Into the second half of the race, Andre Lotterer says he and his teammates are making progress. The Hypercars are like wrestling an alligator in a sauna. Perish that thought! Cadillac #2 in the pit lane for service and for new tires. Porsche Penske Motorsports are reaping rewards for hard work. Meanwhile, the Gregoire Saucy, Valentino Rossi story is being told, still. They are side by side and Saucy edges ahead! Four drive through penalties for GT3 cars for improper Full Course Yellow procedures. BMW #31, Corvette #82, Mustang #77, and Lamborghini #60 I think. The Alpine whistles past both of the GT3 cars, the McLaren and the BMW.
Yifei Ye brings the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P to the pit lane. The #77 Mustang has pitted to serve a penalty and now, the #777 D'station Aston Martin is in the pits and the garage. Erwan Bastard at the wheel. The #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries has pitted. de Vries back into the car. I think Kamui Kobayashi is not feeling too well. He was fine this morning. Is he feeling OK? He might still drive. He has to in order to score points. In the GT3 class, Daniel Mancinelli leads in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3.
Joel Sturm second in the championship leading #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche and Rui Andrade, the Angolan driver in the #81 TF Sport Corvette, third. The #777 D'station Aston Martin is having a starter motor problem and is being fixed in the garage and now, Alex Lynn was just passed by the #36 Alpine. Ferrari #50 is in the pit lane for a scheduled stop. Two new medium compound Michelin tires and Alex Lynn is down in ninth spot. Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Alpine all in the pit lane. Nico Lapierre has just finished his stint. That is the #36. Nicklas Nielsen took medium Michelin tires of the left side.
BMW still leading. 96 laps completed, 326 miles. Nico Lapierre almost clangs the barrier on the way into the pit lane! Yikes! Full opposite lock as Matthieu Vaxiviere takes over. Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 and the sister #35 Alpine of Charles Milesi is now pitting for full service and a driver change. Robin Frijns at the wheel of the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8. Can BMW stick it out for their fuel mileage? Robin Frijns leading Yifei Ye. BMW, Ferrari, Toyota, Cadillac, and possibly Porsche, are contenders.
Oh boy, some argy bargy between the #93 Peugeot of Mikkel Jensen and Sebastien Baud in the #82 TF Sport Corvette who is in the pit lane. Mikkel Jensen might cop a penalty. Nico Pino in the #95 McLaren, final public warning for the Chilean driver for track limits. Valentino Rossi and Gregoire Saucy are still scrapping. Could we see the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 getting back on track? We'll wait and see. Robin Frijns, from the race lead, brings the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 into the pits. He might be taking just left side tires as Yifei Ye takes the lead of the motor race in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.
Yifei Ye, Nyck de Vries, Nicklas Nielsen, Alex Lynn, Robin Frijns, and Andre Lotterer, the top six ahead of Ryo Hirakawa, Raffaele Marciello, and the rest. Gregoire Saucy runs wide and contact is made by Valentino Rossi on the McLaren with an ever closing gap. Rossi got the door slammed on him. The Alpine and Porsche battle is still going on. Ferdinand Habsburg vs. Matt Campbell. Rossi and Saucy still fighting. Rossi has a run on the Frenchman in the McLaren. Saucy tries to defend and no dice. Inside becomes outside through the right hander, very quickly.
Yifei Ye leads but Nyck de Vries is chasing him down, hard. A peerless effort for Ian James in the #27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. Daniel Mancinelli is now driving, leading the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of Joel Sturm. A drive through penalty being assessed for the #82 TF Sport Corvette and more troubles for the #777 D'station Aston Martin being pulled back into the garage after a starter motor change. It is confirmed the #51 Ferrari 499P has officially retired. The #12 Jota Sport Porsche 963 is still being worked on.
Sebastien Baud in the #82 TF Sport Corvette has been pinged with a track limits penalty as Valentino Rossi has indeed gone ahead of Valentino Rossi and the #55 Vista - AF Corse Ferrari. We need to check this pass between Saucy and Rossi. Simon Mann at the controls of the #55 Ferrari is starting to push and pour on the steam. A fresh driver = a fast driver. Thundering your way through the end of a double stint, is tougher. Neither Ferrari in LMGT3 has finished on the podium.
Nyck de Vries reeling in Yifei Ye. So, the lead of the Chinese driver for Ferrari is dwindling. Nyck de Vries has scrubbed tires on the left side of the car. Toyota, Ferrari, Porsche, Cadillac, BMW, the depth and competitiveness of Hypercar is increasing and will grow leaps and bounds as the years go by. We have six brands in the top ten and the same is true for the GT3 class. The Mikkel Jensen and Sebastien Baud incident we saw earlier is under investigation by the stewards.
19 laps to go in Yifei Ye's stint. The gap to Toyota is 5.9 seconds and Yifei Ye can reduce the stint length and not have to worry about doing lift and coast. Seven brands in the top ten out of eight in the top ten in the GT3 class. Lexus and Lamborghini have not had good races in GT3. The gap is now 4.9 seconds between Yifei Ye and Nyck de Vries. The #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 is back in the fight! Wow! I had no idea. They are out of competitive contention but will be able to get more track time. This is the shakedown for the car before the race at Fuji in Japan in two weeks.
Two and a half hours to go. Nyck de Vries closing half a second to Yifei Ye and Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine #36 goes another lap down with a brand-new set of Michelin tires. The #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini is back on track. Oh dear. Trouble again for the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963, slow on the circuit. Good grief. A close shave there for the Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg and Matt Campbell in the Porsche Penske factory Porsche! Alpine #36 vs. Porsche #5. Yifei Ye and Nyck de Vries will soon be closer together.
