a So, the #83 Ferrari is now in the pit lane. 123 laps completed. 418 miles. We have a yellow flag at turn 11 for the #94 Peugeot. A critical it stop at Ferrari. This is a full set of tires but with three mediums and a hard right rear. Yellow flag at turn 19. Where is the Toyota? The Toyota moves into the lead of the motor race over Robert Shwartzman. Toyota, four seconds quicker in the pit lane. This is teamwork. Kamui Kobayashi's outlap on cold tires had to be bamboozling. Ferrari #50 now in the pit lane. The #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac has stopped. Earl Bamber out, and Alex Lynn in until the finish. The #81 Corvette is having handling problems, pulling to the right. Antonio Fuoco into the #50 Ferrari.
Cadillac going for medium tires and so is Peugeot. The #50 Ferrari maintains third place and Robin Frijns reassumes the lead in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 for Team WRT. 124 laps completed, 422 miles. Full Course Yellow. Full Course Yellow. Nyck de Vries says they are gaining performance ad the track conditions are changing, at Toyota. On the medium tire, they are in their sweet spot. Peugeot #94 of Paul di Resta lost drive, a box full of neutrals. There is smoke out f the car. This could be a hybrid issue. The car is being touched, it is not unsafe but maybe there is a braking, regeneration issue.
The BMW is in turn 11 and has the opportunity to pit but they have not done so yet. Robin Frijns and BMW will be back timing the race with an hour and 53 minutes left on the board. Game over for the #94 Peugeot. The car is being craned away. Jean Eric Vergne is in the points in tenth place in the sole remaining Peugeot #93. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow removed. Robin Frijns leads the motor race and pitting now it is the BMW! Holy smokes! Toyota #8 takes the lead. Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota will do a double stint and Brendon Hartley is the erstwhile leader but needs a pit stop to replenish energy.
Toyota Gazoo Racing does get a reprimand for a technical infringement. Sounds like something with tire pressures to me. Toyota #7 won at Imola in April. We have had five different winners in FIA WEC in 2024 and if the #83 Ferrari manages to win, it will be a sixth winner. Hartley throwing the car all the way through the esses. Toyota #7 pitted early to go for the undercut. Why did the BMW pit? I don't know. They should have pitted earlier to gain track position through the Full Course Yellow. Alpine are in the pit lane now for regular service.
Toyota #8 in the pit lane now. Brendon Hartley is in from the lead and so the sister car of Kamui Kobayashi will take the lead. Matthieu Vaxiviere has indeed brought the #36 Alpine to the pit lane. Sebastien Buemi is now in the #8 Toyota, the Swiss veteran sports car driver and Le Mans winner. Robert Shwartzman just uncorked the fastest lap for the #83 AF Corse Ferrari. An hour and 45 minutes left on the board. Alpine and Lamborghini have both had very fast pit stops, in fact, maybe just Alpine, honestly.
A flat left rear tire on the #8 Toyota right out of the pits! He has body slammed the #6 championship leading Porsche 963! Oh, my heavens! Hartley will score nil points today! Sebastien Buemi squeezed Kevin Estre off the road. Big damage to the left side of the Toyota. In this replay, Estre does the switchback and there weree two hits! That's very aggressive driving! Buemi says the car does not accelerate. A locked wheel. A locked differential. So, Kamui Kobayashi uncorks the new fastest lap at 1:52.853. A good GT3 battle here, look, between Maxime Martin in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 and the #91 Mantney EMA Porsche 911 GT3R of Richard Lietz.
The #8 Toyota has singled stinted their drivers and the same with the #7 single stinting until the very end. I think Kobayashi will do a double stint, or, he could do a single and Mike Conway can go to the end. Another new fastest lap at 1:52.584 for Charles Milesi in the Alpine. This is wonderful news for the end of 2024 and heading for the 2025 season. It is going to get tougher and tougher. The track temperature has cooled by four degrees Celsius, 10-11 degrees Fahrenheit. Trouble for the #81 Corvette looking at a broken right front after a hit.
