Interlagos is of course a proper old school circuit. There's not much runoff area. So, we are two hours into the race. Enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and polite sports car racing fans here in Brazil. Mike Conway remains in the lead and has done more than two hours of driving. We have seen more drama. We hear now that Nicklas Nielsen has plummeted down the order to 16th spot aboard the #50 Ferrari 499P. He is off the lead lap. Pit stop time for the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R as they will change onto brand new hard compound Michelin tires, and Alex Lynn takes over the driving chores after Earl Bamber has completed his stint.
Timo Bernhard drove for Porsche a decade ago in the Porsche 919 the last time WEC raced in Brazil. In 2014, that was the pinnacle of the high-tech hybrid sports cars. Brazil was the finale of the 2014 season. Timo Bernhard and his teammates took the pole position. Timo Bernhard drove the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid on that day sharing with Aussie Mark Webber and with Brendon Hartley who now drives for Toyota. The sister Porsche 919 Hybrid took the win after the #20 went out of the race with a spectacular accident. A decade ago, it was the #14 car with Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb. Of course, the Porsche 919 was a hybrid automobile and powered by a 2.0-liter double overhead cam, 4 cylinder with four valves per cylinder, so a 16 valve four cylinder with a single Garrett turbocharger and extreme hybrid boost power thanks to a flywheel unit I believe.
Mark Webber in the sister #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid had a massive accident after being collected by a GTE car and Webber and co-drivers Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, who we are hearing from now in the commentary box, were on the team that day. The racing though was superb at Interlagos during the LMP1 era. Hopes are that the FIA WEC can keep it on the calendar. Thank you, Timo. We have another guest coming. The local crowd are soaking up sports car racing in a brilliant way. The sports car racing fanbase are so incredibly knowledgeable about the present and the past alike.
Porsche #5 is indeed in the pit lane now and before we see how their stop goes we will hear about Timo Bernhard's role with Porsche and Team Penske. Bernhard is an advisor and interprets what the drivers are feeling. Timo Bernhard was asked by Porsche's Thomas Laudenbach to join the factory 963 program to help the drivers and engineers and the team structure. This is his third weekend. The car is so complex, and three days is not a lot of time to deeply analyze everything. The race leader is in, Toyota #7.
Before we cover their stop, to give you an idea of the LMP1 era, first off, go through the archives. In 2014 I really began writing about sports car racing as a whole and wrote about a lot, most of, if not all the great LMP1 races in the era of the battles between Porsche, Audi, and Toyota. Of course, we don't have Audi in the prototype ranks anymore. So, here are the specs on these LMP1 cars you need to know.
Porsche 919 Hybrid
Engine: Porsche Hybrid 90-degree V4 with 4 valves per cylinder, so, 16 valves, 2000cc, 2 liters in displacement, 122 cubic inches, with a single Garrett turbocharger and a battery based hybrid system.
Toyota TS040 Hybrid
Engine: Toyota THS-R 90-degree V8 with 4 valves per cylinder, 16 valves, 3700cc, 3.7 liters in displacement, 226 cubic inches, with hybrid power from a supercapacitor.
Audi R18 e-tron quattro
Engine: Audi TDI Hybrid 120-degree V6 diesel, 4 valves per cylinder, 24 valves, 4000cc, 4 liters in displacement, 244 cubic inches, with a flywheel for hybrid assistance as well as a single Garrett turbocharger similar to the Porsche.
There will be a driver change for the #7 Toyota as Mike Conway is handing the car to Jose Maria Lopez, the Argentinian driver who is a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and a multiple champion in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Ferrari, Peugeot, and BMW are all due in as are some of the privateer Porsche's. Hold the phone, everyone. I thought it was Jose Maria Lopez taking over the wheel. In fact, it is Nyck de Vries, the Dutchman, who had a successful stint driving LMP2 cars and had a brief foray into Formula 1 but is now back in sports cars in the top class for Toyota, as a Hypercar driver for them. Jose Maria Lopez of course is in the Lexus RC F GT3, the #87 car, the sole Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 that started the race today.
