We do have an answer on minimum drive time in GT3. In a six-hour race, a Silver or Bronze graded driver must do a minimum of an hour and 45 minutes behind the wheel. If you are of a distinct vintage and a sports car racing afficionado, you will know this race in the old days went to 1,000 kilometers as many endurance races in Europe and other parts of the world did, especially during the Group C era, the other prototype golden era in this form of racing, which has been renewed now thanks to the Hypercar category. Unlike the GT3 class of today, back in the '80s any GT cars in the championship were labeled as Group B, not to be confused with the monster turbocharged rally cars of the same era. Most of those cars were Porsche 911's or 930's as I recall from watching historical footage.
1,000 kilometers was the distance of most races in the '80s in the Group C era. That is part of why the new Porsche LMDh cars are designated with the 963 model number. I haven't the foggiest idea where Porsche got 919 from for their LMP1 hybrid from a decade ago. The 956 and 962 models raced in Group C, and the 962 of course ran in the first iteration of IMSA GTP stateside as well. But the first of their Hypercars is the 963. After lots of "door slamming", Neel Jani leads and has closed the door. By door slamming I mean literal door slamming and not just drag racing with a stock looking hot rod like a Pro Stock or Pro Modified dragster.
James Calado in the #51 Ferrari is second. In third and fourth, the two Penske Porsche 963 factory cars of Michael Christensen and Andre Lotterer. Yifei Ye is fifth having taken over the #83 yellow AF Corse Ferrari 499P started by Robert Kubica. In sixth place is the #50 Ferrari. We have three Porsche's and three Ferrari's in the top half dozen. We are under the safety car because of replacing the barriers, not just the walls themselves but the posts that hold them together after Rene Rast clobbered Phil Hanson and sent him spinning, the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8, clouting the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963. Both cars careering off the road and sustaining heavy damage.
Andrea Caldarelli in the #63 Lamborghini SC63, his crew chief tells him, "remember the driver cooling fan." Caldarelli replies, "it is already on." His team manager says, "I am joking." Caldarelli replies, "sorry, I didn't understand the joke." Chortle, chortle. I had no idea. That one flew over my head, too. Uh um. As we were, Andrea Caldarelli joins Mirko Bortolotti and Dani Kvyat this weekend at Spa. Their regular third driver Edoardo Mortara, like many of his peers, racing the Formula E event in Berlin, Germany. Peugeot's Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean Eric Vergne are both racing in Berlin this weekend.
Longtime WEC racer Antonio Felix Da Costa is also in the Berlin Formula E race. 1/3rd of the race is done and 2/3rds left. Rahel Frey, in the meantime, is set to take over the race leading GT3 car, the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini. The pit lane is now open as Paul di Resta is pitting aboard the #94 Peugeot. The entrance is open with a green light. Pit lane exit has the red light glowing and is closed until the safety car queue has passed. But you are fine to do a tire change, refuel, and do a driver change. Iron Dames, in. United McLaren, in. Manthey EMA, in. Sarah Bovy completes her minimum drive time. Ian James has as well, every Bronze graded driver. Claudio Schiavoni might have done a split stint in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan. Matteo Cressoni, I think, was in the car just a short time ago.
Satoshi Hoshino and Claudio Schiavoni have both stayed out and now we are waiting to see where Takeshi Kimura is, at the wheel of the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3. Every one of the GT3 teams is running two cars, and so, if you don't wish to double stack them, you have a degree of latitude available with the safety car remaining on the circuit. Proton Competition have pitted both of their Ford Mustang GT3's, #77 and #88. Both McLaren's came in, both Porsche's came in. James Cottingham is now back to the top of the pile in GT3 ahead of the Iron Dames Lamborghini. The McLaren had a six seconds quicker pit stop than the Lamborghini.
United Autosport turned the car over very quickly on the stop. Brazilian driver Nico Costa now at the wheel of it, and he has an advantage over Rahel Frey in the Lambo, albeit a minimal one. Sarah Bovy did a phenomenal stint and we are about to hear from Sarah. She is confident, the car is handling well, and they wanted the gap to remain, but cannot anticipate everything. She did not see the accident after the contact and what she hopes is that her teammates run well because it is in their hands. Sarah Bovy has completed her drive time for this race.
