🇬🇧 PART 1 /RACE REPLAY 24 Heures du Mans 2022

since 1923 in the region of la salt the route de tour and the pierre bush south of the medieval town of le mans has played host to man and machine testing themselves across 24 hours a balance of 200 mile an hour speeds and reliability a test bed for new technologies and a place to etch your name in the history books of the most famous drivers in motorsport racing dynasties have flourished and faded but the legacies and memories still remain for the 330 000 fans that line the 8.5 mile ribbon of tarmac after two years of closed-door racing the festival of motorsport returns for its 90th edition welcome everyone to the lamar 24 hours with me in the commentary box encyclopedia of endurance racing graeme goodman it's been a few years where we haven't had this kind of atmosphere graham you've been here many times before it feels so good to be back it's fantastic good afternoon everybody or good morning good evening wherever you are in the world for the 22 uh 2022 le mans 24 hours just seen pictures there of one of the luckiest men here as we look at the map that covers the world endurance championships 202 calendar young man that won a concourse event for alpene and his prize to be thrown out of a plane with the armadillo and then to lap this fabled circuit in an alpine a110s it is an absolute delight to be back here uh with a full crowd grandstands are packed spectator banks are packed the weather at the moment is smiling on us and all of a sudden all seems right with our world again uh we're joined for the moment until anthony davidson can make his way back from the grid uh after we've heard the french national anthem by jasmine jafar this is kaz nakajima making his way to the front of the grid bringing home the trophy that will be awarded to the winner of this great race at the end of 24 hours this is the 1985 toyota their first entrance into the wonderful era of group c racing and that seems appropriate ben at a time when we're about to welcome the cavalry they're about to arrive with a brand new era in top class sports cars before we get so excited about 2023 and beyond we still have a very very enthralling 2022 race to entertain you and it does look as though the weather has set fair 25 degrees looking like it will be consistent across the whole of the day portion of our racing and of course it'll drop a little bit in the night but the humidity not quite there jasmine's you've been out on the grid it is warm it's as warm as we've seen throughout the whole week yeah it sure is but it's great for the for the spectators great for the team it's getting great for the drivers but coming into this race it's always also nerves and whether you're whether you're the team engineer whether you're the racing driver or even here in the coming commentary booth everyone's back in full beams and it's great to see it again but i must say though even for the team members some were also restricted from the kovit restrictions they had to do live telemetry from their factory base but today even a team like jyota whom i'm involved with all 45 employees are also on track so majority of the teams are also with your engineers here in le mans a quick look at the layout of the 13.6 kilometer circuit and the national anthem of france [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] the marseilles rings out around the circuit de las art 39 drivers both male and female representing france the most of any nation and here comes the flag thanks to the 25th mountain infantry brigade practiced this the other day over our heads and there will once again be making a racket of our commentary box it's a very welcome racket there's an h90 helicopter with the octalier uh will be rappelling out down to the track it's been a feature of the lebron 24 hours for many years now and a very popular one with the fans and they're getting a literal grandstand review of this we will hope that they don't make the mistake that was made a couple of years ago where one of the guys uh on the what you're about to see after that flag handover the nose down rapid uh exits over the grid and unfortunately won't them drop their mobile phone uh but it's not gonna happen this year i'm sure down they come one big helicopter looks like they're having a bit of a party in there doesn't it but here comes the most important addition to the grid pre-race and this is taken extremely seriously by these guys here comes the flag will get the nod from his teammates down on the grid there is the famous trophy there will be a new trophy next year by the way for the 100th edition of the sorry the 100th edition 100th anniversary 24 hours of le mans and that taught that trophy will go around the world to promote this great race on its 100th anniversary year 99 though is still a very big number and what dramas lie ahead and this is the 90th edition of the world's greatest race now some people might argue that ben really i i shall we not debate that right now i think we've got we've got 24 hours 24 or 5 hours to debate that just sitting back and marveling of all these things that we have become so used to at the circuit de la salle the way that the race builds itself up that we're missing a little bit over the last couple of years it's great to be stuck in traffic getting into the circuit it's great to be rubbing shoulders with all the fans in and around the paddocks access completely as it was once more back to normality you didn't even have to prove your vaccination to get into the tickets there's a bonus so nico rosberg would be very welcome but it is always has been always will be a truly world-class event and once again in their tens of thousands they've come around europe and beyond to be part of this great race circuit side as well as the millions of you around the world that are watching this broadcast listening to other broadcasts you know coming to the um paddock as well you see the team principles you see the fans you see the drivers and one thing everyone has in common this le man is everyone is smiling absolutely right here she comes that's a fantastic shot isn't it wow i got your phone such a great tradition isn't it just it's one of the more recent traditions but you've got to love it haven't you we've got some more airborne action to come before the start judging by a couple of the guys i bumped into at lunch we'll wait for that little later here though comes the flag ben our grand marshal of the event gerard larue celebrating 50 years since matra won its first race here at lamont and another 50th anniversary for that great mark because in that fiftieth hour 50th anniversary year it was henry pescarello who is here with graeme hiller of course very sadly the late and very great graeme hill the 50th anniversary of him winning the triple crown which is an amazing achievement not been matched since then at all we saw fernando alonso try to do so we look looking here at some of the grid as the french flag is handed over to patrick priyan the ceo of total energies he will see the field away proud moment for him i'm sure total energies behind new technology we've got this year in the fi world endurance championship this is another bit of new tech that they're involved with as well this is the h-24 hydrogen electric prototype took part in the race here earlier today the road to le mans race just noticed bruno farmer from alpine they'll be back after the uh for the 2024 race with a new hypercar project and this race has always been about testing new technologies inventing new technologies when the circuit was first laid out there were different surfaces to test the vehicles in the 1920s and 30s one of the reasons why indianapolis is known as indianapolis because that part of the circuit was laid in concrete before they then tarmacked over it tarmac relatively new thing part dirt sections as well disc brakes windscreen wipers all of those things laser headlamps uh all of those things and spraying champagne invented here at le mans in 1967 yeah but it's never stopped the innovation the progress always looking for more speed more efficiency more reliability and it's that last one gentlemen that has become a watchword here at lemon you know and even in my time here a relatively recent adopter of the le mans tradition we would see a very much smaller proportion of the field coming home and coming home at pace now this is a sprint race there's no doubt about it in every class this is a sprint race marvel at the gte pro category this is the last year that we will see fully works entries in gt pro the regulations changing for next year and therefore the last time we will crown a gte pro champion corvette 1-2 on the grid racing porsche and af course of ferrari in that category of seven cars it is the lowest entry we've seen in gt pro but it does mean that we've got a record entry in gtam of 23 vehicles there goes the mission h-24 the opening lap this is a display lap by this car here that's is that the sound of the future the aco confirming they are shooting for the stars with this technology and allowing the opportunity for manufacturers to come forward as early as 2025 with cars that should be capable of competing for overall victory at the le mans 24 hours there's at least one manufacturer i know and i think two that might be sniffing at that possibility this is the sustainability award seo sustainability award presented by dhl that went to ferrari today about the carbon neutral status and this by the way fantastic efforts from people durrani who is auctioning this helmet after the race in the benefit of a children's cancer hospital at home in sao paulo in brazil well done people if you're interested in taking a look at that there's lots online to help you to decide whether or not you want to build an outrageous amount of money and help those kids presentation the drivers presentation of the cars lots of the grid celebrations underway nine dames what lies ahead for this amazing team of ladies the 85 car made the hyper pole will start from sixth on this gte am grid five females in total on the grid three from uh that team iron dames and then we also have uh sophia flesch driving and leela wadu a local french lady really well rookie to le mans but only very limited running in motorsport generally and she has the responsibility of racing alongside sebastian ogier the nine-time world rally champion and indeed in this richard mill car indeed run by cinetech the same team that will operate the alpine hyper car and it's sean malaysia that will take the start in the number one car but lilo is holding her own in this fi world endurance championship effort said ogier relishing the challenge but finding it not easy but uh will this beat the race spirit all comes together united auto sports previous winners here of course two cars in lmp2 for the team based in yorkshire we have our hypercar category at the head of the field we have five vehicles in that which has allowed us to have 27 lmp2 vehicles in total we do have a capacity 62 car field taking the start that is a record because in previous attempts we have seen one of the lmp2 cars drop out before the start of the race and uh before that we didn't have enough grids uh garages to accompany 62 cars the lmp2 field effectively a one make series we do have one chassis in the field which is not an oraca but the other 26 are and as per tradition at le mans we have plenty of famous racing names but also names from the world of music and film of course patrick dempsey a massive fan here lends his name to a team and is always here representing porsche alongside him this year we just had a quick glimpse of michael fassbender the very famous irish actor who is taking his first race here after three years of preparation to get to this point a massive responsibility yeah doing well he's had some great runs in the european lawn series for his second of the final race of last season let's not forget as we never do the efforts the passion of the orange army here and thousands of them here as volunteers they've got a long day a long night and another long day ahead of them without which we would not be here this this your team jazz yes it's great to see jyotar qualified forth i spoke to tomoki takahashi this morning technical director of jyota they seem to want to go aggressive in their strategy today it seems like they're putting uh the pro drivers into the night session and roberto uh gonzalez early in the morning so feeling very confident but they said the competition seems to be very tight today absolutely at least half the field with an opportunity to take victory in lmp2 which requires at least one of the three drivers to be a silver uh we do have a sub-category within lmp2 which is pro-am where you'll have bronze drivers but the majority of the top teams that will be focusing on the broadcast will be those that have one silver and the rest can be gold platinum drivers effectively they are all fully pro lineups really 23 car we had a brief look at the second united auto sports car history will be made again uh in that car with the youngest ever driver to compete in the 24 hours of le mans josh pearson will be taking his turn in that car 16 years old three months and 13 days i think it is and that beats the previous record from uh matt mcgirty back in 2014 by i think by about a month and a half something like that we have seen 16 year olds amazing here murray murray thank you very much bumped into actually last night at the driver's parade um a previous holder of that title gunner jeannette and that uh dates me i remember bumping into gunner i think it was the 2001 race where gonna took the start at 18 years old and at that point became the youngest we've progressed a bit since then gonna not 18 anymore a look at the hypercar category the top five uh on our grid two glickenhaus racing machines and alpene elf and then toyota gazoo racing's toyota fully works machines and clicking house in a very different situation to toyota a marginal budget in comparison but fantastic to have the numbers of the cars they do look great as well they do look great and it's uh it's time to actually introduce the next member of our cupboard team hot foot literally from the grid uh 2014 fywc world drivers champion uh i'm davidson tell us a little bit about what you're expected to see from this five car hyper car grid well as philippe albuquerque said to me on the grid these are the hottest conditions that they've had so far since they arrived here at le mans and uh so they're going into the unknown a little bit um i think that he's he was saying that they're they're expecting a similar balance of the car but they'll just lose overall grip um but yeah a little bit of an unknown despite the amount the vast amount of testing that they've all covered by this point in the week but uh yeah this is where it gets serious start of the race at the 24 hours of le mans and i want to know how you're feeling because it's the first time you've not been in a garage since 2008 you were in the garage one year without driving unfortunately but how are you feeling not being on the grid there you know i'm nervous for them because i know i'm so used to this part of the weekend this start of the race where everyone's hopes are so high you've got that clean sheet you're all starting from very nerve-wracking times i was waiting for something to be said there and me maybe he was too but uh i'm sure it will come we're not very far away now that is one minute board being shown here they come look over his shoulder [Music] they're behind you [Laughter] if you look overhead here coming in low and fast with the unmistakable french national colours that's green defense i think still alpha jets these it's such a momentous occasion um to be a part of this as a driver standing on the grid or sitting in your car and you you see the fans in the grand stand you can hear them by the way brilliant to have them back i know you already mentioned it i don't think we can mention it enough um and you just realize at this stage of the proceedings that this is getting serious this and it is an important race it's one of the biggest if not the biggest single day event motor races in the world and it's an honor it's a privilege um and you never forget it i think i do honestly believe i'm not just saying that because we're here and i've driven in this race many times before i really believe the start of this motor race is the best in the world it's just such a brilliant occasion they play their music at the start i can't wait for this and i i purposely didn't start the race many times because i wanted to see it not be in it i i want to ask you this question it's something i talk about to a lot of drivers the penske car has not gone away now it does oh breathe again what is it like as a driver for the first time coming out on race morning into that coming out race morning and so obviously you're very very familiar with the track um and the way your car feels unless you're nick dufrese of course who uh joins he's a late comer a bit of a late driver swap at uh tds racing in the number 13 car so watch out for him when he gets in the car later on um but yeah you you are a bit of a bag of nerves honestly speaking before the start it's um you know you know you're playing the long game at the start of the race you know you're on a clear track and there isn't any traffic so you're immediately fighting the cars around you for track position there's nowhere to hide in terms of speed pure speed and that's a nerve-wracking prospect because it's not just about how you thread your way through the traffic and the way the traffic influences your laps there's nowhere to hide in terms of lap time if the cars in front of you are faster they're going to pull away on merit let's go through the grid then and it's toyota 1-2 at the head of the field with alpine in third being started by nicola frank meyer in fourth and olivia platt in the glickenhaus in fifth position for wrt the best lmp2 category uh with united behind willow and starts that cat antonio felix de costa starts the second of the jokers ferdinand hansberg starts for the second of the wrts with robert kubitsa aboard the prama their first time here alex lin is in 11th position charles malaysia in 12th from that number one resharp mill machine john benoit in the panic racing 65 philippe nasra with penske in 14th and team wrt merco bottelotti 15th with duquesne in 16th cool racing in 17th more jota cars down and eight things with uh jonathan aberdeen the dtm racer one time is sport is started by paulu and alex brundland are 34 and 20th yeah then it's nielsen racing the lmp2 car number 24 with ben hanley ultimates with matthew lahaye in the 35 car arc brothers lavas 44 car ben fiscal 39 graf racing car for eric and then we've got lance hurt in the three dkr engineering car sophia flourish takes the start the 47 alcott pro racing car nick nilsson in the 83 af course a car then the legion 27 from cd sports 43 into europa competition car in the hands of fabio sierra tds racing by fire to be mata especially to take a start in that car then we get into the gt pros 64 and 63 the corvettes in the hands of nick tandy and antonio garcia then it's the two porsches in the hands of fred makavicky and kevin estrada 91 and 92 then the two ferraris from the factory team 52 and 51 miguel molina and james gallardo and rounding out the gte pros it's the 74 car from riley motorsports felipe fraga takes the start ahead of the pole sitter in the uh gtm class that is vanson april for af quarter rounding got the top 40 michael jensen in the 57 kessel car the 77 car the dempsey proton racing harry tignall nikki team starts northwest amr nick cassidy starts the ferraro bay of course at gtm iron danes is started by mikayla gatting as our graphics a little bit ahead of us and we see more of the pro drivers getting their start inception racing's come let it go on the 59 tony verlander in the 21. matt griffin will start the spirit of race 55 car nicholas varoni in the 75 iron links uh mark van njmw ferrari and tonobu fuji uh a bit further down jan halen is a name that we know from many many years here in the 88 marco sorensen in the tf sport aston martin uh iron links his uh 60 car will be started by claudio giovoini with matt campbell in the proton racing j carla fisa keller in the 80 and pierre rag in the 71 and then we go to the two cars that did not set a time in qualifying algarve pros 45 and affected number 10 with james allen and nico muller very well known to the world of motorsport but he is a one of 50 rookies starting in this 186 driver field it's a huge number of rookies it's something like 35 percent of the lmp2 feel it's well over 20 percent of the gte anfield but the best news of all is all 62 cars have made it to the start the first time that we've seen that the weather is perfect the crowd is here the grid is complete and we are ready to go for the 90th running of this amazing race i get the feeling that the track is in really good condition we've got a little bit of rain on wednesday but we haven't really had anything uh other than that we've had some support races that have done a little bit of damage to some barriers but not too much let's rub it down on this track there is robert down on this track uh you're right there but like i said it's blisteringly hot out there you see the heat haze in the distance rising and uh the drivers feel that in the cars we could see them at the start of the grid with their fans blowing on them inside the cockpits water at the ready for all of the uh the the mechanics and the team personnel and fans watching on it's a hot one and that really affects the grip of these cars so uh let's see how they get on and uh yeah they've had that they've had that warm up in the morning we saw a few cars with with problems quite a few cars problems the number 64 corvette uh the 709 click in the house to name but a few and great to see that they're back out there want to see them at full racing speed though mind you and uh this definitely as always is going to be a race of attrition not just for the drivers but mostly for the mechanical engineering side of the cars stunning blue sky as they make their way through arnage named after the village just across the way there the banks are absolutely full with crowds as we start now to get the formation two by two the cars will be slowed down and they'll make their way through the porsche curves at this speed they are right on the tail of our safety car i think they want that safety car to the leading car to move a bit faster it can go quite a lot faster than that but remember they're they're waiting for the time they're waiting for the time to to start and tick down and uh yeah that's why the safety card dictates the pace what's this going to do to the heat and the cars what's the heat like at the start of a racing weather like this we have seen some problems in the past uh where the uh particularly the lmp2 cars um they've got a bit of an old-school uh v8 normally aspirated engine in the back of them they are known to uh to overheat uh when they go slowly because the the airflow is not going through the radiators quite as quickly as it's uh designed to and you can see how spread out they get so that there's like this traffic jam scenario isn't it where they're all playing catch up at the back and they've got a catch up to go double file um to lead through the porsche curves before the ford chicane and that final couple of twists and turns before we get this motor race started just a quick look at the background up there the goodyear blimp you had a crack at that one uh is it yesterday what a fabulous way to see this race absolutely yeah i never wanted to come down it was absolutely fantastic a once in a lifetime experience unless you've been up there more than once which i haven't sebastian boehme and the number eight machine mike conway in the number seven machine that is our front row the two toyotas it was brendan hartley who set the time and got the pole position uh on thursday evening faster than mr qualifying kamu kobayashi was now the owner of not the owner sorry the team principal of that team and it will be conway and boeing who will start this race there's the music in the background i was talking about it helps to build that emotion even more so can't hear it in the car but it's brilliant we're coming up to four o'clock local time here in lamar and we're getting ready for the 90th edition of the lamont 24 hours we've made our way through the porsche curves there's a little bit of a gap between our hyper cars and the front of the lmp2 field a huge stacked grid of talented drivers in one mate machinery and there is the rolex clock we are actually going to be a little bit behind that four o'clock aren't we so the leading car was a little too slow in the end through what is now known as the 4k in the first part the motel record him on the second part be careful to thread your way through here it's tight it's twisty and you're very close quarters with the rest of the field best of luck all of you here we go [Music] lemon 2022 is on and the hypercars accelerate away side by side clicking house looking like they might try and find a way through is there any space as we go four wide further back for the lmp2 category but it's as you were the alpine losing a bit of time and there's already someone's off there's a car off for four turn ones go straight to the and into the lead of the race he'll have to give that back there's plenty of people taking avoiding action but we do have one in the gravel trap just trying to see who that was but the cameras haven't gone there can't see on the circuit map [Music] it's two cars car 22 united lmp2 and the algorithm pro car of sofia flourishes off as well [Music] how did that happen they were getting very very close quarters with each other and look how the lmp2 field has caught up to the tail of the hyper cars on this first stretch down the ball sand the toyotas look set fair at the front of the field but the alpine looks like it might be passed by our leading lmp2 car which is robert kubitsa he's got himself into the lead of the lmp2 category for something like the third row looking here on board the number 36 car into the first chicane not under threat at the moment from the lmp2 car yeah so car 38 has found its way into second place they started third with antonio felix de costa at the wheel the car number five of philippe nasa we've got a car stopped there's another information oh that's damage for the 22. that is terrible luck how did i i think he might have been going around the outside into turn one and has just been run out of row but we need to see a replay of that the alpine overtaken by the premier lmp2 car two clicking houses trying to desperately hang on to the two toyotas actually doing a pretty good job of it i must say but uh yeah very surprised to see that lp overtaken it just pure straight line performance it's not what you'd expect from a hyper car nicola pierre aboard that car which started its life as an lmp2 car got modified to become lmp1 and now is modified to be a hyper car but it's struggling to keep with our front four the others in trouble so two more cars in trouble ultimate and the the real team by wrt car dropped back too and it was so so busy in the lmp2 category going over the line we saw them four wide and then the circuit goes a little bit to the right hand side which is where will owen is in the gravel trap sofia flash looks like she's on tarmac so if she can get the car moving again she can get herself back to pit lane but i'm afraid for the 22 united car it could well be game over there we could see a little bit of damage and i'm sure we'll take a look once everything settles down robert kubitsa has got himself up into fourth position here ahead of nikola in that hypercar remember that 36 car had a late change in balance performance has lost some was it 30 horsepower no it's a 16 horses so uh that's enough you know every uh horsepower around this circuit is one-tenth of a second that's going to really hit them hard gravel getting sprayed up in front of our windscreen riding on board the uh porsche 92 there momentarily from one of the corvettes in front and i've got a feeling this fight is going to go on already and there's no change there in gt pro for the moment corvette corvette porsche porsche a of course a ferrari hey of course a ferrari with the riley motorsports uh pro entry uh in the seventh of those positions in gt pro they are being relatively well behaved we've got a slow zone if you mentioned already slow zone uh slow zone one at marshall post one guessing for the uh united car in the gravel trap still they should be able to crane that car out get it back on its way didn't see any damage but it just can't get out of that sofia flourish is underway now it's a long long long long first sector but she is what underway and slow zone mean because we suddenly got a massive bunch of cars on top of each other very simply it's not a full course yellow but they do full course yellow speeds at 80 kph for one section of the circuit that section of the circuit is up to race director's discretion all right let's have a look at what happened on the first lap of the race we're on board with the 22. oh that wasn't his fault that was hit by the wrt car yeah but i have to see an off-board shot as well what do we look at it's too late this shot it was the outside a red and white car it was either the premier car or the wrt car think wrt from that shot uh that we saw ollie jarvis looks on and yeah so getting craned out but there was damage sustained to the front right i think hopefully it's just body work willow and it was it took the start in that car but you're absolutely right anthony from what we saw from that angle absolutely nothing could do about that i don't think that was his fault at all i think it was just a case of uh three and two this is one didn't go sophia flourish slowly waking making her way back to the pits and was she even involved or is that a separate incident she was certainly wasn't that far up that grid no exactly so there must have been a separate issue for sofia but she's got the car underway and that albeit still hasn't found his way past the premier car it looks like the uh the lmp2s are able to match the times that of the uh of the hypercars what's going on here they've been nowhere near them all weekend so far closes but they can't close enough on the the straights well well well [Music] and it's not a case of the lmp2s have been sandbagging they uh they're incapable we've seen they've been racing each other all the way through this event so far now uh finally nico lapierre in the slipstream ducks out to the left-hand side right-hand side of our screen before the second chicane looks like he's just about able to squeeze so finally after well one of the third laps shall we say makes his way by the dramas we've had so far just to summarize side-to-side contact for the number 22 united auto sports car put that card to the gravel just about a turn one uh no we're not sure whether or not that was from the premier car or the 41 the 31 wrt car one of those two we think there was a separate problem by the look of things for the algar pro racing car and then two other cars in trouble early on the 35 ultimate car and the real team by wrt car all cars at the moment with the exception of the united car which has now cleared sector one so all cars are underway albeit with a 22 car and the 35 car uh both damaged quick look at the number 77 dempsey proton machine which is leading our gtm category with harry tinkle aboard that car he shares that car with sebastian prio andy prio's young son and owner of the team chris reed these guys at the head of the field though are going to catch uh fernando ferdinand habsburg who is going slowly in the 41 lmp2 car and he is going to be caught in the porsche curves we have our very own pit reporters down in the pits across our 24 hours and first of all it's louise beckett good afternoon louise good afternoon everybody i'm just at the garage of the united auto sport 22. the team are ready they've got a full set of tires out they're going to refuel obviously and they've pushed out a rear wing there is a nose there as well i've asked the team they said they just don't know what state the car is in at the moment so they're getting everything ready for that 22 to come back hopefully fingers crossed that all the most important parts are facing the right direction and the wheels didn't get too much for beating d quite easy to bend suspension arms and and steering arms there but as predicted ferdinand has been right in the middle of the way there and in the porsche curves yeah and the porsche goes i expected him to stay to the outside but uh one of the toyota's car seven it was uh mike conway had to take avoiding action and the white flags were being waived for a slow moving vehicle but uh i guess the toyotas were unaware of exactly where the car was going to be as they got to this point in the track we're riding on board now the ferrari back to the fight to the head of the field in lmp2 the prem i mean look at this this like the gt pro category i expect this to be a race long fight they're so closely matched uh the wrt car looking uh pretty fast at this stage uh in second place with renee rast behind the wheel and antonio felix costa philippe nasa follow on so from uh i think we've got louise down with united in the pits just to let you know that real teams have just come into the garage i'm too far away to see what's happening at the moment but i'll make my way down there that's the 41 car won the cars it was in trouble on the opening lap we didn't see an incident involved that car but it was the contact to the rear of the car we're hearing from luiz so maybe in all of the melee he they had to slow down too quickly and got tagged from the rear is that what also involved the ultimate car but so what we've got already gentlemen of these lmp2 super teams two of those teams with one car each in trouble already that's wrt with the real team car and united with the 22 and by the way a pretty super team in their own right i'll go pro with one of their cars so not a good time for multi-car lmp2 teams judge look at the names in that list of lmp2 drivers at the head of our field right now robert kubica formula one race runner renee rast multiple dtm champion antonio felix de costa arguably one of the best drivers never to race in formula one and felipe nasra formula one driver with team penske that are going to be graduating to run the hypercar for porsche and then young gun charles malesi there in fifth position but all the way down through the field there is so many epic drivers as will owen brings the united 22 into the pits and this is a car that could have won this race in lmp2 this event and you'd have to say based on the fact there are a couple of laps down already now and they're going to be more so after this repair in the pits that you have to say how competitive lmp2 is these days is game over for them in terms of a race victory that's so unlucky by the looks of things completely not will owens doing got sandwich between two cars that we don't know of but maybe ferdinand hasberg was the one on the right-hand side with a little bit of damage because that car came across from right to left and the one on the left-hand side came from left to right i think the car we saw on the right-hand side the wrt car was being squeezed as well by the car to the right of him yeah and we just haven't seen the shot yet so it's hard to make a prediction we've got some team radio coming up uh from team penske let's listen to nasa track limits was a massive thing in qualifying graham good when we had something like 86 penalties across a one-hour session and even in hyper pole was a big story how are they going to implement that in the race it's given the same real supply it's made very clear the driver's briefing by by eduardo freitas and you can expect to see that being acted upon look there by the way as if they're hoping that was bodywork only for the united auto sports car comes out now in amongst the leaders and let's see what the pace is like as willowing gets back up to speed but a horrible horrible look for united auto sports to start this race out also in and out also is the real team car the 41 car ahead of will owen on track but still and actually severe flourish has made it back to pit lane yeah so that's one story to go and find out what the issue is with sofia flourishes number 47 algarve pro arguably the faster of the two lineups for our golf pro the 45 car got completely rebuilt after a big shunt on wednesday they had to strip the car that was uh damaged the tub was damaged take everything out of the damaged tub and put it in a brand new tub not the only ones in the lmp2 field to have to do that across our practice sessions but they've already been working incredibly hard even before the 24-hour race begins would add as well by the way we should mention the other two cars that started from the very back of the grid two lmp2 cars that did not set a qualifying time for a for different reasons the 45 and the 10 25 mile guard pro in the hands of james allen nico muller support the vector sport car those two cars have made their way through the gt battles was that the 85 car in trouble we were looking at iron dams and indeed they are dropping to the tail end of the gtm field so that does seem as though there might be an issue for our all lady team michelle gatting is aboard that car to start the race we'll keep an eye on that one throwing it through in the 30s the 77 car on the dunlop bridge for the dempsey proton car in the hands of harry take the leads the field and with a gap yeah he's making a nice healthy gap there sorry graeme there yeah nice healthy gap uh to the cars behind him [Music] yeah it's a cracking start to this race a great start from ben barker up to second of the dura racing car so 77-86 makes it an all-porsche 1-2 in fact it's one two three with matteo caroli aboard the 46 car makes it three and it's four because it's the hardpoint 99 car that uh comes through in fourth guess who's fifth it's another porsche it's one two three four five are all porsche top five in gte am in gtam you have porsches you have the 15 ferraris in total and we do have three aston martins not represented by works teams but we do have tf uh sports represented with aston martin as iron dams comes into the pit as we thought with an issue is it a puncture the rear right looks a bit down perhaps or am i imagining things slow in the second section of the lap where they picked up an issue and they've got it back to the pits so early trouble for the 85 car the other two aston martins by the way north west amr which is paul dalana's team and d station racing the japanese outfit of the three astons in gt am other than that in the gt field as a whole you've got two corvettes the rest ferraris and porsches absolutely here comes the first of those aston martins is the northwest amr car in amongst the first pack of ferraris there in the hands of nikki team he's chasing down what was the pole sitting car in gtam and in fact has gone by von abril now is trying to pin down now that michael jansen it is in the 57 car ahead so that is ex world champion or still a world champion of course you're always a world champion as hank davidson knows uh but michael jensen will be seeing next time out for the world engineers championship aboard one of the peugeots speaking of punctures you've got to be careful of doing stuff like that i can't see which ferrari that was behind not quite in shot yet but just venturing a little bit too far on the exit of multan corner throwing up a bit of gravel and they can come back to bite you later on in the race with a slow puncture interesting how strong porsches are looking in the gt field at the moment considering vince and abril was the ferrari on the pole position in that class and dropping down the field to uh now ninth in class whereas as you said earlier the porsches are right up there at the head of the field so af courses uh car not looking particularly strong in these early stages hottest temperatures that these guys have experienced the whole of lamar 2022 for the moment absolutely right there are that leading or the chasing group of porsches and that's a new second place car in gta matteo caroline has made his way back ben barker now and is homing in on harry tinkle so matteo caroli a man who um staggered is not a porsche factory driver but clearly is a favored son of that group cars 335 by the way are under investigation for overtaking on the yellow flags number three is the car engineering car 35. i'm trying to remind myself as the ultimate car yeah [Music] so through the battling gtms don't ignore this class ignore it at your peril because the depth here 23 cars and some of the talent aboard these cars let's look at those first because harry tinkle man who has competed here in all four classes as one in two of them could this be a third with matteo caroli chasing him down ben barker another porsche specialist has won big races around the world alessio pick ariello up into fourth now let's go down to luis just picking up on the 85 iron links i heard you say it it was clearly a puncher how quick they were in and out they'd say they don't know how there was no contact so they don't know how they picked it up so often it's the case isn't it it could have been somebody else's gravel you know we've seen right at the start of the race cars going off and i think it was just that shot that we saw before into turn one and turn two we got a great fight here with one of the united's car 23 versus uh car one michelle milesie at the wheel there and alex lin makes the move stick just in the slipstream nice move one position gained that 23 car has alexander lynn ollie jarvis and the youngest driver uh in the field josh pearson aboard that car that's a great lineup and got to be one of the favorites and behind that pair by the way another great battle underway between copper neutered and lmp2 uh debutant murca bottellotti that's a name we're going to be hearing more of in the hypercar days with lamborghini committing from 2024 onwards i have zero doubts and i think bortolotti has got by the young dutch when he has indeed the 32 team wrt car up into seventh place in the class probably on board with shaw malaysia coming into the porsche curves in fifth gear so much momentum now carried and the circuit itself quite different to how we've seen it the last couple of years uh with the addition of runoff area all around it and look at this the pressure getting piled on by antonio felix de costa with renee rash just in front of him looks like rasty is getting into a little bit of trouble here he's lost a bit of lap time and pace to uh a distance to the premier car of robert capita out in front and that's given uh felix de costa a sniff of a chance 20 minutes into the race we're starting to gonna talk about strategy graham because these lmp2 cars they're not doing that many laps on fuel they're not doing that with that some fuel and that's gonna that's gonna play out because we've got four cars basically in the same space as one car really should be and it almost looks like bala if it wasn't so chaotic it's like ballet happens without choreography yeah that's thomas he's lost those two places hasn't he with that wide moment of multan corner almost looks too wide almost three wide there for a moment the 80 uh ein links car then the 75 and then side by side between the triple seven car and is that the 71 car i think it is of pierre just three laps until we expect the first of the pit stops from our lmp2 field having completed five they should be able to do nine but because of the first lap things and the slow laps maybe eight on this first one yeah so not quite as efficient as they were last year they're a little bit down on power and i think they're using a bit more fuel to compensate so they were doing uh 10 laps last year and if you would lift and co save a bit of fuel you could just scrape 11. now we're aiming for nine it seems as what's this happened at the second chicane in the d station car having to take avoiding action that's what blood does was it that's satoshi oshino in the d station racing uh pit looking on inscrutably at the progress and anyone looking on confusing the uh two joker cars the uh now very hard to tell the difference that uh is car 28 it's not like car 38 just suddenly lost out an awful lot of time and made a mistake look out for the red mirrors on car 28 the white mirrors are on car 38. jonathan aberdeen bought that car the south african down in 12th position but looking to make up places he's got cool racing's ricky taylor uh just in front ricky in lmp2 brother jonathan in the corvette in uh gt pro jordan jordan so another racing dynasty the taylors wayne taylor a multiple international race winning championship winning sports car driver getting the move done so they're great on the run down towards mossad so that's one position gained for jonathan aberdeen over ricky taylor david clarke at jota [Music] and if you are listening david clarke please make your cars a little bit different in terms of livery apart from the mirrors you make our lives an awful lot easier the fans as well it's the green car and the other green car this is an old joke by the way that goes on and on and check out their social media because they just do a really brilliant league battle here and it's a three-way lead battle in gta because they've hunted down harry ticknell this is tignal cairoli barker one two three i thought harry tigner would uh shot out in fact he was one point six seconds ahead last time i saw cairo he's just been leapfrogging through traffic and picariello by the way is making this a four-car train and that's the best news so far the final delayed car sophia fleurs is going to be joining the race very shortly on rejoining the race very shortly i wonder whether she was not involved in that incident in fact had a separate incident all by herself or a failure with the car such a shame on harry tingle he lost a second on the last lap his lap was a 53-5 the guys behind doing fives and fours so that's where the pace has gone 11 minutes on pit lane for the number 47 car so what is that now six laps down five laps down plus of course that very slow inlap after the car was stationary for some time for sofia flourish but the most important thing is she's in the race we have 62 cars running and tingle has lost the lead now uh at the head of the gt and field to matteo cairoli caroli is a driver of top top quality no doubt what's all about that and there if you look in the foreground that is the seventh of gte pro cars it's the riley motorsport car the be safe racing car from the united states there she is again the yellow and purple car this is how the leaf went yeah so harry on the left-hand side of our screens you can see the car coming up on the left-hand side of him and just got out dragged and there's nothing he could do to fight that under the brakes into that second chicane one position lost and it looks like another one as well what is going on there with a number 77 porsche with harry tigner with the wheel it's does he overdriven at the the start that the tires started going away from him who knows but it looked like he was dominant in those early laps just six laps we have on the board now for all of the actually five laps they're yet to finish this lap of course the gtm drivers top six cars by the way now in gtm are all porsches with uh progress to their field as well by ben barnicoats known by many of the fan bases ben barney goats the greatest of all time i think that's been to me uh but i think so i hope so the 56 car now up in sixth place with nikki team seventh eighth place for the first of the ferraris in class as the toyotas are making their way through traffic said just been meticulously