari turbo V6 sports car motor which is the same engine as in the 296 GT3, is a 3-liter unit. Good to see the Alpine becoming raceable and finding speed here in Brazil as Mike Conway leads the motor race still but is experiencing understeer aboard the #7 Toyota.
Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari divebombs past a GT3 car and very nearly also takes the #12 Jota Porsche 963 is one fell swoop! Traffic giveth. Traffic taketh away. Poor old Ian James! Where does he go? As the driver in the GT3 car with the Hypercar screaming up behind you at terminal velocity, you must make an instant decision of where to place your car, so you don't get run over by the other chap in the low slung, aerodynamic prototype racer. Alex Lynn talking with pit reporter Bruce Jouanny says that their medium compound tires are on the right side and hard compound on the left.
It is a comrpomise they hope will pay dividends. We've got a good scrap for eighth place in GT3 between Darren Leung in the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the #777 D'station Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 in the hands of Clement Mateu who takes the spot away. In the garage, the stricken #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. It appears to be game over. The penalty we saw announced for that incident has been suspended as Clement Mateu laps past Claudio Schiavoni's delayed Lamborghini because his Goodyear tires are still giving him trouble. Darren Leung has both TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette's behind him and the meat in the American muscle car sandwich with the Corvette's is the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3.
Ryan Hardwick, the American driver is at the wheel of the #77 Mustang, and he has his hands full with both TF Sport drivers, Hiroshi Koizumi in the #82 car and Tom van Rompuy in the #81. Leung goes to the inside of the Lamborghini but cannot get through as they enter Juncao corner and go up the hill. Koizumi in the #82 Corvette tries making a move to the outside and runs incredibly wide! He is off in no man's land on the green paint and the Rolex signage! He was pointed in the wrong direction and nearly took out three cars including his teammate! Oh! That was scary business!
He braked way, way too late and was off in the next city beyond Sao Paulo there. Gosh. His GPS had to be recalculating after that little mishap! That turn at Juncao has it's own specific gravity field. Ryan Hardwick was already ahead of Tom van Rompuy. I think Martin, Graham, and myself, we were all seeing an optical illusion there for a moment. Ryan Hardwick challenging Darren Leung and goes right by. Ryan Hardwick makes his move and so does Darren Leung. By the way, the recently retired Christian Ried who is the Proton Competition team boss, the chef d'equipe, we thought he was retired. But he is making a cameo in the #88 Ford Mustang GT3 here in Brazil this weekend.
We see a McLaren vs. Ferrari battle in GT3. How many times have we seen that in Formula 1 around this place. McLaren vs. Ferrari, a classic duel in motor racing on a few different levels. Open wheel and sports cars alike. Here at Interlagos, this is the 90th FIA WEC race ever, and Christian Ried has started 86 of them! Wow! What a record! Now we watch the third-place battle in GT3. McLaren vs. Ferrari once again. Josh Caygill vs. Francois Heriau. United Autosports vs. Vista AF Corse. Caygill worked his way up the order very quikcly. Heriau has 34 laps on his right side tires, the same part of the set that ran in qualifying.
The left side tires have 30 laps on them while Josh Caygill has tires on each corner of the car that have all done 30 laps so far. Caygill has a slight grip advantage. Heriau is running very well and makes a clinical pass on the McLaren driver who runs a wee bit wide. BMW vs. BMW. Hypercar vs. GT3. This is two WRT BMWs with two drivers on the payroll who might both get slightly less cash from the bosses in their paychecks if something untoward should happen. Gently, boys. Do not hit the BMW. Yeah, but he's a Hypercar, it is not the same. Oh, yes, it is, sunbeam. It's the same team. Vincent Vosse to his drivers, "don't give me those excuses, chaps, if you want to keep your jobs." Don't upset the man who wears the flat cap.
Ahmad Al Harthy, the Omani driver in the #46 and Marco Wittmann of Germany aboard the #15 Hypercar. Anyhow, back to your regularly scheduled programming here on the Sarcasm Channel. Ah. Mike Conway is that regularly scheduled programming, whistling off into the distance to the tune of over ten seconds compared to second place Brendon Hartley in the sister #8 Toyota. 35 laps now in the bag. Conway has run 35 laps on this fuel stint and according to the energy meter he still has 17% left in the tank. The Hypercars are at levels generally around 17-22% of fuel energy in the tank before needing to pit and refuel again, or energy replenish.
The virtual energy includes the energy for the hybrid system which takes into account the battery charging and also whatever hybrid drive energy is there, most likely a flywheel and a battery of course. There used to be the ability, in the old LMP1 days to run darn near anything. You could run a flywheel unit, a super capacitor, diesel power. Today, the Hypercars are mostly combustion but also have the battery and the energy or hybrid recovery boost, but the boost is constant at one level. In the LMP1 cars you could use extra boost. Not so with the Hypercars. What you have available, is there. You cannot use the proverbial "bye bye button" to really leave your opponents in your dust.
Ian James on pit road for service and will drop down the field because of that. We estimated a 34 lap stint for the GT3 cars. Claudio Schiavoni and Takeshi Kimura are in the lane, too. So, Ford Mustang, Lexus, and Lamborghini break for the border and head for refueling and to get new tires as we hear the rattle guns spinning away in the background. Of course, the sports cars are using a single lug nut on each wheel and NASCAR has adopted this technology as well with their Generation 7 race car which we saw a specially built exhibition version of in the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. Good old Garage 56. That was a cool car, believe me.
So, new Goodyear tires going onto the GT3 cars. The big, thundering V8 of the Ford Mustang GT3 is more parsimonious on it's fuel than we'd thought. Parsimonious and noisy. The same being true for the Lexus RC F GT3. That is the other big, all grunt front engine GT3 car along with the Aston Martin and the BMW. But don't forget, the Aston and the BMW both make use of turbocharging as do the mid-engine cars like the Ferrari and the McLaren. To be fair, the Porsche 911 GT3R (992) is also mid engine but it does not have a turbo. It is not the same as the 911's of old, thinking back to such wonderful cars as the 911 Turbo Evo of IMSA fame and the all conquering 935.
Ryan Hardwick is holding off both Tom van Rompuy and Hiroshi Koizumi. The American GT3 cars run of course by teams from Europe, but with American lineage, they are going very well. Fans of the stars and stripes, the Blue Oval and the Bowtie, have something to cheer about, and of course the Corvette now has a mid-mounted V8 motor. Yasser Shahin's one minute stop and hold penalty has been confirmed as he is back out and running. But the penalty is indeed confirmed according to Race Director Edoardo Freitas.
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