Rahel Frey will be determined to get to the front. McLaren are leading. This is the third race for the car in GT3 and the third race with United Autosports running it. They will be leading. Two GT3 cars have not pitted yet. I have jumped the gun, talking about McLaren. They will be at the top end of town in GT3 in due time. Iron Lynx with Claudio Schiavoni have not pitted yet nor has TF Sport with the #82 Corvette of Hiroshi Koizumi. I think they might need a stick of dynamite to get Koizumi out of the car and let either Sebastien Baud or Daniel Juncadella take over.
Now, it was a very late call just before the season began in Qatar back in March, for United Autosport to be the confirmed program with the McLaren GT3 cars. We have seen the Bronze drivers start in GT3 and now we are going to see the higher rated drivers for the rest of today's race. He isn't in Race Control right now, but the man in the white dress shirt with a dark jacket on is in fact our Race Director Eduardo Freitas, who si overseeing the barrier repairs that are still happening. He is not only Race Director but construction foreman in this case.
You are more likely to see safety cars earlier in the race with the Hypercars negotiating the tightly packed GT3 field. Strategically, it works to get the driver time done for the Bronze drivers early. Now, we have most of the professional drivers on track as we are over two hours into the race. The driver lap time difference has a far larger discrepancy. Neel Jani is now under investigation by the stewards for ignoring the black and orange meatball flag. How many times does he have to miss pit lane before that becomes an issue? He fixed the issue of course. He ignored it because he fixed it. Eduardo Freitas is out supervising the barrier repairs, but if he has a radio, someone in Race Control should get through to him.
They need to say "Eduardo, remember that the #99 car has fixed their door problem, so they do not need to be assessed a penalty." He fixed the issue on the move. A regulation is set in stone but it is subject to interpretation as we have been under the safety car for half an hour but the repairs of the barriers are close to completion. Now, I also believe that the black and orange flag is nonnegotiable. So, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 must still come to pit lane and serve the aforementioned penalty. This is not an advisory. It is an absolute law, just like traffic laws on the road, for example, obeying speed limits.
We see the Ferris Wheel, and we had the Ferris Wheel at Imola as well. I wonder how they transport the Ferris Wheel from race to race. The Ferris Wheel is absolutely free, I think. We are still under safety car conditions. BMW #20 is in the pit lane. Rene Rast will do a double stint, I think. He is still being blamed for the crash we saw. We see the #93 Peugeot 9X8 blast away from a pit stop. Now, we have the Porsche drivers, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor playing the role of the two cranky senior citizens in the Muppet Show movie theater always critiquing the stage performances of the Muppets, Statler and Waldorf, here represented by the two Porsche drivers. Estre and Vanthoor are not so old and no so cranky.
We have, Statler, or is it Waldorf? In reality, it is Kevin Estre. Estre says things are working out well for Porsche thus far. The Ferrari has come back and can overtake. There are tons of straegies everyone is using and it is hard to have a clear picture with this long safety car scramble. They are fighting indeed for the podium as we have been under the safety car for 33 minutes. The barrier repairs are still underway. The support posts for the barriers are being repaired. The Armco ripples and bends to dissipate energy but when a car smashes the barriers hard, the posts need to be moved back into place for safety compliance.
The sun is beating on the windscreen with no air conditioning. Use a fan? Yes. It is taking energy but does not matter at slow speed. There is a cockpit temperature limit that must be adhered to so the drivers do not become roasting chickens. Onboard with Earl Bamber in the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Some Hypercars and some GT3 cars are running air conditioning. Toyota do not use air conditioning nor do Lamborghini. Peugeot uses air conditioning. The air conditioning saps power from the motor. But, at speed, the breeze flows through the car so it can indeed keep the drivers cool without having to run the air conditioning system and sapping horsepower.
A whole host of cars have very fresh tires with fairly fresh drivers at the wheel. Every driver is hot and impatient saying, "ugh! Let's go racing!" Everyone is going to be in a whole new race when the green flag drops here with three hours and 40 minutes left on the board this afternoon. Make the most of fresh tires. The best way to keep temperature in the tires is to not weave back and forth. As we always say in an endurance race under yellow, your best bet is working the throttle against the brake to maintain tire temperature. Zigzagging the car back and forth may clean the junk, the clag, the marbles, off the tires. But it has no impact on putting heat in them.