pulling away just edging away from his teammate michael now three and a half seconds ahead i'm gonna watch this uh off-board shot of car 22. ah yeah just as it went out of shot it looked like he was just turning in actually i watched the clicking houses as well because it was the two wrt cars yeah three into one was never going to work there was it absolutely innocent gutting stuff sandwiched between two cars there actually i thought this car was on the full outside of the check and that's the moment yeah tagged by the car on the right hand side what's the 41 car who's the 31 and 41 come out let's go down to louise so yeah i'm with the guys from algarve pro sophia's obviously come in a long time in the garage and gone back out now but can you tell me stuart what was the issue what's happened uh where we're having to run this newer oil and it's not the oil's fault here we're having a run more blanking on the radiator to make it warmer and we've just literally on the formation lap the car's got hot and what's happened is is that's not a problem for the engine the oil or anything there but under body it's got very very hot and it's overheated the component to the fact it's just shut down and it she basically came on the corner last corners the temperature's creeping up and up and up because we just don't have the airflow at slow speed and we've got all this blanking on and it's doing nothing and she's preparing to start the race so the reds are high and it's just cooked the uh gearbox actuator which was the new part fitted yesterday for the race uh we knew as soon as we came in at the engine cover off you can see it's dead because it's got a blue flashing light on it normally and that's it it's dead so it's just a disaster because it's quite difficult it's only a quick change but trying to line it up because of the gear positions difficult so we have to get it back into neutral have a look through try to understand what i've gone wrong because it's we're sort of initially guessing but when you see the temperatures and everything that we had you can understand it thanks very much you hear the frustration there in stewie cox's voice can't you as another place down goes harry tickle he is struggling here i've been hearing from a couple of other teams that were struggling with engine temps behind that safety car which we said was going quite slowly on we did yeah we called it at the time we said this could cause havoc with uh temperatures rising with the cars going so slowly and there you go uh the proof there that uh it was affecting some cars so um i mean you have to run the blanking obviously for later on in the race it's one of the many compromises you have to make with this race where in the night time temperature's going to drop and you might even have the opposite problem first of our stoppers the number 31 wrt rene rasp brings his car in after just seven laps we kind of guesstimated it would be eight but this is a little bit surprised potentially just to get them off strategy with the rest of the guys around well yeah i mean they've got is a very long lap here just following the the safety car around um so it can be anywhere from one or two laps that you miss out but i think now they've refueled back out there under racing conditions with a full tank if we're looking for those nine laps and rent arrest was with these two with robert kubitza and antonio finis decosta at the head of the lmp2 field we'll expect to see the rest of the field in either next lap or the lap after it looks like felix de costa has been freed up now that that uh number 31 wrt car came into the pits and he's immediately on the attack with robert kubica in front it's going to keep the teams incredibly busy having to do pit stops every half an hour we have a marshall point two collision at the start of the race one minute stop and go penalty uh to the 31 machine which is renee rast so he has been put blame for that crash at the start of the race the pole position car in lmp2 let's hear from information the pit lane information to pit lane one minute stop and go penalty on car 31 31 for causing a collision at t1 at the start of the race one minute stop and go penalty on car 31. i call that as a racing incident it wasn't malicious four cars i mean you might as well not carry which was there was an awful lot of room to the right-hand side of that 31 car there was a lot of room for the left-hand side visibility is very hard and you're looking everywhere your eyes are everywhere at the start of that race i look it wasn't malicious it wasn't like he lunged down the inside recklessly it wasn't intentional that moved to the left-hand side and i know it's wrecked somebody else's race completely but it was a mistake it wasn't intentional wasn't malicious one lap that's you're out the race completely was it a one lap or one minute sorry one minute yeah it's still it's the same you need a safety card to get back onto the television yeah which we have less and less now because we have slow zones to deal with you don't get onto the back of the field with a safety car here there's three safety cars [Music] and the gap has come down it's now 1.2 seconds as the two leading lmp2s come into the pit lane here now remember they're not fighting that car 31 anymore that's had that one minute uh penalty that car remember the wrt car has been in for its uh it's regular pit stop will need to come in again now who's got the fastest pit crew it all comes down to this everyone's got the same fuel rigs these days in lmp2 you're not allowed to touch them at all let's talk as well about alex lynn he's made his way through to third place in that battle uh passing the the penske car just uh on that last one that makes the difference here graham is that who's got the free run into the pit so we can see there's nobody around felix de costa of the chota team we're looking at carnival one here i want to see the premier car there it is and it looks like they've had a free run in as well so right down to the uh down to the pit crew as the two toyotas now [Music] nose to tail as mike conway's been able to catch up on sebastian buemi after having that issue around the porsche curves well he's lost another eight tenths of a second in the first sector uh of this lap so we saw his his issue at the porsche curves that was the previous lap he's lost another eight tents in the first sector we're now obviously in the second sector and it's nose to tail just at three and a half tenths of a second for the lead of the race between the eight and the number seven uh the leading on the p2 with the rest of the field having pitted by the way goes to the 43 car jota has gone by primer in the pits wow wrt are actually ahead of the two of them but as we said we're discounting that uh 31 machine so the jota was behind the car number nine the premier car in in position obviously a pit position so that means if the joker was released beforehand they would have stopped before you would have gone into a position where it's an unsafe release so maybe that's how they lost a position would be good to see a replay of that one well the uh i want to say the fragment car has an advantage in that the premier car is pitted as we watch some madness through traffic pitted in amongst all the af courser and unlinked bits which with the exception 83 are all gt cars it's actually got an advantage in the weights placed in pit lane oh that wasn't off for the certainly that's the nielsen car and coming into pit lane tricky to do that entry is so fast ben hanley with some with obviously the chicane there too and you've got to get the pace down to the pit lane speed limit yeah that first time when you peel off the uh the racing line into the pits and uh it's hard to put your breaking point into there and uh you can run over a lot of the flat painted curb on the left-hand side but then that right-hand curve is very steep and it's uh when you come off of the nice grippy tarmac into the pit lane that the grip changes suddenly and it's very easy to do what uh just done there but in saying that he's very experienced he he should know better half an hour into the race and the toyotas are now into the gtm traffic those that haven't pitted of course gt cars won't have pitted yet and you get a little bit held up here as well had to go off the circuit uh it's a dotted white line so it's not track limits there but uh and it wasn't and it wasn't fully off the track either he stayed two wheels on the racetrack and he's done well through traffic uh although lost it again towards the end of the lap with further traffic so what was two seconds comes down to point seven that goes back up again yeah you can see here how boy he's had the free run through there traffic free but mike conway's had to follow that porsche through that complex would have lost more time goes for the move down inside that was a bit late but uh the porsche in front was aware let him through but you can see what that what that does in traffic now boy me will he get through before tejarooz yes that's why it's a desperate move down the inside because you know how much you're going to be compromised if you follow a slower gt car through a high speed corner like that one gt pro the two corvettes then it's the two porsches the next two air of course the cars and then the riley ferrari as they started effectively but good gaps between them they're not locked together like we've seen so often in gte pro at the start of a race there is space between all uh different marks as we have the last of our lmp2 cars coming to the pits just in front of our commentary position the into europol at number 43 with fabio shira the last lmp2 car two pits and it would be well it's on its ninth lap so it's managed to stretch it a little more than the rest that will put renee rast to the head of the field in wrt but of course he has that penalty looming he does indeed he is he's two seconds to the good over the other two that are chasing down so in the pit stops at least he's done a great job there it was a minute and seven seconds on pit road for wrt for that car before the woes is now going to get minute nine for jota 11 for the three cards following and five for joseph with the 28. 31 i just saw out of our commentary box window back into the pits yes absolutely that will be taking its penalty was it a minute stop going yes it was yeah yeah sorry i read that wrong getting over excited and in some cases one and assumed it was a lap some categories you can do that with your pit stops but here you have to do it separately to a pit stop so that uh there goes the 31 rolling down now to the timed hold there is the pit the official there with the the stopwatch that means to the lead in lmp2 to sixth place overall every second here is gonna feel like a minute it's not gonna help in terms of the heat is it either it's really not but i mean the cars are stopped this is the incident we thought just behind the glass i mean they were all sandwiched weren't they i know it looks harsh from this point of view think why did the car on the right just slam to the left but that heli shot shows it better i really don't know where else he could have gone the the number 31 he saw he got i think he got spooked by the car on the right hand side that was moving a little bit left and then he's overreacted but yeah eyes everywhere at the start there look at this the two toyotas we can hear from them now right now copy we do break balance and shift and corner by corner if we need to [Music] yeah so sev just suffering with uh quite a bit of oversteer as you can hear there and that uh makes sense with the shot that we saw with him losing the rear end on the entry to the porsche curves i mean there's not much you can do with moving brake balance for corners like that that's a high speed corner but it's corners like this where you're on the brakes and turning at the same time if you've overused overworked those rear tyres the brake balance can help a bit but it sounds like there's an inherent balance problem there for that toyota car number eight it might get better through the race you generally seem to lose a bit more front end and have a more understeer balance but uh seems like a long way off he's only got to wait about what 20 hours until the car feels good no further investigation around the race start other than what we've already heard with this tussle though between the toyotas they are being caught by the glicken houses again 3 33's last time around it's 3 34 35 the time before that from the totals 3 31 for the chasing olivier pla he's now 6.6 seconds behind the leader imagine that also is a slight reflection on the traffic that perhaps that thicker house has not encountered on this lap whereas the toyotas have he's through the traffic he's through the traffic he's got one car between him and the totals seven seconds the gap from the kicking house in third to the toyotas and then the alpine is another a further five seconds off the back of the houses as well so on board here with the number 64 corvette uh being passed four position by the way with a couple of the recovering lmp2s the closer to the tail end of that field the ultimate car one of the cars delayed at the start and that car uh back in the train of lmp2 cars now if he made its way back up uh on the way out by the way we might see that car is the number 31 wrt car with that that was a replay of the start the gte pro quite spaced out weren't they as they came out of the final part of chicane running over the carbon fiber of the crash ahead they like to do that they like to give themselves a bit of a gap we saw the lmp2 field give themselves a bit of a gap but the gt is often not it's that concertina effect isn't it if you're right up behind the cars in front they've got their own race going on we all know that and we respect the fact that there are different categories so eduardo the race director allows a bit of a gap between between uh all four difficult three main different categories here so it's time for our four first routine pit stop of the coverage and it'll be uh say tata for the moment to add davidson fuel tyres and peter dunbreck for the next spell alexander lynn back in the pits in the 23. what's going on here this is an unscheduled stop for united they're changing all four tyres once more we've refueled that car but that shouldn't be in the pits for the second time in just 10 laps graham no that is very odd uh we'll have a chat with united offline here find out what's going on with that pit stop but that's that's an odd moment many a lamar under your belt please done brett great to have you with us here how is this experience this morning compared to the last couple of years it's great to have the fans back absolutely yeah i mean yeah it's it's the main thing isn't it coming back from the covert uh problems over the last couple of years and finally we're getting back to normal and uh yeah it's good to see you know the track filling up and people everywhere i took a wander a couple hours ago just around the first corner and things and just looking being part of the crowd myself and just taking all in [Music] close between these toy toyotas and it's the second toyota mike conway comes into the pit for the first time we're hearing from pit lane that gleckin house is also uh getting ready and so the toyota's then able to do 40 minutes or 11 laps for i'm sorry 10 laps uh for mike conway bohemia has continued so they'll stagger those two you can see how congested the pit lane would be if you had the two cars coming in at the same time as we watch this pit stop underway confirmation of race control no further action on the investigation on car three that's d car engineering and a potential overtake under yellow so no further action from that one still one more of the in the uh the inbox on that one we'll keep an eye and see what eduardo and co come back with alpine and click in house also in pit lane the 709 so out on track still is the 708 and the eight machine checking at the side pods to make sure there's no dirt or uh rubbish in the side pods the circuit as they say we look beautifully clean when they went out racing just a little bit of thai build up perhaps can go in there as well routine to clear that car out immediate explanation from uh united auto sports front right i think we're being told let me just double check front right tire delaminated on that car laminate as martin pasek united auto sport says it never rains but that is uh that's only a couple of laps into that stint as well for that tire that's bad news for them there were a car that was very much in contention that has not gone well has it to start with here for united auto sports with the 22 car the innocent victim of whatever we want to call that that that incident before the race really got underway that car by the way still running in 61st position two laps down alcar pro five laps down after the issue we heard from stewie cox earlier with louise the gearbox actuator effectively cooking itself and shutting down we do have a change of drive uh no we don't that's lie so frank meyer stays aboard the 709 uh that has come into the pits nikolai lapierre state aboard the 36 alpine pit stops the same time one minute and 10 the toyota is going a little bit faster in the pits with the 107. that uh one minute stop and hold for the 31 wrt car meanwhile drops that car down to 26th position overall 21st in the field so wrt another team that's not been a great start for this race because their delayed car the 41 car that was caught up in that incident that 41 car has recovered more than the united car did from the contact but is still down in 57th place and a lap down best of the team wrt cars therefore is the 32 machine uh which has ralph inishin miko bottolotti and therese vanthal that's a car that we've seen multiple times in various gravel traps around the circuit de la salle across practice mainly with uh rolf having a few different explorations but uh up there in fifth position now behind uh the jota number 28 jonathan aberdeen's great first stint he's got himself now onto the tail as you can see a philippine astra so this is the battle that was the battle for third in class yeah murica bottellotti showing well here in the early running uh it's a lmp2 uh well that would be two debutants and certainly a debutant here as in comes the real team by wrt car this will be i think their first this is their first routine stop that have fueled the car uh after that uh early stop for attention so obviously that's why it's going a little longer how many you said uh a crazy high number of deputies it's 51 50 uh because we lost one d it is 50. it's some it's well over 30 percent of the lmp2 as wide wide wide under pressure with the number eight r links card goes to triple seven d station racing car but takes the position almost fully off the track there [Music] squeezed across the triple seven by the eighteen and the fourth the eighteenth moment just taking a look at where that is it is gin carla fizzy killer there you go giancarlo a hefty move it's not like him at all one of 12 x formula one drivers uh in the field giancarlo fisa keller uh you can go through the entry yourself and work out the other 11 because it took myself from graham a little bit of time to get to number 12 but we got there eventually indeed and the last of our hyper cars then into pit lane the number eight with sebastian bouemi and olivier platt in the 708 hypercar so that will put all of our five hybrid cars through one round of pit stops let's go down to louise who is about to do an interview and we can tap in and listen have a listen to what's going on in python vincent voss we've seen the 31 come in renee rest he got that stop and go that's very damaging to you guys but what's your reaction to it well you know at the start there was a lot of confusion difficult to say what what happened exactly there was a contact [Music] yeah i think renee did not do anything wrong but yeah at the end we have to accept the decision of the steward um let's see the race is going to be long well you know from last year that anything can happen here yeah exactly okay thank you great here from vancouver it's not be an easy start for him we do have a change for the lead then the number seven machine has got ahead of the number eight in the pit stops that came courtesy of a quicker pit stop for the number seven a minute and seven on pit road rather than a minute and 10 seconds so and that is well just about exactly what the difference is here in the second half behind and now a second and a half ahead you've got the feeling that boeing was a little bit slower than what conway could manage in that the end of that first in so will be interesting to see if the number seven machine can now start pulling away from the number eight as boeing had done in the first part this did would the team have done anything to try was there anything they could do to try and stop the oversteer that bohemia was complaining about um if they could alter tire pressures it could be that his rear tire pressures were a bit too high and that was causing it and yeah there's various things they can do for sure and yeah having i don't know sebastian but um i've heard him many a time and he does complain doesn't he when when things aren't going his way he he lets it known that it's not so good as we often hear michael fassbender looks like he's getting ready to take over in the number 93 car as uh that car on the hands of matt campbell gets into a battle with the northwest a marquette nikki team our calf there in the background with the rtl mike we haven't yet seen any of the gte cars uh into pit lane but interesting that uh he's helmeted up and ready to go so possibly we will get him in a few moments time let's hear from the team radio of that car matt [Music] campbell to watch when he's following [Music] and there's an example of the work that the pro drivers are doing to help the am drivers he's actually going to make changes within the car to make it easier for michael to drive yeah yeah i mean you know he's he's uh he's not that experienced disney we've already seen he had an issue maybe it wasn't his fault in in the practice session and uh crashed into the wall so um yes he needs every bit of help he can get he's gonna be quite nervous getting into the car for the first thing but at least he's getting you over with early in the race so he can you know settle down after that and you know get on with it driving the car well it's hurt there in the number three deco engineering car going by alex puddle both these men by the way both these young men uh both previous elms lmp3 champions and i'll turn more recent the two and he passes in what we're calling nemo for obvious reasons the number three dkr engineering car and it's now the dkr car ahead of both inter europol cars then the rc bratislava car in a battle for what is 10th position in lmp2 we are expecting the gt cars to come in this lap we heard that fastbender will be taking over the 93 but the pro cars are in number three in this lap doesn't look like there's any tyres being changed here so it's simply a full tank of fuel and then back out onto circle as we saw from uh many of the uh cars that visited pit lane on that first uh round of pit stops changed driver for af course at 52 however yeah that car was started by miguel molina in comes as we heard matt campbell like the fastbender springs interaction interesting that we heard uh matt campbell saying be careful in traffic so obviously the aerodynamic wash of the cars that he's following affecting the way that that car then feels uh if you're closely following for instance through the porsche curves yeah huge moment is for michael fassbender a culmination of three years of preparation in carrera cups and supercarps then in the lms yeah absolutely and with you know already with some podium finishes against quality ambition to his name but uh i'm sure the nerves are jangling absolutely massively now this is the first opportunity to show what he's got in the big race he's been aiming for tyres going on the number 93 car and he will be feeling pressure no doubt about that so yeah i mean you talked about three years of preparation so most of the other people on the grid have had years and years and years a little bit unsafe but he let him go there that was down to the liquid man i'm afraid he's the one who's supposed to be watching 21 car almost clattered the pro car coming out and that would have been an absolute disaster i mean there's one thing i'm safe releasing on a different team but doing it into team would have been a right bizarre there's so many cars for ferrari so many cars for af course are down there they're in the fifth lane 51 i wonder if he thought it was a 51 and was expecting the car to put him behind yep they're all kind of red and white aren't they a lot of them they very much are a sea of yellow with a bit of green here there's the two into europa castle the racing bakers from poland arc pratislava team from slovakia [Music] auto racing club is the arc [Music] into europol known as the racing bakers because that's what into europa is it's a huge commercial bakery in poland [Music] 43k in the hands of fabio shearer chasing alex brundle in the 34. we heard about the dramas with that team coming into this race to try all sorts of jiggery pokery to get that car up to speed seems to be more or less there now now corvette racing on the outlap for antonio garcia in the 63 car in comes 64. from the starts in the hands of nick tandy and this is the car that has led from the start on pole position yesterday and no changes of position in gte pro for the moment but as we saw from toyota the pit stops uh swapping the lead of the race overall could do the same here for the pro car i think that was i'm just looking i don't think that i was just about to say i think the car was all going through was no it was the 92 car kevin estrella's gone through to take the lead just working out whether or not it was the inception racing backed team project one car we saw going through shot but it wasn't it was the 92 cars a porsche lead moment willow is this stop six seconds behind as the corvette pulled onto pit lane driver change for meanwhile the 91 that jimmy brunion board the car interesting that they're all choosing to do a driver change like quite often you would do a double stint straight away to start the race but maybe the heat i wonder if that's exactly it actually just to see just about a bit of feedback a bit heat management at this stage it is very hot out there take a look at temps in a moment it's very hot in here to be fair as well yeah forecast was for around 25 degrees air temperature but i feel as though it's hotter than that out on circuit yeah 25 bang on air temperature track temperature 51.4 degrees no wonder the tires are complaining and a change of tires for porsche so this is gonna be a longer stop the corvettes just came in for fuel but the 91 porsche having to change their tyres as well so is this going to leave people into trouble later in the race in and out and they're changing tires too so corvettes going different going double stint on their tires the rest of that gt pro field are going with a new set of boots in theory therefore will have faster pace and the corvettes could be caught in this second one but of course the pit stops themselves being a bit longer all right we did say there was one other car still in the inbox that was the 35 ultimate car the 35 car it could be dealt a drive through penalty for overtaking on the yellow and pushing the car off track i think they're quite lucky it's just a drive-through i hope it didn't do at the same time i think they probably did you know nothing quite like uh elbowing another person out the way whilst you're not actually supposed to be overtaking at all northwest amr one of three aston martins in our gtam field and actually uh good pace from aston martin throughout practice it didn't go their way in qualifying and so far it does very much look like porsche with the upper hand in chitti um in these hot conditions right now yeah that northwestern marker the 98 car is the best place for those three running at the moment in fifth position behind four porsches at the moment and has just been in and out of the pits within three-car on the hands of marcus sorensen uh pits of course this is the hottest temperature we've seen all week isn't it so um things have kind of changed around a bit and maybe the aston the cooler temperature was better and in the heat it's maybe not quite so good and you're now having to draw on information you've got from previous years because nothing's really relatable to these kind of temperatures from what they've experienced even in the test day it's a bit of a voyage to the unknown certainly is yes um a lot of uh head scratching in the garages i imagine at the moment group here of lmp2 cars battling away for third position by the penske car one of the delayed united cars ahead here of this group is effectively a lap down in the race but the team penske car nancy philippe head of jonathan aberdeen then team wrt 32 car the only one that's not delayed by one reason or another and then very impressive starting extent from murca bottellotti bournem chateau with index sports 48 car is right in there as well as char malaysia not too much further behind a couple of seconds off this group just see the red oraca coming in the background there in comes the second of the factory porsche's the 92 and i think this will be sofia flourish for her first routine stop after what we heard earlier the heat related issues that uh fried the gearbox actuator and cost them 11 minutes very early on the 92 car coming in the hands of kevin s from the lead of the gte pro race should go back the way of the corvettes now interestingly does it look like there are tires prepared for the 92 car here or a driver change so we're splitting strategy down at porsche gt team with the 91 car taking new tires and a bit of an experiment going on in the 92. [Music] lou says that there are tires there so maybe they will do it later but there's a nice super slo-mo of the 92 car and the weight of the suspension riding those sausage curbs 115 on pit road 114 for the notoriously well drilled corvette team would be very interested to see what porsche achieved with that different strategy should be quicker looks like the um riley motorsports ferrari also didn't take tyres so air of course are going going a separate strategy to riley 116 despite the fact no tires for the porsche team so they couldn't quite match the efforts of corvette racing so we'll drop back into third with a closer third place marginally now nick tandy still leads he stayed aboard the 64. antonio garcia stayed aboard the 63. stayed aboard the 92 those three separated by six seconds and pretty equal distance just watching matthias betch here in the tds racing by fiona big shunt for that car in practice yesterday as we have yellow flags out on circuit at the end of the lap outside our window i think or whatever the exit porsche curves uh which is marginally worrying it's actually the middle of the porsche curves and uh that tds car heavy into the wall wrote off the car wrote off the chassis but more importantly graham the driver in which uh shunted was prevented from racing indeed philippe domo uh effectively excluded from the meeting after that incident that left tds with a big problem as the 28 car makes progress and that is jonathan aberdeen uh ahead now of philippines and up into third place so jota 1-3 right now i mean sharp contrast the other big super teams here they're having a very good start to this race so tds racing was finding needing to replace their bronze driver effectively but instead of doing so because they had a silver already in that team they were able to find actually one of the best drivers in the world at in uh nick dufrese to jump aboard that car with absolutely no european le mans experience this year done lemon three times before in previous years but what was that gonna be like for nick dufrese jumping aboard that car with absolutely zero practice and only three laps in warm-up yeah it would have been very difficult i mean he's actively driving almost every week so from that side of things he's you know he's up to speed but um it's always daunting coming here when you get a call like that very late on i'm sure he was like took about a second to say yep let's do it but um yeah it's it's a respect that he can just go in and jump jump in the car and be pretty much quick straight away in in the morning warm-up do we know if he was here was he a reserve for somebody who's shot by apology of course his toyota is absolutely sorry so i was just looking at investigation underway at the moment but yes he was here for for them and of course he's driven for tds before with racing team netherland uh just uh spotted on the screens investigation underway at the moment for car 22 for ignoring blue flags now i'm watching where the united car is of course that's the car that's delayed by the clash at the very start of the race with the possible exception of maybe a moment or two where the the penske car was getting quite close i i've not really seen him in interfering in this battle and i'm not really quite sure why they're investigating that it is a potential front-running car it's running for a running pace it just happened to have lost laps now we did hear a complaint uh on the radio very very early on in the session uh about antonio felix de costa and track limits uh an interesting race controller are now looking at decosta for abusing track limits something that we have experienced a lot of in the practice sessions but it's going to be a feature i think of this race it's so many places where you can go four wheels off and it's so inviting to do so and and with another seven hours of daylight running before it gets dark because as we know as it gets dark it's very hard for them to police the limits but it you know we got daylight now and he's got to that car's got to last um another seven hours and not and then beyond tomorrow as well yeah we're back into it's going to come remarkably quickly for us the next pit stops for the lmp2 cars the first of those to roll down pit lane until it's a running order with jonathan aberdeen in the number 28 jota car dkr engineering arc bronislava and tds racing by violent all uh on pit lane now on board here and what we're looking at here this tf sports it is the 56 team project one car that was side to side contact there and all of a sudden where there was a porsche there is none [Music] how do you see that one piece up um i think that looked like the current outside had to yield i think the car that was coming down the inside was far enough ahead by that stage and um had to yield really well let's see what the decision is from race control about that one it's a long day it's only going to get longer isn't it it most certainly is it does that funny enough well no it normally gets shorter but it doesn't feel like it it is absolutely sweltering as you've already acknowledged very very hot indeed outside and pizza the tires will be really struggling more than the teams have been used to because the high track temperature just makes a little effectively more oily particularly on the public road sections it brings up the diesel and all the other muck from the tarmac to the surface and so the slip angles will be greater the traction will be a bit less drivers have to always drive around their cars drive to the limits of what's possible don't they well we've we've seen some tire changes going on already and especially in gt when normally i would have thought they wouldn't be changing tires so i think it's already got the teams a bit puzzled talking to a few drivers on the grid and uh a lot of the gte m field have started a pro and we'll as we've seen with michael fassbender insert their am driver now after a single pro stand to start working on the minimum drive time which the am drivers have to do which is six and a bit stints so uh for instance gr racing started ben barker and now mike wainwright at the wheel of the car team hardpoint leading the field with alessia piccarello matteo carroll for project one behind julian and laura third so some pros and harry tindall in fourth still there in the cars in the lmp2 category puncture for the 28 48 i think the 48 is running with a left puncher yeah very slowly isn't it and that is the export car paul who was in eighth place he was indeed it's europol car goes by and pit stop for the race leader in lmp2 antonio felix de costa is in the pits and so too is robert kubica from second expect felipe nasa to come in as well from third place 14 penske worth mentioning by the way gentlemen we said that the uh the wrt car that was the 31 car that had that penalty uh a drop down the field didn't recover much ground in that stance when it came back out after that penalty stop now then top six seven cars have gone in into europol's fabio shearer goes round again and alex brundle may do the same as well no brundle is in this time for his second stop but fabio scherrer again goes a lap long on the lmp2 field now that's the lap that he earned by going a lot longer in the first stint question is is he somehow going to be doing another lap longer well interesting one isn't it yeah part of the preparation the run-up to this race through free practice is just to see exactly what they can squeeze out of these cars in exactly what trim difference as both anthony and peter have observed is it is so much warmer today a lot of what they learned might well have to be concerned even in our commentary move which is a big tim cabin with an enormous window across the front sitting down the air conditioning is having some effect standing up it is absolutely sweltering so you can imagine how hot it is in these cars drivers like this man nico lapierre working very hard for his living just to hang on to the tail of the field and front my own yeah just to report that edict sport car has made it back to bitlane lost something like 40 seconds with that slow in i think i'm pretty certain that was a front left uh yeah tyre not of the completely round variety algo pro in and so too of course are there so to vector sport nico muller now with a double stint under his belt matthias bash in for tds by via violent so most of the field are stopping into your pole have not fabio sherry goes round [Music] normally peter cars that are expected to say 10 laps will do nine in the first hit just to make darn sure that their calculations are correct because then you can fill the tank see how much goes in and then you extrapolate that okay that was nine laps we figured we should have used that much oh we've used a bit less okay well so we've got a tiny cushion the problem is then oh we've used a bit more just as well we stopped if you go to the what you determine to be the length of your fuel you might end up with a problem in the pits louise beckett yeah so just seen the number 13 tds car coming that was a slow puncture on the rear left for them so they've quickly changed that one and he's back out again [Music] lost a wheel at mp23 well he didn't lose a wheel but he certainly had a slow puncture we didn't see the did have a wheel we did see the car low at that corner louise has just i don't know 48 you know losers just told us 13. 13 tds well he's just left the pit lane he's on an out lap so so 48 lost as he said something at 40 seconds didn't get a side on shot of that car it is possible there's no wing on that corner it's definitely down on that corner coming soon to a coffee table near you [Music] what's that i will oh yes to become a coffee table new year vicar lapierre uh 16 horsepower and said is the difference i mean these cars were touch and go anyway there's no question that toyota were really a bit head and shoulders above everybody else but he's got the second glickenhaus in his sights there it is two cars ahead of him so still very much in contention with those two cars in fact second third and fourth separated by just about four seconds and look how much trouble they're having getting by the lmp2 and gte am cars the cgr racing porsche and right behind him he is another of the am cars the 51 air 54 of course the car nick cassidy behind mike wainwright so mike wainwright the gentleman driver is cassidy going to lunch down the inside the kiwi doesn't quite have the overlap but again just ahead of them the alpine closing in on the glickenhaus um tourette's pascal facility we're saying yes it's a fight absolutely right they should have been p-lines did you see their sector times yeah okay well we can all make free practicing qualifying look like certain things can't we we certainly can yeah including the pole sitting totally because you're racing not entirely sure that uh anybody actually genuinely believes that toyota were losing pace to any of their rivals just disappearing through the front of shot is the first to click announce it's running third then here comes the second then the alpene meanwhile has pitted from the lead in lmp2 as we thought he would after a further lap 25 seconds lead in an hour for toyota warning to subway meet for track limits yeah you sense that this is going to be a long long race with lots and lots of penalties for track limits because they are very obvious and very evident and race control will have cameras locked off on them yep indeed do they give three warnings and then start penalizing two what except so to to get it there you've got to have really taken the mickey three wide as they come out of arnage that is that will be mike wayne right now aboard yeah wait right in the black and orange car and 54 has just gone by and followed by the green iron links ferrari of giancarlo fissy keller it's 54 80 is the um the fiscal car then it's 75 car which is the car run with uh iron links and rinaldi now that looked like is that ferroni i bought that it is nicola veroni in fact so oh right so he was last split he was behind giancarlo fisa keller he's now ahead of nick cassidy uh what do we look at 54 is cassidy he's the silver card there then it's the white card car physically then veroni yeah so veroni already a race with it in european la monsieur is the first the opening race uh this season with mama gidley and amir kittly sorry and pierre here it's uh with eretz and uh christian hook to complete that squad this is the number nine the throwback under attack now from alex lim this is for second place they're seven seconds back from antonio phoenix de costa who's having a stellar opening a couple of stints aboard the 38 jota car well kabisa wasn't hanging around at the start either was he in all the melee behind he leapt ahead of the alpine and it took lapierre a couple of laps to get in front of the premier car so out of the second place alexander lin now effectively the one bullet in the united gun but as we've seen audi prove porsche proof and so many others prove actually only one of your cars can win so you sort of do only need one sort of it's a little early to see half of the multi-car teams back down the order yeah alex lynn now after the ganassi racing set up in north america and already a winner here in gte pro with aston martin looking to add an b2 title to that trophy cabinet i'm going very well indeed in the 23 car well let's hear from louise beckett she's down there the in-export team with paul lutan update perhaps on their most recent pit stop paulu i can see you're looking really frustrated there were reports of the lost wheel the car's been in the garage tell me the situation yeah unfortunately the start of the race was very good you know we started b14 we were already p7 so the place of the car was good the team did the middle job but but i lost the wheel at the exit of milton street and we don't know why yet we'll try we'll investigate that but but first after that we lost a lot of time to come back to the pit and we put the car in the garage i think for five minutes so i don't know but uh yeah i think we are already two laps done compared to the first cars which is of course not the best after of the race for us after you know it's 24 hours race it will be long but uh but if you are honest it will be difficult for us now okay thank you thank you very much all right so losing a wheel at mulsanne corner possibly a little bit of a heart in the mouth moment there because the first he knew about it i imagine will be when he hit the brakes and suddenly um the rest of france was coming up at him at a slightly disappointingly high rate i'm going to challenge you on the possibly a heart of the mouth alex lynn into the pits and out again from what was third position yeah so that was the car course that had the delamination wasn't it so it's running off strategy but on good pace for alex roxlin leading cars in the gtm class and thirstier piccariello has gone forward and has gone by matteo caroli they're the one two and they're now on the tail of the seventh gt pro car that is the riley motorsport run car the be safe racing car what is be safe racing i'm sure thousands if you're asking a team that races regularly and ferrari challenge in the united states be safe is a storage company a private storage company and winery it says on there does it truly yeah be safe storage and winery spent some time at the driver parade with the fine folks from greensboro north carolina hello if you're watching i know there's watch parties galore i gather with staff and family and friends and looking to see what they can do but uh fending off the attack of two extremely quick porsche drivers isn't it just i think cairo is looking to line up the porsche in front as well so vicarious has gone by at some point to take that position so cairo is still very much in this fight and they've gapped julian anglower by about 7.5 seconds with harry tinkle and another porsche on porsche battle this time though carriello looks to the inside there's no way through there he's he's in a tricky position because he needs to get by that car in front or else kairulli will have a go at him absolutely let's battle our overall battle well tell what ariella is trying to do belgium racer backed by porsche motorsport asia pacific as of the inside goes the number 24 nielsen racing car and through goes piccariello and carroll is going to follow him through yeah nicely done as well using the faster car to lever the leader of the little group offline or rather to keep him offline then you tuck him behind the p2 car peter and you sort of go through the gap as the faster car hands your rival out to drive that's right it looks like the porsche's you know we've got top four in uh gt yam all porsche so they've got a bit of an advantage at the moment ferrari's qualified extremely strongly and the 98 mr aston martin is in fifth place at the moment but another further 15 seconds behind harry tinkle who's eight behind this battle so quite a long way off the pace at the moment again as the temperatures drop a little when the afternoon shadows lengthen and the evening comes we're going to see a balance of power change we we saw that we've seen it in every hot race that sometimes or some cars rather suffer more as the tyres are trying to work on the hot tarmac than others some may have a little bit more pace than their rivals or compared to their rivals as the temperatures drop and head into the evening unless we forget by the way it's uh the the 124 hours is an invitation event beyond entries that are earned through full season competition in the efi world endurance championship and for as they go by the karting track by the way with a spirited race underway well you earn an invitation to come tomorrow don't you it's not a guaranteed you might you will start you are invited but you don't have to actually take up that invitation first things first wec if you're accepting the 14th entry but you you receive an entry to le mans yeah beyond that we've got a variety