Lexus was in a mega scrap in GT3 that we just saw with the Frenchman Esteban Masson battling against Gregoire Saucy and Ahmad Al Harthy, the Frenchman and the Omani driver in the McLaren #59 for United Autosport, and the #46 BMW M4 GT3 for Team WRT respectively. In the meantime, in the GT3 ranks, Al Harthy has to move it if he wants to avoid falling into the clutches of the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, now in the hands of the Angolan driver Rui Andrade. That is the battle for fifth on down in GT3. We have penalties being assessed for GT3 cars as we speak including the sister #82 TF Sport Corvette and the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini.
Both of these penalties are for not respecting blue flags, not moving over when told to do so by the marshals with the Hypercars, the faster of the two classes, albeit not by much, coming through on the preferred line. Many of the Hypercars are on hard compound Michelin tires all around. Toyota #7 on full medium compound tires. Michelin gives the teams what they ask for depending on what the weather conditions for race day are going to be. Toyota #7 is being worked on right in the pit box. It looks like they are changing a battery on the car or something. The green light is on meaning the car is safe while in hybrid mode. One of the team members tells the driver there is a fuel problem on the #7. This is a disaster for Toyota #7! It will not be a quick fix.
Meanwhile, Race Control has notified us of a drive through penalty for the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 in the Joest lookalike colors for an incident reported at turn seven which is Curva do Laranjinha. Is this fuel problem for the Toyota a fuel metering system? In the pit lane you are allowed only two mechanics at a time to work on the car while in the pit lane. We are back to the Alpine vs. Lamborghini story from earlier although their battle has now been joined by one of the two Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963's as well, look.
Speaking of Alpine, the #35 car in the hands of Ferdinand Habsburg is the new race leader. A slew of changes in LMGT3 as well and pit stops underway. They are power cycling through the #7 Toyota and the engine has not started yet, as both of the factory red Ferrari's, #50 and #51 are in for routine service. Peugeot 9X8 #93 is also in the pit lane from second place. One more question for Timo Bernhard. This is such a different challenge in this era between Hypercar and GT3 compared to LMP1 and GTE. Ferrari going to work on changing the tires on #50. Timo Bernhard says the situation today with just two classes is easier to deal with, with Hypercar and GT3. Back when he was driving there were four different classes in the FIA WEC with bigger speed differentials.
Still, it is difficult. Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac passes Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota. They left the pit lane nose to tail. Mike Conway and Toyota #7 led this motor race for three and a quarter hours, and now Conway is all the way down to 18th place in the overall, practically languishing halfway through the field. That was a far longer pit stop and a massive disaster for Conway. Ferdinand Habsburg in the blue French Alpine is the race leader, the #35 Alpine A424B. We are about to hear from Nico Muller at Peugeot as he is being interviewed by our man Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane.
But before we get there, we can see one of the BMW M Hybrid V8's for Team WRT has spun. That was a lazy spin for the BMW. What of Peugeot's tire strategy though? Nico Muller says they chose the right tires and the focus of Free Practice sorting out race balance has paid off thus far, but anything can happen. He is happy with how many cars he has overtaken. Peugeot TotalEnergies have shown form in pack racing. Ferdinand Habsburg had the Alpine in the lead but he has just been passed on track by Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota. Habsburg has yet to stop. In third and fourth are the two Porsche Penske Porsche 963's with Andre Lotterer aboard car #6 in third and Michael Christensen in the sister car #5 in fourth place right now.
The spinning BMW we saw was the #15 car, on an outlap, in the hands of the Swiss licensed and domiciled Italian driver Raffaele Marciello. Ferdinand Habsburg was passed by Ryo Hirakawa on sheer pace alone. The Toyota with it's 3.5-liter twin turbo V6 power against the 3.4-liter single turbo V6 in the Alpine. The Toyota with front wheel drive hybrid and the Alpine with rear-wheel-drive hybrid contrasing the difference between a Le Mans Hypercar and an LMDh. Thanks for joining us, Timo Bernhard! Good to hear from you.