We see the #11 Isotta Fraschini stopped at the end of the pit lane at the traffic light which is currently red. Now it is green, and he can go back on track. He is joining the back of the queue. All of the equipment has been cleared away, so we are getting set to go back to green. At Toyota, Ryo Hirakawa is readying for the restart and Sebastien Buemi says he got touched going to the outside and was all wiggly and wobbly through Eau Rouge, not knowing if the car was damaged. Then, he copped a penalty, and they went out of sync. Now they are back up to ninth or tenth. Tire degradation will be key. Saving tires, Toyota went for a double stint.
Going long on a set of tires means a lot of deg or degradation, and that must be managed. It is not just what you've got but it is how you use what you've got. Toyota have the experience in double stinting tires and not taking left side tires as often. You build up the tire advantage in the locker and this is the way that you gain track position and other advantages over your competition. The #82 TF Sport Corvette, and no, I cannot remember who is driving, is being told by the assistant Race Director, to close the gap to the safety car. Both Toyota's are in the top ten. #7 in ninth and #8 in tenth as mentioned.
The Cadillac #2 has new tires and they ditched a set of tires they ran in qualifying and in the first stint of the race, first or second stint, or both. Everyone will have more tire margin for the remaining three and a half hours. Finally, after a long wait, we see Claudio Schiavoni pit from the class lead in GT3. He stays in the car, or rather, maybe there was a driver change. Or, is it Matteo Cressoni, or Franck Perera? I don't know. Safety Car in this lap. Matteo Cressoni is at the wheel of the #60 and Claudio Schiavoni burned up a ton of his remaining drive time behind the safety car. Prepare for fireworks on cold tires in the GT3 class.
We are ready to go back to green. Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 leads the Hypercar field and Nico Costa for McLaren and United Autosport leads the GT3 field. We are back to green flag racing! Three cars playing catch up to everyone else, the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini in GT3, the #11 Isotta Fraschini, and one other car that I am not sure of. Green flag. Green flag. 50 laps now complete, 218 miles. The top half dozen made up of Porsche 963's and Ferrari 499P's. We are closing in on the halfway mark in the race in 35 minutes.
Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche is charging after Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari for second place. Miguel Molina in Ferrari #50 makes the pass on the #83 Ferrari of Yifei Ye. This is for fifth place. His next target is Porsche #6 with Andre Lotterer at the wheel of it. Will Stevens remains the only driver who started the race still in the car, aboard the #12 Jota Sport Porsche. Nicolas Costa leads GT3 for McLaren under pressure from Rahel Frey in the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini and behind her is Zacharie Robichon in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3. Daniel Mancinelli is next up in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo.
The rest of the Hypercar order after Andre Lotterer is what we are seeing now. It is two Ferrari's followed by the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche, the #35 Alpine and then the two Toyota's. Nyck de Vries is in the #7 Toyota hounding Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine A424. Who has a tire advantage? I don't know. Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 is on new tires, and so are (in GT3), the #27 Aston Martin of Mancinelli, and the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Sean Gelael, they all have fresh tires. Several cars are using tires that put i laps during qualifying as Miguel Molina remains glued to Andre Lotterer. It is a Porsche vs. Ferrari battle that is heating up, look.
Trouble for Toyota as Nyck de Vries in the #7 will cop a penalty for a Virtual Safety Car infringement. Additionally, the second United Autosport McLaren, the #95 car, has a penalty called in fifth place, for Chilean Nico Pino. I don't know what Pino has been pinged for by the stewards. Meanwhile, the battle rages for 13th in the Hypercar class and in the overall as we see Andrea Caldarelli aboard the #63 Lamborghini SC63 monstering the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 currently in the hands of the Swiss Italian, Raffaele Marciello. Now, Caldarelli has one of the Peugeot 9X8's all over him like the proverbial cheap suit.