of cars here that have earned entries through success in championships and races around the world and then beyond that a number of others that are invited by the uh selection committee to come and take part unless we forget that the 99 car um let's watch the real team by wrt class just punching down the order again because it's out of sequence um was not part of the original plan for this race uh hardpoint uh came initially as a team through success in gtd in the empty weather tech sports club championship but for whatever reason have opted not to attend that entry has then gone through a process with uh proto competition going to another their client teams uh the a on the side is for absolute racing based in shanghai in china as well as a base in malaysia and their second time with the uh this crew after making a debut last year having not therefore been on the entry that lead to the 43-44 numerically similar in terms of delivery same kind of base color the evolution of the racing baker's livery and an evolution this year for asc protest lava with a bit more color added to their bright yellow delivery courtesy of young designer daniel hansel well done daniel the car looks fantastic so we've got the leading toyota and with 13 seconds on separate me that's a slow lap from boring we last time around 3 35 in traffic so keep an eye on that make sure it's just traffic and there's nothing more going on yeah five seconds off in traffic peter that would be a lot for a gentleman driver in an am car that sounds not a lot of traffic involved here yeah sounds a very great deal for a driver of the caliber of sebastian yeah and we did see him running wide losing time a little bit earlier on as well getting warning for it so maybe he's just not so happy in the car and we also know that he had a loose rear end yeah so um yeah it could be that mike connor is just that bit more confident in the car and he's able to just stick in those consistent laps and boy me not so much that duncan vincent feeling isn't great is it when the the car's not happy at the back indeed [Applause] through the porsche curves they come never have easy time i should catch traffic you've been at both ends of this grid in your career peter i have yeah porsche cove to the gt car or porsche curves in a prototype um what do you fancy least [Laughter] well yeah i was lucky enough to drive p1 round here and of course the mercedes back in the day and uh the porsche cars have have become easier let's say because when i was driving the wall was right beside the track now they've you've got that big um bit of tarmac they've opened up because of all the crashes at hand there so um but it's it's still a great corner [Music] i'm sorry nothing is going in my way plus i'm scared of the tax limit i'm thinking about it [Music] nothing is going my way scared of the track limits oversteer were the bits i picked out of that one it's not a happy seb me right now is it that's what we kind of thought wasn't it i think the message before that was the guys in the booth are really giving you a hammering for being slow what's going on you better start apologizing no yeah okay alpine in with nika lapierre from fifth place in the race and fifth place in the hypercar class again as we've documented all through the season this alpene built as an lmp2 chassis originally and that limits its fuel capacity it cannot carry as much fuel as the hypercar rules allow and because of the way the monocoque is built they can't fit a bigger tank so it has to stop more often and the way that the tortoise and the hair race should work is the one that goes longest or the one that goes shorter should have to be able to go faster but that doesn't appear to be the case at the moment uh first car to incur the wrath of the race director reported to the students for abusing track limits nick cassidy in the 54 af courser ferrari that inevitably i'm afraid we'll lead drive through will be the first thing we see for that car so that will drop further down and the worrying thing for anybody else that's had a warning is that means you're one closer to the top of the to-do list in race control right now so we might just start to see a little bit more of this side by side down the hill down straight the 13 car that is the tds racing by vikka mathias besch goes by rodriguez goes up 21st position and that will be 16th place in the overall lmp2 order if it wasn't for bad luck they wouldn't have had very much at all this week would they that tds bye bye on car but the good luck was they're in the race nick dufrese picked up the phone yep we get to see nick davis and toyota release them and try to released him which by no means is a given uh there's the start of this race we've seen the those things happen before marc janae released by joe to sports to uh take up the position in the audi squad after a huge shunt from davao that allowed oliver turvey to come into play they went and run the race joe could this be history rewritten palace racing with their new look livery for the 65 car but not really been on that pace to this point but john winooz as he gets deeper and deeper into this race is making up time making up positions he's up in seventh place at the moment his next target shah malaysi the number one richard mille racing car that's having a good start to this lemon 24 hours great view down on the esses de la chappelle the uh revised reprofile this is into the pit lane comes to race to mike conway stopped a lap earlier than the number eight car on the first stop did the number eight get another lap on them in the second stop or did they stop on the same lap uh seven and the first stints did 11 laps 12 for subway me mike conway is now pitting after 12 laps and said boy me is on his 12th okay so the glickenhaus goes around olivier [Music] that means that sebastian bermy has gone through into the lead of the race he has keeping on those pit stop times servant 709 is in front by er a lap after nico lapierre so lapierre no on this lap yeah so it's 11 laps on the first stint for the 709 la carte 12 laps on this uh stint in contrast to 708 was 12 laps and is now on his 12th right so again staggering the pit stops and and peter at the beginning of the race when everybody is basically starting at the same time with the same fuel they should in theory as we saw with lmp2 all come in at the same time so the team have brought one in early just to avoid losing any time by cueing that's right yeah you've said it all uh cancelling the message for car 54 that uh that reported the student's message has been cancelled to whether or not they've got the wrong car on that message or whether or not he's not quite that far down the naughty list he's certainly had a warning well let's put this one away we'll certainly have woken him up to the issue won't it or whether the passenger has decided to walk home [Music] louise beckett is in the pit lane the number 48 48 excuse me a deck sport car has come back into the pits they've actually just changed the nose on that and as you can hear it's just gone off again thanks lou and peter tambrey that's not uncommon you will see it a lot in things like nascar to make sure they lose as little time in the pits as possible um the id export car just into the pits for a nose change now it had lost a wheel and what often happens when you lose a wheel is you coming on three wheels and the nose or the undertray and so the team may have just put a new wheel on okay go back out see what it's like and then they'll look at the data and hear what the driver is thinking and go uh okay no there's obviously something else in yeah and they'll also have eyes on it in the pit stop and when it goes by or the driver has uh reported the mishandling car and that's the easiest way to fix a mishandling car is uh you know put some more downforce on the front or you know change the car that way because it's pretty quick to change the noise of a car close to half a stint by the way uh with that car coming in four laps uh pulled the car for patrick pillay this was a driver change when shatan brought the car in yep patrick long time gt racer here at le mans but he's taken to lmp2 late i'm going to say late in life late in his racing career quite a substantial change as well peter for somebody who's basically being drip fed porsche since he was a baby almost to go into an utterly different type of race yeah and still a factory driver of course for porsche still got the engine at the back yeah less in the back than most porsches incomes the number eight car from the race lead so we have had a penalty for a warning for 54 removed but now the team managed car number 47 that's algarve pro stewie cox will be has been summoned to the race director with immediate immediate effect uh race manager is sam all right okay manager is sam cox all right okay there you go sam but possibly more diplomatic than stewie going possibly there's there's possibly a good reason why she's officially the team manager as well so sebastian brought me at a halt in the pits as well olivier pla in the 708 gligen house the later of the two to stop there he is so the two two of our pairs of hyper cars stopped a lap earlier than their sister machines so 709 the glickenhaus and number seven toyota both on an out lap after their previous stops toyota as is their habit at pit in they do like to be very close indeed when they come into the pit lane here comes the number eight car is he gonna retake the lee number seven car is he gonna retake the lead this time it is not number eight come out in front so 111 to 115 one minute 11 the pit stop for the number eight one minute 15 for the number seven so they lost four seconds in that pit stop and the lead goes back to the number eight car fuel only for the clicking house as well so on to a triple stint or maybe they change tires at the first hit so certainly a double stint so the prototype drivers generally are staying in that bit longer than the gt drivers some of the gt teams have a sort of an interesting way of doing it the 91 porsche kevin escher michael cut a 92 rider kevin nestor michael christensen basically go in and out in out in out they drive a change with every step the number one car jimmy bruni and uh and richard leakes tend not to and certainly in our shorter races in the toyota team uh hey of course the ferrari team alessandro pierguidi basically stays in until two laps from the end of the race and then james collado does the rest but they tend to do sort of double stints whereas the porsche teams and certainly the chris and some extra team tend to do single stint no matter what the weather no matter what the race sends it to the inside and matteo cairoli for second place so there's a porsche one two three four with the northwest amr in fifth place there is the hardpoint car just in front so the weathertech racing car moving sharply to the front now remember a few laps ago we were talking about the battle with hardpoint with team project one and the riley ferrari that they were sort of mingling with which is one of the pro-class cars he said julian and lau was some distance behind he ain't anymore he's now moved up in front and that philip fraga car has been dropped quite dramatically five seconds behind now uh mateo karoli talk to sam bird on the grid about that car and he said all the ferraris are going to struggle and they don't quite have that depth of knowledge that the af courser cars do so bill riley's crew just a little yeah and you don't have to be a little off in a lap to be quite a lot off by the end of a couple of hours of racing there's been a moment for somebody down at malzahn corner yellows were out and removed but one of the gravel on track at monsant corner so so that rather tells its own tale doesn't it yeah alessandro pierre guidi warned for abusing track limits in the better place of the 2a of course a factory ferraris 51 car in fifth place there is our gt pro class battle the corvettes one two porsche's three four and a of course at five six let's catch up with louise beckett in the pit lane with fred mecca you were one of the first driver changes actually in the 91 porsche what was that planned or is the heat and the tires behaving differently to what you expected no i mean i made a small flat spot which increased quite a lot of vibration and from that as we need to change the tire was best just to change the driver because if we wanted to do a double now i should have done a tripod which can be long okay and is this heat affecting you yeah yeah because after the fifth slaps after that you know i started to lose contact with the counter front at the beginning i could follow but not anymore uh increase the understeer and unfortunately i lost time but jimmy is doing a good job now all right thank you very much thanks a lot this is uh we're sitting there in a close battle with ricky taylor that uh battle started a couple of laps ago and with traffic they're pulling towards you know here for sixth position in what's been a hotly contested lmp2 class i've annoyed it with the blue and red highlights on the pandas racing card this sort of bronze and blue of years gone by is gone by and right behind the cool racing car game sort of slightly different delivery for them predominantly black with blue oh trouble that's uh number 60 car is that claudius i think about that code is indeed an ultimate runner at the moment [Music] but still has not got that car away yeah he'll have to find reverse and three-point turn it around of course the other thing is there's lots of cars coming so the marshals will hold him in position to make sure that he's not uh rejoining unsafely he is still at arnage has yet to move away so there are yellow flags out at arnage working your way okay claudius give ernie has moved because the yellow flags have moved working way through traffic peter whether you are in a gt car on or in a prototype in the porsche curve it's a delicate balancing act because it is pretty much one line through there and one mistake can very easily be the ending and there's one overtaking point which is around the outside of the second last corner and as we saw there was uh two prototypes two p2 cars touch and one of them in the wall during a practice session a couple days ago so yes nasty things can happen there in a hurry it's not slow martin haven't peter dunbreckon joined by jasmine jafar first time watching the race jasmine where you weren't gonna have to jump in the car we talked to ann davidson about that the start of the race we always do with peter it's uh it's an interesting dynamic isn't it you know everything's going on as normal but you're going to be watching the whole thing rather than participating in part of it you know partly of it martin i think i don't have to face the pressure of the nerves um entering to one of the biggest sporting events um arguably in the world but um yeah i mean these first couple of hours obviously is to get settled in um loads of the guys i mean there was a couple of incidents already uh in the first scene especially in lmp2 but um yeah it's nice to see that everyone's getting into rhythm that's that's the first crucial element the ams are also coming in now to do their their driving time and uh yeah it's nice to see uh some battles already going on yeah first air is all sort of massive hard attack and then it settles down into what is le mans here's the lead battle in gte am by the way the hardpoint porsche 99 black with the orange highlights and the weathertech car down the inside she sent it late julian handler full fat factory driver no mistakes from him that was committed peter he knew exactly where he was going to go yeah fantastic move yeah i mean i'm not sure how to pick that passing point but he obviously is feeling really confident in the car he's caught this these two cars up from way back and just gradually picked them off one by one now leads the race and and bedded himself in gently in this race kind of eased himself in through the first hint and now he's really got the bit between his teeth he leads in gte m good pass and alessio picarillo again the belgian he's got plenty of gt racing experience picariello he's not exactly an easy pass mateo cairoli in third is just behind as well so this is a very close battle the team project one car white and yellow you'll see there in the pitch 31 from wrt this is the car that led early after making contact with the 22 united auto sports car they were given a one minute stop and go penalty so effectively nearly two minutes lost and that is a good half a lap so they are now down with rene rasta rejoining from 20th place it's a long race we always say that but when you take a hit early on jasmine it's it gets longer if that's possible yeah i think the lmp2 battle this year has been very very tight you know every single um strategy is is crucial and you want a clean race obviously wrt seems to be a little bit different mountain on their uh fuel strategy they seem to they seem to be in a strategy where they push all the way as you can see the edge spot just running wide out there um taking a bit more risk but yeah as i was saying um the wrt seems to be lapping um higher few notes than the others so they seem to be on a much more aggressive strategy field is in and former teammates of jasmine jafar and amy davidson actually antonio felix acosta the leader for jota he's in robert kavitza in for prema in philippe nasa from third for penske mikko brought to lotte fourth for wrt their second car the 32 car charm lacy in for recent meal racing team and antonio phillips they're gonna have to unsuper glue him from the seat aren't they antonio was saying earlier on the boys were saying early on has really got the bit between his teeth and he definitely has he does not want to get out that's the second wrt car there is a driver change there there's a driver change at panis as well so far nighter walks away from the car there may be a few driver changes a double at the start of the race in this temperature that's pretty hot work absolutely i think we're going to see the gt cars and again pretty soon now as well maybe in the next lap or so so we might uh see more action in the pits and that gtm battle might get even hotter [Music] out goes number nine car robert kobits have brought it in again with seven or eight cars on pit road hard to know who made changes and who didn't we will be updated again fabio sheriff into europol goes past the pizza he did a lot longer on the first stint and you therefore will think that he's going to do at least a lot longer on the second stint so he leads joe to still with antonio felix de costa that much we knew alexander lynn has yet to stop and so moves up to third for united in their 23 car mirko bought a lot he stayed in jonathan aberdeen at chotron at 28. lorenzo colombo has taken over this car the number nine premier car from robert kubitsa now he put in some really starry stints of spa frankie shaw really went from lorenzo hooter oh lorenzo so yeah really making a name for himself tds racing by violent mathias besh brought the car in we're not seeing much of the corvettes up front in the pro class gt pro class but uh antonio garcia seems to have pulled a nine or ten second gap on nick tandy it's kind of a truism that if you're leading the class and not doing anything silly you're invisible because the tv director tends to be to all squirrels by cars going off as we saw there from claudio skivoni and the tds car going wide in the gravel here is af courser in lmp2 francois parado taking over the car and stays in and again i think a lot of the am driver is doing that in the pro-am class here in in lmp2 and also in gtam there's a lot of am drivers out getting some laps in in the daylight yes it's hot but visibility is very good and jasmine when you are in traffic in darkness it can be an awful lot harder to negotiate other cars yes that's right i mean you're approaching in the gte cars a lot quicker um at night and especially um your paces also there's differences between the classes there is our lmp2 leader at the moment fabio sheriff [Music] hour and 40 minutes into the 24 hours of the mall we have barely even got out of first gear in terms of getting this race underway but there was carnage from the very first corner the cars off everywhere and some of our expected front one as previous winners in lmp2 getting shunted out and losing a lot of ground and effectively realistically in a field this huge any chance to suggest this is claudio schiavoni for the second time he looped it around at mulsanne corner last lap uh i think that is a lot later where he's looped it around on the exit of indianapolis as fabio shera comes into the pit so that extra lap they earned all the bravery that they didn't come in a lot shy of their regular fuel they were happy that their calculations were right that has left them going a lot longer and he now comes into the lead and antonio felix de costa will go by i mean the driver can make quite a difference in this uh circumstances as well um you know if you're a right foot breaker for instance you use less fuel or even your technique if there's no crossover and your left foot breaker between the braking the throttle then you can save fuel so yeah a good driver would would be able to save a little bit more more uh gas around there and because it's such a long lap jazz man having a quarter of a lap or half a length or three quarter lap or even another 12 kilometers in the tank is no use you've got to have the full 13.6 kilometers in the tank or your race is over that's right i mean the drivers would have um regular updates um via the engineers on their fuel loads uh drivers will have it on their dash where they have a beat uh every single lap when they cross the finish line start finish line and you have to reach your target the the most challenging thing martin is to save fuel be on fuel target but also being on top of your lap times and nursing your tyres into a double or a triple stick and negotiating correct and faster cars coming behind you and slower cars coming from i mean correct the hardest thing is just somehow doing all of that all of that head patting stomach rubbing at the same time at 170 80 90 miles an hour that's right 51 drive through penalty peter dunbreck pointing out on our timing screen so it's like the first car that's been penalized for that is the first for track limits yes absolutely right so who is in the ferrari 51 ferrari that's the paraguay alessandra pier greedy yes he had a warning didn't he and now we don't it doesn't say final warning when we get it it says warning and again with the onboard safety system he will know that he had a final warning for track limits because the race control would have told him on his screen and also his engineers they will say final warning track limits and that will say t7 t12 t23 whatever it is however there are other corners you can then go wide on and and cause yourself problems uh the students will look at the pit stop for the 48 car that is the eat export car that lost its wheel earlier on so i'm not quite sure why maybe there were too many of the wrong kind of people or not enough of the right kind of people over the line while the car was stationary battle at the lead of the lmp2 field antonio felix de costa for in the green car for jota and [Music] car in fact so this is the second jota car this is jonathan aberdeen and lorenzo colombo so this is actually not the battle for first but the battle for fourth place south african ahead of a premise italian driver and jonathan aberdeen having cut his teeth in the european le mans series joining the jota team this year in the world championship and prema coming in fresh with a huge long starry history of runley running single-seater teams same sort of vein certainly in top flight european single-seaters as somebody like carlin they have got a phenomenal reputation and although this thing's got a roof and it weighs more and it's completely different and particularly here actually at le mans a track they've never seen their setup sheet would have been a blank piece of a4 at the beginning of the week and lots of question marks they really you know they don't i think jazz accidentally run good single seater cars they've clearly got phenomenal depth in engineering ability they've really learned fast yeah i mean it's their debut uh season uh in endurance racing they've got an enormous endurance engineering team behind them as well and they pick up fast they won on their debut in european le mans series this year with the stunning lineup and they're keeping the momentum all the way through with the high hopes of running hypercar prema is very well known in in picking up such uh great results but having said that it is their first lemon so they want to prove to to everybody how good they are and it's kind of a carbon copy almost of of jota jojo wrt last year again really well versed in gt racing in their case and but had only done a very occasional maybe one-off races with an lmp2 car for most of the season you're going to a paul ricard or a monza or a spa frankish that you know from other places how it reacts and so on to the weather and who is that is that the ultimate car it looks like it may be yeah that's uh jean-baptiste the younger of the brothers he's looped it around on the exit and and and prem are the same you know you go to monza you know what weather does to the track because you've been there for years and years and years and years but coming here that this is the big one and again you know wrt were one lap away from a one two last year their first ever le mans which is just an astonishing performance and only the tiniest glitch in one of the cars cost them that but they still ended up with their second car winning the race by inches you know prema could get close to that then they would be doing again really a stellar job [Music] that's slow zone up at the first chicane marshalls post one is where it begins and it ends after the dunlop chicane heading down into the pits uh down into the s it's front wire in the pits this is a little early he was in with the toyotas that should not be in at this stage yep he's halfway through his stint so this is his third stop i wonder whether they're using this low zone for you know possibly another pit stop well and to make changes you would think they're reacting to something maybe that that you would maybe not uh oh oh oh now a lot of times even in free practice the car will be wheeled back into the garage to do something that seems relatively minor and the reason for that is you are only allowed four men over the white line outside of the pit lane to work on the car but you can have any number working on it in the garage and the other thing is those four men are pre-designated because they're the tyre changes they're wearing the armbands and so if you then need your gearbox tech or somebody else to go over the line car goes back in the garage it gives you room it gives you space and it gives you manpower jonathan aberdeen still holding off lorenzo colombo aberdeen though little bit at sixes and sevens peter as they came down into the porsche curves well that's a brave move yeah he didn't quite feel that he had the space to take the racing line did he i think he thought the premier car was just a little closer than it was yeah you know it's uh still very early in the race and to build a move like that would be a bit risky so i think it was um both of them just decided to settle down for a minute there yeah you don't have a small accident there at the porch yeah i think uh and davidson knows about them doesn't he yeah oh yeah he he is not alone there's an awful lot of drivers now yeah i remember la pierre going in the wall yeah i was thinking this morning about jamie davis as well in an audi having a big one there but then you know they're hewn from solid he basically selected reverse and drove out the gravel traps and brought it back to the pits quite a long slows on this all the way down the pitch straight and all the way into the first corner yeah looking at that as well peter he locked up coming into the slogan to maximize the distance and it's incredible to see how every single second counts in this 24-hour race so um but yeah they have a battle right behind them seven from the premier card sorry i'm just not at seven or nine going out richard westbrook now at the wheel good stuff westy having his first run in the race behind the wheel of 709 the second of our lincoln house cars short time in the pits that was 2 minutes 59 which is twice the length and a little bit more of a regular stop but it's 2 minutes 59 that they really did not need to lose halfway through the stint so they didn't stop and few uh did they feel it before it went back in the garage yes they did they would have yeah yes they did so that's their first protocol whatever happens they always the car stops it gets fueled because it's always going to need fuel and even if it's retired you can always pump it out afterwards there are a few stops in gte pro nick tandy is now the leader from the two porsches because what was the lead car the 63 corvette stopped as did air of course's antonio fuoco and 52 so jordan taylor has dropped down the order change of place as lorenzo colombo finally gets the pass in on jonathan aberdeen and combo moves ahead of the green car into what is now third place and getting ready for driver changes jota sport will stevens they appear to have found the sticker dynamite to blast antonio felix decosta out of the steepest seat at the end of a triple to start this race and will getting ready for his stint as the pits come see arc bratislava car that car right in the middle of the lmp2 field and a little bit of something more yeah looks like it's a bit of cable maybe for the lights trailing on the back is that the 22 united car that had the problem early on yeah looks like it uh martin but um it's strange to have that cable i think it's cable from the pit stop um every time they plug it in for the extinguisher as well yeah there's 23 in fact so that is the surviving healthy united car that is coming out with josh pearson aboard so he becomes the youngest driver ever to start the 24 hours of le mans and in come the porsche's nose to tail again they may be a lap or so shy on their fuel allocation take a look at the number of laps they've completed in a moment but oh trouble frying links facing the wrong way [Music] so who is at the wheel pierre eric pierrette okay and i think he's just taken over setting out that let me find him on the other page just looking at his speeds shot a short while ago there mateo cairoli uh 191 miles an hour yeah that's pretty quick isn't it it's not hanging around there's a ret it's not actually an outlet but he has recently taken over the car and down the inside comes the air of course a car he turns in because he needs to make it round the corner yeah the ef corso had francois peroto in the lmp2 class and uh just starting his stint at the moment he must have missed out that the ferrari was just entering to the apex yeah two gentlemen drivers both of whom spent a lot of time in the championship pierrot those tires are definitely flat spotted that's for sure based in the usa but does a lot of racing around the world he's been racing horses and ferraris for a very long while so slow zone removed and that means that the ultimate motorsport car of jean-baptiste lahaye is back underway he's now on the ball [Music] and holding off rene rast tds by violent and the 31 wrt car which was our early race leader but suffered a penalty for contact with the 22 united car in turn one lap one some races go south at the very end ask gif a year about that ask toyota about that some races go south on the first corner into the pits here's the 28th joe to cart jonathan aberdeen looked to say there was a driver change going on battle here as vectors number 10 car continues to climb the order end of the 23 from united [Music] right behind him he's got a real battle on his hands this wrt uh martin looks like uh they're having a very strong base uh chasing back uh from the pack in fact that's the tds by old card matthias besh this is tds wrt and nielsen's rodrigo sales who is currently third in pro-am dkr leading pro-am with the number three car john gloria in lmp2 arcs bratislava's uh miro canopica second in pro-am rodrigo sales for nielsen we just saw their third in pro-am the stewards will look as is their job at the incident between the 83 and 75 incident we saw between the two uh gentlemen drivers francois proto and pierre erect [Music] this is fabio scherrer for into europol with sebastian ogier who's uh a bit handy in a rally car by all accounts it's massino making his debut here at le mans duncan vincent is patrolling the pit lane dunk what do you know i've got patrick dempsey down here walking past the garage we saw this the pit stops happening guys so we saw a good run of pit stops here and we saw driver change as well for the 77. how is that how's harry and seb's race going so far yeah so far so good he had a really strong start we were a little bit too high with a tire pressure so that that wouldn't caught us out and very aggressive at the beginning tires dropped off and then came back and then steadied out and we're just trying to get everybody rotated through once you get in the race and people get their groove going it's just so nerve-wracking before you get in the car great first stint and we'll get everybody through are the temperatures out there causing concerns for any of the drivers because it's so hot now compared to where we've been yeah it's been the hottest it has been all week right so we're dealing with that but we'll make the adjustments and it's fine it's just really rough on the guys because they want to go and they got to be very careful and think about the long run well yeah they're doing a good job it's just tough you know you want the car to settle and it's just really scary and getting the power down getting out of the corner and you just you know you have to back off you just they want to ride man they're going to look after the tires really exactly yeah i mean larry just came over and said don't shag the tires in the first two laps just so it's just getting the uh sort of the anxiety and the fear and all of the excitement out of the way and once you break a sweat you get a couple laps in you're good like for michael he's doing fantastic been very consistent best lapse he's had all weekend and now he'll feel a lot better i think thank you very much thank you thank you duncan vincent our first duncan vincent with hollywood superstars moment but patrick dempsey is absolutely right you know they will have set tire pressures at the start of the race jasmine based on what they knew so far plus also it's hotter and the track temperature is going to be higher so you then make the educated guess to drop in a little fraction as it turns out still too much tire pressure what effect does that have on the tyre on on how the car works honestly um in the in the tire pressure window martin is crucial crucial to hit the targets sometimes when it's overheating it wears a lot more when it's under heating which is not enough pressure you intend to get some graining and there's some pockets of um pickup as well from the track where he uses understeer or sometimes just lack of grip overall um but for the proton dempsey team uh looking a recovery after michael fassbender's big crash at the entry of the first chicane now he's carrying over the confidence into that car and having the right window of that setup so it's nice to see that both cars from the photon demc team is is running and having that setup window that they need in the gt pro class uh fewer hollywood actors involved here it's jordan taylor who mind you youtube star okay fair enough for corvette racing and 63 ahead of jimmy bruni in the porsche and tommy milner now in third tommy milner in the third place 64 corvette he has taken over from starting driver nick tandy jordan taylor leading the race though and a porsche between them with jimmy rooney in the 91 car antonio fuerco in fourth place in the 52 af courser ferrari 51 car down in sixth position so actually antonio cuoco as we often see having a good run in the first of the factory entered ferraris murray were complaining that everybody else had a bit more pace on them counting that porsche said some of the guys are saying we have not yet seen a ferrari go anywhere near a curb we think they have more in the locker they are just being extra conservative and tidy antonio garcia is suiting up so he's going to be ready of course he's been in he's been here i think he's just got out so maybe he's just cooled down a little bit and getting uh getting back so there's a suit on yes that was he didn't start the race did he saw there was a single stint alexandria has just stopped and gone back out again for a of course with their 51 car and that is the third stop for that car i'm wrong he did start the race so he's had a double stint antonio so a third student for alessandro pierguidi now none of the other front runners have made a third stop but pierguidy still in so he didn't stop for a physical problem to hand over to james collado so why was he in that is one for duncan i think to pursue a friend of the family there at ferrari i sent you pierre guidi sharing with james collado and uh [Music] not entirely where we expect them to be they've got a little bit of an issue of some kind going on meanwhile with the 91 porsche gt this car lying in second place jimmy bruni saw him rushing onto the grid with his wife and daughter earlier on just to get to the team sweeping up through the dunlop curve pretty steep uphill into this big chicane at the top of the well almost the top of the hill then under that big footbridge the dunlop bridge and down into the s is peter a lot of high media minimum speed corners on this track just the two very slow ones and this one over the little crest we've seen many cars fall foul of that outside line spin get hit on the inside so it's it's something the drivers really have to be careful of especially if it if um in the morning it rains a little bit or whatever goes by pierre erect in the green ferrari so pierre's cars carry adobe wineries his business delivery but not on the iron links car he must have come in for a new set of tires because there's no way he could still be on those that'd be 50 pence pieces yeah in fact that car has dropped a little further back down the order so bruni in the 91 car has jumped tommy milner in the pit stop so his pit stop was a good 11 seconds faster than the corvette okay that's very interesting i wonder why tires change yeah so pretty stayed in it's double stinting perhaps and the corvette uh took tires changed driver driver change at alpe nicolapierre out after a triple so matcha vasavier takes over and then you can see the bright yellow hammered of well the hangar that is andre negro no it's not that is mateo back to viewer i was correct the first time so matia takes over andre negrow will be the third driver in the cycle if nico started on a triple it's every possibility that matthew will as well as we start to head at six o'clock in the evening couple of minutes afterwards we start to head towards later in the evening it's going to really take a few more hours and into darkness before air temperature particularly track temperature starts to drop peter because the tarmac has been really baked by the sun all day long and it will hold that heat much look at that that's why you find cattle sleeping in the middle of the road in hot countries isn't it because that's the warmest bit of ground yeah the thing about uh being here in france the temperature just seems to keep going up for later so you know let's check the the temperature at the moment it just well if we stand up in the booth we'll find it's very very hot still yeah so it's it's um we've got a good couple hours more of of uh very hot weather yeah wrt and prema battling for second place the green car behind the green cars the green team wrt machine of mirko bortolotti again hugely experienced gt racer loads of lamborghini miles under his belt racing here for wrt and antonio felix de costa is our race leader in the one of the all green joe to sport cars there is bortilati just putting another gt car in front of himself or between himself and lorenzo colombo now we were wondering exactly why af courses alessandro pure greedy had stopped in the pits duncan vincent do you have more yeah what i do know is i i asked them and they were very very cagey ferrari as we know they have been in canwell and will continue to be with us but they said this is our pace we don't have anything else we are we're we are where we are and the the middle of the garage is a little bit flat it's not what we normally see them here of course i'm going to wait till alessandro comes in himself because he has promised me a nice day and his interview will get it exactly the word from him martin after his stint it was less the pace i was worried about so when you get to talk to him ask him why he did a short stint he only did four laps i think on that stint and stopped again so we'll try and dig a little more into that it may just be that they too had an issue with the tyre or the pressures that they felt uh they could do with we are being inundated you can tell that the kettle's on and people know there are biscuits inundated by friends of the show ollie gavin is in the back of the booth amanda stratton has come to join us as well who's been well certainly part of the eurosport team for a number of years plying her trade in the pit lane we'll talk to them in a little while peter dumbreck starting to settle down there there is a stage at which all the mania of the opening laps just kind of settles isn't there and then everybody goes and breathe and now we're racing lemon rather than the last lap of the formula ford festival that's i mean it's so risky in those first couple of laps when the the field are so tight we saw that big crash in the first corner so as you say everything settled down a bit now they're running through their the programs um there's some good racing still taking place but at the same time it's it's that bit more settled duncan vincent with jim glickenhaus currently lying third place with olivier platt yeah thank you very much guys jim we saw the 709 in the garage can you tell us why i actually had to come into the pit box yeah we uh detected a bad sensor you know with the world situation today we're getting a lot of funky electronics and just to be on the safe side we brought the car in we changed the sensor everything's fine uh we've been running long stints on tires we're not using uh too bad on the energy so we think we're in good shape but we just wanted to be safe that was it and they'll make the places back up and tires and everything okay in this heat and the drivers happy yeah no they're very happy we went three stints on one on one set of tires and uh we may be able to do four so we're feeling pretty good jim thank you thank you thank you duncan thank you jim glickenhaus well better to address issues as early as you can same with penalties serve them as soon as you can everybody seems to be getting a little bit of more of a handle on the heat of this track and what to do with your tires uh nico jamar for panic racing currently fifth and lmp2 the 65 car just said it's fastest race lap a three minute 33.8 it's about the second or third fastest lap in lmp2 this race the 335.4 fastest lap of the race for duke hanes number 30 car and rashed dagiris who has taken over that car at the last stop driver change here at toyota this is the number seven in so mike conway bails out and again with fuel that will swap the number eight car will take the lead after the last stop it sort of stayed in front but then at this stage mike conway comes in from a 16 second lead so as we've seen over the last couple of years it seems that the trio in number seven at just a fraction more pace the deputy proton 88 car takes a very meandering line the blue and yellow car through the chicane and uh who is in that that is fred poor dad he may be just a little once bitten twice shy because he had a fairly decent sized accident in free practice and saw a big group of cars coming up behind and peter i guess for gentleman driver relatively inexperienced here at the mall sweeping up there and having loads in the mirror may have just missed the breaking point by a fraction of a second um yeah or we might have just chosen to go there to to stay out of trouble yeah you know it's uh yeah i mean that's the thing with these tracks you've got a an option of just aborting and getting off the track so more warnings coming for uh abusing track limits as well richard westbrook know he sort of just got in the car yep hasn't taken long has it mind you you can abuse track limits you know on the first lap and uh and if you also uh being warned about track limits last year's well the unluckiest driver in the place last year leading on to the final lap only for the car to stop dead he's now with cool racing part of their lineup this year here's the panic racing pit board pit wall and uh that incident between uh pierre-erect in the ferrari and francois parado in the 83a of course at lmp2 car no further action so the stewards saw it as six of one half a dozen the other yeah i saw it the same to me yeah i think they outfumbled each other pit stops for dkr sean gloria has taken over the number three car that is our pro-am leader and renee rast in the pits as well for wrt do you think there's a wee man that's right side of the track counting all over taking maneuvers by these cars i'm assuming that the computers that tell us how many laps they've done that tell the uh the stats how many passes there have been it sort of sometimes seems like i think when you're in a prototype car piece you're doing 800 passes a lap never mind a race it's it's a busy time yeah for sure and of course you know all the cars are still in the race yeah so um you know there's a lot of overtaking as the race goes on obviously some cars will drop out and it becomes a bit easier and as you get to the night time um quite quite often there are you know some cars gone and it just makes it that little bit easier well when i first started coming you'd be doing pretty well if even half the field made it to the chequered flag i can remember going to sleep my first year first or second year bob wallach leading for martini lancia woke up in the morning no that went out with the gearbox problem six hours ago you know there were all sorts of failures these days jasmine it tends to be accident damage more than almost anything else doesn't it yeah sure race i mean looking at how reliable reliability is everything coming to the this race and teams and manufacturers do multiple tests toyota especially as the car number eight is coming into the pits they've done a 48 hour test uh normally moto lan aragon or in paul ricard um and you see brandon hartley jumping into this car uh yes martin even the the slightly smaller teams in lmp2 they do tarot checks and make sure every nuts and bolts is is is up to perfection and they want to last the race to a good endurance and durability towards the end few little changes on this year's version of the tr-010 slightly longer rear shark fin and when the doors come down there are two vertical gates across the top of the door so channeling air straight through down the back of the car a couple of other little tweaks as well in comes the glickenhaus this is olivier platt hitting his marks not too far behind sebastian buena when he came in again driver change at glickenhaus as we just saw richard westbrook taking over 709 change here as well in 708 and uh how's your helmet identification was that roman dumas or people toronto that was roman dumas was it because people durrani has got the hugely cartoony helmet uh for his uh charity work so that was dumas