We are hearing of another investigation by the stewards of contact between Yifei Ye and Robin Frijns. Yifei Ye now at the wheel of the #83 yellow AF Corse Ferrari 499P and Robin Frijns in the sister #20 BMW M Hybrid V8. There is also an investigation, that has taken an hour to notify us about, for a pit stop infringement for the #2 Cadillac. The stewards are very, very busy. We will have another guest coming soon. But before we do that, there is another battle afoot for seventh place as Mikkel Jensen, the Dane, now at the controls of the #93 Peugeot has it, and the #50 Ferrari in the hands of Spaniard Miguel Molina, wants it.
Again, you will recall the #50 is our most recent winner, having triumphed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month giving Ferrari their 11th overall victory at La Sarthe and the second in as many years. The Peugeot has been at it's best with a low grip situation on the circuit. The wet conditions we saw at Le Mans last year made it look like a proper race car and I think it is coming to the fore heere at Interlagos too. They are bringing in their confidence here, or rather, the confidence is being boosted. Each car has an individual Michelin engineer working with the team in Hypercar as we see Nicklas Nielsen chatting to his team's specific engineer. He is demonstrating (as racing drivers often do), how the tires feel, via the use of hand gestures.
The data the engineer for that specific car is not shared with any other team. Like anything in racing it is top secret. We've talked about that before. You'd be a fool, a damn fool, to divulge to the competition what your plan is! Are you kidding me?! It is a very discrete relationship between the team and their specific engineer. Do we do this? Should we do that? Their tire engineer is a huge part of the team. Ferdinand Habsburg now in the pit lane aboard the #35 Alpine. This race has been defined by on track incidents and strategies. Hello, to Felipe Giaffone, IndyCar race winner and still racing in Copa Truck in Brazil, a Sao Paulo native.
Giaffone says it has been a great opportunity to have the sports cars back in Brazil after a decade away. The place is packed. Only two Brazilians are racing in GT3 but the fans are coming to see the race. Everyone is loving it. Ferrari, Porsche, they still have recognition in South America. The technology of these cars has things that are even better, even cooler than an F1 car. The depth of competition is amazing. In Copa Truck there is hybrid power, big rig truck racing. Brazilian Stock Cars is the other massive series and Giaffone's family builds those cars.
They are developing hybrid powered trucks. Things are going very well with a front hybrid drive system with a 12-kilowatt battery just like the four-wheel drive Hypercars. There are a vast array of tire strategies impacting how the race is going as we are looking at the GT3 battle. Ten years ago, when FIA WEC was last here, the track surface was brand new. Now it has aged in a decade. Gregoire Saucy's McLaren has Rui Andrade all over him in the #81 Corvette from TF Sport. So, United Autosport vs. TF Sport. The srface is getting old here at Interlagos and the track will be repaved again in the next couple years.
Particularly in sector two, the asphalt looks like it is 30 years old. The downforce, the weight, the fat slick tires are pulling the pavement up. Felipe Giaffone worked with Nico Costa when he was a kid. Now, we go to Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane as he is interviewing Sarah Bovy at Iron Dames. Let's hear what Sarah has to say about her stint. She says that it was known that tire degradation would be heavy and hard to manage. She was happy with the first part of the race and hopes Rahel can manage and has a very strong pace compared to everyone else. It is all to play for, for the Iron Dames.
Back to our mate Felipe Giaffone. He is now part of the FIA Drivers' Commission and was invited to do so by our mate and nine-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Tom Kristensen. Felipe Giaffone and Tom Kristensen have worked together on the FIA Drivers' Commission to give feedback to the governing body. This shows they are listening to what the drivers have to say, which could be contrary to what a lot of people might think of the FIA in a general sense. From there this will help the FIA know how to structure the rules across different championships. Sports car racing, open wheel, touring cars, you name it.
We have a stirring on-track battle in GT3 for fifth place between Esteban Masson, the Frenchman at the wheel of the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, and Ahmad Al Harthy, the Omani driver in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. This is for fifth place in class. Masson has it and Al Harthy wants it. Valentino Rossi gives us a wave from the WRT pit box. Ciao, Vale. Felipe Giaffone sees, talking about Valentino Rossi, that it is easier for the motorcycle guys to come into car racing these days. It would be far more difficult for a race car driver, to switch over to a motorcycle like a MotoGP bike.