That is Mikkel Jensen, the Danish racer, in the #93 Peugeot who is the proverbial el cheapo suito that is all over the tail of the lime green Lambo. Caldarelli is hung out to dry on the uphill and Mikkel Jensen says, "thanks, mate" and whistles right by. You know it is climbing, running, or cycling uphill. Any faltering, you lose a ton of time. Oh, hello. Achtung. Attention. We have a battle for the lead in GT3. Iron Dames Lamborghini vs. United Autosports McLaren! Ring, ring. Hello. Who is it? Uh um. This is... Get off my back! Rahel Frey side by side with Nico Costa! Oh boy. This might end in tears. Costa, the Brazilian, gets his nose back in front of Rahel Frey.
McLaren have been nowhere in 2024 so far and now, they are scrapping with the Iron Dames, and right behind this pair, Zach Robichon, the Canadian, in the Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, the #77, he too, wants a bite of the cherry, without a doubt. Wonderful battling here as Frey did make the pass on Costa before Costa was a day and a half late on the brakes and he still made it stick! King of the late brakers, Nico Costa, the Brazilian. Now we look at the battle for fifth place in Hypercar. This is Nicklas Nielsen, Andre Lotterer, Yifei Ye, and Will Stevens. Ten seconds added to the next pit stop for the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 for a pit stop infringement. OK.
Raffaele Marciello has that automobile in 13th place currently. The onboard camera, and everything else, shows the clear evidence the #20 BMW caused the incident that brought out the safety car. But there's nothing that has been brought forward yet. Porsche 963 #99, the Proton Competition car is under investigation for refusing to come into the pit lane and serve a penalty for the meatball flag. We have the #95 McLaren 720S GT3 in the lane now to serve it's penalty, and the #7 Toyota does have a penalty looming for Nyck de Vries. We might see some changes in the order. At the top of the shop, it is Neel Jani, 2.2 seconds clear of James Calado.
Daniel Mancinelli in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin makes the move for third on the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Zacharie Robichon. Aston ahead of Mustang. Meanwhile, the battle s on in Hypercar between Ferrari and Porsche. James Calado vs. Michael Christensen. Christensen flashing the headlights and Calado is ignoring it. Claudio Schiavoni said the aerodynamics really help the Lamborghini. Again, in GT3 we see a ton of different combinations for cars and engines. Different race tracks favor different cars. Horses for courses. But, there is no one dominant force.
Speaking of dominant forces though, we have one in Hypercar, and it is Neel Jani aboard the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 in the lead of this motor race. The one dominant force in Hypercar is Neel Jani, pulling away from the field, three and a half seconds to the good over everyone else. Calado is easing his way into this stint. We are watching Yifei Ye in the #83 Ferrari 499P, and he might have reversed his name. We are used to calling him Yifei Ye but now he may be referred to as Ye Yifei. That is all very confusing. Nico Costa is now the GT3 leader. He is told by his crew chief that he is building a gap and that his rivals are "killing their tires".
That is not necessarily so because Daniel Mancinelli, the Italian in the Aston Martin for Heart of Racing, he is motoring. Speaking of motoring, Rahel Frey is right on Nico Costa's six up the Kemmel straightaway. This is king, or queen, of the late brakers. Frey on the outside. She makes the move stick. When will the GT3 class come alive? It is a different kind of racing tan we are used to in the FIA WEC. It has been alive. I think maybe we have overegged the pudding in Hypercar, and not paid as much to the GT3 races in this last handful of events.
At Imola, the BMW M4 GT3 was the dominant force. But now, the best BMW here at Spa is fifth and the sister car is out of the race. James Cottingham was in the thick of the lead battle earlier. Now, he is in the pit lane set up for an interview with Bruce Jouanny, so, let's hear from him. James Cottingham knows that Iron Dames has great pace. The McLaren is coming together, and the team is managing their tires through double stints. They have a slight engine concern being pegged back compared to the Lamborghini. They are in a great place which they have earned themselves. Now, Neel Jani is still your leader.