taking over chito lopez is the race leader now in the number seven toyota jose maria lopez the reigning world champions in that number seven car last year's le mans winners as well and those tend to go hand in hand in the modern era you tend not to win them on and then not have a world championship result as uh as a result did see yellow lights i thought on the dunlop bridge flashing briefly as the cars went underneath but those may well have been withdrawn and out goes the clicking house so toyota main one two glickenhaus alpine glickenhaus is your three four five [Music] that wasn't the alpine just going by was it that was something bright blue though but there are a few of those [Music] duma in his 22nd 24 hours of le mans a million people now in the booth hoovering up all our cool air god if you're gonna come in at least make a cup of tea we have got well let's let's uh introduce a couple of guests we might have a little swap out now uh first of all uh let's bring olly gavin uh late of this parallel not late of this parish actually still almost of this parish uh who yeah has just relatively recently called time on go ahead press the button on his racing career and is sort of starting a whole new way of life not just commentating only as you've done with us here at le mans last year and also in the european uh asian le mans series but also creating a new driving academy with your partners at corvette yes well it's great to be here martin yeah yeah i have and um the oliver gavin driving academy has been running events all the way through this year and we've actually got guests here this weekend so uh got a corvette experience a travel experience here with gm europe guests and media as well as some of our own guests from the museum in motion um people from the us and uh all corvette owners corvette enthusiasts uh we did a tour from paris over to normandy up to the landing beaches and then down into uh down into lemon and uh yeah it's been it's been a lot of fun uh driving a lot of corvettes corvette stingrays are driving a mini bus no minibus thank you pretty much pizza pointed out yes well you know i've got to tell my talents all kinds of different things here but i've actually also got tajukta here who is the chief engineer of the corvette road car and uh taj has been integral in getting me um getting the corvette experience going and getting the olive gavin driving academy all up and running uh i had to get 12 cars on order and that was tricky at times but um taj has helped me out massively well we're having a conversation in the pit lane the other day about the fact that for the first time ever america's sports car does not have the engine in front of the driver this time the cart is in front of the horse and we were wondering was that informed by supercar dynamics or was that informed by race car dynamics was it a combination of the two it was purely performance driven i mean there would be some on the outside who would say made engine cars look cool they looked the business but it was purely purely performance we were reaching the limit of a front engine car just as in racing quite a long time ago we reached the limit for front engine cars so i think was 1962 the last time a front engine car won the ball and so it was the same thing that drives race cars to have the engine in the back more weight on the rear wheels as the street car listen as racing fans we love to see big manufacturers bringing something that's identifiably a road car prototypes are fantastic and god knows the racing is exciting and for the drivers they're phenomenal but for the man in the stands you know ferraris and porsches and mercedes and lamborghinis and corvettes and all the other hypercar supercar brands that's fair none of us will own them but it's identifiably a car and i think that has a an extra little free song of excitement that you see these big manufacturers coming to slug it out and with the change in the regulations in the mon series rules going towards gt3 and much more customer-based kind of racing the corvette gt3 pack is coming along as well suddenly here you're racing against porsches and ferraris suddenly almost no manufacturer does not have a gt3 weapon and and then you get this enormous field of cars is that exciting to the to the gm racing family as well absolutely you know we want to have all the people that we compete against in the showroom compete against them on the track and it's far more than just a marketing activity where you see the cars it's an actual product development activity and we have such good connections with the race team and we co-develop both cars well again talking about co-developing you've got a lot of good gt races a lot of good x single seater racers here yiffi yi who nearly won last year just getting boxed in great piece of driving right behind juris van tour who's made his name in gt3 machinery and as fast becoming a top lmp2 driver using the traffic to try and get the run on yifa yi now the chinese driver is right behind him for six positions so here comes that green team uh the cool racing car right they got ahead of the team the green team the wrt car so fantastic battling down the mall straight now corvette the last couple of years it's been a long while at olly since corvette were on the top set the last couple of years they've been sort of on the back foot against the the gte pro opposition this week it looks like a really even battle particularly with the porsches and that's going to be encouraging for everybody who's here watching oh absolutely and certainly you know you're seeing now that jimmy bruni just there in the background with with the porsche and he's been caught by tommy milner my ex teammate in the number 64 car but the corvettes have been super fast this week and all the drivers have been very very confident and very happy with the car which is unusual whenever you heard six drivers be happy i mean that's unbelievable but they've managed to get the car in a nice spot so it's it's really good consistent working the michelin tire well and uh you know i i can't hear a bad word from any of the drivers which is really unusual i mean i'm in shock and the only thing that's different from the last couple of years is there's some lanky english guy not complaining anything and i've come in here to talk to you and i'm just giving you a lot of trouble and yeah so yeah it's been a great great weekend so far but for corvette but we're you know we know this so long right there's plenty of time to go jordan out in front by some 30 seconds so that's great to see but again as we saw right from the first lap you know anything can come and and influence the race that's outside of your influence you you take as much preparation into this race as you can and then everybody crosses their fingers and hopes that lady luck smiles on them in the end [Music] racing hard in the third hour here at lamar it is 19 minutes past 6 central european summer time and boy what a summer's day we've had as well it has been absolutely scorching and joined by oliver gavin in the booth ollie in terms of what the team corvette racing did at the beginning did they feel they had guesstimated tire pressures right for this temperature or were they still having to chase the race trackers they would still be rates chasing the racetrack a little bit but i think they nailed it pretty well it wasn't wasn't too far away i think the 64 car had a little bit of a shift problem uh just before the last stop uh to change to tommy um and that's the thing that i think that just switched the cars around a little bit but that is hopefully now in the background and in the past and now tommy's making great great uh headway and he's now right on jimmy bruni so um you know tommy's doing a fantastic job once again here you know he's he's got so much experience you know two wins here with all the visits that he's had and uh he's going to be chasing jordan very very hard for that top step uh very shortly but uh the 63 card does seem to be in a good spot very good first in opening stint from antonio garcia we talked to laura one drop klauser the head of gm racing when we were in spa she's hit a cadillac she's head of corvette she's head of camaro gt4 the corvette racing program in terms of engineering are they really separate or do you guys all end up kind of in putting into everything uh there's a little bit of sharing but for the most part it's independent teams so laura has the challenge wide little change there as the porsche ferrari battle continues now ferraris 52 antonio cuoco was between the porsches in a little bit of a sandwich but it's as though the porsche gt team have made a little bit of an adjustment michael christensen up into fourth place and tommy's got ahead of the the number nine one cast yeah so it's all back to two corvettes two porsches two ferraris just how they qualified so it's it's they are really separate development there's uh obviously sharing on both sides but they're also a separation and certainly within the streetcar groups we share technology you see a lot of crossover between what we do on corvette and what we do on cadillac especially in b series in the performance areas right we're going to get down to the pit lane enjoying duncan vincent right now he's caught up with a former le monde winner hi duncan and a man who might otherwise be patrolling the well returning the starting reading baku this weekend with martin yeah absolutely i'm about to interview a bit of a hero here but before i do that hi ollie it's good to hear you back in the commentary box i do miss you yeah martin brunda welcome to le mans first of all how are you are you enjoying the weather uh great i'm really enjoying the entire event i thought the parade round town last night was one of the best i've seen including as a driver and also coming to support alex air and the crowd out there i've been out and had a look around it just everything looks magnificent and so good to see everybody back alex has had a fairly difficult week that i'll take it the engine swap that they did after warm-up is working they seem to be a bit more on the pace now they're still struggling for straight line speed it's really strange so yeah when he when he rolled out onto the start that was with a fresh engine after the warm-up they changed the gearbox before the warm-up and anything to try to find a solution to some straight line speed which as you know is rather critical around here but he's he's five stinting they had a cut in the tire at the end of the second stint so i think he's driving really well and as we know this is a rate of attrition and i i always thought you know wait until the sun comes up and then see where you are so are you just purely here as a dad a spectator or are you getting a little bit more involved in what alex is doing i don't get involved at all because he's a 31 year old professional driver he knows exactly what he wants what he's doing he's faster than me now anyway so there's nothing i can tell him so i'm here as a petrol head i love lamar i love the track one of the greatest tracks in the world that doesn't always get mentioned in that respect and just to see the event but yeah fundamentally to support alex and his teammates and the inter-europa team they're a small team but they're they're doing a mighty job martin thank you very much thank you and back to the lovely holy garvin well all he has left in fact we're joined by the even lovelier amanda stratton who has not only patrolled the pits for our coverage uh when i was back in the eurosport days and we are back on eurosport again which is always lovely but also and i've just been reminded that this uh one of only three women to race in lmp1 and lmp900 here along with could you name the other two i can name one bernina i thought we were a club of two we're obviously a club of three mil caduno did she i thought she only did um lmp graeme goodwin tells me things i believe that okay yeah i'm not gonna argue with graeme no i i knew um obviously i knew about benina in fact i was reporting when bernina did it absolutely um i thought milka was lmp2 or 675 or whatever you want to call it that iteration back back in some of those yeah very early the only job i haven't had here is um catering marshalling sorry get the kettle on later yeah yeah get cracking marshalling out there yeah one of the four thousand heroes in orange and white that that's absolutely a big job especially in weather like this and when it's cold wet and fit in fact well i'm not going to complain about this because the year i did it we had biblical rain yeah rain like moses would feel oh that's right quite early on wasn't it oh yes in fact milk had a big crash in the rain and there is another problem for the number three dkr engineering car now it was in the pits just uh half a dozen laps ago but where have they gone to now they have is that an outlap it is an out lab jean gloria so that was a replay the car now they're gonna need a new nose on it so in fact that may have been just before uh and so he is now on an out lap but he'd been in the car for a little while so amanda you're not here reporting from the pits you're not making tea you're not racing uh other than being a big fan of lemon generally and like martin brandle a bit of a petrol head have you actually got a book to promote no i have other things to promote but not a book and not anything anyone can actually buy at the moment but it was funny listening to martin because yes i am a petrol head as well i've spent the last few years um with formulary which i am a big fan of and obviously there's a lot of drivers here who race in formulary as well but i think if you have grown up with lemon and this is um something that has just become a part of you like it has me i don't think this is ever anything you get out of your system and it is obviously going to be a real challenge to have a fully electric car ever do anything like this so i'm rather glad to be here and listen to the noise watch the sights and the smells well you know and and i'm absolutely with you you know i went into formulary as a sort of you know with with no preconceived idea or perception of it and my takeaway was whatever it is they're racing they're really racing it is cracking racing and and you know it is pushing the bounds of technology and that's what motorsport and lamont especially has done for so many years so and i do think there's room for everything people may not like le mans they may be formula one uh heads they may be petrol heads they may not like electric racing they may not like touring cars i don't care you know there's room for everybody my point has always been when i've when i've answered that sort of criticism i am really competitive i would like to destroy my children when it comes to monopoly and i have no qualms about doing so well no mother doesn't cheat at monopoly i mean this is an absolutely guaranteed fact no no i i'm just competitive and i don't care what it is it can be an electric car it could be a sports car it could be a classic car i still want to get out there race and um but yeah just compete so and there is room for it all you know we're looking now at you know this latest iteration of what sports car long distance endurance sports car racing is all about very different from my day um and it continues to change and this fantastic battle that we're just watching while we chat cool racing's here for ye nico jammer for palace the 65 car now in the middle of this battle it was cool racing versus team wrt therese van tour the third in the queue but the panic racing car has caught up and now up to fifth place and challenging yeah so if you're not racing modern cars are you still racing old cars i am racing old cars um yup my racing now is what i say purely for fun i'd like to have a lovely race and then go for a super dinner with a nice bottle of wine afterwards that sounds like that that sounds absolutely excellent so you know there's a massive historic racing meeting here every two years the le mans classic which is just a breathtaking array of fabulous old cars being raced properly on the full circuit and of course we've got the centenary of le mans coming up next year i i can't even begin to imagine the sort of array of old cars that we're going to see in that meeting and you're going to be involved there i will be um absolutely i think it's going to be wonderful actually i know i'm certainly aware of lots of projects that are going on that are going to mark that occasion and celebrate it as well so i think from not just the competitors but also all the spectators and fans it's going to be quite a unique event where they're going to be seeing some proper once in a lifetime assemblies i think so but now to guarantee your place trackside i they 2023. i mean you can see manufacturers lining up to get their hypercars ready in time it is going to be you know we've had the indy 500 centenary this is going to be the next great motor sporting milestone isn't it it is and actually we know that um le mans amongst drivers is up there and it is it's it's the one unique race that any driver from any other discipline can come in and take part in so you don't have to be uh you know you can have formula one drivers formulary you can come from anywhere and take part you could even be a film star yep or a race car designer like adrian i mean absolutely absolutely and as adrian's uh we've talked about this earlier as adrian said when he came to race he said well they're not going to let me race in monaco and then they're never going to let me do the indy 500 but i can't right here exactly absolutely and actually i was talking to jim glickenhaus earlier on about this about the fact that we've got so many um rookies taking part this year um he was you know concerned that it may cause a problem later on in the race um which one would hope it doesn't because everyone's got to start somewhere but you know i've been watching and coming to the moms i'm ashamed to say how many decades but many more than one um and racing like this has always ebbed and flowed between having huge manufacturer support but it it's i think it's really important and unique and special that it never loses sight of the fact that privateer drivers not only can be very good but it is the place where privateer drivers can come and race as well and hence jazz man why we've got an enormous field in lmp2 where quite a lot of it is privately funded and an equally enormous field in gtem because you're absolutely right sports car racing whatever era you look at yes the big factory names and the teams at the top of the pile but the iceberg is those who pay for their own fun isn't it and you know that's that's still the case and probably ever will be yeah but the beauty i believe um of sports car racing is the combinations of you know there's entrepreneurs racing with professional winners of le mans you have factory drivers there that ferrari is grooming for example lorenzo colombo um racing with you know such teammates like robert kubitsa who's well established and lemon brings that that factor in in endurance racing and on top of that manufacturers are also looking at hey these are the upcoming teams these are the upcoming drivers and the combinations of both and like you mentioned earlier man about um formula e drivers and do it they're doing dual programs and that gives you opportunity to do both and it's excellent and and i think it's the way of the future and the manufacturers have chosen um this championship for the future fantastic battles going on all the way up and down lmp2 uh lorenzo colombo we're just talking about closing in uh on the team penske carved in cameron down in the pit lane duncan vincent dunk what do you have for us yeah you guys are talking about p2 i just spoke with gaddy robert shaw on the pit wall for united and the 22 car has sustained quite a bit of damage that um you can actually see is underneath the car it's causing a huge amount of dragon effectively killing their lap time down the street the 23 car it actually came in it had a bit of debris that had picked up and it was a bit of a tire possibly from one of the lap one incidents it was wrapped around a bit of the car that was trailing so they had to pick for debris so it's not going well for united right now no really not going well for united today felipe albuquerque who was incensed at that first lap incident 100 meters into the race our race is over he said he's in the car right now and he is lighting up the timing screen best lap for the car sector one and in sector two the number 22 united auto sports car may be down in 26th place in lmp2 and that's how huge that class is he's not even last in lmp2 27th place is jack aitken in the algarve pro card that was heavily delayed earlier on but uh he is having a big run at the moment and amanda it's heartbreaking i mean when that happens it is heartbreaking you have put so much time and i am now speaking from experience so much time effort commitment sacrifice into racing you come here you you know you start the race and on your first lap something goes wrong or the first time out something goes wrong and it is it is heartbreaking it destroys you it really does and i i my heart goes out absolutely right and i think everybody starts here every single person in in the team in every team knows exactly how much they bleed to be here see the top speed comparison between uh our hyper cars 342.3 and 328 top speed for the fastest lmp2s but it's only right at the very top end that the hypercar has any advantage and look at that between gte pro and gt yam they're basically the same cars just with different drivers in so the gt pro car yeah with two clicks in terms of top speed the corvette over the fastest car in the am class to corvette there you can see the iron dame's ferrari again you know in your racing days there were a couple of seasons where there were all female cruise lines and james brought an all-female crude car over and of course she was uh you know a real i guess her and and uh i'm now trying to think of the drag racer um uh in the us whose name was right on the tip of my tongue has now escaped me but really you know for 20 years the only the only females competing in motorsport in the us basically the two of them and lynn compete in the indy 500 i mean these days it has changed so much it's incredible um yeah it's incredible i mean i remember at one point when i was pregnant uh i actually did a race um i didn't know i was pregnant until i was three months pregnant yeah so i was fairly well established at the time um i mean it was i was frowned upon i was told not to tell anyone because i would get thrown into jail i do it so yeah and you know i think although it's not what they got into racing for i think all the women in this paddock whether they're driving engineering or or whatever i think they all understand even more now probably than ever before that they are inspiring another generation and in in the same way that you know veterans of the pr field like annie bradshaw or carla the flaming or or um have inspired more generations or in the pr and the media side you know every engineer every driver is doing exactly the same it's the same way that all the men are inspiring boys to go into it but you know you have to see it to believe that you can be it [Music] racing at the top of the leaderboard here after two and a half hours of le mans 24 hours and they run 1-2 23 seconds apart the leaders jose lopez head of brendan hartley and they are now half a lap ahead of roman dumas in third place one minute 20 back is the glickenhaus from second from third place and another 30 seconds behind him is the fourth place alpine on machiavelli and that means there are now just four cars on the lead lap because richard westbrook who had an extra pit stop in the 7-0 land or jim click in the house there with a big thumbs up his car 709 had an extra pit stop that car has now dropped off the lead lap well we will hear and find out more about what amanda is doing in the coming months i'm sure as we start to really turn our focus towards 2023 but a race to be got on with here so listen enjoy the sunshine it's um yeah 6 30 it's definitely aperol spritz time at the very least so have a really lovely weekend it's great to see you again thank you it's been great to come look forward to coming back and bring your valentino rossi cat next year i've still got it i know you have i know you have amanda stratton thank you very much jasmine jafar the race continues no matter what other distractions are going on in the garage someone in the team is still out there hammering around just giving the car everything it's got that's exactly the the same whether you are like the toyotas looking to win the race looking to win the world championship full factory support gazillion dollar budget or whether you are like say dki dkr engineering you've worked yourselves up to this level this is your first ever le mans you're just learning learning learning and at that level your goal is be here at checkered flag it's as tough whichever one of those you're trying to do isn't it i don't think there is anything harder than trying to finish this race yeah i mean it's only two and a half hours into the race but if you look at the race averages everyone is pushing everyone is doing their best lap time and the dangerous element sometimes as a racing driver is you compare yourself your averages between the others and that's where you want to beat the others um against time you want to be ahead in the night stands or the morning since or now the late afternoon but looking at it for the moment uh martin what's crucial is that the drivers get into a rhythm that they're consistent not making errors um consistent to the traffic and as well as getting that tire window that we spoke about earlier and it is a condensed um grit in the p2 class especially even the yams are not pulling that much away and it's a very intense battle it really is i mean it is enormously competitive it's almost one class racing there is one team out there that are running a leggier chassis the cd sport team who are currently running in 26th in the class but other than that everybody with an oracle 07 they've all got the same gibson v8 power unit they've all got access to exactly the same goodyear tyre in wet or dry conditions so it's where the drivers it's where the engineers make the well i was going to say the significant but it's not it's the tiny incremental differences that that really can separate the very best at the end of the race [Music] back into battles all the way down our mp2 class here at le mans this is for 10th position we heard from martin brundle early on that his uh son alex is currently in eighth this is their second car david heinemer hansen now he has been an occasional lmp2 racer over this side of the atlantic lives and works in the us runs a high-tech it company right behind the duquesne team now duquesne as a team and as a constructor are a starting to become a growing force rashed daguerres one of 50 lemon rookies in the field and then behind vector sports another brand new team a startup at the beginning of this year and sebastian borde the big sort of marquee name they signed didn't get to race in sebring the opening race because his imsa team didn't really want to risk him but he did race in spa and he's here as well of course he well originally was born and bred here in le mans it's a race that he knows so this is an intriguing battle of rookie drivers rookie teams and lots of experience as well and that's one of the delights of lmp2 is that there are so many different aspects in each of these teams and right now sebastian bourdain in the white and black number 10 carver had to start at the back of the field one of two cars that started behind everyone else because of problems in qualifying they didn't set a lap time so it didn't start at the back of the lmp2 field they started behind everyone else that's a a lot of recovery to do and he's gone from what was 62nd on the grids or the car has to now be 15th overall and 10th in lmp2 so some busy opening stints jess that's an awful lot of traffic on lap one to be working your way through the gte and field yeah i mean uh trying to get that rhythm as we spoke earlier martin this is the the crucial element because you have a car right behind you uh battling for position as well you got to be switched on and know where you're at as soon as you lift that pit lane but having uh looking at this uh battle uh for 15th position there's the into europa um having heineman hanson duquesne right behind all the kids in the pit lane and vector sport a newly established team led by gary holland uh very experienced in the sports car world they were a bit disappointed earlier in the week that they had to change the engine after wednesday nights uh qualifying but now they hear the race battling in the elementary class well we've just seen a fastest lap of the race last time round for number eight toyota july 2nd brendan hartley three minutes 28.232 but a brand new fastest race lap of all 3 28 1 1 roman dumas in the 708 clicking house lap 44 the previous best lap was set on lap three by sebastian wemmie in the number eight toyota but the glickenhaus has now gone fastest of all and is on a better first sector lost time in the second and davidson talking about the vector sport car as we were in qualifying it's only one hour of qualifying instead of eight hours which it normally is or has been in the past so real high pressure if you have a problem you've really got a problem i suggested starting your gentleman driver at the back of the grid and getting some time under his belt would be the way to go as a racer you thought no you put the quick guys in and when the leaders are as close to you as they'll ever be i.e on the starting grid then you try and make up that ground and that's what vector did and it's worked for them they're now up into the top 15 overall from 60 umpteenth yeah i mean there were two different line of thought really on that who do you start your your silver or bronze driver or your pro drive and try and go with the rest of the field um sometimes if you've got a car at the front of the pack you want to try and hold up the rest of them trying to get by but you so you naturally would want to start perhaps with the silver driver or the bronze to try and hold that gaggle of cars up effectively ruining their race time uh by them having their pro drivers at the wheel and not being able to get their way past um or you like say you go with the pro and listening from philly palbico before you were saying he's obviously disappointed in that first lap incident first corner incident i kind of get the feeling that that wouldn't have happened to philippe if he was in the car they had their lowest grade driver in that car starting the race and that's the risk you take quite often by doing that yeah so it can be a bit of a double-edged sword sometimes we're starting with a lower grade driver with all due respect it's it's a tough environment out there it is particularly at the start it really is now then change of place coming up here michael christensen towing up behind jimmy bruni and wave by then maybe in the not so distant future a radio message that suggests that that was pre-planned by the porsche team the 48 car need export can't buy a break can they their pit stop currently under investigation and david drew in carnival 39 being uh warned about track limits meanwhile in comes the number nine team uh 38 for jota has pitted and left penske in prema inn cool racing in wrt panis and roushad mill that's the top seven in lmp2 all in for fuel on schedule it's a busy pit lane duncan vincent who've you got to chat too i've got marco sorenson with me just now in tf sport one of the four horsemen drivers now marco a bad qualifying time taken away but they fought back through the field very well but then a tire issue yeah obviously it was not the optimal qualifying we had but in the end you know it's a 24 hour race we did actually gain a lot of positions then we had a tire delamulation so maybe a small cut in it or whatever but the tire kind of came apart so we had to box luckily it didn't end up in a puncture so we could actually continue semi hot inlet to change the tires and when we then change the tires then we had an issue with the fueling hose and then the slopes are okay so we're like just in one in 10 minutes we lost a lot of time but we're still p10 and obviously we're gonna keep pushing like like crazy and hopefully we're gonna be we're gonna be okay the most important thing is the diesel armor nation hasn't taken anything out of the car it's not broken anything off yeah i tell you when you come when you're going these 290 down the streets and you you just hear something from the tire come off and you see some smoke it's like oh oh this is this can be game over you know because normally if they come off they can't take a whole rear end of a car with the with the tire luckily it didn't and we could have a semi semi push on the on that in-lap but we obviously have to box early but then we had the fueling issues and slow zones not started the available as the mechanics were still working on the car so i did see that nick monastery wasn't looking very happy with the team at that point yeah thank you doug it looks as though they may incur a penalty for that and fortunately for the full horseman car no major dramas ie not much destruction but 33 tf sports aston in eighth place wholesale stops in gte am and now in gte pro the 63 corvette jordan taylor gone back out tommy milner leads from michael christensen you can see the 91 on pit road antenna also in for af courses so all the gt cars they are basically the same cars whether they're in pro or am apart from the corvette there are no am pass corvettes here they are all running with the same fuel tank and pretty much at the same pace and as a result coming in pretty much on the same lap there's your race leader in gte pro tommy milner out front in the 64 car and enters the pit stop cycle through gt pro seems to have a two corvettes two porsches to ferrari's look to it but timing screens in lmp2 are continuing to light up with faster and faster laps and you spotted that uh jota who have just stopped have got a real run going with will stevens yeah he's absolutely flying out there martin uh his last in of nine laps was a three thirty four point three average the fastest in the car so far fastest didn't uh second fastest did in that car was felix decosta with a 34.5 so will is flying dane cameron in car five the pencey car just uh to put that into contact what uh will is doing did a 336.2 and his last nine lap stint um what made uh might make a bit more sense for the people following the gte pro category as well we saw jimmy bruny out there struggling a little bit with a 353.1 for his last uh stint on average and uh his teammate michael christensen's 351.2 average for his 14 laps so i'm not sure what's going on there down the porch but probably why we saw a bit of a switch around yeah it may well be that they are splitting changes on the two cars that they are porsha and again ferrari also clearly realize they have an issue with the pace of the corvette and so you now have to start trying to do things i guess that you didn't think you needed in practice and qualifying when it was a little cooler and so jasmine you're chasing the racetrack with the car and having to make maybe changes that you're not sure about so you only do let's say on one car and see if that works yeah looking at um the gte pro lineup first uh martin is that they can uh adapt into situations like this you know that's that's why they put um the best of the best drivers that covet is now coming into the pit lane as well um they're taking risks they're taking um aggressive strategies in a way so that they can leapfrog the others and most importantly be on top of the game before any slow zones or focus yellow happens so maybe that porsche have made a change to the 92 car that has worked and it's allowed it to just pick up the place a little bit over the 91 car and they will make that change to 91 and then of course the temperatures will start to drop and then they'll have to look at going back to plan a which they had sort of worked out in cooler ambiance so both cars in there the 64 corvette and the 92 porsche we're looking on screen now so michael kittenson yeah that last 15 laps didn't uh three minute 51.2 average tommy milner in the 64 corvette sister carter the one we're watching on the screen did a three minute 51.2 um sorry a three minute 52.1 so it's it's a second difference there on their last 15 lap stins so the 92 car was catching up all the way through that last in so maybe just as these conditions start to change uh slightly cooler conditions coming our way maybe different cars coming to a better window so i don't think this fight's over just yet between the corvette and the porsche three or four laps ago in fact three laps ago i pointed out the roman duma had just set the fastest race lap and he's now just been warned for track limits the two may or may not be connected he may have exceeded track limits a couple of times on that quick lap as well and uh is running out awarding tower roman duma in third place hasn't quite got down into the 28s his last lap was a 334 here's here's a green car so that's one of our jokes oh look it's will stevens the race leader will stevens um absolutely flying like i say and uh he did a cracking job here last year as well did will i think he had second fastest time or maybe the fastest lap time single lap time overall in the 24 hours and uh yeah now i think you know in his rightful place out there in first position him and antonio so far driven inch perfect antonio has brought that car up from third on the grid in the category as i interviewed him on the crew he said it's simple it's 24 hour hour race all i have to do is overtake two cars how hard can it be i know he's done it in two hours and we laughed about that didn't we but that is it's not an expression i've ever heard before not a way i've ever thought about it before but in a sense he's absolutely right absolutely there were only two cars that well not that could go quicker but that did go quicker in qualifying so you sort of look at it a you know 28 car fields but you're actually looking seriously at maybe six or eight cars as winning rivals i guess yeah i mean martin to be honest i saw him three times this weekend free practice one i i went up to him and said how was it he wasn't too happy push the team get the car right after qualifying how was the car not that quite there yet jazz but um after the hyper pole and they did the nightstand i said how was the car wheel it's ready to go jazz the car the level of confidence he came into the race he didn't he did not ask for more and then he just focus with his teammate and just focus on moving on forward yeah and uh yeah leave the tick-tocking until tomorrow when he's got a trophy in his hands that'll be entertaining weathertech racing leading in gtam it is porsche's still holding sway at the top of the pile now with weathertech ahead of dempsey proton 79 the white car and 77 the blue checkerboard car northwest amr in third team project one nick lloyd viola in fourth place and this other dempsey proton porsche fred pordad the 88 car further down the order leader is in the pit lane though this is the number eight car brendan hartley jose maria lopez back out on track after a fuel-only stop imagine this will be the same certainly no sign of brendan leaving and there you can see there's new roof strikes added it's not actually the roof it's there added to the top of the door but that's to channel air into effectively into that air intake and to separate the ram air effect from the rest of the aero package on the car and that all helps not to increase downforce but to reduce drag which here is more important and you will you need some down force definitely but what you don't need is drag because of the long straight line running here yeah i mean it's one of those tracks a bit more simple for setup actually it's just run as little down force as you dare get away with a bit more similar to monza say with the incredibly long straights on this uh 8.4 mile 13.6 kilometer circuit um yes you do have some tighter corners but it's all relative around this track i think even the slower speed corner in the circuit here at tarnage uh for example is is way faster than say the hairpin at portimao at turn six so just to uh just to give you an idea of the speeds you carry around this track as the 708 roman dumas glickenhaus car is in the pits uh he had a pretty decent stint that uh that last time around with a three-minute 31.6 average for his 12 laps that's good isn't it included 30 28.1 race fastest lap he resets the fuel count oh and the car guys doing exactly what we talked about so lucky well it's not over yet got away with it got away with it running out wide onto the dirt there often it ends up in that little bit of green and white tie barrier right at the end of the art of the of the metal barriers there that's normally where it all comes to a very sticky edge or you i mean it usually either goes two ways one where the grass kind of pulls the car off towards the barrier and you make contact on the left-hand side or you collect it keep your foot down and then it spins around we've seen cars this week actually end up in the inside barrier after spinning around so very well held and uh i'd say lucky to get away with it but i think that was uh more skill than luck yeah should have gone off in the first place of course now exactly had the skill to get back on unscathed brown moment there though for the kessel car guys again oh that curb and he just pulls the car towards see usually around that area you're in the barrier did take a hit i don't know if that if the difference if he did he did a lot of bouncing up and down i'm not sure oh sorry i yeah and i worry about the you know the fragile carbon fiber parts that stick down by the way shirley muldowney is the name i was struggling for thank you everybody for for bringing that back in as the astonishing female drag race from the seventies and eighties charlemagne downey along with lynson james plying a lone photo in american motorsport won in nhra drag racing at the absolute top flight engineered spanner and the cars built by her husband for many years lynson james of course racing in indianapolis brought an all-female crew here one year back in the late 90s early naughties i i forget now and of course how could we forget courtney force is currently one of the lead uh leading lights almost the leading light in nhra drag racing married to graham ray hall and uh daughter of the great john force or himself a drag racing goat but it was shirley muldowney's name that i was struggling to remember when we were chatting to him on the street so thanks to everybody who has um brought us back to that weathertech lead in gte am from dempsey proton northwest amr in third the gtm category been dominated the moment by porsche and aston martin just that heart in the mouth moment kessel racing yellow ferrari separating them but look behind the top six or seven if the d station car goes to gets ahead of the kessel car then everything else basically behind is ferrari and that's the way it is in gte pro now the balancer performance changes are slightly different across the two categories but this is clearly either a year in terms of performance of the ferrari or possibly temperatures in in terms of the track that really don't suit the cars and we'll only find the answer to that probably in the middle of the night if they do oh indeed don't get quicker back to our battle for second dane cameron for team penske and for premier lorenzo colombo colombo in an absolutely flying attacking mode got ahead of nico jammer got ahead of the second jota car got ahead of yifiyi for cool racing and now looking at second place for dane cameron for team penske the podium here at le mans would be a fine way to start a relationship with this track that will continue but not in lmp2 and yeah good it's a good fight going on here between team penske with dane cameron at the wheel and uh yeah the robert kubitsu car of car nine he started the race it's now got lorenzo colombo in that car of course and uh he's just struggling for a little bit of speed here is uh lorenzo colombo their silver driver in that uh in that car car number nine so he's desperately trying to hang on to the back of uh dane cameron but cameron's just got the speed it seems at the moment but uh it's always nice when you've got a car inside in front of you and it just you start playing that game with the traffic you know who's most daring who gets the stroke of the luck where you meet that traffic and uh yes it's it's a it always gives you that extra motivation right here so he can see that uh cameron's been caught up behind the gt ferrari and that allows you to catch up there so now that gives him a potential run but it looks like cameron's gonna go around the outside of the ferrari and i don't think that lorenzo colombo is gonna make it so see how you get that ebb and flow and jasmine you know exactly what that feels like yeah i mean if if you're the car behind and you get stuck by the traffic you feel so disappointed because you gain all that position and that gap uh right to be behind your competitor but for dane cameron it's a huge gain because he did it before the long straight and most of these drivers for the for the listeners um they normally prepare into an element where um they could pull away as much as they can and it takes time for their competitors to chase back and actually you could see what a deficit that was what it what a hindrance because the car behind him that was you could see was catching up on this heli shot is the is the car 37 of uh if yay he is flying as well and that really helped him that moment that uh colombo got caught up in before tetrous yeah that shows how competitive this grid is and every single time every single error and every single movement is such a crucial time and dean cameron was very smart with that move and he's pulling away uh and the pressure real builds in and now that's the kids sorry for the second time gtm just wasn't brave enough on the brakes and that really lost him time as well and now yi looks like he's definitely got the run on the run down towards moulton fighting for third position lorenzo colombo is trying to pull a gap for gpa who was leading last year's 24 hours of le mans until the last lap and he wants redemption he wants to pull back um trying to get a pudding position thought about going around the outside darted to the inside momentarily colombo gets a snap of oversteer on the exit and uh yi once again has the draft has the advantage i think on this run down towards indianapolis the gt is going to obviously let them through on the inside where do you place the car now is he going to look to the inside colombo's got it covered one more kink and then you're coming up towards indianapolis goes around the outside this is going to be a brave move but i think he might be able to make it stick here late on the brakes and gets the job done what an overtake there by e38 spectacular amazing spectacular move great to see you jump into that position uh in third place uh cool racing's debut here in lmp2 class epa is second attempt and the only chinese driver on the grid this year cool racing based uh not far from lake ansi down in the east of france owned by nicol lapierre uh and rana so double duty for nico but both as a driver but gets very held up going into the porsche curves there so that's going to give an opportunity for the promo car of lorenzo colombo to come back he's really been in the thick of things columbo hasn't he just aged 21 years of age just one season of formula 3 under his belt a couple of seasons of formula four as well