Valentino Rossi isn't the first to come from bikes to cars. Think about John Surtees and Mike "The Bike" Hailwood. They were both incredibly successful on two wheels and four wheels alike. Ahmad Al Harthy, Rossi's co-driver, he is being caught hand over fist by Rui Andrade. BMW vs. Corvette for sixth place in GT3. They are still working on Esteban Masson. He is only 19 years old and is a French Canadian from Quebec. We keep getting him confused with Etienne Masson and Etienne Masson is also an endurance racer but his discipline, again, like Valentino Rossi came from, is motorcycles. Etienne Masson is a successful rider on the FIM Endurance World Championship motorcycle endurance racing circuit.
EWC is the same situation for motorcycles as the FIA WEC is for sports cars. Motorcycle endurance races of anywhere from six to 24 hours long with multiple riders on factory supported 1000cc Superbikes. Lexus, BMW, Corvette. BMW in fact they also have a factory motorcycle racing team. BMW just as prevalent in motorcycles as they have been in cars. They build both. The performance of the GT3 cars is so close. They look and sound different, but the performance is right there. You've got a front engine twin turbo V6 in the BMW, a front engine naturally aspirated V8 with a cross-plane crankshaft in the Lexus and a mid-engine V8 with a flat plane crankshaft in the Corvette.
That is the beauty of sports car racing and to a certain extend endurance motorcycle racing. The cars and the bikes, they look different, they sound different. Some fans are driven crazy by Balance of Performance, but the cars are incredibly close together. We are in a perfect world of the manufacturers choosing what cars they want to use. The rules allow for car development too especially for the prototypes, the Hypercars. Brazil is the only place in the world where the FIA WEC races where all the major brands represented in the series actually sell cars. So, you have Toyota, GM, Peugeot, BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Renault who has the Alpine brand, and so on.
Some marketplaces we see fans who are tribal about the brands they love. In Brazil, they enjoy all the names. You see in Sao Paulo and other places in the country, Ferrari's, Porsche's, BMW's, McLaren's, and so on. The manufacturers have a lot of clients, and the fans are getting behind the racing and behind the manufacturers, activating their investments. Thank you, Felipe Giaffone, for visiting us and chatting as we have three and a half hours of motorized madness left to come. While we were talking to Felipe, some stats came up that I want to double back to as the race continues with three and a half hours left on the board.
First off, we were watching the top three in GT3. The #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche leads the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini and the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. #92 has completed 87 laps, 233 miles, and is five and a half seconds to the good over the Iron Dames while Heart of Racing in third is only 5.9 seconds back and just 4/10ths behind the Lamborghini. The Hypercar top three is the #8 Toyota in the lead followed by the two Penske Porsche's, #6 and #5. Ryo Hirakawa driving the #8 leading Toyota in Hypercar and the overall has completed 97 laps, 260 miles.
Here are the top placings in the running order in the classes. The top eight.
Hypercar:
1. #8 Hirakawa/Hartley/Buemi Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 Hybrid
2. #6 Lotterer/Estre/Vanthoor Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
3. #5 Christensen/Campbell/Makowiecki Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
4. #51 Calado/Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi AF Corse Ferrari 499P
5. #83 Ye/Kubica/Shwartzman AF Corse Ferrari 499P
6. #93 Jensen/Muller/Vergne Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8
7. #50 Molina/Fuoco/Nielsen AF Corse Ferrari 499P
8. #63 Mortara/Bortolotti/Kvyat Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63
GT3:
1. #92 Sturm/Malykhin/Bachler Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
2. #85 Frey/Bovy/Gatting Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2
3. #27 Mancinelli/James/Riberas Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3
4. #95 Pino/Sato/Caygill United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3
5. #87 Masson/Lopez/Kimura Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3
6. #46 Al Harthy/Rossi/Martin Team WRT BMW M4 GT3
7. #81 Andrade/van Rompuy/Eastwood TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
8. #59 Saucy/Cottingham/Costa United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3
The automakers are activating their brands for the fans as we have three and a half hours of this motorized madness still to come. Please do stay with us. Esteban Masson is still hanging on ahead of Ahmad Al Harthy. The Hypercars are working their way through the GT3 traffic with their own battles in mind as we see one of the BMW's, one of the Peugeot's and one of the customer Porsche's. Robin Frijns in BMW #20 racing with Paul di Resta in Peugeot #94. This is the battle for 11th place we are watching closely. Behind these two is the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 mostly in white with the lime green trim and Neel Jani, the rapid and experienced Swiss driver is back at the wheel of it.