As we said, McLaren have pegged back the power, turned down the boost, and this is why it seems like the Aston Martin with Daniel Mancinelli at the wheel of it, has reeled them in little by little. A drive through penalty to be served by the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 and that was the car indeed driven into the tail of the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 of Phil Hanson. The #7 Toyota has yet to serve the penalty that it incurred earlier on. The #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang is also under investigation for a pit stop infringement. That is the better placed of the two Proton Competition Mustang's, #77 being the Hardwick, Robichon, Barker car, and the sister #88 is down the order with Dennis Olsen, Mikkel Pedersen, and Giorgio Roda.
The #20 BMW of Robin Frijns is under investigation for going off the road and gaining a lasting advantage. In the drivers' briefing, Edoardo Freitas told the drivers, if you gain an advantage particularly on the inside at a corner like Les Combes, you will make very clear you have lost ground. There are no excuses. Don't give me the 'I lifted off and saved a thousandth of a second', nonsense. That isn't going to cut the mustard, sunshine. More drama in the #20 Team WRT BMW camp as Robin Frijns is under investigation by the stewards for... yes, you've guessed it, going off the road and gaining a lasting advantage.
The drivers are using too many everlasting gobstoppers here and those candies seem to be a cheat code. Well, mate, this isn't a video game. This is real-life, full metal motor racing. Real-life, full metal endurance racing, and these tactics are just unacceptable. But why? Because the Race Director said so, several times. He will tell you off if you do it again. You do not mess with the Race Director or the Clerk of the Course. They are the all knowing and all seeing eyes and so are their associates, the stewards. No everlasting gobstoppers, no get out of jail free cards. When it rains, it pours. 55 laps, 239 miles now complete.
Loic Duval in the delayed #94 Peugeot is lapping quickly in the 2:09 range. He is in the ballpark of the rest of the Hypercar field as Neel Jani is now in the 2:08 range. Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, the top six in Hypercar. There must be a pattern developing here. Reminiscent of the old GTE Pro days not too many years ago. The only pattern at the moment is that the #99 Porsche is pulling away from everyone but James Calado, last year's Le Mans winner, one of those drivers on this same team that won Le Mans, he is getting into his stride as we watch the seventh place GT3 battle with Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R harrying Mikkel Pedersen in the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3.
The sole remaining Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 #31 is the car we are looking at. Sean Gelael, the Indonesian driver, at the wheel of it. I believe it was Englishman Darren Leung who started that car. Mikkel Pedersen in the Mustang has now made his way by Joel Sturm in the Porsche. Morris Schuring, the Dutchman, is ahead of them in the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R. Right now, Iron Dames leads United by nearly 1.8 seconds with 52 laps completed, 226 miles. Meanwhile, the man on the move is the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Rui Andrade, the Angolan driver, at the controls.
Alex Malykhin behind the wheel of the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche has made zero progress and we are used to seeing him right at the pointy end, at the top end of town in GT3 but that just has not been the case today as we near the halfway mark in the race here at Spa Francorchamps. That is the car destroyed yesterday and rebuilt around a replacement chassis. Side by side up and over Eau Rouge between the #777 D'station Aston Martin and the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3! Holy smokes! Talk about gaining a lasting advantage going off track!
Here comes the Corvette whistling past the Aston Martin as well, look. He stayed there, and the Aston made contact with the Corvette. With the contact, the Corvette has a puncture. Frenchman Sebastien Baud is in limp home mode on the downhill side of the circuit crawling the car back to the pit lane. Baud went off the track to overtake and has paid the price for it in the form of a punctured Goodyear Eagle tire. The Ford Mustang's built by Multimatic from Canada and who are based in the United States, they have indeed strengthened both the rear decklid and the rear diffuser, so those parts don't fly off the cars like we have seen earlier in the season on numerous occasions.
The Aston Martin vs. Lexus scrap rages on as Erwan Bastard makes the pass back on Clemens Schmid. Now we watch a battle in Hypercar for eighth place. This is Alpine vs. Cadillac. Earl Bamber in hot pursuit of Charles Milesi. Bamber passes on the inside into the braking zone and had a massive run on the Frenchman. That was through Eau Rouge and up through Raidillon, he almost made a banzai move and right behind them is the #8 Toyota as #7, Nyck de Vries has now served his penalty as the #82 Corvette has made it's way back to the pit lane with the punctured left rear tire.