but making his debut one of 50 drivers to make their debuts uh here at le mans this year and finding uh that endurance racing is just like lots and lots of sprints uh to tack together especially this year with pit stops every half an hour it's you know there's actually not much of a chance to get into a rhythm of things is there yeah even for the team uh really ben they are just about to get a breather and they're pushing again to do another um uh full stop and then after a triple they have to do a tire stop so you know they're trying to get as much rest as they can before they um come over to the next in so they're all on the cars we have been watching there they're all on the same strategy in terms of drivers and the laps that they're doing as well so it was a genuine overtake it's not like one of them had better tires than the other i'm watching the the timing page that i have in front of me and uh yet yi has just been gradually chipping away chipping away and closing that gap down and we saw that fantastic overtake so brave so late on the breaks into that high-speed right-hander of indianapolis we've seen ricky taylor aboard that car have we yet seen their silver driver nicholas croyton i don't think so so they still have the weakest link to play exactly and there is there's plenty of those uh situations in lmp2 where it ebbs and flows depending on the driver that's getting in and of course uh we do have a pro and category as well where we do have bronze gentlemen drivers uh jumping aboard cars which can be right at the front of the field until the bronze driver gets in and it's what keeps us on our toes throughout the 24 hour race watching these lmp2 cars go back and forth there is really only one stable though at the moment and that is the jota car at the head 35 seconds now to the good over dane cameron at the head of our field with will stevens doing a cracking job as uh observed already yeah will stevens um already getting settled in uh planning to do a triple i spoke to tomoki takahashi the technical director of gyota they told me that they are going quite radical and quite aggressive in coming into the night they want to put both the two drivers trying to do a quadruple later on so and from now onwards after we'll see when will be roberto gonzalez uh until he gets pitched back well antonio actually started the race uh with a quadruple stint himself so will stevens now in his second stint only he's done five laps like the rest of the cars in lmp2 around him um so yeah he he's driven a blinding first it was as i mentioned he's still not quite as quick actually as the cars behind him losing a bit of time so far quadrupled in this year in an mp2 just over two hours yeah because of the nine laps that you're getting to do so it sounds like uh a whopping amount of driving but it's in relative time same as last year yeah back in the day where it was kind of 15 minutes of stint that would be quite impressive yeah especially in this heat yes exactly the ambience up to 27 degrees according to some people's thermometers uh not uh not according to our official screens which say it's stabilizing at uh 25 degrees we've just passed seven o'clock local time here uh we don't lose the sun until 10 o'clock at night so it will keep this temperature for quite a while before we then start to see the challenges of the cooler temperatures more of a of comfort zone for the team to drivers out there because they know what that's like from the running that we had the previous few days it's more actually the circuit temperature than anything else that the drivers would be craving at this stage yes it is hot out there the ambient will remain hot for quite some time but as the sun starts to go down um that the circuit temp will fall faster than the ambient and uh that's where you get the grip and that's when the car starts to suddenly feel a bit more hooked up a little bit easier to drive i can imagine how they feel at this stage i know jazz you've been there many times uh feeding a car squirming around with a like a greasy feeling of on the tires we've got a yellow flag at marshall post 24 that's in the porsche curves and that's a change in position that is the 709 richard westbrook getting ahead uh matu vaccivier in the alpine the lp unfortunately just nowhere near the pace of the other competitors around it coming back at him whoa what a move around the outside before karting sorry the yellow flags weren't in the porsche it must have been over at um down at our nash bit further behind us but what a cracking battle going on here remarkable it almost looked like he was lapping a car to be able to go around the outside like that clear difference in uh where these hyper cars make up their speed and uh we've seen the alpine is pretty nimble that's why it was supreme in sebring where you've got such a bumpy track and very twisty tight twisty track like we know and the clicking house looks to have a straight line speed advantage we're gonna go into a slow zone down at indianapolis so yet to see exactly what's happening down there but we do uh have a slow zone coming up double waved yellows have been there for quite a while now and it does seem as though the yellows are i think it's a gtm and the run up to uh indianapolis 46. i can see on the track map okay so that is uh team project one's nicholas lloyd phillip that's the am part of that particular car nicholas from freeborg not too far away from cool racing actually in switzerland good cheese there [Music] he's the ceo of an asset management company based out of uh free book so they're clicking now still behind the alpine there but uh not letting him go as his battle rages on into uh that first chicane daytona chicane it's his daytime now see the branding on the inside daytona branded chicane here and then the bus stop chicane at daytona now named the lamar chicane with jim france and the imsa people are represented here and having a big mission and look at the speed the difference in speed between the two of them the clicking house breezes past well as we've seen the alpine stronger in the porsche curves and the fiddly bits it seems to have yeah the agility the downforce uh more importantly in those higher speed corners now it's up to the uh the glickenhaus to uh for richard westbrook to to make some headway and get past these slower cars and make a gap a bit of a breathing space before this uh slow zone coming up huge it does at this point unbelievable so on the exit of this corner they'll be slowing down they see the orange boards on the outside you've got to slow down 80 kph hit the full course yellow button to see exactly that that's what you want to do take it right to the limit you break so that it's not an ease off the the accelerator and just breeze onto the brakes you absolutely nail the brakes right out the line to bring it down to 80 kph here we see the car that was deep in the gravel wasn't it what happened probably just lost the rear on the braking and uh doesn't hit anything kept it out of the barriers crucially and that car can be put back onto the tarmac right whilst we are in the slow zone that great battle for fourth position let's go down to don't convince it in the pits yeah i've never done an interview sitting down before but we're in wrt fairly pulled me up a chair because um well you know you can just tell by somebody's facial expression how they're feeling fairly for tell us exactly what happened going in to turn one at the start there [Music] yeah we had a um i had a bit of a slow start behind the united and they they backed off just before the line and which meant i could catch up again i was able to pull up alongside the united on the left and the my sister car driven by rene rust didn't know that there was a car the interfall to the left of him and he didn't turn right turn left and crashed into the united which i nearly got away with but the united just clipped me on the rear as the united went off and um yeah i got a puncture and a damaged rear tail like the tail end and we're a laptop now so it's just a really really terrible start but we are really quick and we just keep on trying it's 20 hours to go so yeah there's no lasting effects from that damage a car is still quick enough to to contend if if if it can get back there if you get up back on the lead lab uh yeah absolutely i just don't see quite well now it's just a race against ourselves and the hope fairly thank you very much no problem with that guys back to you in the morning [Music] heartbreaking stuff you could hear in ferdi's voice just downbeat with such an early problem with so many hours still to go we have seen recoveries but with such a stat field of talent it's going to be very very tough as he says to get himself back into position to fight and he is faced with that challenge now for the next 20 hours alpine not quite as quick whoa four wheels off the ground there as it rattles over the curbs not quite quick enough to get back onto the tail of that clicking house through the porsche curves this last time [Music] okay he's pushing on but uh looks like he just couldn't stay in touch actually after that slow zone i do think that the slow zone took away an opportunity in many ways for the alpine which would have probably been a bit quicker than the clicking house what we've seen so far through indianapolis that section of the tighter stuff yeah there's that moment ben as you mentioned he's gone off track there i think yeah he was off track yeah and off off yes literally flying yeah literally flying over um but yeah that's lost him for further time as well in desperation to try and close back up to uh richard westbrook but um i'm sure this battle will carry on between these two but uh yeah 709 had a bit of a bit of trouble earlier on in the race and uh i feel like it's naturally got the pace over the lp and uh roman duma ahead of uh the 709 car continues to pump into pretty decent lap times but they they can't they're falling away from the toyota they can't match them it's not what i expected and i must say that this tweak to the bop from the alpine really hasn't gone their way yeah which is a shame really um and after we watch such an exciting uh hyper pole battle between the two teams and uh yeah looking at lp they had so much potential fighting with toyota um they were just a couple of tents off here and there nicolapie actually qualified the car at the time and uh yeah looking at this first a few hours of the race they're really pulling back and they're really losing too much time actually slow zone is now clear so we're back to green flag racing although the porsche that was recovered doesn't seem to have continued doesn't seem to have moved so whether there was more of a problem down there uh than just a simple spin into the gravel trap nicholas lopez are still down there and shown has stopped on our timing screens [Music] although whether he is actually stopped there he is moving again puncture on the left front whether that is from being locked up for such a long time and literally just scrubbing a hole in the cup both of them might be down actually yeah they could be on he's not even staying as far away on the towards the curb as he can in that part of the track but i can hear his car scraping along the ground as it comes past us in the porsche curves they'll be uh serviced and back on its way i'm sure once he's he will definitely be able to get back into the pits but um running back on board with the alpine yeah lost touch lost touch to the glickenhaus of westbrook last lap around the westbrook was a 442.1 and uh vaccivia 44.2 so uh yeah really where we had that mistake of course in the in the fourth chicane white flag slow moving vehicle around the porsche curves and there we go you just saw the glimpse of it the speed difference pretty shocking for all involved [Music] and now westbrook does he go for the move down the inside no he's peeling off into the pits this time yeah he's done his 11 laps of this stint they all seem to be doing 12 time laps the hyper cars i expected the uh toyota to be doing at least one more it is compared to it is compared to the uh the alpine actually toyota's able to do 12 alpine's 11. gap between jose maria lopez and brendan hartley now down to 19 seconds so brendan has been chipping away at the number seven throughout his stint but they do have a minute over the 708 clicking house it's interesting with the uh with the two toyotas looking at the last two stints of 12 laps uh jose mourinho started that first in when he jumped in the car at 329.7 really quick has he used the tyres too much though because brendan did a 330.0 so far in this stint brendan's done a 330.4 and jose has only managed to 331.2 well so i think these cars you know they're big heavy machines these days and i do feel like in these temperatures oh no i said he'd make it back into the pits well almost as you well know it's not that easy when you've got two punctured tires to even turn a car especially with the front splitter scraping along the ground right well he's made it into pit lane um and duncan vincent is also in pit lane chatting with alex vert i believe yes absolutely is that porsche just scrapes past alex and myself we're inside the garage in the shade just now but alex could you give us a little overview of how the 78 are performing on track just now yeah absolutely so first thanks for having me duncan um start went okay both cars were ahead even so the clicking house are fast on the straights they put some pressure so first was car eight put very fast lap times with sebastian in the first stint but with the track temperature above 40. he cooked the rear tires a bit too much in the first stint so after the pit stop uh mike uh just overtook him by him snap natural uh and uh that was okay from the team orders no team orders there so then uh car seven had the base and now brenton was more careful and both cars seem to be on a similar base and really depends with the traffic management so yeah so far so good from our side we can see clicking house being very fast too but they seem to struggle a little bit more with the entire window to be in and out of the window and that will be just getting more important now towards the night what feedback are you getting from the drivers about the state of the track with this increased temperature that we have uh so at the beginning there were of course typical race drivers moaning or explaining let's say like this that the cars are moving they had to really look after the rear tires and as mentioned sebastian just did a bit too much and uh we called that in our racing language he cooked the rear so had to pay in the second and third stint uh and mike was a bit more patient a bit more gentle on the tire and uh was there for faster alex thank you very much thank you great to hear from alex versus their two-time winner of the le mans 24 hours and now a major player at toyota even if he's not behind the wheel interesting absolutely nailed what and davidson told us about the dealings of the tyres and the challenges early on here at the mall [Music] yeah you can always expect a nice clear concise honest feedback and debris from uh mr burts it's so refreshing yeah to not have to dig for information because it's being held as a secret and just be honest and open about what's going on with the cars [Music] the days of audi where you would ask a question and you'd get really no answers and and only when the after film comes out you find out what was actually going on with the cars is uh oh the number one just ahead of the uh 36 here so we shall mail n p two carl blocking in the alpene doesn't seem like much of a rush going on let's quite see the fuel going into that car and then he's had to do a pullback look it's going to waste a lot of time you have to pull the car back if you've come in obviously the number one car came in afterwards so it's been that that gets held up and this is the you trip over each other when you've got different uh strategies going on but yeah and a shake of the head says it all he knows how much time he's lost by that number one car coming in front on obviously their nine lap stints as the lmp2s do compared to the 11 laps did so we know from the alpine so eventually you get out of sync with each other and then one is going to have to pull in front of the other and you get the pull back and it's just part and parcel of the luck of the draw i'd say in where you end up in your pit garage pit box at the hmong but that for for having so many more pit stops across the race because the lmp2 cars are only doing 30 35 minutes it's gonna happen more often it will this won't be the first time that happens do both cars yeah that would have lost time there because when you come in front of the other car as the number one richard mille car did you have to then put the car on the trolleys spin the car around and then lower it down and the driver cannot get out before the car's on the ground again was the number one machine ahead charles malaysia taking a book taken over that car uh charles a winner here last year in the lmp2 category moving across to the richard mill racing squad that was previously obviously a full female squad but this year has sebastian ogier uh charles and lila wadu as part of that team richard mill are not only obviously the watch guru but also president of the endurance commission and so makes all of the headline decisions about how we progress uh in endurance racing uh in the future always been a big supporter of racing generally if you look around paddocks around the world you will always see a richard miller logo somewhere on somebody's helmet or car yeah he's great passion for the sport um an avid car collector as well great to see that he gives opportunities to young drivers you know for example lilu charles leclair jules bianchi in their early years of their careers and now they're having great sports car professional careers as well and not to forget the nine-time world champion of rally uh sebastian roger also doing his debut of le mans this year watching that battle for 11th position now between prematte and cool racing so this is the third driver from cool racing nicholas croyton and he is chasing down louis delatraz who has not taken victory here at le mans because he missed out by a lap wasn't it last year with the failing and the issues that had heartbreaking although took a victory in the very first virtue so he's a virtual winner in lamar don't smirk at that's great for him [Music] um yeah i mean a virtual taste of victory uh at least but um i kind of feel like he's got the speed here as louis de la chad's bit unlucky in the traffic coming up here in the ford chicane and that's going to see these two cars close up with to one another but uh luigi has clearly had the speed all week so far i expect him to make a bit of headway here he's got the panic racing car ahead of him uh and jota both their silver drivers behind the wheel with ed jones and julian cannell and i do believe that canal is going to be a little bit quicker potentially than ed jones um so those two cars be closing in um and louis delatraz as well at some point i should imagine we'll come past both of them and regain a few positions quite interesting that actually a lot of the top level lmp2 cars seem to teams seem to run a similar strategy they look as though it is now the point where the least experienced driver is in the car having previously gone through the most experienced the fastest we've now we've got the likes of uh croyton canal ed jones their flags out march point 25 which is uh once again indianapolis indianapolis section yeah oh and is that the vector sport car car number 10 that's off on the left-hand part of indianapolis as we watch oh someone's gone through the gravel here could see the dust in the air in the first chicane and uh like i thought you see these three cars in front delatraz catching up on the silver drivers or the lowest great drivers at least in uh the castle yes and there is the vector spore in the barrier as suspected ouch that's done some damage to the front right at least not a massively heavy impact you're on the brakes for such a long time going into there so you do tend to scrub off quite a lot of speed if you do make contact that's just a classic lock up for the front tires not being able to make the corner on the left crucially there's no lines going into the barrier at that point he hasn't doesn't look as though that's a good observation yeah he doesn't look like he's gone in that's odd so maybe he's coming sideways and bounced across drop being dropped from height maybe not quite as straightforward as i thought that uh that crash as well the slow zone boards are back out in our favorite place out of molsan it seems to only be that corner doesn't it so far you could see the lmp2 guys blocking each other not showing where they are to be right behind each other but yeah a shame that back to sport um uh veered off into that corner you play with the full cost yellow speed of course uh it's not just as simple as everyone's car does exactly 80 kpa should be like when you see two trucks on the on the motorway and there one's just a little bit faster they're all supposed to be restricted to the same speed and it's the same for these cars out there and you play with that full course yellow as far as you can take it you can imagine when you're looking for such marginal gains in a sport like this uh every well you're covering such a large distance it under the foot under the uh the virtu the um full course yellow and slow zone that if you're going 0.1 kilometers an hour faster than the car in front of you by the time at the end you get to the end of the zone you've really caught up you're right on the tail of the car in front and vice versa you can you watch the car behind you catching up you're cursing you're on the radio we i knew we should have got a bit more aggressive without full course yellow speed yeah and also cutting the the lines and like you try to travel as little distance as you can you cut across some of the corners you won't go on the curves and um as well as re-preparation after this and you can see actually car nine has fallen back from the two cars in front of him so i'd say that prema haven't been quite aggressive enough with their uh with a full course yellow 80 kph rookie mistake rookie mistake playing it too safe so he's got to find that i mean you're fighting for that that distance that track distance and it's all undone under just one but not all i've done but you watch your hard work becoming unraveled as uh as you're in the slideshow right now they're back to full racing speed tire times would have gone down don't forget and remember it looks worse actually when the cars in front reach the uh reach the line before you do it exaggerates your loss so let's go down to the pits we've seen ryan cullen uh in the wall it looks as though he might have bounced across to the left-hand side uh dunks with sebastian bourdais part of that team sebastian you're watching the television pictures like everybody else do you know anything else any any other information from ryan no i just said that uh he went straight that uh at indianapolis so it was a little tricky there we were inside front locking a little bit i don't know if he got caught up with someone or something but yeah it's too bad the cars seem to be pretty decent and uh we're starting to march our way back so you know hopefully it's not too severe and we can fix it and get going again yes it's a long night the very best of luck we're getting moved through the way here so i'll let you get going i didn't hear yeah we're getting through the garage thank you yeah thank you very much getting uh moved out the way presumably because ryan's car will be brought in for a checkup once it gets back to the pits sebastian bourdain lives in le mans born and raised here never had the luck around this track once again he's right i was just looking at his average stint actually he did put in a pretty decent stint himself um driving that number 10 machine with a 335.9 pretty competitive you must say for his uh nine lap stint uh before he handed the car over another local boy julian kennel owns the mcdonald's he's about to drive past on the right hand side i think it's actually in that block there uh for one of four mcdonald's that julian owns himself uh his father owns another five around the area and that is partly how he pays for his racing he claims in the article that uh i read the other day that he eats at one of his restaurants every lunch he must have to go to the gym a lot to offset that um or drive really hot racing cars in the longest races he could possibly do plenty of uh plenty of experience actually you know julianne's done a lot of racing here uh these days i don't know how many appearances he's had at circuit de la salle over the years do have that stat somewhere [Music] he's fighting there with uh ed jones who is a rookie to racing here at le mans i think julian is a three-time class winner here i think uh gt1 and twice of gta even likely yeah and this is his 11th appearance so he has done a few good few years racing here now one lmp2 [Music] i think the suspension's fine though so new set of tyres goes on we're going to see a nose change here as well that has to be done after the uh the set of tyres go on we're back into the slow zone here though and once again louis delatraz was catching up uh julian kellough and he's uh a fear we're gonna see a repeat of what happened before in this slow zone losing out uh that valuable time under the full course yellow button i think they've been a little bit too safe there someone was rather unhappy they weren't they [Music] doug did you ever manage to look at the vector sport car we see the new nose going on but the suspension clearly okay the car seems fine just a quick nose change we've seen how good these noses are on these cars remember the panis one which went into the wall ultimately that did have to get a bit more work but cars already back in circuit then they're not hanging about that's good news so any little incident we've seen so far has resulted in cars back on circuit which means we still have 62 cars running here at le mans after three and a half hours of action i was just thinking to myself yes this race is going pretty well not going very well on the dunlop chicane there yeah he's not happy he's he's feeling something else isn't he maybe maybe just cold tires cashing him out and uh cold breaks as well more importantly been sat in the gravel trap for so long and maybe just feeling like the brakes aren't quite uh doing what they should but it's quite common in these lmp2 cars once the heat soakers uh dispersed a bit but yeah not up to racing speed by any stretch of the imagination here but yeah i was just thinking myself this race is uh it's really unfolding nicely and uh looked up at the time see how long we've got left we've got 20 and a half hours to go just 20 and a half i better start pacing myself it's going to be a nice little race out of uh that green flag so we've got another yellow flag zone straight afterwards so i think there's some debris on the track probably from uh the vector sport car but yes there we go they smash through it and the carbon fiber goes flying yellow flags there but they seem to be going pretty fast dude we were taking on the yellows there all of them it was um it was a yellow flag zone but not a slow zone so the slow zone they have to be at 80 kilometers now whereas double wave yellows they just have to be ready to stop of course we never are but uh they're supposed to be ed jones getting a good run past the 91 porsche in the porsche curves oh and that was a bit too close for comfort there i don't think he was quite seen by the 91 driver uh michael christensen no that is a 92 driving richard leeds sorry yeah very close battle for ninth position ed jones julian cannell and louis delatraz the third of those cars that prima car has really been in the mix since the very beginning with robert kubica it's amazingly primers first time here at le mans they must have raced everywhere else in the world with teams across the spectrum of single-seaters but realizing more and more that those junior drivers like lorenzo colombo who's part of that team they want to go into endurance racing and therefore it makes sense to have this path so that you know when they get into formula two they do a couple of years in formula two but they can't get into formula one but they've got great pace then they can come and switch across to endurance delatraz gets a good run there canal was really held up uh by car 92 in tetraroos nothing that anyone could do about it just like i said luck of the draw where you meet the traffic and that's given the opportunity for delatraz to put it down the inside before the first chicane and gets the job done one car picked off there but he has to do it here a little bit of a mistake though mid corner through that uh daytona chicane leaves him a bit under threat here in retaliation for uh the car behind does he have the straight line speed he's in the slipstream great stuff from chilling canal really good they've got a corvette to navigate their way past as well flashing the lights pick up a sneaky toe from him as well and that might just be able to defend himself and box it the other car in yes it does well played there by de la tras snuck the toe from the corvette he knew he had made a mistake in the mid corner of the first chicane and that he was under threat afterwards and then used the corvette to just save himself from uh the attack the inevitable attack around the outside if it wasn't for the corvette so a bit of a a lucky escape there for delatraz but read it well and now coming into the slow zone which has been moved uh to the start uh of the mole sand so the warning is at the before mulsanne and then the 80k limit is after mulsanne let's go down to duncan vincent who's been watching the vector and that's a slow lap from ryan cullen there's more to it than just uh a change of the front nose isn't there there certainly is guys they've cleared the garage and they bought through a completely built front right corner so obviously there's something a little bit more sinister that we couldn't see that's why he's going slow but the corners all pre-made so it's going to be a very quick change in the garage for the guys in vector sports i wonder if that's cause or effect no that's not we haven't seen the accident but it obviously went straight on if he had a suspension issue that would have caused the car to go straight on anyway yeah as soon as he tried to turn left into uh turn two the car didn't want to know i wondered suspect if it would be brakes but look at this on the exit of the slow zone we're back up to full racing speed and into indianapolis canal is right behind the vector sport just limping around there for good measure around the corner where it went off before but this is a great fight four-way fight now and as you explained earlier the concertina effect of the slow zone has brought the four of them together they haven't they haven't come back out again haven't they they're really now locked together after that i can see the the panic's racing car once again all over the back of the car nine prema he clearly had the speed advantage under that full course yellow in the background as well behind this fight the fight for second in gte pro is rejoined as the result that slow zone 64 had come by the porsche it's now back with him watching this battle for fourth position ed jones at the head of it second joe to car it's joe to the lead with will stevens in the 38 machine but jones delatraz canal and now nicholas crittenden joining for cool racing great little battle no more slow zones now we're back to green flag racing even the yellow flag's been uh brought in oh actually where's uh ed jones has got a little bit of he's pitted he's pitted yep so jones goes to the pit lane another quick point about that gte pro battle it is the battle for second place it's been taken again by michael christensen after a fine fight back from the 64 corvette now i'm not sure whether or not the uh the 64 cars woes were identified what happened was it was nick tandy this must be what two hours ago uh problem on the downshift to the circuit of the roundabout at multn corner and rejoin but that obviously lost him time and places i've been fighting back for the last two hours with tommy milder at the wheel of that car and they've made its way back to second place has now dropped behind both of the porsches in fact so 64 having been second at the midway through midway point of that lap is now down to fourth curious last lap eight seconds slower than the guys around uh whilst we unravel what's going on with that corvette let's go down to duncan it's got sam bird with it yeah the first first visit to raleigh motorsports this weekend and sam you've stepped in the car you don't look overly happy what are you chasing over there just now oh wait we're chasing lap time um yeah we're really struggling out there for laptop i'm not entirely sure why i mean the uh i think the the engines on the threshold of uh it's difficult operating window but still we are we're far from where we want to be disappointing that uh we've fallen away so quickly but the team's doing a great job and the mechanics are a super so we'll keep on trying to plug away but the rate is going it could be a quite a good difficult 24 hours you see the threshold is that because of the temperature just now yeah typically the the temperature makes it harder for us at ferrari but um nevertheless we we've been we've been suffering out there thank you very much i'm worth noting that when we get into those cooler temperatures into the night into the evening we will see performance shifting around the field oh dude get out just a little bit deep into mulsanne that time got away with it but the momentum is killed all the way down until you get to indianapolis yeah well spotted there definitely uh outbreak himself and uh lost himself as you say that momentum down towards is some fun game starting and who's going to go for it oh we got a winner no oh yes whenever you see anything like that in the world of le mans le mans virtual or anything that is produced by french production companies that is a cameraman called guillaume and guillaume is an amazing character and he's the only one that i know that ever does anything like this and you will see a lot more of guillaume's antics over the 24 hours including giving tools to various mechanics and he's already got the whole of the corvette team lying on the floor at nine o'clock at night uh during one of the pre-practice sessions uh an amazing character great to have him with us and i promise that i give him a shout out because he always does such a great job these kind of fun and games when everything's running well and uh yeah when the drivers are out there hard at work the mechanics are having an easy time and when the the drivers are out of the car and having an easier time the mechanics are usually hard at work is never everyone's uh ever happy if we got a great fight going on here nearly off the track wasn't it for a car one does that still shine malesia at the wheel or is it changed now and that was another change it is so the number of 91 now ahead of the 92 whilst that was going on uh so richard lee's now ahead of michael christensen and those two porsches are starting to find a new rhythm now um they are they're faster than the corvettes there is the corvette 64 behind them in fact and they've steadily been catching up going faster and faster on pace i don't know what whether it's the corvettes slowing down or like sam bird was just saying that other cars come into their own at different temperature ranges the porsche certainly at this stage starting to deliver the goods so so what's going on with the 64 car [Music] uh what's going on 64 car waiting to find out for corvette we'll be back okay very much a corvette race so far with the three different uh manufacturers running line of stern but now corvette drop into four uh being told from the team front tyres aren't switching back on very well for the corvettes look like you have to go offline near the end of the slow zone got to the dirty track and that's lost him a lot of time well that would make sense if they can't switch the front tyres on and they're coming into slightly cooler conditions now how does how's that going to unfold as we continue to get into colder conditions uh probably why they had a car that was so fast in right at the beginning of the race if the the tires the car was in its happy place and now they're starting to suffer a bit more and when you have a slow zone like we had earlier on it's such a significant period of the track and a long period of the track yeah the tires will be coming out of that zone and then you need to be getting them back in the zone lap after lap exactly and it's just like this downward spiral and just you're desperate for the slow zone to be removed so you can get back to to full racing speed round the whole circuit beautiful slo-mo shot with the two uh porsche gte cars let's uh make the most of these it's the last time we see them at le mans yeah minute and 15 seconds still by the way to to make up on the leading corvette 63 car for the chasing pair i'm right in saying that we'll see the cars next year which is gt class yeah so gtam continues for one more year in the world enjoyment championship and here at the mom after that we go into the as yet unnamed gt3 class looks like it might be gt le man or gtl m or gt break lm with the so-called gt3 premium kit uh attached but that's not been made clear whether or not that's for the full season or just here at le mans we will wait and see so it's just a very different look in the next couple of years to these races well the upside is that we're going to have a lot more variety than we've had in the last few years uh that's that's undoubtedly the case two toyotas fighting again only five tenths separating as you can see uh i'm trying to work out brendan's just come out the pits of the eight machine i think they're on slightly different strategies here um and he should have been he was about 25 seconds behind the seventh car initially because uh lopez has had a trip through the gravel at turn 14 on the last lap oh wow so this is now a genuine battle for the lead we didn't see it but whilst brendan was in pit lane pachito has been in the gravel it was a lot yes it was a bit last lap that's why i was so confused because pachito had found his rhythm again and was laughing faster than harley after i mentioned before that hardy had been conserving his tires more in the first in of hit when he jumped in the car and then the seconds didn't seem to be a little bit faster but then jose found a new speed that's why he's right behind hartley now again hounding him he's thrown away all that advantage that he had from a trip across the gravel so we got to see how that happened was it traffic did he have to take avoiding action or was it just simply a mistake oh are these um hyper cars different and potentially more difficult to drive than what we had in the previous iteration oh yeah without question without question they have to wrestle these things around and speaking to the drivers they're saying look the old cars the lmp ones were physically hard in terms of the g-force you feel a lot of strain through the neck and the back muscles um but these cars you're wrestling them for all your might especially on track like sebring they were absolutely destroyed there physically destroyed because their arms were doing all the work you don't feel as much g but they're heavy machines to be throwing around and um so yeah physical in a different way and it's because they they move around an awful lot more it was interesting to hear what you said in one of the earlier sessions we're covering and these cars just look more sorted this year than they did last year and you're absolutely right to the un uh trained observer and i'll pop my hand up and say i'm one of them they looked absolute animals last year this year they still look like effectively a big gt car really in terms of the way in which these cars handled last year last year they looked like lions or tigers this year more like a rottweiler that kind of things yeah it didn't look it did look as if they would be having to be wrestled to get the best lap times out of them and with that we did see some mistakes coming particularly breaking zones for instance in the early in the career of these cars now they are looking a lot more nailed they do um it looks like they've got a bit more downforce as any racing driver that's driven cars with a lot of downforce knows downforce is your friend and you just you enjoy the ride of the car being stuck to the ground and it's minimal inputs on the steering wheel they still move around in the slow speed corners when the downforce bleeds off at that kind of speed but uh yeah they're certainly looking a bit more like that these days than they did last year from a total fan point of view i love to see a car moving around visually and when you have all that downfall sticking to the ground and then breaking away you don't get a chance to see the driver working quite as hard as we now see both in formula one but also in these hyper cars seeing them slide you and i were watching uh both sessions uh earlier on and watching the guys sliding around it is one of the beauties and it makes you gasp every time you see them doing it it is nice yeah i agree and they're basically they behave a bit like big gte cars actually um they're faster but they they move around in the same way they're as big if not bigger in size and and similar weight actually just looking at this fight going on and uh hartley hasn't really had the luck of the draw with the traffic recently he caught the the corvette actually in the second chicane that allowed uh pachito to catch up and then once again molson with a porsche not quite as badly held up that time but yeah constant stream of cars now until they get through pretty much the entire field of lmp2 so this will be interesting see uh who can thread their way through the best this is coming up to indianapolis you can see there how jose now uh doesn't have the luck on his side he has to scrape through on the inside of turn uh of that left-hand turn of indianapolis now into arnage slow it all down slowest corner on the track taking in just second gear in one of these cars interesting though that pachito is sticking with brendan here even if he has been struggling and the car balance has been very different to the to the number eight car he's now that brendan's ahead it seems like pachito is just following on they obviously they do get a bit disturbed as do the lmp2 cars um they're predominantly the lmp2s at least ground effect cars they have a lot of downforce generated from the floor of the car that allows them to follow closer than some other categories that we know in racing but um and the hyper car is pretty similar so they do still get affected in the high speed corners and i think that's why jose can't quite be as close as he would like to to the back of his team when you're so evenly matched in that time most of the difference does come from who catches the traffic where gte pro leader in the pit 63 car brought in by jordan taylor driver change underway and the porsche's closing that gap of course now and the 91 car is down uh it down follows him down into pit lane 92 will go through into the lead i think it was nikki katzberg wasn't it uh stepping aboard that car yeah driver changed there for 63. delayed slightly by the 31 car 41 car sorry uh coming down through don lopez's yeah that should come to constantine the two of them up because that 41 car is not getting out the way is it it's not it's been running for a little wee while now and that's really closed it back up this could be a bit of a drag race down the balls on the straight between the two toyotas to look to me as they're through tet rouge the chasing number seven card the better run [Music] guard leads also on pit lane in the hands of david rigon here we go back to the fight with the two toyotas still nose to tail you would have to say it looks like jose maria lopez has the speed but just can't find his way past trying to sneak a bit of a toe from the ferrari that they come up against on the back straight towards the second chicane [Music] let's get down to uh duncan who's got the man with the best moustache in the grid this year jordan taylor he has got a moustache pen alexander sims has got a rival mustache but jordan you've just stepped out the car please talk us through your stints yeah it was good i mean we had a nice little lead when i got in so i just didn't want to lose that the car was was really good we were able to send the tires there we weren't sure with the track heating up it's been that's the hottest has been all week so we weren't sure how the car would react would react to it but thankfully it was pretty solid all the way through and i think we got a little bit lucky with one of the slow zones which helped extend our lead a little bit but yeah so far so good after the slow zones are your tyres switching on quick enough after after that area uh i mean if you get one slow zone it's okay if you get it two laps in a row then it keeps dropping and it makes it difficult so i think if in the night we get two laps straight up close one or three laps it could become an issue thanks buddy good luck thank you um just it is my as is my wants in this currency team i'm going to correct you ben it's not the best moustache in the paddock it's not even the best mustache in corvette racing alexander sims it's a matter of opinion well yeah but you know in this social media meter age that's my truth i like i like i like jordan's because it's a bit more cool and hit whereas alexander sims looks like he's an accountant well that but that is it's not an advantage if you're if you're there you're tucked in behind one of these gt pro porsches and you see a guy in the rearview mirror wouldn't you like to be seen as less of a threat and who could be less threatening than the accountants in the corvettes and of course you've got the wonderful epic hair of nikki katzberg which because he's been so busy racing every weekend he can't cut it no it just gets bigger and bigger sorry nick dicky the cat katzberg we must be calling that we'll explain why later look at this him in the middle this is a proper traffic jam going on here with i think uh an am this is the slowest actually this is the leisure isn't it the slowest lmp2 uh heading them through the ford chicane and that really created a bottleneck the two toyotas are in amongst that so we now look at the alpine in there pit stop oh that doesn't look very healthy does it trying to get going there what's happened there stalled the car yep and again again oh dear oh dear he can't get the car going you can try and uh start the car in gear if it's got enough battery kick sometimes you can jump the car you put the car in gear and then you just hit the starter button and then the carriage the alpine is going into the garage second of the hypercars to see some garage time first was the glickenhaus that just went in briefly the first time by the way we've seen a glickenhaus in the garage in its lemon history in the race we saw a nose change last year for clicking house at the very start of the race after the cup uh impacted his coming off so these are very very good times indeed for the number 36 crew that group of cars as we see the 64 corvettes on pit lane that so the totes were just making their way through included a battle that's underway in lmp2 and that was the 41 car real team by wrt with ferdie habsburg uh going by francois perot sims getting aboard the 64 car so katzberg and sims who are teammates in other categories best of friends will be uh fighting