The #51 Ferrari was retired because of driveline failure after contact with a GT3 car. Traffic to come for the lead battle between Ye and de Vries. Norman Nato, trundling around slowly. Valentino Rossi will get five second of penalty time added to the next pit stop he takes for the contact between him and Gregoire Saucy in the McLaren. Nyck de Vries in a battle with the lapped GT3 traffic. He is still steaming after Yifei Ye who has lost 1.1 seconds and 1.7 seconds on the previous two laps alone. The writing could be on the wall and the Ferrari will go a lap shorter with no lift and coast as the Jota Porsche 963 back in the garage.
Ferrari maybe made a big mistake going onto the harder compound Michelin tires. Ferrari could switch back to the medium tires and run better. They have the option. The #50 is now running three mediums and a hard right rear tire. Car #50 has not been match fit all day. Nyck de Vries can use his tires and get new ones at the next pit stop. Yifei Ye is going through a pace improvement and the Hypercars are factoring into the traffic including one of the Lamborghini's. de Vries to the inside of a GT3 car. No air conditioning or cool suits for the Toyota drivers.
On new tires, the Alpine, laps down, can still hang with the Ferrari and the Toyota. The #46 BMW M4 GT3 is in and Valentino Rossi is handing over to Maxime Martin while the #777 D'station Aston Martin has retired with starter motor trouble. The Proton Competition #77 Ford Mustang is in the pit lane being handed over to Ben Barker. Lamborghini on Peugeot in turn 12! Wow! Now, the battle for ofurth is Alex Lynn vs. Robin Frijns. The #2 Cadillac and the #20 BMW. Next year, Hertz Team Jota will have two Cadillac V Series.R's in FIA WEC, for the 2025 season. Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine properly tucks up Jean Eric Vergne like a kipper at the top of the hill, in the French civil war between Alpine and Peugeot.
Robin Frijns reeling in Alex Lynn hand over fist. Double yellow flags at the start/finish line and now, the #12 Jota Sport Porsche 963 is still crawling around. It is not running well at all. I think it is time for the Jota boys to pack it up. OK, boys. You've had enough. It is time to stop and just enjoy the rest of your evening. Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota along with Mike Conway, they have been driving cracking stints all day. Yifei Ye taking all kinds of risks in traffic to stay ahead of Nyck de Vries in the Toyota with a wee bit over two hours of racing to go.
Blimey! Attention, car #12, pack it up. This is very dangerous. It is frustrating, nerve wracking, dangerous, and you are a huge inconvenience to everyone else. Decide if the car is broken or fixed and if it's broken, put it in the bin and pack it up. It's not worth it. Drop the rock. Don't keep suffering. Valentino Rossi very happy with his battles that he was fighting in the GT3 class with a different strategy than his competition. He is having a fabulous time! Meanwhile, the lead battle continues. Is Alex Lynn closing on Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari? Lynn is struggling in the #2 Cadillac but has Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 right on his six.
The GT3 leading #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is in. Daniel Mancinelli completes his double stint and Spaniard Alex Riberas will take over for the final two hours and 15 minutes of this race. Heart of Racing are an American team. Ian James is a dual citizen of England and America, born in England but has lived in the United States for 30 years. Heart of Racing will have both their GT3 program and the new Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar next year, in 2025. Maxime Martin in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 chasing down the remaining #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
Nyck de Vries getting the raw end of the deal defending against the Alpine and chasing Yifei Ye in the Ferrari. The Alpine, flashing his lights to try and pass de Vries to get back on the lead lap. 117 laps complete, 398 miles. Brendon Hartley pestering Andre Lotterer. Toyota #8 vs. Porsche #6. There are battling pairs throughout the top ten. The Hypercars are so close in performance. It is incredible. The vagueries of traffic and of tire choice as well. The Toyota's are not as compliant over the curbs compared to some of the other Hypercars and the same is true with the GT3 cars. Some are more comfortable over the curbs.
The undercut has not been advantageous here at COTA because of the tire temperatures. The overcut might work better, honestly, although the #83 Ferrari team has made it work. The Toyota is overcooking his tires, Yifei Ye is told. Ye's reply, "copy", driving his tail off. Any airflow to cool the drivers is superheated. Toyota have to do something to keep an advantage over the Ferrari. The Toyota's are going to be stuck in a box. A bit of a moment between Alex Riberas and the Hypercar leaders. Riberas 24 seconds ahead of Klaus Bachler in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.
There will be a significant fuel shortfall before the race ends for the GT3 cars. It will be five stops and a splash and a dash. Everything has been under green in this race. Everything! That blasted Alpine continues to be a real ice cream headache for Nyck de Vries. In four laps, the Alpine might pit and get off Nyck de Vries' back. de Vries is so close to Yifei Ye! The Alpine closes on the Toyota, Matthieu Vaxiviere in the #36 car. The #5 Porsche 963 is also in the lane and Brendon Hartley has now passed Andre Lotterer and it is Matt Campbell in the pit lane. A driver change at Penske Porsche with Kevin Estre taking over for Andre Lotterer.
Side by side between Nyck de Vries and Yifei Ye! Holy cow! At Alpine, hang on a second. We'll be back to this. The undercut done by Toyota and the #7 of Nyck de Vries. There was a theory for the Alpine management strategy for their issues and they will have a full fix on the car for next year in 2025. de Vries out and Kamui Kobayashi into the car. He has finished his business obligations, spreadsheets and whatnot, and now, he will go drive. Fresh hot tires and fuel. Robert Shwartzman will finish the race in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.
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