That pass was as clean as a whistle. Milesi did not fight it. For fifth place, Yifei Ye in the #83 yellow AF Corse Ferrari 499P is giving Andre Lotterer in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 some serious pressure! They squeeze past the GT3 class AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 on the inside. Yifei Ye has his former teammate at Jota Sport Porsche right behind him and coming in a big hurry it is Earl Bamber in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac. Then comes the #51 red AF Corse Ferrari 499P of James Calado, with Miguel Molina next up.
The Cadillac is like a heat seeking missile and is just flying right now! Uh oh. We've got problems here, look, for the #63 Lamborghini SC63! That car has just emitted a plume of very expensive smoke. It is not an engine failure as we first thought. The engine is fine. But it is a tire puncture. One of the Michelin tires has let go. The right rear tire is flat and it has just come past the pit lane. Clemens Schmid, meanwhile, under investigation by the stewards for the pass we just saw. So, the #78 Lexus might have to take a penalty here in the short term.
Andrea Caldarelli slowly trundling up the hill. The #99 Proton Competition Porsche is now 3.6 seconds to the good over the #51 Ferrari. Andrea Caldarelli must be careful. The Cadillac has caught the #12 Jota Sport Porsche 963. Meanwhile, for ninth place, Ryo Hirakawa in Toyota #8 is monstering Charles Milesi aboard the #35 Alpine. We have the Cadillac, the Alpine, and the Toyota all running together and further up the road is the Porsche, Ferrari battle which really encompasses the top six or seven places in the running order right now.
Everyone has been bunched back up thanks to the safety car. #99 now four and a half seconds up on #51 completing 59 laps, 257 miles, as Andrea Caldarelli's crew chief at Lamborghini tells him "If you can't get the car back, pull over and stop driving it. Don't add extra damage." Caldarelli says, "I can drive the car back." His crew chief gives him some vital information. He points out there is no tire damage but rather, more seriously, there is broken rear suspension on that lime green SC63. He better not drive too fast or he will have a punctured tire without a doubt.
Andrea Caldarelli has the whole rest of the field bearing down on him. Soon, the race leaders in both classes will be right there. Neel Jani and Rahel Frey plus the rest of the GT3 contenders. When the #99 Proton Competition Porsche comes to do another driver change, what will they do with the door? Be sure it is closed. How many doors are closed? One, or two? It is just like getting on an airplane and making sure all the doors are closed before you take off for crying out loud. But, of course, the management style of Proton Competition has always been an "open door" policy. Ba boom, swish! Hardy har har.
Proton Competition have opened the gap to five seconds as we have had cracking battles throughout the Hypercar field all the way down to 16th spot as the Lamborghini has made it back to the pit lane, and once again, to clarify the situation, it is not a tire that has gone flat. Rather, the car is suffering from suspension damage. Meanwhile, Earl Bamber ducks to the outside of Will Stevens. The Cadillac has had the straight line speed all week here at Spa and it undoubtedly pays dividends up the Kemmel straightaway. Seventh place. Meantime, the #63 Lamborghini is headed for the garage with the aforementioned suspension trouble.
Meanwhile, the #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R is pitting, Rui Andrade at the wheel of it. They are also in trouble, but that is not the car they had trouble with. They are getting the car set to go to the garage. Mikkel Jensen aboard the #93 Peugeot with the pitot tube facing the wrong direction, so they cannot correlate their road speed currently running down in 13th spot. The pitot tube is there to assist with road speed. Aircraft also use them to measure air speed. The pitot tube also measures aerodynamic attitude of the car as well as the speed. The engine cover comes off the #81 Corvette as the mechanics set to work.
We are going to hear from Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane all about how things are working out for the Lamborghini Hypercar. The mechanics cross their arms to say, "it's game over. We are out of the race." Just ten minutes shy of halfway, it is game over without doubt due to the broken suspension. Peugeot now under pressure from Toyota. Mikkel Jensen has Nyck de Vries right on his six. de Vries whistles up the inside. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Like taking candy from a baby. Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson looking on from their pit box. She is joined by Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
A loose rear diffuser on the #81 Corvette and that has been a trouble spot for them with the new GT3 class Corvette Z06 GT3.R. I take that back. It is not the diffuser we are having a Captain Cook at. It is indeed something different. Christian Ried is not here this weekend instead choosing to focus on Proton Competition's IMSA effort at Laguna Seca Raceway in California, which of course, ran the same weekend as this event, oh, such is the conundrum of modern day sports car racing, with schedule clashes.