out each other although the 94 car a bit back on the 93. let's go down to duncan who's watching the alpene as it's struggling i'm in the garage right now they're trying to bleed the clutch on the car the the engine has an adapter and then the gearbox the adapter bolts on the back of the engine and inside that area is the flywheel and the clutch there's a little bleed area the nipple that they can use to to just get some of the fluid in the air out of it so they're doing that right now and it's a little bit as you can imagine frantic than there because they're expecting the number one car for a fuel stop as well and we saw that the number one car the richard milka and the 36 going to trip over each other before so that's what uh duncan was talking about there i think that particular moment is under investigation as well the number one was uh up flashed as an under investigation a few moments ago [Music] so jota in and out from the lead and just as the jota car retakes the track the 38 car it moves ahead and up into fifth position ahead of the stricken alpene so almost four hours in and we've got the first big trouble for one of the five leading cars and an lmp2 car all right in the top five already snapping up that fifth position it hasn't been in there long but that is the kind of uh lurking that those lmp2 cars are going to do and that's the point isn't it it's not like the lmp one days where you had the opportunity to catch back up as we saw that famous result for jackie chan dc racing court the final hour by the last man standing in lmp1 yeah they're much closer these days everybody needs that reliable race even the hyper cars if they're to win outright [Music] sharma lazy uh in the pits in the number one reshare mill machine which obviously has the alpine just behind it and there is charles eyes the view that we've been used to seeing sebastian ogier in uh throughout the weekend so far we finally get a chance to see one of his teammates from that oh in trouble for all the ferrari so does that tell you what is 21 yes 20 orders in the hands of christoph ulrich it is christopher rick yep who is there that was down at the porsche curve that was a lucky escape that's actually where ulrich's car was it last year in the hands of alexander west went off hard christoph didn't get to drive here we go yeah porsche curves just losing the rear end on entry and uh gives the rest of the field a nice little present on his run through the rest of the porsche curves as he joins the circuit by spewing gravel all over the place and that's part and parcel of the challenges for the rest of them at le mans you arrive at different corners around the the track from one lap to the next nobody's told you anything and suddenly there are mud and gravel on the circuit yeah you're just living by your senses most of the time something else out there at marshall's post where are we zone five next slow at marshall post 16 slow zone at marshall's post 17 that is looking like an issue at multn corner christopher is the uh ceo of pro vencon a global investment company and he is their bronze driver lovely fella he comes here by the way as the reigning amp champion from the fia gt2 european series we're talking during the road to le mans race about writer engineering and a fabulous display they put up um to take second place today yep here's the slow zone and did you see how the number seven car just gained a couple of lengths there by being a little bit more aggressive into the slow zone do we get a chance to see what the incident is is here not seeing a car stop there so whether or not this is debris whether or not it's a clear up but this is the incident zone he said that uh yeah marshall post 17 that was just after the uh exit of the second chicane so maybe i can see anything there at all now they're back to green on the exit of this zone there was a funky tire mark going kind of towards the camera position underneath but would be just to the left-hand side of that so strange one [Music] nothing on our timing screens to suggest who's down there yellow removed at marshall's post 40 which is before before no clue well we'll catch up with that so i'm sure the guys on tape will find something for us if there's anything dramatic to see could be just debris so almost no still still through barnard change of driver down at glickenhaus 709 [Music] still the battle rages on between these two toyotas just six tenths of a second between them i thought that pachito lopez would gain a bit into that last slow zone but actually by the looks of things he's lost a bit and after four hours of racing we can have a look at our overall standings with the two toyotas ahead of the two glicken houses we've just seen an issue for the alpene which removes it out of fifth position and promotes the lmp two leaders joe to one two at the moment ahead of wrt's 32 car with richard mills number one machine the car of oggier in fourth spot best pro am is down in 30 is down in 19th it's the 39 machine that has david drew aboard it at the moment that graph racing car rebuilt after a crash uh on thursday and then the best of our gte cars is the corvette number 63 ahead of the two porsches 91 ahead of 92 right now and the 64 car dropping some pace after struggles with their tyres beth gte am uh is also a porsche the 79 weathertech car uh followed by christian reed in the 77 porsche and then the best of the aston martins north west amr are there in third but they're starting to cycle through now uh their gentleman uh um bronze drivers uh down there in uh the am category we've got everybody still running from our 62 starters which is great news there have been a few issues there in the garage but ultimately we still do have everyone officially still running uh i think we've got a bet here duncan about what's going down at alpine that car still with the carriage yeah i just had a quick word with andre nicaragua it's very difficult to find it from anybody above any of the senior management but andrew just waved me over he didn't the paddle signal anthony with the fingers and i said clutch and he shouted yes clutch so it's taking a little bit longer the problem with the clutch is if you do lose pressure you lose fluid it's not a good thing you could maybe temporarily fix it but this alien race that's a big big problem for alpine to have right now yeah that alpine is plummeting down the order and the competitiveness of this lmp2 field is not helping it to uh restrict the damage already down and about to drop out of the top 20. how many laps do we think they can afford to lose against the lmp2 cars throughout this race for them to in this period now for them to regain that well the reality is the car that was ahead of it on track the 709 car is one lap up on the lmp2 leader so that means one lap in four hours wow that's that's the simple math isn't it yeah so they really have to get this car back out there they are already in a lap basically in in one or two laps time they're already two further laps back it's you know this is just a show i mean we saw this very start of the race when the lmp2s were right behind the hypercars how really little they were pulling away it also shows by the way why there's been such a concentration on this process of what's been called stratification to drop the lmp2s away from the hyper cars because to get the open door if you like for this new era and the reduced performance that's going to come with those cars over the lmp1 cars that you're very familiar with ants um then what we've got behind them is a pack of 27 of these animals um well the problem is really is that oh i see slow zones in the slow zone bar still that's ozone if that's just a answer i don't know ten nine eight seven six five four three two one slow zone five is now removed slow zone five is now removed so when you're in a slow zone look and we see that here when you're in a slow zone you get that call from your team via eduardo's message you can release the full course yellow button even if you're within the slow zone when the slow zone ends if you're in the slow zone away you go you don't need to pass the green flag and so many drivers get that wrong look at this little lot they sit with the full course yellow button still on at 80 kph waiting to come around to where you would usually release the car on the green flags if you don't get that message either from your team or the other cars around you giving you the signal to go you're just a sitting duck and it's and on top of that is dangerous are you being plumbed in with edwardo talking to you as a driver no no so the team are getting that message and then having to relay they copy yeah his uh his signal there okay yep since who does that most efficiently gives an advantage by the way this pack is a third of the lmp3 lmp2 field right now uh not all of them by any means on the same lap but uh all sorts of people in the mix here there's number nine car that car down in eighth position after showing very well just about an hour or so ago and the one car the number five card that is a battle for position for fourth position kichar malaysia and philippians they're close together well julian canal and nicholas crunden also part in the 31 wrt a couple of seconds from the back and here comes the 36. now we're about to find out how quickly the the alpine can go because they're gonna have to push yeah now we have no choice between the alpene and the lead lmp2 cars we have a we have a race in our hands towards the end of the race i reckon because they've they've lost how many naps have they lost here three these i reckon they can get that back by the end of the race based on their speed difference but this is gonna be a long time until we see them rejoin the uh the pack of the hyper cars there's the proof of the pudding we're about to see which is that is the battle between the number one car sharma lazy great run by the way from richard mille racing to this point and team penske that's the battle for fourth place in lmp2 behind them has emerged the number 36 alpine how quickly can the car catch and pass that battle already with three lmb2s in the mirrors of a car that will be on well closer to stone cold tires and we saw to start the race didn't we gentlemen how tough it was for the 36 car to get by and pull away in these kind of circumstances from uh the lmp2 cars by the way just behind this pack is i think that's a 708 glickenhaus looking to put another lap on the 36. yeah he's going to have a bit of struggle on that because those three lmp2 cars are really really fighting hard aren't they so for a gl for a faster car to see that and to see how how hard they're fighting and how much they're benefiting from the slipstream of the albion alpine is so slow in a straight line they're even the lmp2 cars are flashing the alpine i mean i don't know what they are yeah he he's a lapsed car he he should really be letting them buy he will be he should be getting the blue flag and letting them buy he's he's in the way oh that was difficult for the glickenhaus whose fighting position is julian canal and he's fighting for position against the cars around him confusing moments you've got to ask yourself is he going to be aware of who the blue flags are for yeah genuinely yeah because he's probably thinking oh that's just for the glickenhaus who again is right behind him going into the multi corner he's going to lose a lap again here to the clicking house i don't think he's got much defense and just up the road from this battle yeah there's the yellow penske you said how long it was going to take for them to catch it the answer is more than a lap [Music] great battles all around in elephant just as we expected it has been the class of the race so far without a doubt and correct stuff from charming lazy by the way i'm very impressed with the run so far for them car and for that matter for the penske car charles malaysia his average stint time that last nine laps 336.0 put that into perspective will stevens 334.8 yeah average for his last nine laps he's he's flying out there i think they're i think they're untouchable stevens is what he's a lap up isn't he a whole lot both him and felix de costa a mega job so far isn't it just look at this it's penske down the inside i mean he had to do it he had to do it yeah because just the speed difference was too big i have to say delighted to see will stevens be noticed in a wider context with brakes coming his way in north america it's been a firm part of the palace racing crew in the european le mans series it's part of the jota set up at the wood wec and doing great things in north america as well now he was very very strong it just got ended up with the wrong formula one team didn't he and that has hurt him for so many years happens to so many people whilst we recover from that comment let's go down yes yes let us please thankfully my ears went out for just a second there so i missed that but uh seperio it's great to have you here you've just stepped out of the car you're looking a little bit shiny here but hey talk us through how your step was you've got a big smile on your face so that surely must be good yeah i mean i pushed hard as i could you know we're running in p2 and i was out there and i gave it everything um our car's a little bit tricky to drive at the moment uh but overall i'm happy and i'm looking forward to getting back out there for my other stints but you know passed over to chris just now and i'm feeling feeling happy so how is it difficult to drive what is the problem then i mean the car's a little bit twitchy a little bit edgy on the rear end um but you know it's overall just just to keep the car in one piece and keep out of trouble [Music] but ben wants to know why you're driving as a frenchman is that true so i say again are you driving as a frenchman ben says is that the wrong flag yeah rob flag uh no british for sure but um it'd be cool to be a frenchman for sure but no uh i'm gonna keep british flag and i'm happy with harry stint was great this morning and uh yeah we'll keep pushing hard yeah two budget one stolen with tanks here as well harry you were you were amazing enough that opening part of the race did the tires go off a little bit too quick for you though yeah we uh kind of burned the rears out pretty early but it actually did really well to stabilize the tire uh the mitchell sort of came back and then the second stint was like you know we'd love we'd lost some ground but we kind of stayed fairly like uh you know honest even um so yeah it was like a bit of a surprise like first few laps like get the lead and then all of a sudden select reverse a little bit but then we sort of come back and you know we're still finding second at the moment so a long long way to go we're not even on one white race yet what advice you given this young man i know he's a superstar driver but what can you give him along the way it's more more stuff about the car to be honest than just like right now you know you just gotta conserve energy you know we're like i say we're we're only two thirds of uh of one right grace we've got four four normal wet races uh in terms of distance here so just go back to moto chill out you know the stuff on the track is great so it's more just about conserving energy because come for five in the morning you're going to need it sebastian thank you very much guys christian reads in the car that's both drivers for the 77 dempsey brought on camera great stuff that wasn't a silly question uh done um to seb because on the entry lists he is listed as a frenchman for some bizarre reasons it's a typo that has been carried across multiple documents it's ruined my amount of french people in the race 38 then isn't it yes exactly by the way all sorts of overtaking opportunities taken uh in the last i'd say 45 seconds we've seen philippines and we think and he's on fresher rubber yeah yeah somebody was sitting duck there because it was dane cameron at the wheel of the number five pencey car and whenever you have usually a change of driver you get a change of all four tyres as well because obviously it takes a longer process to get the driver in and out so you might as well do that when you're doing a longer pit stop so he's on fresher rubber that's probably why he just breezes way past the number one richer mule car of charles malesi so effortlessly and uh the car looks hooked up as well that's what a nice set of uh fresh goodyear rubber is going to give you yeah also saw uh 30 habsburg not for position but carving his way through traffic into the first chicane lunging up the inside making it stick so ferdi habsburg want to watch uh making a bit of a recovery drive in the 41 car this is the penske car the bright yellow car with the third of the wrt cars ahead of it the bright green 32 car yeah van tour uh wrt team wrt so uh position yeah yeah it is for position as this is car 28 coming in squinting to see those red wing mirrors [Music] ed jones the joke goes on in that car it was a one two for jodo wasn't it before he came into the pit it was so actually this battle here is really for third on track therese van thor and philippe nazar but as you say nash's got such a good pace in comparison to cars around him he must have hang on he got a really unlucky run there see how uh miles is coming back out with him there got him easily absolute sitting duck nothing he could do caught the porsche at the wrong moment and you can see the advantage as well amazing run through from sean malaysia through into second place taking two positions no i was going to say a run like that is something epic there is the number one shot behind okay that makes a lot more sense what we'll do now he was helped by a round we'll back pedal just a touch and say doesn't that show that the straight line speed advantage of a hyper car of the biking house not the uh lp here comes the number five car this time it's gonna be up the inside and takes drinks ventura up into second place for team penske the number five car on the hands of philippines it's looking great it's just i can see he's got it absolutely dialed in himself and the car he's taking it right to the edge i love it when you see a driver and car just inch perfect like this and you just read that body language [Music] flicks the car into the most end corner we've always tempted sorry it's always tempting to break too late into that one yeah but you've got to focus on the exit instead of the entry would say we've not seen the silver drivers of either of those two cars yet number five team penske manu collard has not yet been wheeled out for the five and we've not yet seen although nikon for the 32 team wrt and that in reality is where these races are decided it's the relative pace of the lower ranked drivers menu collard with his 25th appearance here at the circuit de lazar it's not quite a record he's got a couple of he's got nine more to go to get a record i think but it's still very very impressive he'd be 60 years old it's possible the oldest is 65 this year it does give give an indication of just how impressive omni pescarolo's record was 23 consecutive races for uh [Music] cool racing's crittenden just behind julian canal for fifth in lmp2 here this is the three-car battle for fifth panas racing with julian canal nicholas crayton and louis delatraz some cracking shots by the way at the driver's parade yesterday uh louis sharing on social media shots of him his father's feet and i think it was 2007 and then uh his father on the back of the car yesterday uh john denis de la tras of course uh long time racer formula one as well as in sports cars there's another long-term racer olivia having to take hard over the curves there as the aston martin got right in the way i'm just trying to work out how louis delatraz lost position there to the cool racing car he's now reclaimed that position um because he was on the attack before remember we're against the panic car and actually had found his way past and now he's back behind so i don't know what's happened there so you you've seen the kind of bonkers-ness that's going on in the mall zone straight and you're surprised that someone's got by somebody it's to me it is like the lmp2 from the very start here has been some kind of medieval siege warfare using aurica zero seven gibsons as basically as polaxes without contact for the most part it's been cracking stuff by far for me the race within the race and as we've often said this is four races arguably five races going on at the same time in the same place that's what makes this special and i'm sure that would have been being caught up in traffic no i think i think he must have made a mistake just off camera i think he must have to lose two positions i mean he was comfortably ahead of julian canal as we know their silver driver there and now he's looking like he's shaping up another crack bitcoin is right there as well not he's not going to take this one lying down is he looks like it's his weakest corner on the track by far as the mid part of that first chicane he lost out once before remember when he was under the attack uh again yes from the panic he he didn't look comfortable through there once again he's now picked up the slipstream are they possibly running just a little less downforce in that premier car that might make sense why he's not able to carry the same kind of speed through these parts of the circuit which again gives rise to the question just how spec is back and it is you know so it's a fair question isn't it when you see discussion social media discussion or argument about lmp2 and blah blah blah formerly it's fantastic racing but there's so many ways in which you can optimize the package oh yeah you could definitely run lower down force and uh you know if you've got a strong driver lineup then you know who are confident with the car seeing a replay of that move from philippe nasa down the inside into the second chicane teams celebrating that one that was a nice move for them to watch astonishing history for team penske in world motorsport they but they've not been here since 1971 which is an amazing statistic 51 years since penske were come on right on the tail louis delatraz here i mean to back out a little bit coming in to indianapolis and then our naj [Music] uh julian canal fifth position in lmp2 louis de la trail is just behind and then nicholas croix they're not really part of it but as they sit side by side and compromise their pace he gets brought back into the party if this battle carries on for much longer we should be looking in the background for another car getting on the back of this battle because aboard the next car in line that would be eighth in lmb2 it's the 34 into europa car and we've got esteban gutierrez who is putting in quick lap times much quicker than the three we're looking at here at the moment 12 seconds back but a couple of three laps it's certainly going to be closing that gap visually yeah was around two seconds last lap around wasn't it that he closed in as the 708 glickenhaus comes into the pits from third not shall malaysia in the number one red oraca we can obviously see it much clearer in this uh this camera angle so if you're listening jim really sorry really sorry yeah [Music] comes in from from third and say roman dumat driver change going on here with uh people durrani we need by the way if you're watching this to make an apology to the hard of hearing michael malick who's listening watching uh at home who keeps hearing sean lazy in hearing john lacy uh he keeps thinking that uh john has made some of their comeback no no um this uh it's a very different frenchman indeed in all sorts of ways but uh michael good to hear that you're looking in hope you and the family are well what great driver now these days do you reckon that genre lacy would be if he came into lmp2 that's a very good question but people forget that when john finished in formula one he did race for af quarter in the gt2 car yeah but do you reckon he'd be a silver he could make a return collard style he's got silver hair that he has and it's uh his son's now peddling isn't he so you can do a father and son yeah wouldn't that be great and they could both team up with charlemagne john lacy sean malaysia [Music] on the um on the reserve list of entries was uh jan and kevin magnussen again even though obviously we had formula one this weekend in baku we could have actually i don't know how that would have played out whether kevin would just sacked off baku to come to council labor priorities kevin priority everybody else has but the rule is that uh you have to field the first named driver that if you don't feel the first name driver that entry is lost okay and that did affect an entry for the le mans 24 hours the keating motorsports entered lmp2 car that stephen thomas named and when stephen took up the offer uh with the uh the out turning of the sanctions that meant we saw algopro racing rather the team that we uh we shall not mention their name at the moment stephen took up that full season offer had therefore to leave that entry which meant the keating motorsports orica fell and if i'm right that's prevented quite an interesting prospect because i think i'm right and a couple of sources have confirmed that right that car would have been run by peugeot sport just watching this battle going on here julian julian canal an impressive stint i'd say by him as kobayashi takes the wheel of the number seven toyota meanwhile delatraz wasn't in that groups we saw there because he's pitted only eight laps in his stint instead of nine that time around but he only did six the time before that that's so he's doing a bit of a mix up with strategy down there at prema okay we'll keep an eye on that this is where actually having the information in front of us does help us to see patterns we saw that pattern last year uh with the fuel troubles for one of the toyotas and if you've not seen the toyota zoo racing film that explains how they dealt with that an extraordinary way they dealt with the fuel feed problem for potentially both toyotas i do recommend it um because it is an excellent example of how a team works in real time around a problem that could have cost them a win at the le mans 24 hours there is the premier car back out there is it still de la trans behind it it's the other green card if you're not aware of what we're talking about here this is something of a social media spa um and by spark i mean joust rather than uh expensive supermarket on the corner so sounds as if we're hearing from duncan he's got more woes for another lmp2 team the last car at the moment down in 62nd position duncan yeah the ducane car is up on the stands unfortunately and i just had a quick word one of the team members he says they have an electronic issue and it's a big one so it looks like they're starting to take the floor of the car and an lmp2 car and you guys will you know exactly how big a job that is yeah dramas as well by the way from one of the top cars in lmp2 as well as the bottom car lmp2 it's gonna be a one minute stop and go penalty for car one richard bill racing currently in the hands of charm lazy for crossing the white line at pitts entry and forcing a car off track don't think we saw did we see that did that happen at the same time also [Music] crossing the white line and therefore forcing a car off the track it seems like a quite a big thing to prepare to gonzalez uh you know what i really feel for him right now because uh they've got an epic lead uh they're and they've both drive has been driving so well will stevens and uh antonio felix de costa yeah no roberto well drove with him for for three seasons in lmp2 and um i know how nervous he'll be stepping into this car right now and uh yeah he's just got to do what he usually does you know he's he's he's consistent he's not the fastest one out there of the silvers not compared to the super silvers the young young drivers uh on their way up roberto's kind of been there and done it he's he's raced in uh indycar back in the day then retired for 12 years and came back as a businessman you know running in the family business just loved racing so much and uh once the kind of business has taken its toll and he wanted something else more enjoyment in his life he came back to racing and he was also partly responsible for wbc going to mexico it wasn't exactly the two brothers of course raced mexico city speaking of driver changes and in the importance of driver changes and who we're going to be keeping a watchful eye on uh down at car eight there brendan hartley out and rio hirakawa who replaces kazuki nakajima the multiple le mans winner and world champion at toyota kazoo racing it's time to shine now because so far we haven't seen that from him yeah they they he had a no competition in sebring uh because of jose marie lopez's crash and he could just kind of stroke it home there then in spa sebumi's leading the race by far car breaks down rio didn't get to drive this is his moment yep he's got to make it stick hasn't he and he's up against the boss because kobayashi is in the other car uh kobayashi back out on track after a one minute 21 pit stop it's one minute 23 for the number eight car where's that gonna leave them uh out on track my guess is almost together they are together it's the eight ahead of the seven i'm looking on the tracker that's the number 31 wrt car sean galileo their silver driver and um they're making their way yeah fitty party behind him four position it looks like shawn did just find his way by there and uh that car obviously yeah started from pole had that one minute uh stop and go and uh they're not completely out of this are they really i mean it's they're not in their rightful position but they have a strong driver lineup when you think that sean gale is their weakest link um you know with all due respect he's he's been in f2 before yeah for many many years and in that battle is also wally jarvis three of those four cars with the exception of the jota car are in a battle for position it's a battle for 13th position and the jota car is the leader right that's will stevens yes due to swap with roberto gonzalez that's what we were just talking about there we go and uh yeah so that's the other joker in just a quick note on vector sport who we saw caused the last uh slow zone uh indianapolis ryan reporting that he simply went too fast into the into indianapolis and made contact with the wall i'm sorry when i said the other day that is will stevens in for the driver change to gonzales so lead lmp2 car there it is on your screens yeah to explain the uh the comments we've been making about the colors of the jota cars this was a comment made by our friend i think a mentor martin haven co-commented for source always mentoring no he's mentor martin was making a public complaint about the difficulties of spotting in traffic the differences between the two jota cars and uh take a look back as we see this is the edex sport car up the inside of the 45 algar pro car [Music] sport son of patrice who owns edek a big construction company in france and that was a move for position yeah 19th in class yep as is this by the way that is oliver rasmussen going by ralph and icon who is now aboard the 32 wrt come on as we said well half an hour ago here's the face of the race where we find out how the pace between the lower ranked drivers exactly yeah they are yeah you're only as fast as the lowest denominator aren't you and they are they are the backbone of your team they're the ones that all focus is on all of your setup work all of your drive time is compromised to help them the faster they are the better your journey is from a to b in this long race here at le mans and uh it's it's not the time to be self self uh selfish you have to be selfless in your time behind the wheel and give it up for the person that's going to make that biggest difference get your fina paladi here aboard the 43 trying to find a way around sean galileo can't do it there and every time they run side by side they're just gonna invite oliver jarvis uh to be part of that party and make it a three-car train and then petrified paladi will be having to look at his rear-view mirrors as well as in front of him as from second position philippe nasra comes down pit lane look still squabbling all over the tail of him do i go left do i go right this is great stuff lmp2 has just dulled out the entertainment for this work first what is it four and a half hours so far uh and they're catching refinishing as well yesterday at quite a rate there's damn it something straight on the back of that wrt car it's not the first time we've seen that from uh oracle we saw it on a united car as well didn't we uh there was the there's something caught isn't it on the rear wing endplate some debris or other so ralph and i shouldn't just out of the pits in eighth position uh in class so he's getting his tyres up to temperature here and being caught by this galile fittipaldi jarvis train as the number one machine serves its one minute penalty and therefore will drop surely into the clutches of this fight as they get past the 93 gt pro that was great shot actually just as we came on board the uh the rear view mirror with its arrows showing as cars go past that was a system developed by corvette a couple of years ago that was not a one-minute stop and hold was it not no that i think was its regular stop so has that car done it's i don't think it has i don't think the number one has served that penalty that's eight stops for the car there was a one minute nine second uh timer pit lander on the inside and that position oh but can't do it by staying on track and uh peter dumb break joins us goody gives the place back i think here oh blimey it's all getting very very tricky here's ollie job is trying to go around the outside can't do it there i think he was looking to give the place back and then realized he couldn't because there's two further cars behind everyone will come past i think that was what went on there will he give the place back now yes i think he will and then we'll try to pull in he's not able so he's now going to try and defend from the it's going to get done by although yes and here comes fidopaldi on innocence so he's going to now lead this group jarvis side by side amazing battling in lmp2 here jarvis can't find a way through because they've got to get past the iron dams as well amazing stuff the ferrari holding got the united car there briefly that's going to split that battle up just a little bit isn't it because actually sean galilea was the one that was a a bit of the cork in the bottle finipeld is struggling to find a way past but now they are passed i'm not sure jarvis will get the chance to drag back onto the tail for the pelvic to keep an eye on this by the way just an update on the two leading cause of totals we said riya hirokawa had come out in front of kamehameha he's holding that gap at the moment and holding it reasonably well just now losing a little bit of time in the first sector but holding the boss back in the second sector gap is four seconds hirokawa from kobayashi third place was that 71 72 seconds back from the leader is people durrani in the 708 car with a further minute back ryan briscoe in the 709 clicking house all four still on the lead lap of course [Music] behind we can just see the battle underweight with a couple of the gt cars look to me to be that is the garage 59 operated inception racing car in a bit of a tussle and who's that with not the position by the look of things well there's a cool racing car 37 being overtaken by the jota car of rasmussen so it was for position i know i was talking about the gt cars in the background sorry me not being clear but rasmussen in good form here pulling that car back up the order off strategy against some of the cars around him came in from second of course the team penske car and the richard mille racing machine now that will be now that that's uh that stays out that from the the stop you already saw but we believe that car still needs to serve a penalty [Music] big long shadows here now starting to form at the mall we are at 8 30 local time we're gonna have quite a long period of of light before the sun goes down but we're gonna get into that point where the sun starts to blind you yeah coming down the straight so that's going to make it even more tricky especially with these lesser experienced drivers in the cars right now that's a really challenging point in the race peter yeah it's certainly very difficult and if you've got flies all over your screen and that kind of muck on the screen that makes it even worse um so they'll choose their visor for the stint they're going to do and drive accordingly and the team will help with all you know the experienced people would be helping to prepare the driver for these things great to see so many fans still lining the uh the walls around the circuit it's something you know we're four and a half hours in and the concert will start soon and the barbecues will be needed to fire up for dinner and i'm gonna smell all that but there are so many people still watching what's going on on circuit absolutely i mean look at the inside there oh the the spectator banks have been very well populated indeed the weather has been perfect to this point in the race there's going to be a lot of red chests lying around the campsites tomorrow isn't there yeah they certainly are make sure you hydrate people if you are outside [Music] is now up to third positioning class with everyone else pitting 22 in the pits right now as this recovery drive continues the 22 car remember off the road after contact uh at the start caught in a sandwich of wrt cars for which the 31 car was punished uh the 22 car by the way pitted from 19th position in lmp2 23rd overall here comes delatraz does indeed to the right hand side of july canal with a bit more speed the ferrari helping as well inside line for mulsanne but he was there anyway and de la trust moves up into what is third position applause down at prema lorenzo colombo enjoyed that we've got another penalty by the way to report it will be five seconds added to the next pit stop of car 44 that is the arc practice lava car from lmp to am looking where that car is in the order way down 27th place yeah christopher bought it right now yeah astonishingly tristan's uh le mans debut which i do find amazing still these two wrt cars battling 32 and from 31 this is alternation from sean gale interestingly these two have actually formed a little battle themselves here i was expecting for that battle pack to just kind of clear ralph and i should he's had a bit of a struggle this week visiting various gravel traps yeah they are falling off the back of the cars ahead sure nicholas clayton uh is lapping quicker than this pair so this battle is not helping them in fact if anything it's hindering them at the moment nicholas coyte uh it's five seconds back from oliver uh oliver rasmussen who is with now julian canal [Music] let's get down to duncan who's got will stevens with him it was a great stint for will yeah great then from willow power stint from well and he looks very happy with how he's drive just went but summarize for us how is the car just now the car is really good um you know when we've really worked hard during testing we already started with a with a great package so your week of build up let's say is always helpful when you can start with as good of cars we did so um we were really happy with the car end of practice and we've got into the race with a very strong balance so um it's nice to know all the work we've put in means we can we can drive around with a with a really solid car and already committing to a quad stint which a lot of cars can't seem to do at the moment so i think we're in a we're in a strong place right now we hear a lot of people are chasing setups with the heat that we've had today i'll take you guys by the way if you're talking you're not doing that um we actually thought the heat wouldn't be great for us to be honest um the way the car is balanced we expect to improve as track grip comes to us so um you know there's a lot of experience in this team and we know where the track should go let's say with a lot of rubber going down so i hope the balance should actually come to us more than go away from us so you can already see the attempts are starting to come down so um we are if it carries on this we should be good best luck thanks man well that's ominous isn't it with uh with will saying the car is going to come to us yeah already leading by or nearly a lap well that's good news for lovers of three racing cars bad news for lovers of blue racing cars is the 36 is back in the garage after being out for just three laps so the alpine is plummeting down again and if it's not game over it's beginning to get to the stage where this is going to be completely out of reach [Music] expecting to see alpine come to hypercar at some point 24. 