This is 12th, 13th, and 14th. 19 cars in Hypercar so almost half of them will not even score points. The whole team must pull together. Just turning up is no guarantee of any rewards. A penalty has been issued to the #777 D'station Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 for not respecting blue flags when the marshals told the driver to move over. That is the car shared Frenchmen Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard alongside the Danish GT and sports car veteran Marco Sorensen.
The #11 Isotta Fraschini is lapped traffic for the faster Hypercars. That automobile had a very strong start to the race but has been flying Plummet Airways ever since and is 19th and stone last out of 19 cars entered in the division. It has been a fraught day for Jean Karl Vernay Carl Wattana Bennett and Antonio Serravalle. They are a couple laps off the lead but their race has been dotted with incidents and penalties as the race has overall as well. Cars in the top five or six earlier have fallen behind. Toyota #7 we believe had to undergo the change of a fuel pressure sensor which is why they were delayed on one of their pit stops.
The two Penske Porsche's have swapped spots as Michael Christensen goes past Andre Lotterer. Ferrari were seventh and eighth on the grid and the #51 is up to fourth, the #83 has moved up from 11th or 12th on the grid, to fifth. The #50 car is seventh. The #93 Peugeot is in sixth place, not off sequence or anything. The #93 Peugeot is in the top six based on pace. Peugeot did not have the pace at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by any means. Conversely, the car had reliability which is what mattered. Peugeot are sticking within the window, they have not been the fastest, but they have had clean pit stops and not made errors. Everything is pretty fluid in the Hypercar class. The #7 Toyota is down in 17th place. Most people might think, oh, they are that far down, their race is over. Their goose is cooked. Not so fast. They can still make a move back to the front with over half of the race still remaining.
Last lap by, Mikkel Jensen ran a 1:29.039, Michael Christensen 1:29.043. Jensen is four thousandths of a second quicker, only, than his countryman in the Porsche! Imagine that! So, there's your evidence. You say, "show me the evidence that the Peugeot is quicker and has the pace." Well, there you have it. Wow! A back-and-forth dust up in GT3 as Ahmad Al Harthy goes by Etienne Masson in the battle for fifth in GT3. Right behind them is Rui Andrade, the Angolan, former LMP2 racer, in the #81 TF Sport Corvette. Gregoire Saucy in the #59 McLaren is also right there as they are going to go three abreast down the frontstretch! Four wide! Come on, boys! You can do it! Four wide, four wide! Nope. I guess not.
Discretion the better part of valor headed for the Senna S another time. Masson to the inside. Al Harthy on the outside in the braking zone on the grippy side of the track! Masson runs wide, Al Harthy runs wide and then sweeps back across! Great racing! Masson fighting back on the outside, look, as the Ferrari Hypercar screams past all of them on the outside line. Oh! The Ferrari went off the road in making the pass on that clump of GT3 cars! Andrade tries to make a move on Masson and Masson says "not now, sunbeam" and slams the door in Andrade's face. BMW, Lexus, Corvette, McLaren. Talk about manufacturer variety! Many more brands want to join in.
#51 has James Calado at the wheel of it in fourth spot. Did he pass off the track? He was taking evasive action. How will the stewards see the replay? We'll have to find out. Up ahead is another Hypercar, the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R. Gregoire Saucy and McLaren felt that theyhad a car that would be gentler and kinder on it's tires and the BMW boys at WRT have been on the opposite end of the spectrum wondering how their two cars were going to perform before the race got underway oh, about two and a half hours ago. Yet, Ahmad Al Harthy passed Esteban Masson and is running away.