We are closing in on the halfway mark of the race here at the 6 Hours of Spa. Proton Competition leads by four seconds heading for the halfway mark in the race as we see a battle now for sixth place between Yifei Ye in the Ferrari and Earl Bamber in the Cadillac. Alex Lynn lived in the world of pain on older tires and now Bamber is reaping the rewards as he is reeling in Yifei Ye hand over fist. Ye Yifei, pardon me, sir. Speaking of catching hand over fist, the battle is afoot for second. Factory Porsche vs. factory Ferrari. Michael Christensen right on James Calado's back door. Different strategies available to different teams currently. Earl Bamber has run for 23 laps on the same tires and the same for Yifei Ye, 23 laps old.
Most cars in the Hypercar field have newer tires, they don't have used tires on the cars while the GT3 cars do. The #81 TF Sport Corvette is another retirement. The gearbox is cooked. Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood, and Tom van Rompuy will come back again another day. We will see them at Le Mans for the 24 hours, for the next race on the championship trail. But for now, it is game over. Bamber got caught in traffic through Stavelot corner as we are about to have an interview queued up with Antonio Giovinazzi.
Giovinazzi says he had a great start and a great opening two stints but a long way to go with high tire degradation. Calado is turning up the wick and decreasing the gap from an even four seconds to 3.7 seconds as we watch the GT3 battle for sixth place. Sean Gelael in the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 has it and Joel Sturm in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche, wants it. Because of the safety car the Hypercars and the GT3's are all separated and the GT3 cars are glommed together in one big clump. 2:09.6 for Jani and 2:09.4 for Calado, with no traffic for either car at the present moment.
We watch a replay of Bamber in the Cadillac chasing Yifei Ye in the Ferrari. Yikes! Bamber's Cadillac twitches in a big way and he very nearly lost control of the automobile! Wowzers! That was massively close! I think those front Michelin tires on the Cadillac are now begging for mercy. In the GT3 class and we didn't even notice this earlier, but Zacharie Robichon in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 has gone ahead of both Sean Gelael in the BMW and Joel Sturm in the Porsche. So, #77, #31, #92 in a battle for position, for fifth, sixth, and seventh in class.
Gelael has been ahead of Joel Sturm. Sturm is trying hard to put his nose ahead of Gelael as Antonio Serravalle, the Canadian, at the wheel of the #11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6C Hypercar has a front row seat for all this action. Serravalle on hot tires, is going to play through come hell or high water! He launches past the GT3 cars almost in the grass, on the downhill run to Eau Rouge! Sturm does not want to give away a place to Gelael because Porsche #92 leads the GT3 points, and the Porsche 963 is off the track! That's the #5 Penske Porsche 963 of Christensen, off on the grass! He's stopping because he has a punctured left front tire!
Turning in through Blanchimont, he rattles over the curbs, and has a major clatter into the barriers! You cannot take Blanchimont flat out! He snapped sideways, alnost caught it in a tank slapper, destroys the Michelin billboard, and the left rear tags the concrete barrier on the other side of the road. Very little runoff room at Blanchimont. Hopefully they can get that Porsche fixed but that one might have suffered enough damage to lead it directly into retirement with no questions. He tagged the wall the the legft rear catapulting the car into the fence. The Ferrari passed after that and the Porsche has not made it to the pit lane. He is now moving but there is a local yellow.
He needs to drive it to the pit lane. Full Course Yellow in 15 seconds. Ryo Hirakawa moves the #8 Toyota to eighth spot. Full Course Yellow. We are under Full Course Yellow. Everyone is doing 80 kilometers an hour and the gaps will not be any bigger through traffic. Not this time. What a massive mistake by Christensen. He will be kicking himself for that move. Christensen would have been better off going over the curb rather than staying on top of it. The margins are tiny and he was just a passenger, on a wild thrill ride he'd just as soon forget.
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