They've got a wobble wheel on the right front. The Buemi and Estre contretemps is under investigation and the team manager of the #7 Toyota has been asked to report to Race Control. Heart of Racing leads GT3 with Manthey Pure Racing in second. Aston Martin vs. Porsche with a gap that has been edging downwards lap by lap. Alex Riberas fending off the challenge of Klaus Bachler. Car #6 team manager to report to Race Control as well. No tea and biscuits for you boys. Please report to the headmaster's office. That is all. Maybe they've summoned the wrong team manager at Toyota.
Kazuki Nakajima will have questions to answer. Robert Shwartzman in the #83 Ferrari is having trouble locking up both the front and rear axles in the #83 Ferrari. They have had trouble with the tires all day long. The tire situation in Brazil last time out, Toyota produced their speed on medium tires and Ferrari on hard tires. The #83 AF Corse car is a privateer car with an identical Ferrari 499P but not a factory car. It is a satellite development car to develop their next generation of Hypercar drivers and the same three drivers should be back next year. We'll find out.
Earl Bamber being warned about track limits as he is closing in on Antonio Fuoco in the battle between Ferrari and Cadillac. In the Peugeot camp, the #94 was having problems with a hybrid electric motor, not a clutch. Racing drivers see things that laypeople like me who watch it and blog it, have no idea are going on. The #81 TF Sport Corvette is back in the pit lane and out, with just about an hour and a half of racing remaining. In GT3, Heart of Racing has a 16 second lead. They have run 121 laps, 411 miles, for Alex Riberas.
There is an investigation for the #6 Porsche 963 for Porsche Penske Motorsports ignoring a yellow flag. Kamui Kobayashi leads Robert Shwartzman by just under six seconds with Antonio Fuoco third being harried by Earl Bamber and Sheldon van der Linde is fifth in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8. We are seeing Augusto Farfus in the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Augusto Farfus has been racing for BMW for 15 years and did a lot of racing in those early days with British legend Andy Priaulx. Robert Shwartzman in second, racing against Kamui Kobayashi. He ran a Free Practice 1 session for Ferrari in Formula 1 for a United States Grand Prix here at COTA years ago.
The #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 is in the pit lane, looking for a possible podium as Kamui Kobayashi under invesitgation for not respecting yellow flags, same penalty we saw for the Porsche and now, the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Dennis Olsen is in the pit lane as well as we see Charles Milesi chasing down Dries Vanthoor for seventh place in the overall. Milesi has been very entertaining to watch in the Alpine. Does Alpine have a tire advantage? I wonder. Alpine and BMW have both been progressing with pace and longevity. Four and a half hours gone, an hour and a half remaining.
Charles Milesi on all medium Michelin's and a hard left rear on the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 and there are two left for right side use, I guess. They have one stop remaining before the race is over. 4-liter turbo V8 in the BMW. 3.4-liter turbo V6 in the Alpine. The #12 Porsche 963 is back on track running quickly. Well, well, well. Kamui Kobayashi is told to lift off the throttle if there is a double yellow to acknowledge the double yellow flag. Reduce the racing pace. They've been given a final warning by the headmaster, by the clerk of the course, before being told off.
The #81 Corvette, Charlie Eastwood, the Irishman, is back on track. A left rear toe link was damaged, and the left rear tire was trying to spin the car to the right. Ferrari #50, Antonio Fuoco, is having Earl Bamber in the #2 Cadillac. Oh dear. That is a very slow Porsche, the beleaguered #12 Hertz Team Jota car. I cannot believe they forced Norman Nato to continue dragging the #12 Porsche 963 out onto the track. Bring it in. Pack it up. Trying to understand the problem at slow speed is just not worth it. Sebastien Buemi under investigation for disregarding blue flags.