2024 confirmed it'll be two cars full wec aurica chassis lmdh for those that uh not familiar with all the the various uh nomenclatures that's been chucked around hyper car in the future after this year will be composed of two different types of car lmdh lamont daytona hybrid which are based around a new generation not these cars but new generation lmp2 as we see the 36 car getting repaired with the manufacturer's choice of bodywork and engine but a spec hybrid system high performance hybrid system lmh cars such as the ones we've got for toyota here and glickenhaus for manufacturers there four-wheel drive by the way should say rear-wheel drive only for the lmd-h's four-wheel drive permitted for lmh and that can have a uh fully bespoke body chassis engine hybrid system but will be performance balanced against those other cars so what are we expecting next year uh here at le mans confirmed the two pro shows that we'll see debut next month at monza return of the toyotas uh ferrari who sort of teased their new car uh earlier this week two ferraris run by of course a follow ferrari factory making their return to top class sportsman racing for the first time in 50 years that's the lmh cars add to that two porsche lmdh cars in the hypercar class and then wc at least one cadillac uh coming to for the uh for the full wc which means we'd like to see guesting cars coming from north america my guess is porsche will want to bring more than two cars my guess is we might see the likes of toyota looking to do the same and then beyond that we've got uh in 2024 uh in europe the debut of the lamborghini lmdh car with a legion chassis now confirmed and the alpine with an aurica chassis now confirmed add to that two uh factory teams that will join the umc weathertech sports car championship at the moment uh announced only for north america so will not be coming to le mans in 2023 from bmw uh with a delaware chassis and from acura honda brand of course in north america um with an oraca chassis fantastic stuff it's all coming it's all going to happen the next two years it's all very exciting for the world of sports cars and make sure if this is the first time you're dipping in that you follow uh for the next couple of years because it is going to be the biggest motorsport that there is and le mans will get back to serious hey days let's go down to pit lane with unfortunately that old alpine just not being particularly happy today duncan well no exciting times for sports car racing frustrating times in the alpine garage they're having to change the exhaust banks on the car that's a big job guys this is going to plummet them down the leaderboard the clutch is now okay i did see them taking out the back i saw a master cylinder uh and a few reservoir pots as well so they've chained almost everything they could on the clutch but the exhaust banks that's a different ball game all together that's the exhaust that come off the side of the engine they fill the side parts of the car but then come back at the top of the body work this is going to be here quite a while i think that's effectively game over in terms of any prospect of a finish on the podium for the alpine i'm afraid because the depth and quality of the p2 field ahead of it is just too good so that means that there is a potential to see a glickenhaus on the podium well at the moment there's very much potential for clicking house on the podium it's going to come down to pay some reliability in terms of what kind of pace we're talking we're now what coming 15 minutes away from five hours into the race the click at the glicken houses are a lap up on the leading jota lmp2 car so what you basically pretty easy to do that isn't it call it a lap up after four hours six times four they should win by six laps at that kind of pace if everybody stays in good order uh seemingly something else going on with you duncan down there alpine yes audrey they've now decided to change their mind very quickly they've actually put the air box back on the car so they proved this all wrong it could possibly be one of the lambda sensors in the exhaust something that she controls the fueling system on the car so it andrew negrow's still sitting in the car you can hear it just firing up in the back and that is a very good sign absolutely is always good to have as many hypercars on the track as possible so to recap that was the initial issue appeared to require the change of the exhaust banks on the alpine that would have basically been in terms of the race catastrophic they now think it's a lambda sensor did i hear that from from duncan uh a much quicker job car is firing up and we should see that car back out and racing soon still a further delay though and as things stand right now that car has dropped out of the top 30 way below now the whole of the still untroubled lmp2 field and in the midst at the moment but still dropping of course amongst the gte pros it's gonna be a long long night for alpine so we've got fitter paladi pietro finipeldi once appeared in formula one as a replacement for roman grosjean uh at the bahraini second bahraini grand prix we've then got ollie jarvis behind him and plenty of experience here at lamar and across everything really olly jarvis uh with richard mills charles malesi just behind them winner here last year but with actually very little uh sports car experience from charlotte just an absolute style so three very very different characters of driver battling over the same piece of tarmac for ninth position at the moment in lmp2 and they are a minute back from the battle that we were following early on between gutierrez and initiative absolutely a couple of second generation racers uh linkedin with formula one in its lmp2 battles at the moment louie democrats we already talked about jean denis and the picture of philly polti of course third generation racer from the 50 baldy family gonna find that ferrari just in the middle of the road in the porsche curve so loses a little bit of time but there's another uh gt car ahead of fitter pal deets they have to go round the outside of that and it is amazing the grip level that the lmp2 car has to be able to effectively drive offline around the outside of a gt car and yet still make the next uh apex yeah i mean because that is one of the main overtaking spots there it does remain quite clear of rubber and pickup so uh it's a it's a you know a good line um what's interesting me is um the lazy car catching i wonder whether he's gonna have a chance just to rock it by both of them because ollie jarvis just can't seem to make a move on uh fits baldi in front and charlotte's got new tires as well it was a long uh it's a long pit stop for him a 135 which generally signifies that they have done a full service on that car last time whereas uh for jarvis uh and for fidopaldi it was just fuel last time so they are at least on the second stint of their tyres uh if not more because we heard from will stevens quadruple stints the stint's shorter this year we saw 11 laps out of the cars last year but just nine for this iteration and the reason for that is smaller fuel tank so no fuel usage so they're just burning more fuel it's new fuel uh it's a new fuel less calorific value for that for that fuel uh surprise surprise they are as short on this fuel as they were that was not what we were told to expect [Music] just to make a quick look here i still can't recall that number one having served that penalty so i'm just having a quick look and seeing what we can actually find uh for the number one car as we see two icons there the i mean 35 would actually be a slow tire change you would you would see tire changes in the 125s so it might be that the last time they've actually done that almost back-to-back and just looking the stunt analysis for the number one car uh nine nine nine thirteen laps on a stint here comes jarvis [Music] as java's going around lapping her car yeah because they've dropped off the back of fidopel definitely was able to clear that back marker before the second chicane whereas java's had to sit there and wait now malaysia dives to the inside whoa blimey who was that he absolutely was not aware it's the 39 car it's actually the lmp2 pro am leader sebastian barge uh who is leading nick nielsen by 11 seconds yeah we saw page in the battery didn't we he almost got a nasty surprise there when he yeah he was going to be bumped into the barrier nick nielsen is catching him by something like eight seconds a lap at the moment that's impressive sebastian is one of the uh bronze drivers in that car a swiss real estate agent yep they uh debuted this effort in the asian lavon series in february uh those four races and have continued uh with a full season plus lemon of course in the european one series good effort from uh charles to make sure that he was as far across that curb as he could possibly be to minimize the potential for contact so let's see if ollie can now recapture uh fitzpal in front or whether it's a case of um lazy behind i would have thought that he's you know with that kind of pace the way he's caught them he should be able to just drop by on the street [Music] running on board there with sharma either he's got brand new tires or he's done a drive-through penalty for uh forcing a car off track whilst crossing the white line entry it sounds like a quite a magical tour that he had but now we can finally check in with our gt pro category which is actually being led by the 92 porsche right now 91 just out of the pit so we are in the midst of pit stops we've seen the 91 and 92 basically be together throughout the whole race and switch and swap positions but is that alexander sims just behind uh corvette it is this is the battle for the lead but both those cars will need to pit and the 64 is the slower of the two isn't it because the 63 has already pitted from the lead it was the delayed calf remember this was the one where nick tammy had a problem on the downshift did have to do a circuit of the miles and roundabouts lost time that's not the factory porsche ahead of him as we come into that blinding sunlight it's the 93 car there we go here comes malaysia now just look and by the way due respect to both those races cigarette paper worth of difference between the two absolutely not a hint of contact kamui kobayashi meanwhile is closing on rio hirokawa two seconds get a good stint for rio here irikawa against the boss who i'm sure would be watching his form oh and was very interested to see the uh times coming from hirokawa into pit lane from uh the lead in gt pro porsche number 92 followed in by 64. once again it will be the battle of the two crews again if you look the uh to us the right hand side bottom of the corvette with the leds illuminated not so on the left-hand side his right are left why is that don't know i just would wanted to see whether or not we i meant to ask ollie gavin when he came into the booth earlier but it does seem to have a variety of different functions of that display uh riha her car wasn't by the way since he's got it i've got trouble for cd sports uh cd sport car which is down in 20 the 31st position and that is porsche curves that's porsche the porsche isn't it did it it didn't quite it did make the no it didn't quite make the barrier just stayed out of it made the slip road it did indeed this is good news for him now the this is the battle of the pits cruise one by the porsche wow there you go one lump on there on the left hand side now so no clue what that's all about there clearly is a functionality of those displays yeah i've seen i've seen that car come in with the left bank on and the right back off and then vice versa well is it that car or is it the other car that's how they identify the command pit lane that's the question i was going to ask ollie is that how they did differentiate between the two corvettes but one comes in with the right-hand bank and the other one comes in the left if you're listening let's message him i think we should oh you've got his phone number he never answers michael's never he never calls well i can't see your lines of me but i've got we rejoin that lmp2 battle which is for ninth in class fittipaldi now malaysian second and jarvis in third i think we are assuming graham that that penalty has been served now yeah i'm not sure what we've had from sharma lazy from the number one crew is a very solid pattern of nine lap stims now at the moment unless there's something no it can't be it's calling it a 15 lap stance at the moment for the number one car 15 15. that would be impressive so it's mr pit stop your strategy computer it looks like other strategy computer has coughed at some point so what am i asking them why does the corvette come down with one light and one light off oh side by side again java this time has the inside line so uh malaysia could go around the outside here as he did a lap ago is he later on the brakes he is a little bit later on the brakes but actually yeah jarvis claims the apex on the right-hand side puts him ahead for the left he's not giving up without a fight no dolly jarvis in pro driver mode there [Music] he would have enjoyed that move woody the last time around and i think it was a little bit of okay sunshine let's see what you've got yeah slightly perhaps surprised by the uh by the aggression from sharma lazy and actually if you're if you're uh pietro fitzpaldi's sitting in front you'll be wishing these two to fight a bit more so you can just drive off you carry on boys you go go for it now the trees down the mall stands slightly shading from the sun so we are now not getting that glare in the first part at the very least but it is the second part here isn't it where so ollie jarvis has got a nice break back now to malaysia got a car in between them and he's closing in on fitzbaldy [Music] this ebb and flow he's been with us all the way through five hours over two minutes now after a simply awful start for united auto sports 22 car course to start the race that car by the way 22nd position now in the hands of phil hansen and then the delamination front left of the 23. look at the view that charm malaysia has when he comes back into the sun there into the breaking zone to indianapolis with the bugs all over the windscreen he absolutely can't see a thing once again in the sun trying to get past the gtm ferrari pedro cannot get down the inside there that's helped olly jarvis oh yes not quite on the tail end of the durable car but he's certainly in hunting mode isn't he make sure you get in touch with us using hashtag lemar24 if you're uh sitting there and joining us for the full 24 hours uh we've got uh 19 hours to go so plenty of time to chat and ask questions oh please feel free to oh and that was that was a pro portion sort of wandering over oh and really caught my lazy off guard there he's going to lose lots and lots of time in the pros by the way 63 regains the lead by 43 seconds uh over the 92 porsche but the 92 porsche and the 64 corvette are locked together in a battle so uh that's one to watch out for van thor's leading sims right now with maka vicky in the 91 porsche 25 seconds back so they've lost some time uh in their last couple of stints yeah lauren's frontal in the mirrors the accountants mustache we're told sims that's how that was described to us that's how i described it was exactly how you described it i'm not sure whether that would be in any way intimidated and sorry for all the accountants out there if you are offended [Music] oh really had to run him off the circuit didn't he maka vicky not being his best self uh in the porsche curves here they come run down to the first chicane now good position here for ollie jarvis is he close enough here to have a look he's got the toe there's no doubt about that fittypaldi clearly got javascript as well oh yeah i think i think if he if he can make it by he's just closing drive away battle continues between pietro fidopaldi and oliver jarvis charles malaysia off the back of this group after having to force his way past the slower gt pro car at the porsche curves and so for the moment sees these two in the distance as jarvis lines up fidopaldi into the second chicane or the michigan chicane if you fancy the proper name the first one being called for this year the daytona chicane they've been caught by the leading totals now so this could be an interesting moment or two it's a bit of eben flow gap as well isn't it because it was just one and a half seconds a moment ago up to four now between hirokawa and kobayashi okay the traffic has made the difference there hurricane doing a pretty good job here definitely a pressure stint for the young man from curate japan or a mistake there by foot apology now the thing is i think he's got great straight line speed and everyone else is struggling to go by he must be carrying a little bit less wing perhaps i'm not able to do this cleaning the straight line yet into the blinding sun there does that bring back memories pizza um yeah oh we think there um it it always looks worse from the television screen in real life it's not that hard it's got it all he has as well again faster car opens door so jarvis just needs to get his head down no create a gap and leave football dude to fight with malaysia so you reckon that reckoning that pietro had higher top speed or early jarvis had higher i think pietro did because he he just seems to be you know whoever comes up behind him just sits there and doesn't isn't able to make a move so the move was made on the brakes interesting that the other car in the team is the one that was complaining about really low top speed the alex brundle car right and they they found sort of draggy issues in the gearbox it was consuming too much power that it shouldn't have been but certainly there's something about that 43 car that seems to be very slippery talking about very slippery just cut off there before we head into the back of the driver's truck always always a wise idea to knock you never know who's in the state of disrobe being massaged heavily and when you get out of the car you probably for a couple of minutes feel okay and then the massa starts and this oh my lord then you realize actually how tight the human body gets when it's fighting this sort of pummeling that you get in these cars talking about fighting and pummeling here is the battle for second place in gte pro lawrence fanture been chased down by alexander sims been a couple of issues haven't there for the corvettes but they seem to have got their heads around it and they're really working a little better on their tyres the teams are very much happier uh on both the 63 and the 64 cars tommy miller had a just a little run off the road at the end of a slow zone and now back on target hunting down the porsche and right in a place to make a position here you go here's an opportunity faster car comes through if the car in front is forced off line closing yeah he's got a run on him here here we go picked up the toe off the p2 car and gets down the inside for second place alexander sims sporting a very dale earnhardt intimidator moustache these days and of course earnhardt raised for corvette well hang on a minute we've had bencon's jurors saying it's an accountant's mustache and you're saying dale earnhardt they're not exactly the same come on he's he's driving a chevy it's a it's an intimidating moustache i've been to see very many accountants in my time and none of them look like dale earnhardt and nick tandy has got a very kind of uh ace ventura pet detective kind of wave going on and also for fans of french comic books lucky luke think of that it's it's a very hollywood hair it's really hollywood yeah yeah yeah because he said i can't grow a beard he said i could try for a year i couldn't grow a moustache or a beard that that alex could grow in sort of a month so is there something going on at corvette do you think is it november happening in june it's a north american thing all the bobsledders are always doing it you know they'll grow for months there's a little bit of facebook interesting the beard as well so he's actually shaved that off yes he had that good start didn't he was kind of a mounted man into the pits jose the leader roberto gonzalez in and out and now felipe nasa in and this is nasa's 114th stint in a row he seems to be quite he was in when i went off to dinner two hours ago it was a trouble to start with from nasa it was a quad stent from dane cameron and this is going to be if nasa stays on board he is a second stint for him we still haven't seen manu callard uh amanda's got his feet up going a man of my caliber and distinction doesn't need to be driving in this kind of heat well to give you an idea of how dominant this 38 jota run is being uh that's uh roberta gonzalez in and out uh now of the pits yeah still a minute and 25 seconds ahead of the five car before it pitted before it pitted we're still being trolled by uh joe's sport by the way are we they're still going back to look at this still zoomed in you can see quite clearly here on the side on view there's a marginal difference in wing mirror color i think to be blunt the the uh with i say this with due deference to a excellent uh social media presence from jota yeah they need to realize who's got the microphone and the international tv oh well who's got the microphone also is the man who is doing their social media who is mr buxton w oh it's not it is from his garden in oxford yes all right we're going to give it a minute however he is recently remarried what on earth is he doing well twitching and tweeting and streaming and when he should be doing i'll say this lastly married things boxing w game on yeah he's i've already uh twitter batted with them nunos for the penske duncan you are down there in the pit lane what's going on here well that's a car just left there just now great to see penske back here at the moment the brake duct hose had popped off which is behind basically below the light in the car and there's a very big diameter hose and if you don't have that on you're gonna have a lot of problems with one overheating brake so guess what fixed it yeah a quick tie wrap put that back on or a zip tie depending on what side of the pond you come from the car's back out with a fresh nose and the penske number five and uh it'll be lighter as well the car now because there'll be a gazillion fewer squished insects on the front of it and we will we will occasionally see that as we go into the evening and the light levels change or the temperature changes teams like toyota for instance will make a balance adjustment either to the front end or to the rear end set up a new nose or a new tail and just take the old one off put the new one on rather than adjust the car in situ they put on the adjustment or take off the adjustment speaking of which rio hirakawa is out and out on track and kami kobayashi has just gone through the pits so this is uh jedi padua moment with with the uh the young protege and the team boss well at the moment at the end of that stint uh in his time in the car 331-387 uh kamu kobayashi 331-514 so should be no complaints there from tota about the pace of the young man three thirty one three eight seven oh and his last lap was a thirty one eight eight seven looks like eight oh that's the iron dames and that is a run off in the porsche curves i think that's a run-off with the 41 car oh dear 41 34 20 by the 24 car so three cars involved there it was a run off an avoidance from the 41. rodrigo sales in the 24 car nick tandy a typical driver reaction oh my goodness well the iron dame's car has continued uh who is at the helm of that sarah bovee down in 15th place in their class honestly there's something trending on the back of that car though this team struggles to catch any kind of luck other than bag bad really really perennially disappointed by lady luck here comes the 24 car again let's hope this is a slightly better stab and not quite so clearly between the shoulder blades and dames as you can see down in 15th class weathertech racing leaving northwest amr and tf sport the aston's coming back into it as the temperature drops seems to be a sentence we say a lot and that is what's happening now yeah 41 uh wr2c again [Music] how do you see that one peter i see the 24 car went too wide if that you know he he got himself onto the marbles on the outside he came from too far back he should have if he was going to commit to that move he should have been right up along alongside her and uh side by side instead of way over there so she didn't see him coming yeah but mercifully both cars back underway and at pace so let's hope it stays that way i think the stewards may come to a decision on that as they did in that first corner incident with wrt and united auto sports i think else the car didn't make a very good fist at that well i still think they probably will say it's a racing incident yeah if there's no harm done they're likely just to say that no harm done now in 16 hours when the iron dam's car comes to a halt with a broken drive shaft they'll look back at that and go oh okay no you're right you're right into the pitch then number seven kobayashi i'd rather number eight rio here came in the previous lap minute 10 on pit lane for the kobayashi car 23 united auto sports there was a united daughter um pit garage is one and two that's where toyota live so how has united also sports upstream of them well they're in uh camping who annex which was a sort of temporary shed built a couple of years ago three years ago and actually they've adopted it and made it their permanent home so they have their own personal little entry in there as well michelle gatting watching in the iron dames garage not quite because it was high-class racing had that uh last year because they had the two cars magnus et cetera uh jan and kevin magnussen that's a look up for rodriguez is that just a mistake or is there damage well again you know there's a few good deeds go unpunished and few touches with another car go unpunished peter it's very rare you get away absolutely scot-free yes yeah i mean as you say it could it could have an effect in a few hours time for a few corners or yeah don't break toyota making his way safely through traffic look at the sky look at the weather it's just stunning uh changing lead by the way seven is ahead of the eight yep so that has to be an odd another pit stop undercut well no it wasn't uh i think it's speed on the outlap that's the boy [Music] uh i'm starting to venture into uncomfortable territory here now aren't i what what what would be uh a sensei's tutor i don't know not a padawan all right let's go back with jedi master and padawan right okay yeah yeah like again shouldn't that set it would be yeah again this yeah yeah i'm i'm fringing around the edges of a precipice moving on so toyota again a couple of little glitches but they are running quite happily at the front clicking house in third and fourth position still on the lead lap and a distance between them there's there's basically a safety car gap between the toyotas and the first second house and where safety guys come out now toyotas will be in one dickenhouse 708 would be in the second one and the 709 would be in the third safety car queue that's how sort of spaced out they are they're getting on four yeah two minutes 50 behind the toyotas is ryan briscoe in the fourth place car in the 709 clicking house so he's not that far away from getting lapped andre negrow is a long way away from getting lapped he's now six laps back in the alpene and as we've heard a couple of reports from duncan down in the pit lane they're woes not entirely sure they're fixed what did you do last time round 3 35 0 3 2 34's 32s for the leaders 33s on average could be back up to speed but you know lady luck has to basically torpedo all four cars in front for them really to stand at any kind of realistic chance of a a good finish from here on in um i wonder whether or not there might be an instruction to switch places to the totals possible uh because there was he was comfortably quicker than the previous stint uh but there was a second quicker the number eight car in the pits so unless there was a problem for rio hirakawa on struggling to understand how they've exchanged positions well the deal at toyota we we've been told a number of times by alistair moffitt who by the way is in his last race in a ttr shirt i have asked him to pop over join the race to say goodbye okay good and have a cup of tea and a picket with us absolutely tell some tales i mean he won't do that but we could ask we could we can do tails afterwards uh some other jump in a bar but the deal is if you are fast and you catch the car in front you get on the radio and say i'm fast and let me buy and they go okay you've got two laps and if you don't pull away back in your box son and that's always the alpine's issues are not entirely over are they i'm jay mcgraw in the gravel there and coming back very slowly onto the track through goes the toyota now seven laps down through goes the second toyota slicing through there like a knife through butter so the growl has been off on this lap he is now seven laps back in the fifth place hyper car and there is philipp senior with his back to us let's hear from toyota [Music] with turn 22 first call to wish the answer which we haven't heard is obviously do they not know to whom they are referring absolutely but that's absolutely right track limits what corner it is and this is your first warning so you know it's like a proper bit of saturday afternoon wrestling you get two public warnings and uh then there's a penalty [Music] so kamui kobayashi turns seven which is first you came i i they they also refer them by name turn seven first uk no that's turn 11 oh turn seven is tetros he's been worried about warned about running out there is this uh joe uh telling us uh i i believe that you're being trolled it's not will buxton no no no no [Music] it's someone even less important than will buxton who's the admin of uh georgia sports here social media oh is it [Music] [Music] bit of radio traffic there alpine definitely don't have the car they'd hope to have here they they needed peter because they have to stop more often they have to go faster that's all there is to it and the fact that they were really logical the fact that they weren't demonstrably faster than toyota in qualifying somehow yet they ended up with a bop change coming into the race to make them slower again than they were compared to the toyotas and they still go slower so that left them with a big mountain to climb and now they've had problems so it does look like a long long drag for them from here on in absolutely [Music] still all good up the front though both toyota's running as they should do so now kobayashi is slightly pulling away from iraq as well this is the 31 wrt car sean gale at the wheel which should could perhaps ought to be our race leader they started very strongly after qualifying very strongly but as rene rast swept into the dunlop curve to take the lead he swept onto the racing line rather irrespective of who was there hit the number 22 united auto sport car and incurred a stop and go penalty just want to say hi to the rat james rhodes former mgf cup champion an all-round hero hello ratty uh lives in the same village as one certain tandy n uh james rhodes not then bedfordshire's second most famous former mini cross racer but looks near to him absolutely all right ratty been a long time mate i'm glad to see you watching and thank you by the way for everybody who is sending in messages saying we're sitting here watching hopefully you're also enjoying a little bit of nice evening weather back home in the uk and indeed morning weather afternoon weather or dead of night weather wherever else you are watching wherever you are you can get in touch with us at martin haven at ben const at dsc editor at our lovejoy that's ah lovejoy you need to have been born and bred in the uk and been watching tv in the 80s to understand exactly what that's all about but that is another one of the twitter handles you can get us on at jasmine jafar and at davidson at duncan vincent and at louise eb although she won't answer because she's too busy at dunk v yeah okay just just duncan vincent or that lump in the pits jojo is still leading in lmp2 from prema jota in third place palace fourth cool racing into europol penske and wrt i mean a really nice spread of some of our big front running name teams and united still in the hunt in 10th with their 23 car [Music] toyota gazoo racing leading at le mans with nearly five and a half hours on the clock and barely eighteen and a half hours to go greg we've almost got this wrapped up uh yeah i think we should just go for dinner now and uh take it easy i've been mate yeah no absolutely i love you thank you uh rio her cowork by the way seems to be struggling a little bit more on this rubber as it gets a little older uh stellar stuff in on his first stint on new tyres but falling away a little uh as we get deeper into this second state stints three and a half seconds back now from kamui kobayashi great shot of a an already battle weary looking prema car i think i can't remember who it was exactly i think one of the jaguar years tom walkenshaw decided they were just going to take the car off the truck and lacquer it instead of polish it to mirror perfection and that's what you want you want to see a car in a museum that doesn't look like it's fresh out the spray booth but like well actually like it's been through bloody hell peter because that's what they go through absolutely trying to win this race trying to survive this race yeah we talked a little bit earlier on about how the race has developed over the years and um the fact that everyone is still running we haven't had a mechanical mechanical failure knock on wood um and a few years ago that just wouldn't have been the case you know even even at this stage it'd be cars out so it's it's amazing the technology has moved so far forward the teamwork the drivers everything it's um yeah it's just because well we always talk about a sprint race for 24 hours absolutely and you know here's the other thing we've got winning cars in this race they're they become cars of enormous value they just do we've seen factory cars which you quite rightly say lacquered in case of joe to sport if they win the race all they need to do is change the the color of the mirrors the number panels and both of them could be winners are worth more money well i think that's only fitting because at the end of the age end of the race the drivers the teams the fans the tv crew the commentators we're all absolutely lacking i don't see one absolutely there we go corvette racing alexander sims lauren's front tour avante are fighting back he has been since passed and i thought he would drive away but he hasn't he has not and fred macko at the moment quicker than both of them 26 seconds back at this point ferrari well a further 30 seconds back to the 52 car james callardo 22 seconds further back than that the riley motorsport car completing that train but with the vector sport car in between the 74 ferrari and the 51 and is nearly well in fact over two minutes back the riley come on we heard earlier from some bird we definitely need to update our profile picked uh pic of simsie don't we alexander sims there with the the full set hair and beard combo mentally remove the hair and don't go the full zapata tash all the way down although i guarantee when he was shaving the beard off that was the first stop wasn't it that picture very much that's alexander sims the student teacher uh i think it's fair to say that that's right actually yeah this will only deteriorate i can warn you for this broadcast the remainder of this race ratty's mate tandy there in the uh garage watching the action corvette 1-2 and porsche still chasing still in the lead lap and within a couple of uh yeah half a second actually the porsche of the uh 64 corvette there is the battle in your picture for second place in the gte pro class as they just squeaked by the ferrari that took pole the apm monaco ferrari that took pole in the gte am class which is now down in well way nowheresville um after a really disappoint i mean such a great run into the race and then a really disappointing start but the corvette just staying ahead in second place of lawrence van tour so alexander sims being chased down nicky cashberg he of the hair he is leading the race in the gt pro class at the moment [Music] good to have him back here at le mans and in lmp2 with the second jota car 28 that's the one with the uh green paint work uh that's oliver rasmussen coming out of the garage or coming out of the pit lane to rejoin the fray he slipped down little to eighth place from what was the third they were second stop they weren't they were third but they were second before uh we switched to rasmussen but it was a great fight back up yeah straight by ralph and i can uh and and i can there either caught completely by surprise or caught completely by surprise because that was an arrive and drive to make it clear here rasmussen was out there amongst some real talent and was battling hard and winning many of those battles and his fight back up the order so a good stint from oliver rasmussen and there and that was a drive-by murder i'm afraid he absolutely just went by ralph and i can here he come peter no mistakes here he was not taking prisoners no i mean i haven't been watching how quick he's been catching but um i mean that's not normally a an easy overtaking spot because you don't break very hard for that corner and you come out the previous one real quick so um yeah unusual he went on to the jesus pedal he didn't break at all just went jesus as he went through on his side um sims and vantour by the way making in-roads into the advantage of nick of the cat katzberg nicola casper nikki the cat cats the reasons behind why he's called the cat do need to be i think investigated as we go deeper into the race he's not actually called the cat yes so you got a good view of uh van tour they're running slightly wide over the white line on the exit uh detect rouge so it's a weird camera angle on the 92 isn't it somebody put their their phone on sort of uh panorama mode clearly he wasn't over the line or if he would have got a warning so well it may come yet in the 55 yeah but it normally takes a lap or two because they tell the team first and then eventually it meanders onto our screens because we don't need to know down in the garage is done convinced or down in the garage is one of our cars don't convince it you're down there this is team project one that car was in the top three in gte m but they have a bit of an issue on their hands yeah there's something wrong with the front left on it yeah front left front right as i look at it they're checking the front splitter they've got these stays that bolt the splitter to the car i think this might be an issue with one of them but unfortunately the cars in the garage the bonnets off the bumpers off both front wings have now been removed as well so a fair bit of work for the guys who do here a great shame for that car that has all the hallmarks of we've got a chronic vibration and we don't know why or where it's coming from and so we're taking everything off to try and figure out what comes off easily when it should louis de la traz in the pit lane from second in lmp2 for primer will we get a rookie team winning in lmp2 again wrt did it last year prema are right in the hunt wrt sort of were early on and then faded a bit and then came back very strongly in 2021 let's see what happens for the remaining well more than three quarters of this race looking again back to the battle for second alexander sims yellow corvette the white porsche lawrence van tour friend macko is another half a minute behind this and what's he doing in terms of lap times he's not quite on the pace of these guys but pretty much matching what leader nikki katzberg is doing these guys have had a clearer run through traffic on this last lap and again another battle here into europol and penske this is for third place esteban gutierrez in the 34 car and felipe nazar right behind him and again nasa did a triple stand uh a quad stint at the beginning dane cameron a triple felipe nasa on a second fred macko being warned in fourth place in gte pro about abusing track limits and a few more lmp2 pit stops lorenzo colombo back in the wheel of the number nine premier car as usual canal brings in the panic racing 65 car from a top six spot in lmp2 again there's a team there's a car that is having a very strong run they were very quiet kept their themselves to themselves during qualifying and free practice now they seem to be showing pace that maybe didn't make the headlights headlines in qualifying a little bit of something flew off something there maybe from the jota car well of course we had really mixed weather during qualifying so there was a lot of cars that really simply didn't set a fast lap time yeah but now we're in respec they're actually you know they're going a lot better right uh dinner time for graham goodwin he'll go and uh it's fish and chips night tonight uh and uh and the chicken and pasta and all sorts of other lovely goodies in catering meanwhile here comes nasa esteban gutierrez relatively recently into this car isn't he and the inter-europa team gets your finipali down in 10th place and this car is the one that was struggling for pace all the way through free practice all we heard from alex brundle was we don't know why we're so dog slow in a straight line possibly not exactly those words but that was definitely what they were thinking and even in free practice they were trying something radical they had an engine change for today always a little bit of a gamble you'd have got an engine in that works and then okay you fitted a new engine for the race and that didn't seem to be any better so they were thinking about going back to and i think duncan can confirm did go back to their old old engine their previous engine but here we go they didn't change the engine all right so back to philippe nasa he gets a little bit of a run the 55 spirit of race ferrari was in the way there and that meant the inter-europol car had to tighten its line and it was slower there out of our knowledge peter he's making it as hard as possible but yep able to hang on take the white light into the corner [Music] extremely quick through this bit we're not breaking through that can't get is it flat in p2 uh small lift last left fifth gear onto fourth gear to the uh next fright of porsche voice of jazzman jafar who has joined us as well as they peel into the picture at least one of them does they both in uh or is it only esteban gutierrez who came in there he hasn't quite hit the stop line and you can see bits of debris flying off the car there's as many black marks off bits of rubber that other cars throw up as there are sort of fly squishes on these cars and that's an issue with the screen as well because they tend to leave more of a mark don't they jazz that than the insect life yeah that's right this uh goodyear tyres intend to um uh have quite a bit of marbles on track to be honest uh based on the races that we've done yeah uh track is also cooling down so um there's possibly some some sections that is eating up the tyre uh yeah but there's some good battles here and uh yeah especially penske on their debut in lmp2 currently running second in class i actually saw roger penske uh martin at the grid earlier today yeah i thought i saw him yesterday we were walking in the pit lane me and sam and i thought i'd seen him and yeah yeah yeah he seemed he seemed very upbeat i went up to him and said hi roger how was your uh what are your expectations coming to this race he told me uh i came here for a podium nothing less yeah and i walked away he doesn't do average i think eighty six seven years old and and the the energy of a 25 year old he is a hard man to keep up with that's for sure and and his teams you know like chip ganassi racing more recently but penske teams since the 60s have been so hyper successful for in so many categories yeah i can imagine that he would be thrilled with the podium here at lamar and there's no question that guys like him guys like chip ganassi want to win this race out right and that you know and those are the names as well as the porsches the the ferraris the lamborghinis and all the others it's the big team names it is these giants of motorsport that this hypercar era is going to drag in it just seems to be you know that and then gt3 coming along with all the different manufacturer models that can be involved this this could be i mean it really could be the most exciting era of sports car racing in history that's right oh now you see one of the primos running white wow he had the toyota right up right up his chop ground to the corner yeah so lorenzo colombo distracted by the glickenhaus ralph and iken gets a little run back to him but the premier did make that pass by going through the inside of the chicane so i'm sure a team of their savvy and there now so we'll be going okay mate let him go let him go we've got the pace just let him go by don't pick up a penalty see he was way ahead that's the thing they might be thinking now the pass was made in too hot and then if he gives it back right you know he lets the car close right in on him they'd say okay maybe that's okay well we'll say he definitely he had made the pass going in the only reason he got by though is because he was never making the corner so gaining an advantage off check all right so there has been a little changeover down in the pits and ollie jarvis is in oh that's at the united states uh who's in the into europol yaakov schmikowski and that frees up esteban to talk to our duncan vincent yeah thank you very much in the in the pit book in the commentary box esteban you have just stepped out you look like you have done a lot of work here that looks like it was quite a hard stint for you yeah it was a it was a tough one um we for some reason we're losing uh some speed on the street so it's obviously more challenging to to fight with the cars around and yeah i mean between that and trying to be careful on the tires to to get them on the right balance uh was pretty tough but quite satisfying in the end how much time and speed are you still losing i i expect it's about three to four kilometers on the street which it's obviously not ideal even when we are behind trying to uh to get to the cutting front we really don't gain anything even with a slip stream so yeah it's quite challenging because you just need to to push more on the corners and compensate that speed and how does that work out with the end of the stud than if you're really pushing the tires hard all the time yeah it's really tough it's really tough at the end i was really struggling to keep the tires alive and of course you know being quite careful with the kurds around and and everything that could damage the tire him thank you very much it's good to see you smiling thank you thank you there you go guys fast in a straight line that's the engineer's job fast in the corners that's the driver's job yeah finipali working hard for a living and we just saw the sister car there uh in a a really tight battle nick dufrese squeezing by pietro finipaldi that was for sixth place and an indication of how super tight this class is is that yakush mikowski is currently in 13th the car came into the pits in second that's how tight it is if you come in from the lead you drop out of the top dozen places just from a pit stop obviously everybody else has to stop but that tells you how tight it is just as he was leaving to go out earlier and davidson would say i am loving how close this lmp2 battle is and of course it was an mp2 that reignited his love of sports car racing over the last couple of years and jazz you know that team you know in the jackie chan dc racing days the jota sport crew it is a phenomenally close and deep category as well so much talent and able to really race each other you can't just go yeah well they've got the best car every time it varies everybody has pretty much the same kit of tools yeah that's right i mean you know fighting for performance can be in many ways uh martin you know looking at uh how jota approached it you know they had a mixture of young engineers as well as experienced engineers this level they look at minor details that even the young engineers recommend certain fresh avenues that make a big performance in the car um vanita throws it down the inside of sean gale that was pretty ballsy stuff wow good move good second chicken got sean galil off guard right there yeah as i was saying on the on because the cars are so identical we had to do a straight line test to see the pressure loads and the um the arrow maps on the car just to gain two kilometers of top speed especially so beneficial to lamont which you see from the recent feedback from mastermind gutierrez and one of the things that we learned when we started doing virtual le mans is what the real world limitations are compared to the virtual world because i was sort of sitting in on discord chats in one of the teams and they'd finish one of the pre-races and go right we're two cases down on a straight line so then their sim racing was right i'm going to go to indy and start doing laps at indianapolis and blank off various bits of brake duct thing see how the brakes suffer compared to how the top speed works and then i'll probably go and do some more laps at le mans to see how it and that's stuff you can't do in the real world but the same sort of principles apply you get a fresh set of eyes like a sim racer coming in and and then have worked in different things to the other established engineers and then have learned different tricks different little wriggles and they'll have different experience and yeah every day is the school day isn't it you all learn from each other that's how they squeeze the team forward and and to get performance nick tandy on the socials by the way i've got the answer for uh why does one light go out okay go good and it is what green thought it's broken you know it's uh it's to distinguish the cards right okay so they will have one one daylight running light out or one let one will have a left sideline we'll have a right side okay yeah other cars use sorts of different you see sometimes at night there i can't remember who was somebody always had like a blue [Music] led strip around you know like a teenager's bedroom around the side of the front screen and there are a few and always have been you know different lights and especially in the old days when there were no lights and there was no gps tracking like we've got here you did you sort of knew on the stopwatch roughly where your car was yeah or should be and you knew roughly when he should get to you but these days tracking is an awful lot better and uh and so you know in the glare of lights well that's got two so the other one 63's got two so presumably 64 has got one front side light 63 is our race leader in gte pro mickey katzberg consisted of laps from nikki that's a two 350s in a row previously employed at bmw who of course are coming back with their new lmdh program before that he was a a touring car driver for larder and various others he's had a very entertaining sort of career over the last few years and that's a real multinational team jordan taylor american antonio garcia spanish nicki casper dutch i mean it's not just we've got to have americans filling the cars because we're an american team they go for tap they cherry pick talent as much as everybody else so nikki actually started his professional career beside me and jamie campbell walter in the nissan team gt1 there you go so that was back 2011. i thought you're going to say 20 years ago i was going to go surely he's not there i am yeah good fun to hang around we spent a lot of time with him in world touring car paddocks and and the like and he's absolutely excellent 342.3 i'm gonna uh where's me uh where's me doofer you can see that's the top speed compared to 329 of the fastest car through the speed traps which is the penske 310.0 in gte pro for the fastest car and 308.2 well as we've said before jazzman the cars in gte pro and gte ab are the same cars the difference is the driver lineups that having a starry driver doesn't necessarily give you any more in top speed yeah true but having said that sometimes uh the software updates that caters that little bit more horsepower does make a difference uh martin especially coming out of uh tetros on full throttle the system reads a little bit differently right here we have the weathertech racing porsche in the pits this is our gte am leader nikki teams just left in third place for northwest amr moving harry tinkle up to second for dempsey proton and duncan vincent in the pit lane dunk yeah thank you very much guys as the shadows grow longer here i've got philipp signo from alpine philly can you just let us know exactly what went wrong with the 36 car so we had two trouble the first one was uh with the clutch the electronic box will manage a clutch and the second one with the calls engine calls and we have to change well so in total we lost 23 minutes so it's like a nightmare it's going to make it a very very long event for you and what about the richard mille racing car the number one car how is it getting on the russian mill rating car make a good good start-up rate really good uh between the p3 and p5 so sebastian was getting a mistake has the best kitchen tree unsafe pit entry coming so a reason why we had uh one minute topanga but we're still in the match with with this car well i hope you have a good night and i shall speak to you tomorrow well you're welcome thank you thank you duncan philip senior the boss of the alpine team and also senior tech running that number one richard mille racing team he will be very happy to be around to still have people talking to in the pit lane it is going to be a long tough race as you heard that clutch issues and what sounded like coil pack ignition issues on the engine as well so a bit of a long one i just want to say hello to mrs haven hello honey watching in the garden they're having a barbecue new patio at my daughter's house hello to morgan and to matt uh i'm assuming ted is in bed and not going gaga gaga at the telly uh what's the time now you know 8 44. no he probably isn't he's probably rampaging around the garden with these diggers hello to everybody else who is joining us has joined us or has been with us from the start don't feel that you're letting the side down if you nod off uh want to say hello to bex and tom onslow cole onslow lasted less than 15 minutes from the start of the race before nodding off on the sofa that's what i call a lightweight peter spending a lot of time with tom lately actually we've been doing a bit together and yes he's um he's a bit sleepy [Laughter] he comes alive when he gets behind his steering wheel but clearly when he gets on