Rahel Frey six seconds back from the GT3 lead. She is in the picture. The Corvette of Rui Andrade passes the Lexus of Esteban Masson. I think his tires are going away. Saucy tries sticking his nose in, at the apex of turn ten, Bico de Pato. Esteban Masson, the young French Canadian, he has been extremely impressive. This is a brand-new program in a brand-new category. New drivers, teams, and cars all over. Masson hits the pit lane, and we'll see more driver changes coming in GT3. Both BMWs' will hit the pit lane. Augusto Farfus is set to take over the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Jose Maria Lopez is taking over the #87 Lexus right now. We saw "Pechito" fill in for Mike Conway at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Ryo Hirakawa leads the motor race aboard Toyota #8, 25 seconds to the good over the two factory Penske Porsche 963's driven by Michael Christensen and Andre Lotterer. James Calado in Ferrari #51 is 25 seconds in-arrears with Yifei Ye running him down in the third Ferrari, the #83 car. We are also watching, via the onboard camera, the battle between Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 and Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424B for 14th place in the Hypercar class. Both drivers are on hard compound tires. Charles Milesi has a head of steam on Neel Jani. he is showing his nose and Neel Jani locks everything up into the Senna S!
That was a close shave as these two are actually closing in on one of the two Peugeot 9X8's. Trail braking into the turn. Ambient temperature 25 degrees Celsius, and track temperature 32 degrees Celsius, double what we saw yesterday for Free Practice 3 and for qualifying. If you are keeping score at home, 25 degrees Celsius ambient = 77 degrees Fahrenheit, so, warm, but not screamingly hot, and 32 degrees Celsius track temperature = 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit, almost 90 degrees. That would be super hot for ambient but not incredibly hot in terms of temperature of the asphalt on the road. The track conditions are very different.
Again, you have to request what tires you ought to use from Michelin, based on an educated guess. When we go to Circuit of the Americas in September it is going to be incredibly hot. Go with what you know. There are more teams with their drivers on the horn screaming, "Ugh! I've got no tires!" Now we see, side-by-side, Jani and Milesi! Edgy stuff! Milesi tries the outside on Jani. Milesi has a run, and it is clean as a whistle. The Frenchman in the blue French prototype makes his move. He telegraphed that going to the dirty side of the road and making it stick. He was early and committed to the outside. Neel Jani knew where he was going to be and Milesi trusted Jani as well. That pass was textbook.
Ryo Hirakawa leading the motor race by half a minute over the Porsche's. 105 laps completed, 281 miles. In GT3 the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche continues to lead with 95 laps completed, 254 miles. The GT3 leader is ten laps behind the Hypercar leader, to put things into perspective. Andre Lotterer has been around sports car racing for a long time. I think Lotterer might continue. We have not heard any rumors, but we can hope Andre Lotterer will keep racing in prototype sports cars. Toyota letting Ryo Hirakawa know that his pace is such that he is pulling away from the Porsche's. The sister #7 had a long pit stop to replace a fuel pressure sensor and is languishing in 17th place.
Sports car racing is a lot like soccer. After 90 minutes of a "football" game, the real football being soccer of course, the game isn't finished. So it is, halfway or so through a six-hour endurance sports car race. This one is far from over. Trust me. Again, we don't necessarily know who has used what tires and we don't quite know who has what left in the locker. Toyota are on medium compound Michelin's all the way. Now, speaking of Toyota, their Lexus brand that competes in GT3 has just a sole car in the race but #87 in the hands of Argentinian driver Jose Maria Lopez goes by the #82 TF Sport Corvette. That is a position change as Lopez passes Sebastien Baud.