This race will be over in an hour and 20 minutes as drive through penalties will be copped by the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde and the #63 Lamborghini SC63 where they are in position to score a single point, but they will drop behind the #93 Peugeot. Now we aere back to the Charles Milesi and Dries Vanthoor story. Milesi makes the move on Dries Vanthoor through the hairpin, up the hill and down the dale. Milesi has a head of steam, look, makes the pass, successfully. He absolutely swept past the BMW in the braking zone.
That could have gotten incredibly ugly! Toyota, Ferrari, Ferrari, Cadillac, and now, the #20 BMW is in the pit lane serving a drive through penalty. Sheldon van der Linde drops behind Kevin Estre as we see Kevin Schwantz on track commentary, the motorcycle racing legend, from Texas. Earl Bamber is now chasing down Antonio Fuoco and there is a drive through penalty for track limits asssessed to the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. Klaus Bachler is in for what might be his final stop, in the #92 Manthey Pure Racing car.
Franck Perera in the Lamborghini will be the one to cop the penalty. Sheldon van der Linde is determined to catch the Porsche and the driver wants to push. BMW could match their best race finish of the year thus far. 143 laps completed by the leading #7 Toyota, 486 miles. Alex Riberas is happy to double stint tires but he is feeling a vibration that is getting worse as the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin continues leadin in GT3 and there's some big-time opposite lock in the #95 McLaren 720S GT3 of Marino Sato, the driver. He rode the bucking bronco, kept it on the island, but his newly purchased cowboy hat wouldn't have been a good luck charm.
Riberas cops a drive through penalty in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. They changed both left side tires. 130 laps completed for The Heart of Racing, 442 miles. For eighth place in Hypercar, a battle between Dries Vanthoor and Oliver Rasmussen. BMW M Team WRT and the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. A 30 second stop and go penalty for the #8 Toyota and two penalty points on the drivers' license of Sebastien Buemi, for causing a collision. It is hard to see where Estre was. He did move over.
Meanwhile, the Hertz Team Jota Porsche and the BMW continue to battle. It is the less well scoring #38 car. A ten second penalty for the 16th place #81 TF Sport Corvette of Charlie Eastwood for causing a collision, the one that Tom van Rompuy got into with Sarah Bovy earlier on. Buemi pits, dropping to become the final running Hypercar. Kamui Kobayashi in the sister #7 car which leads, he uncorks fastest lap of the race at 1:52.564. Kobayashi leads the motor race by 10.4 seconds over Robert Shwartzman in the #83 Ferrari. 148 laps completed, 503 miles.
Sebastien Buemi has dropped to 15th overall. A stop and go penalty for the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 for a technical infringement. Porsche #5 has had three third places, and two poles at Qatar and Spa. They retired from the 6 Hours of Spa of course. One really bad result can cause a disaster in the championship. Alessio Rovera was in a podium position, but Nico Costa has moved up to third in the #59 United Autsoport McLaren and Rovera has Richard Lietz all over him, the winner of GT3 at Le Mans. Richard Lietz has been around for years and maybe the most experienced FIA WEC driver with Christian Ried having retired from the championship.
Things are tight between Antonio Fuoco and Earl Bamber. Meanwhile, the battle is on for 12th place. Three-wide here as the Lamborghini Hypercar passes the battle for 12th between Daniel Juncadella and Jose Maria Lopez. The #82 TF Sport Corvette vs. the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3. The GT3 cars can take far more curb than the Hypercars. Clemens Schmid taking the penalty for the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus which puts both Proton Competition Ford Mustang's up into the GT3 points, Dennis Olsen in the #88 and Ben Barker in the #77.
BMW #15 of Dries Vanthoor into the pit lane. 33 laps on those tires in this recent stint. So, he has really managed the fuel as well. The BMW's strategy is based solely today on fuel efficiency. Cadillac #2 cuts it's fastest lap of the motor race as Cadillac Racing are looking for their best finish of the 2024 season. Kamui Kobayashi is not far from lapping the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963. Rovera passes by Lietz in GT3. This battle is allowing both of the BMW M4 GT3's to come into the picture. Valentino Rossi and Augusto Farfus.
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