Sebastien Baud is a Silver-rated driver and Jose Maria Lopez is a Platinum driver who has won championships before, three times in the FIA World Touring Car Championship and also in the FIA WEC. OK. Nico Pino hits the pit lane, the Chilean driver aboard the #95 United Autosports McLaren. Whoops. I beg your pardon. It is Frenchman Gregoire Saucy at the wheel of the #59 McLaren in the lane. Rui Andrade, Simon Mann, Matteo Cressoni, they are pitting. Also, the #777 D'station Aston Martin, which we thought would incur a drive through penalty from the stewards, that penalty has been rescinded. The stewards have redressed their error.
Jose Maria Lopez has won in FIA WEC championships in the LMP1 era and also in touring cars. It is possible if Lopez continues his current track in GT3 racing, he could very well win a third championship in the future. Iron Dames in the pit lane while Manthey Pure Racing remain on track. Nico Pino moves up to second in class in GT3. Rahel Frey is doing a double stint. We also see the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 in the pits as well. Right side tires onto the #85 Lamborghini and on the #31 BMW as well. So, as we were wondering about who was driving, now we have an answer. Darren Leung is back aboard the #31 car.
Maxime Martin, I believe is now back in the sister #46 Team WRT BMW as we are looking at a battle for eighth spot in the overall and in Hypercar. Lamborghini SC63 #63 vs. Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 #38. So, this battle is Edoardo Mortara vs. Oliver Rasmussen. Speaking of Lamborghini, our man Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane has found Daniil Kvyat for an interview. Heating the tires is difficult but as they are learning they are getting more competitive at Lamborghini Iron Lynx and the Raging Bull from Bologna. Their goal is to eventually get to a podium spot. He believes in his team and knows the team needs to keep pushing and the team back at Bologna needs to upgrade the car.
That being said, they are very positive about the direction they are going in. This is just the fifth race for Lamborghini with Iron Lynx and the Porsche 963 in both factory and customer guises is now into it's second season of full-fledged racing on both sides of the Atlantic. The gaps in both Hypercar and GT3 are so damn tiny that the tiniest difference in setup or experience can really show itself. Joel Sturm brought the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R into the pit lane, had a routine pit stop for fuel and new tires, and continues in the race for his double stint before he hands the car over to Klaus Bachler I believe. Kvyat, you could hear it in his voice, sending some shade towards Stuttgart, who, truthfully, have had three years developing their car while Lamborghini is in their first season, again, from Bologna in Italy.
The #92 Porsche continues to lead GT3 with 99 laps completed, 265 miles. Sturm leads Rahel Frey by 17 seconds with the Italian Daniel Mancinelli in third spot aboard the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. This is the second-place battle in GT3. The Iron Dames Lambo in pink and the Heart of Racing Aston Martin in blue. Remember, next year, The Heart of Racing will bring Aston Martin into the Hypercar division in WEC and to GTP in IMSA in the states with the much-anticipated V12 powered beast that is the Aston Martin Valkyrie. BMW #46 in and out of the pit lane. Three into one into the corner isn't working there, look. Argy bargy there between McLaren #59 and Corvette #81!
It's like that old song, anything you can do I can do better. That was a battle for position between Gregoire Saucy of Switzerland and Rui Andrade, the Angolan racer. Pit stop time at Porsche for the #6 car. We saw that GT3 scrap happening for eighth place. Andre Lotterer has been out of sequence with others in Hypercar, but he is on a recovery drive as we speak. We are almost to the halfway mark. This is a six-hour race, yes. But with that said, everyone will eventually do a partial stint. Fuel in the tank and tires going on the Porsche, down off the air jacks and he's away. The team knows how few laps they did and how that parlays towards their prediction to the end of the race on strategy.
The gaps in the Hypercar class are pretty big although we have not yet seen plus one lap anyplace. That is how close this 19-car Hypercar field is. Blimey! This is factory Porsche on factory Porsche for position! Aye yaye yaye! #6 is off the road over the green paint! That looks like grass. It's not. Its pavement painted deceptively in green to look like grass. Stone cold tires on the right side of the #6 Porsche, Lotterer at the wheel of it. So, the top three overall and in Hypercar is Toyota, Porsche, Ferrari. Ryo Hirakawa leading Michael Christensen and James Calado.
Hirakawa with 112 laps on the board, nearly 300 miles. He is half a minute ahead of Christensen. Calado is 28 seconds back from the Porsche. Pace, consistency, tire life, are not necessarily factors. Factors that we see are the bizarre that might happen out of the blue to a particular car or team. If the other guys, blink, then something will happen. The cars are so similar in performance, the lap times are very consistent, and the racing is incredibly close. Yes, the cars all have different mechanical combinations which is the beauty of endurance racing but that said, the way the cars make their lap times is also different. However, everyone is so evenly matched, that is what makes the racing wonderful to watch.
There are many more snakes on the board than ladders. Ford Mustang GT3 #77 in the pit lane, the first of the two Proton Competition Ford Mustangs. They are looking for something in the passenger compartment. The passenger side door is open. Great gesture from the Mustang team with a sticker on the side window honoring the memory of the late, great Parnelli Jones. Mortara and Rasmussen continuing to slug it out for seventh place. Drive through penalty for the #83 yellow Ferrari and now, Edoardo Mortara gets absolutely dusted by Oliver Rasmussen. Mortara has a lot of experience in motorsports.
Now we return to the battle for second place in the GT3 class. Rahel Frey fending off the challenge of Daniel Mancinelli and so she cannot attack the leader, Joel Sturm. Daniel Mancinelli is determined to take the fight to the Lamborghini. Fresher right-side tires on the Lambo compared to the Aston Martin but only by half a dozen laps. Maybe the Aston is using a set of right-side Goodyear's that were bedded in during qualifying, and so they have a heat cycle already gone through them. Frey has new tires on one side as the #83 Ferrari 499P serves the drive through penalty but will drop like a stone, eight places! Man, oh man! He is going to drop out of the top ten. Cadillac #2 was under investigation for a pit lane infringement earlier but will not cop a penalty for it.
Alex Lynn was complaining of grinding noises from the brakes. That metal-on-metal scraping noise is terrible. It is hellaciously scary. Mancinelli on his rear-view camera is getting warned by the flag in the cockpit system of a passing car. He has a Peugeot Hypercar going to drivers' left. Now we see a replay of the #50 Ferrari 499P wedged between two GT3 cars, the #87 Lexus and the #46 BMW. He swerves wide to driver's left, and clobbers a Goodyear billboard, absolutely destroying it! That could have been much, much worse! A lucky escape! We have seen both of the red and yellow Ferrari Hypercars taking side trips off into the scenery to pass recalcitrant GT3 cars that wouldn't move.
Let me correct myself, I think that was by choice. They chose to move over and clobber the signboards to try and shake the GT3 cars. You can slow down but that's not how you win a race. You need to go into every corner with a head of steam at all times. Don't give it away. Ferrari #83 in the pit lane. When you know that you are going to run out of road as a driver, it is how you manage that. Porsche on Porsche on Porsche. Pick the bones out of this one. The Jota car, one of them, is the meat in a factory Penske Porsche sandwich. That is the #12 Jota entry unlapping itself and getting on terms with the #6. So, this is Andre Lotterer and Michael Christensen dealing with Norman Nato, the Frenchman.
Nato is running in 12th place and ahead of him is Lotterer in 11th. They have an Alpine and a Toyota respectively, behind, who are also fighting for positions within the points. We have Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota lighting the afterburners trying to get n terms with the Lotterer and Nato fight we are watching now. We do not know, when Toyota had to change out their fuel pressure monitoring device, was regulatory and issued by the stewards, or if it was a glitch within the telemetry systems the team at Toyota are using as the team studies the banks of computer monitors on the pit wall. The race leading #8 Toyota, the sister car, is in for routine service.
Ryo Hirakawa staying behind the wheel for a double stint, the man who nearly won the centenary Le Mans last year. Ferrari #51 hung on ahead of Toyota #8 that day. Ferrari have only won two WEC races and both of those victories have come at Le Mans. They are knocking on the door trying to get a short format race win and by short format I mean these typical six-hour events. A "sprint race" win is what they are after. Michael Christensen and Porsche take the lead in Brazil as we tick through the halfway mark here in Brazil. Stay with us. The second half of the race, coming up, now.
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