the sofa lights out no one home uh who is that jumping into the pistols one of our lmp2 cadets that's a real team by wrt car isn't it they are coming in some way down the order having had a little bit of an issue at the start room oh in fact that's not that's not the real team car that's just left the pits roy andrade is at the wheel of that car um so we'll identify our pit callers graf racing sebastian page that's who it is sam haven in the background waving at me to identify that he's just come back in from out on the spectator banking launching around on the grid earlier on giving him the full lemon experience he's possibly just on the edge of sunburn as well but uh other than that drive through penalty for carnival 91 constant abuse of track limits and that's uh yeah unfortunately you are that's like being caught for speeding by a marked police car isn't it you you are your own undoing in that case well i wouldn't know about that no no fred makaviki knows better factory porsche driver pinged for constant abuse of track limits yeah if he's coming from a least experienced driver a lower uh graded driver it'd be understanding understandable but if you see drivers like fred who's extremely experienced over the years uh he should know way more than we do the problem is if you have just allowed yourself to meander wide over the white lines and then you've been warned of a couple of times and then you're forced to because the traffic then you know it is you know that's that that third out and and you're in for a a drive-through penalty and and that really really hurts it hurts much much more than being a kilometer slower into each of the corners and being really safe and it is but that's your racing drivers you're pushing every millimeter and you can see how much they're pushing on every single corner of every single lap no matter how tired the driver is and the car is so you know they're human they they overstep it by a yard or two occasionally yeah sometimes also martin is the slight loser focus you know this it's we're approaching six hours in you know some of the drivers are on their second quadruple or triple as they call it and um you know slight bit of mistake inching out here inching out in porsche or inching out and karting um triggers the uh judge effects that's that's calling eduardo that they have to respect track limits into the pits from third place clicking house number 708 and uh just want to say hello to teddy as well this is gaga down in the pits is another gagger this is radio gaga duncan vincent yeah thank you very much martin you you queue them up so well i am standing here with ben i walked past the garage and he was basically lying down on a chair completely horizontally you're a very very strong first stint you were up to p3 drop back just a little bit now but you're one of the fastest cars in the class yeah yeah it's going been going really well um get my words out uh yeah no i started the race i did the first hour we got up to p2 had a bit of a fight came came in p3 so we got a really strong car actually um and ricardo pereira my silver he's really fast uh he was actually a bit faster than me so we're looking really strong um my kids mike is out there and keeping consistent and doing his laps so uh fingers crossed yeah it's still a long long way to go 18 hours so hopefully we'll get back up there you'll be doing a lot of driving through the night yeah yeah i've got two triples coming up so that's why i was horizontal when he came into the garage trying to try to rest when i can you'll be needing a bit of a massage and a rub down after that maybe for mike yeah i think so yeah for sure thanks very much good luck buddy cheers it's a very kind offer duncan's going to go back and give him a rub down and massage after his uh triple triple double triple triple triple muka locker frappe uh by the way the uh change of leader was because coming out of the pits on the last stop rio got held up by a gt car and didn't get that full run up to speed as quickly as she should have done and that allowed the number eight car to sweep by number number seven cars to sweep by rather seven in the pits kameer kobayashi was the race leader 91 in the pits was not the race leader fred macko in for service cannot serve his penalty in this stop we'll have to do it at other times and duncan vincent the ground up restoration uh around an old chassis for project one complete complete car is left very good a lot of work done there when i did pull back the second thing martin and we're installing new front dampers on the car so i i think you were definitely right they were chasing some sort of vibration so let's see how we get some of these out is anybody in there driving a mercedes formula one car at the same time i wonder because it did definitely all the things that they were looking at just shouted to me they've got a vibration they've got no clue changing dampers that yeah that's that's all there is eight seven six five four three two one zone six is now neutralized zone six is now neutralized right so i was gonna say that's a wheel arch liner it's not that is an entire fender off a p2 car but all we can see is the inside and they don't tend to paint delivery on that they're about as identical to each other as jyota cars are from the outside well hello boys sooner than me i'd imagine they're hooked in you would imagine they're hooked in that's a combination of helicopter pilots loonies and photographers loonies imagine they're hooked in this is probably where we'll leave it and yes yes let's hope so a short slow zone and into the pits comes the number 31 wrt car this out of sync or did they just use the opportunity to come in this is their 12th stop and the leaders have done 10. yeah this is uh sure is out nine laps nick tandy getting ready to go back in so his twitter stream will uh go quiet for about half an hour unless he was just catching up on neighbours test match special a little bit of play at the end of the day and he's got a good battle going pinsky and cool racing this is felipe nasser and ricky taylor both the taylor brothers racing here [Music] oh again that was a really solid classic so many passes in the second chicane rather than the first why is that i think they're taking the slip stream straight down after the exit of the first chicane and taking the opportunity and they're both also actually was has been racing in america together so they know each other's uh i know the train i'd also think that um through tet ridge is a fast corner it's hard to stay close can't stay close that's what i was thinking because you you see far more into the second chicken and that's of course excellent of the chicane into a chicane so you get a set straight and if you get the second chicane get a good run through a first ducane rather you can you can get in there uh pitched off car 23 under investigation we haven't yet picked up who's missing a significant other [Music] where the bit came from is what i'm saying and i'm sure somewhere one of our 36 cameramen around the circuit is shouting down his talkback going there's a car with a bit missing here but we haven't quite seen whom so we'll have to run don't convince it which is always a a sticky position to be in let me tell you uh to see who comes in unexpectedly team project won't had gone out duquesne have gone back out with guillermo rojas at the wheel at the moment anybody who's been in the pits has left we have not had an unexpected caller long time listener unexpected caller corvetta in alexander sims pence penske cars glued to the back of the other one trying to do the re-pass well you know when you're driving on the highway and there are loads of trucks all limited to 56 miles an hour in the uk and one will be closing up on another because the limit is not quite and again you'll get that to a very slight degree here because teams will maybe back off their speed limiter by just a a smidge so they're absolutely certain they're not going to get pinged for speeding either at 60 or 80. a little bit of um bunker work there going on peter as a keen golfer you'll recognize some good technique there or otherwise right yeah i've never been involved straightening up the gravel traps i mean and actually you know the race director won't throw a slow zone just for housework like that but if one happens and there have been several cars off there as they have been at indianapolis right you can go in and clear up the gravel trap and do a bit of work and they will have a sort of little list per marshall's post if you go slow zone can we do this boss yes go and do that off you go back to green is the penske lost a little bit after all that you got jumped to the start and uh who's that in front of him get ricky taylor vicki taylor of course so he's the jumper jump quickly away out of the double yellows again racing together in the states which he clearly knows that philippe's rubbish it restarts yeah it seems like it must have been a trend from the states yeah uh you know sometimes i do fear what happens when these guys watch this back and hear themselves getting rubbished and then even ingest and then they come back and talk to you about it later no wicked you know renee rest in and out the pits leaders do in and out as well uh jota one two as oliver rasmussen stops he drops down the order from second place last time that happened he dropped down to 13th roberto gonzalez in the lead in the 38 car i know that because the timing screen tells me the breeze is picking up a little bit as well temperature is just starting to cool down it was a frantically hot day today and it is just starting to cool down a little bit now with the uh corvette driver who is the most tash-tastic in the crew the intimidator alexander sims is duncan vincent thank you very much martin haven he's just stepped out of the car here's looking very good the moustache is straight the bottle of water in your hand but alexander tell us and talk to us about that last step how was it in the car yeah it was fairly tough um in the second stint of the tyres it was uh yeah quite a lot different to the so the first in obviously but yeah as the car the fueler comes down just was learning what to do with it um yeah it's one of those you always feel sometimes in the sting you're under pressure sometimes you're feeling good but um the car's working well what information could you pass over to nick before he got in sorry what information could you pass over oh well i gave him a brief overview of the car balance through the stint through the entire life um yeah our rear radar uh camera's not working so just let them know that um settings at the back facing camera yeah our radar radar is working thankfully so we still know how close the cars are we just don't know who it is but um yeah it's fine it's fine thank you very much we'll get some rest we'll catch you later cheers thank you see phrases you hear from modern racing drivers fortunately our radar is working jasmine that's you know when you started racing that was never on your radar oh dear i can't believe i even went there but it's it's just one of the safety issues that has been introduced in these cars it's come straight from road cars yeah that's right it goes vice versa really martin you know things that are developed in many aspects in endurance racing goes into the cars itself that's been driven today and it goes uh some of the technology that's been you know useful in normal road cars goes back into motor racing and um one of the elements of gts is is um radar sensors and uh approaching fast race cars like these prototypes as you can see on the screen right now this penske is approaching one of the gtes they can see them or if they don't see them there's a there's a blinker in the screen that tells them to do so and also warns which side it's coming because in the dead of night as as all of you said so many times it's just a sea of alien lights behind you you've got no idea which way they're coming but the radar will pick up what side the nearest set of lights is going and actually that can make a well big difference between life and death for a car and you know finishing the race or not two into europol cars jakub schminkowski pietro fitipaldi right behind him uh kubra is the boss's son it is his racing career that into europol is basically based around and uh he is enjoying every minute of his world endurance championship encounters but pietro just scooting by there in the 43 car so 43-34 are you in trouble number 34 and uh through he goes i think i was if i was jacob i just let him go as well and just try and tack onto the back of him and see what he's doing see where his pace is and he absolutely did because his job as all gentlemen drivers is to lose as little time as possible against pro drivers in the field and you lose more by fighting unnecessarily with somebody who is clearly going to go by and certainly with your own teammate because both these cars want to finish on the podium and the team want both these cars to finish on the podium and that's not going to happen if you're holding up your team and that's why toyota got that two-lap rule yes we'll let you go by if you don't pull away get back because you're holding up your teammate and there you are there's the interior europol team and they started out racing with a single car in local races in a championship called vida v you know one-hour races two-hour races and gradually graduated up through le manca european le mans series and here they are this tiny team from poland is a real family run and owned operation racing in the world championship and here at le mans the shadows well i was going to say are lengthening the shadows are no longer lengthening the sun has dipped below the horizon we are now in the magic hour blue lights that photographers get oh so excited about it is 10 o'clock in europe we are six hours into the 24 hours of le mans for 2022 toyota run 1-2 kamui kobayashi in car number seven ahead of rio hirakawa in car number eight they can house give chase 708 and 709 our leader in lmp2 is up to fifth position we are no longer taking odds on an overall win for lmp2 down in 28th place is our remaining hypercar from alpine just behind them 29th overall corvette porsche corvette ferrari porsche ferrari in gte pro and gtem weathertech porsche head of northwest amr aston dempsey proton porsche and the tf sport aston ferrari having a hard time in the pro class and in the am class and peter dunbreck they were saying coming in here they didn't have race pace some of their rivals were saying well they don't really seem to be over stretching the car but it turns out they don't really have race pace exactly it's going to be a very long race for them um you know i've been in a situation driving a spiker a few times when you know you just you know the best thing you can do is get to the end and you know you're just watching your competitors drive right by you and it's it's that's the tough thing about bop balance of performance um they don't always get it right do they and i think in this instance the ferrari should be a little bit quicker so we can have a proper three manufacturer fight up the front absolutely one car pick up two cars in the pit lane matteo caroli back in with the team project one car that was rebuilt and that was we saw that live just a moment ago that's threading the eye of a needle and and jasmine you know when the driver goes wow then that was a close one wasn't it yeah that's right it's taking a lot of races right in front of our commentary booth here actually uh jumping in on the inside of the lmp2 uh back markers and uh yeah trying to inch to win a little bit more time on the exit and the problem is that the minimum corner speed for an mp2 car and a hypercar will be within a kilometer or two of each other and so you've got to do him under braking otherwise you're going to lose four or five seconds in the chicane toodling around behind him and then you have to get past him and you commit peter a lot in in the top class you commit quite a long way out and you and once you've committed that's where you're going to stop and and you can't haul it in any way in that situation you've got to be a little bit more careful because that that kind of thing can really damage the car it could have been a lot worse yeah it could have been off into the wall we've seen that so uh at this stage of the race and you know two toyotas out the front now like a fair distance you you want them both to keep going yeah you can't be can't be taking chances but on the other hand you can't not be because your teammates are only eight seconds back and you want to win this race you don't want them to thing is you can't hide anything nowadays everything is spotted back in the old days you're like oh nothing no no nothing yeah yeah but now everything is spotted the team know about it you know about it and you've got to apologize girl i'm sorry so um yeah i think the driver will be a little bit uh shamed by that a great sight there down not just at the crowded paddock but look down at the bottom with all the tents and all the motorhomes and the camper vans and the sheds and everything else the fans there a little bit of debris on the track great to have fans back still not perhaps a capacity crowd i think maybe a few people held back this year because they weren't entirely convinced that travel was necessarily going to be as possible as it has proved to be i think if they knew the weather was going to be oh like it was today and tomorrow what it looks like tomorrow um probably a few more people would have come because it's fantastic weather here this is my second 24-hour race in two weeks i didn't do the n24 three weeks ago otherwise that would have been three and three last week at spa franca shaw the most beautiful i mean absolutely like this really hot as hades on saturday the most beautiful night and then stair rods from about 10 o'clock in the morning maybe the same here well there is jim glickenhaus the team lying third and fourth with one hand on a podium position at the moment aoc bratislava's tristan vogtier has left the pit lane that looked like a bit of a long stop no only one minute 10 for them that was the only car in the pits and the number seven car game that's another replay but that is there no yeah that's another reason but a different lmp2 car yeah this is damaging to the first chicken okay this is where they get on the radio to caboodle kobayashi and go boss boss calm seb you know i'm not sure what the uh the japanese for kamui is but that's that's twice in a lap you don't survive races doing that around here because over those kerbs lives all the debris and the grit and the nasty stuff and the bits of carbon fiber not just from this race but from all the other races and and there's been quite a lot of contact in some of our support races today and the track has not been swept so that's right i mean every time you run off the circuit onto this side down the mole sound or whatever you always so the risk is slightly higher of picking up a puncture or something like that but look in your own car if you ever have to pull over onto the hard shoulder of a motorway and start up again you can hear all the stones rattling around under the car and everything else this is public road this isn't silverstone there's all that muck and debris and rubbish right they have swept it since it was public road on tuesday but all the same all the stuff that gets pushed out by the airflow from the cars the rubber that gets stuck to your tires the bits of carbon that dig into your tyres all the muck and sand and dirt and fallout from the trees and everything else yeah it's not good for tyres it's not good for suspension and it's not good for the heart race of the people watching in the team garage either so kamui just needs to keep it between those white lines a little bit more regularly well a couple of cars in the pit lane ricky taylor the cool racing car in at the moment louise beckett is down in the pit lane so we'll see if we can catch up with ricky because it is a very busy lmp2 race at the moment it sounds like the departure of a call racing car louise it certainly is i was hoping ricky was going to come out because i've been keeping an eye on his run and he's been doing great but uh he stayed in the car it was fuel only and he's back out to continue the good work well actually the next time you get to talk to an lmp2 driver just ask them exactly what it is like doing doubles and tripwell nobody's dying very few have done doubles apart from the gentleman drivers triples and quads some of the drives have been doing in this heat i mean that's that's pretty severe and jasmine you know you've got lots of relative experience of the recent experience of these cars and in hot weather and you know it is a tiny cockpit it's not exactly air conditioned even though it has got an air conditioning system that's just to keep a sensor cool not to keep you cool it is pretty brutal work inside isn't it yeah it sure is um you know this little uh events uh on top of the um driver cockpit side or the the steering wheel side and i know different teams have uh little inlets or outlets that they design which is allowed in the regulations and um some of the teams spend a lot of time because it helps the drivers doing long stints um and they design for le mans but in the early hours um there are also some designs that you you close it off because it gets too cold as well so there's good balance in both ends but in these cars yes there's a lot of heat from the brakes especially the front left brakes where the driver's side is um you feel you feel that and sometimes i feel it under my hamstrings after doing um three triple stints basically and uh but in the end uh when you get once you get to the rhythm you you get to the flow of doing of knowing what is what so uh most importantly to be consistent and peter all the physical training all the hours and hours on the bike in the gym running all that resistance training is to keep the body alive but also to stop the body as it starts slowing down distracting the brain because it is the brain that keeps the car on the track so in my mensana incorporation healthy body healthy mind and that's why you spend so much time stressing and stressing and stressing your body so that when you're doing this in the brief periods you spend behind the steering wheel in your entire year you can survive it absolutely yeah you know it's um it's one of the rare sports where you get to do it pretty much on the weekends and the rest of the time you're training doing something like a sprinter or a cyclist would be doing or in the gym and uh you just need to get yourself to that point where you're as you say you're not the body's strong fit and it's only the mind that has so it takes something out of the equation and uh driving a car is very much the mind just you know 90 once you are fit this 90 odd percent is in the mind and you know if the more your body or is demanding attention from your brain the less time you have not so much for keeping the car on the island because that is that has to be instinctive that has to be as as low stress as driving on a motorway is to a normal person because you've got to have your head for dealing with the traffic where's the guy behind me coming from what about the strategy what am i feeling from the tires what does that mean how can i adapt my driving style all of those things are going on while you're doing 190 miles an hour for you know two hours on end so the physical aspect of driving the car has to be second nature doesn't it it does and and as we know it it's a fraction of a second for you to make a mistake yeah and be thinking about something else or be you know confused with what another car is doing and all of a sudden you're sailing through the gravel yeah down at multn or somewhere with the first chicane and as as you hit the brakes and you start locking up you're like oh oh and it's all about trying to rescue it then but the mistakes made and we've seen that quite a lot in the race where and we will see even more as people get more and more tired mistakes will happen and that's when the race can be thrown away and we're really starting to see the light levels dropping now you've seen some beautiful shots in the sky and again this is just like spa last weekend just beautiful pink sky full of summer dust and pollen here that's why everybody's so snuffly but makes beautiful pictures the photographers will love it the pr people will love it and for the drivers this is one of those magic moments here the solitude of night on the streets and then coming through into the early morning when the light starts to come again and and you've still got that coolness of the evening the cars be at its best throughout the race in that so there's slightly denser air the cooler track surface is kinder on the tyres it's a bit kinder on the body and as the light comes back kinda on the eyes as well yeah i mean we often talk about that how um as the sun comes up you feel like you're you've almost made it but yeah you've got something like 10 to 12 hours yeah to go but it's the first step it's a you know it's it's like you've cracked the first step and from then on in you can concentrate and you know you can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel there are certain mental checklists aren't there well now there's going to be survive the first turn obviously after after here but but jazz getting to nightfall racing into the night okay that's the first milestone is that because daylight races are daylight races if you don't get to the night were you even at le mans so that's the first one getting to daylight is the second one there's something about getting to lunchtime then you're kind of a sprint race distance away but it's still you know a lot as we'll as we'll hear from in the final hour there's still a long way to go i mean but there are definite mental milestones where you know okay we've we've got the first bit done and night time is one of those yeah it's like a milestone checklist um martin you know coming into the night is is like entering to another race actually you have your mind you you kind of you are rested but yet again you are still pumped from um your next bit of of of racing and coming into the night is another type of challenge because you know the the visibility is a lot less um a lot more concentration is needed to pass through traffic you know certain strategies can come into play to to overtake others so it's a totally different mind game but the concentration remains the same because you have to actually put in a lot more effort simply because the visibility is less i'm looking at these pictures and coming down there from indianapolis into our nice is absolutely stunning drive is taking in none of that you're looking through the corner past the ferrari in front where is he gonna go what's he gonna catch how am i gonna get by him the brain is going all the time you know if if we're in the car we'd be terrified as as normal road drivers at the speed of approach to these corners and the the speed with which the aerodynamics can get you through and the slick tyres but all is the drive you're doing is figuring how am i going to get him how am i going to get him where is he going to make a mistake and peter that's you know that's why actually you're more mentally fatigued than you are physically fatigued because there's so much going on in the grain matter there is um again an interesting thing the speed we saw earlier on uh graphic uh it was i worked today to be 191 miles an hour and a porsche 911 down the street in the all i mean that's pretty quick that's even quicker than my aston martin dbx707 will get a random plug yeah that's only got 193 mile an hour top speed mind you it can carry five people and a lot of luggage in luxury now as we get into darkness teams being warned about having all their light panels on sweeping down into the s's is one of our gte pro battles we were riding on board a moment or two ago with the 91 porsche and that is currently chasing down the af courser ferrari for fourth place the 52 car there they are from the outside again as they go away from us with the light of the sun they get a little bit of a better view in the camera well let's get down to the pit lane and hear from louise beckett felipe nesso bringing in that uh bringing in the penske that was some drive from you yeah i had a lot of fun out there and i have to say the car is flying out there so i feel like i will work his paint off we focused a lot during the week to ro to work on the race car and expect the track evolution and i feel that played really well uh you know for the setup uh tuned tuning that we did and uh it's just great to drive you know through traffic uh clean air um it was just a shame we had a hiccup there one of our tires started to get cut any damage the bodywork so we one of our stops we had to change the front nose completely so that shuffle is back uh but hey still 17 hours to go and important is the car is running fine it's fast it's reliable and i'm just having fun out there it looked it when i spoke to the team on the grid they were saying they wasn't sure if they if the car had the speed but i mean you've really been giving us some entertainment yeah it's been a lot of fun and hey it's le mans you know it's this is why this race is so special going through traffic finding your opening doors there when you can it's just super fun i enjoy every second the night time you know it's coming in so but like i said the most important the car is fine is driving fast and i'm really grateful to be part of team penske um as they make in our preparation here and uh how about how demanding or new it is okay this is your day job but how demanding has that run been on you say again i didn't get it how demanding has the run been on you physically all right it's been it's it's always hard physically here especially the beginning of the race was super warm you know that it was probably the hot the warmest day of the week uh the weekend and uh that plays a lot into the physical side of the driver uh but i guess i'm well prepared and there's still many hours to go and i can't wait to be back in the car all right we look forward to it cheers well uh first appearance in drive for bingo a front nose there obviously as opposed to rear nose or center nose uh and felipe nasa again used to racing in the states you know ambience here are pretty much what you get in almost any imsa race most imps are races most north american races will be usually in pretty hot conditions and another driver who like you jazz came over and cut his teeth in in british f3 you know so lots of single-seater experience and then developing that into top-flight single-seaters and now top-flight sports cars and here with penske having a very entertaining race in lmp2 [Music] we're talking of entertaining races in lmp2 here is the battle for 19th place and it's as tight as any other on the racetrack tristan votier for arc bratislava against the australian james allen for algarve pro that algar pro car delayed early on but there's two battles it's always a race within a race with us isn't it we always have the race within a race lmp2 there's the overall lmp2 battle there's also the pro-am battle in lmp2 and that's what they're looking at af courses 83 car the reigning champions lead that class dkr the new boys in second arc bratislava and algarve pro well basically right now both in third their arm wrestling they're daring the other one to blink first it's a great looking battle well let's get back down to louise beckett who is busy in the pit lane and she's down at jmw dan warmthy it's lovely to see you but unfortunately the 66 jmw is in the garage it's been in here a little while what's happened uh just investigating it now but um got power steering failure so we're replacing a few components just to see if we can um isolate what the issue is but power steering um failure should be back on track fairly soon i think okay thank you all right disappoint you there for jmw one of two cars currently undergoing some remedial surgery because the team project one car that duncan vincent proudly said has left the pit lane returned on after an out lap and came back in and and peter we're back with fred macaviki he's not seen the back of a ferrari unless he's been lapping it all weekend yeah now he's suddenly in a fight for position with it um because of his penalty earlier on for limits but we're also getting to the point now where track limits will become not the thing anymore because it's getting dark and it's very difficult for them to enforce them it is very much harder to enforce the other issue potentially as the temperature changes do things change for the ferrari you know they were nowhere and sparring qualifying came right back into it and we've seen that oftentimes in the battles between porsche and ferrari where one will be completely off the pace in one set of conditions and then things will come back in taskman jafar you can see makavika here is still all over the back of the ferrari very close indeed but trying to find a way by an almost identical car is not easy oh look at that battle on the street oh wheel to wheel banging coming into indianapolis and got him on the outside wow what a move listen you guys you've got first hand experience over the last number of years of the run down to that corner for me it is still one of the most intimidating corners i'm going to say in motorsports all right the nordschleife has got lots but that you know it's coming a long way out and you know you're going to be getting there and you're really hauling on yeah yeah i mean it's it's a fantastic i love indianapolis it's fantastic that you're so quick through the right hand and you stick stick the brakes down and then down the gears and it's all cambered for the left-hander and the car just sits down and goes round ferrari's coming back at him here yeah sure is i always thought one of the biggest losses to silverstone in the last few years is is the loss of bridge bend because that was another huge corner that i'm sure when you got it right you thought oh yes enter priory yeah yeah i love priory as well it was that left-hander fantastic okay beautiful beautiful images here from the old book and just look at this stuff listen if you've never been should they come sam two thumbs up they should come sam's on a on a work experience weekend here uh with uh with dad so uh his first time at le mans just been out watching uh with uh with friends on the spectator banking as the evening sunlight comes in i'm gonna go out and have a little trip out in the darkness as well shortly but if you've never been an oyster i quite fancy it do come next here the the centenary of le mans there's there's no better reason to come it's going to be an absolute festival of motorsport and just great to see fans back here and the more we get the better corvette into the garage now then what's this all about 64 car they had issues early on they are back in nick tandy i think still at the wheel yeah it's a new breeze going on [Music] right can't have been long that he was out on track because a few minutes ago 15 minutes ago we saw him getting ready to get in the car so they have an issue and this is really bad news for the 64 team 63 antonio garcia still leaves from kevin s just porsche with fred macko now past miguel molina and up to third a little further back from the lead trio in lmp2 cool racing's ricky taylor with job for night from panic right behind him so many little battles going on manu color finally at the wheel of the number five for team penske that's currently in sixth position and we are over a quarter of the way into the race before manu color has even stepped into the car 65 back 64 back out that's pretty quick wouldn't it yeah so we're going to see said louise to have a fertile shortly and see what she can discover that was relatively quick so uh louise can hopefully have a quick chat with the team corvette is now down off it stands and out of the pit lane nick tandy back in but another two minutes 19 that's two-thirds of a lap they can't afford to lose that to anybody in that class and certainly not to their own teammates and here cool racing and panic racing again another team that's come up the ladder from le man cup through european le mans series into the world championships panic have done the same still racing in european le mans series and racing in the world championship in the wbc and here at le mans and of course uh the team boss olivier panis still very much on the pit wall doesn't physically employ the staff that run the team where he does but uh indirectly employs tech one to run these cars you talked earlier on about uh the heat being different for different cars and perhaps the ferrari will perform a bit better in the nighttime i'm looking down at the arms of gt arms and seeing how nikki team has come up in the aston martin so earlier on when it was hot the aston was nowhere it was yeah porsche one two three four yep and all of a sudden nikki's crept his way back up there and now running second and i think a fair bit quicker than uh cooper mcneil in front of him as well we've seen it seen a number of times over the years in pro and am that the aston martin performance is possibly more higher dependent than either or any of its real other rivals you know sometimes they'll be off the pace and then the rain will come and they'll be right back on it and here i think they're right back on it as the temperatures cool down so you know the only front engine car remaining in top flight gt racing and it is as you say getting right back into it and two of the astons because tf sport is in fourth in class d station had an early hold up tomo nobo fuji has just taken the car back out in 13th place down in the corvette pit louise beckett have you fertile have you discovered things yes i just spoke to alex sims he said it was the rear right break that was the issue but they've changed all four it was a really quick job for the uh by the team to get you back out so quickly that is phenomenal isn't it and and peter dry break couplings we're sort of used to seeing that when you sort of change engines and components like that but in a break line that always seems to me like asking for trouble to have a dry break but caliper changes are super fast nowadays they are incredible yeah they're designed to be changed that quickly you know as you said what the car was in for like two minutes and they changed all the brakes yeah so um yeah impressive work apparently you can get better than the quick fix fitter [Music] aboard the number eight toyota you can see the team limbering up in the garage and again you know you guys will understand as much as every other driver out there or in the race here how reliant you are on the team members you might go away get a massage get something to eat maybe you know close your eyes and lie down for half an hour or 40 minutes or something the teams don't that's why we always see these garage shots through the night and into the early morning of the of the guys in the garage just sleep in chairs they never leave because even when you've just ushered the car out jazz it could be back in four minutes yeah that's right they have to be really on their toes but people intend to forget as well martin is a 24 hour race but they've been up since 7 a.m and because of the morning warm-up at 9 00 am they have to prepare and in case of any other teething problems coming into the race um they're up more than 30 32 hours absolutely so it's it's it's a really tough job coming to this race i guarantee no mechanic here will have set his alarm for later than 6 a.m because they're not like us here in the tv compound we live here we can walk to our beds in 60 seconds they've got to get in the minibus drive in get unloaded park walk in blah blah blah so they'll have been up since six on saturday morning there's no chance they'll be even halfway through packing up and shutting the garage down by six on sunday night so that's a 36 hour day and by the time you get to the end of the qualifying week where they've had three or four days of minimum 14 16 hour days they start the race absolutely shattered so you know those guys they're the unsung heroes of racing as far as the teams are concerned and again in your if you're in the multi-car team you don't even necessarily get four four minutes you know you can wave out 64 sit down literally 30 seconds later 63 can be in yeah it doesn't you know when you've got two cars it doesn't matter you've just got rid of one there's another one that could just as easily be a pain oh shooting by goes the into europol cart not sure which one that was fabio scherrer or cooper swikovsky but right in the middle of this gte pro battle in the game oh just dives through finds some room and that holds up the porsche just porsche eased offline by the p2 car gives the ferrari driver a great chance this is miguel molina trying to get back ahead of fred makaviki [Music] i must admit i thought fred would just drive away but he's uh again the ferrari as we talked about maybe the cars coming back to them as the temperature cools down now the downside of that might be as you hear them thump over the kerbs that it will get hotter again tomorrow yep and they'll lose advantage and same same with the aston perhaps uh nikki through the night and then the team can start to move into the lead but then they're going to have a big fight tomorrow and because we're expecting the same temperatures to morris or 26 degrees or so well now after the race in spa where ferrari were really nowhere in qualifying beforehand james collado said we're just praying for rain it's our only chance and it rained and they came through and they won it be careful what you wish for but i bet you if we go to them and they're still potentially in a podium hunt in the middle of the night james collada will be praying for rain again because that might be their best next chance just to recap six and a half hours into the 24 hours le mans we are past one quarter distance toyota 1-2 in hypercar ahead of clicking house 3-4 the remaining hypercar alpine they had a gearbox issue then they had a couple of coil packs a clutch issue and a couple of coil packs go down they are still fifth in hypercar but they are in 28th place overall and seven laps behind the leaders top four cars in hypercar are on the same lap jota lead in lmp2 from penske prema the second jota car tds panic two into europol caste there are still 27 cars running in lmp2 of the 27 who started in the gt pro cast the 63 corvette has been the one with no issues that leads in gt pro from the two porsches 92 ahead of 91 91 having just served a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits fred macaviki then getting back ahead of the ferrari that we ride with miguel molina who had passed him molina hanging onto the coattails of the porsche as the temperatures start to drop a little bit the track is starting to cool the ferrari finding more pace but still they are a lap behind the leaders in gte am again ferrari a porsche still lead rather that is weathertech car the 79 car leads the all-white car but northwest amr the blue and yellow aston is in second the 98 car dempsey proton 77 porsche in third aston in fourth with tf sports 33 car and then another porsche in fourth best ferrari is uh in fifth rather best ferraris in sixth place that's the pole setting car with vanson abriel in the gte am class and we are rejoined by world champion teammaker and davidson and uh the evening is starting to cool a little the heat has gone out of the air but but not so much in the track i'm guessing the competition's still hot that's sure if that's what you're getting out of but no i'm just i'm just saying track temperature will stay much higher much longer than air temperature oh yeah well yeah exactly just walking over to the commentary box now could really feel it outside the temperature has dropped that's going to help these cars performance it's going to help the drivers feel a little bit more grip from their machinery as car seven kamui kobayashi comes in for his uh pit stop change over to mike conway [Music] saw a few uh excursions didn't we during kobayashi's time behind the wheel there and uh mike gets in he'll be looking for a cleaner stint or a couple of stints yeah yes on on one lap he fired it off twice kamui and and uh and and in both cases probably dive bombing an lmp2 car and yeah we did say at the time if i were the boss i would be having a word with him but unfortunately he is the boss so yeah had a word of himself and he said it was fine [Laughter] so as ever right from the very first in the number seven carpeted a lap earlier than the number eight car and they are still pissing a lap earlier than the number eight car there was a little bit of a position change uh a couple of stops ago when the number eight uh no number seven got a little bit held up coming out of the pit lane there was a gt car in the way didn't get up to speed and that was enough to allow the number eight car back in front that was only at momentary and mike conway takes the toyota all the long way down the pit lane and back out behind the slow gt car that's just what he did not need in this battle of equals toyota number seven leaving the pit lane finds the 54 af courser and class right it's 55 spiritual race i couldn't quite tell but that's who it was 55 spirit race ferrari heading out in front of him and that would just have blunted his pace a little bit rejoining the track so his out that will be a smidge slower than he would have liked but he was coming up to mike conway this is now on the car eight yeah uh just about to take over we saw him getting ready as hiroka was still at the wheel at the moment but mike was just about to come up to a yellow flag at marshall post six now that is tetraroo's quite a high-speed corner so i don't know who's gone off there i'm just trying to see on the circuit map now but somebody is busy around the area it's an lmp2 car and it has started moving again 32 i think [Music] rio it's a long race it's a long race let's stay calm the car is good it's a long race it's a shame we didn't get to hear rio's message to the team that was just from his engineer obviously i'm trying to tell him to keep cool the braces long but uh it was the other car that was bouncing kerbs and dive bombing led two cars though so i'm not sure what rio's uh well it's always tense times you know when you know that the sister cars come in for his pit stop you'll be going to be coming in soon and you get a bit of traffic like he's got here in the porsche curve just sometimes just feel like even though nobody can help you just to vent your frustration as yeah stuck behind a slower lmp2 car actually that is the slowest lmp2 car of the field i wonder if that was because they couldn't tell the boss off they had to tell somebody oh somebody's had a very big lock up at the chicane look at that cloud of smoke well it wasn't hirakawa he's in now boss no it wasn't uh either so whoever was just ahead of them coming across the line i'm not sure whom this is when we see mistakes starting to creep in you know that the sunlight goes down your eyes are on stalks just trying to see what's going on in front of you and as buemi gets ready to get in the car and all these little tricks that you learn along the way like do not look at the car coming towards you in the pit lane you know the car is coming in you've had the radio on spumey straps himself in with the help of his driver helper you won't be looking down the pit lane as the car comes towards you just don't want to get those kind of sun spots in your eyes from the lights and then you're blinded momentarily as you head out onto track so you're looking down at the floor you see the car come in and you instinctively just run around the car and uh always looking the right way down the pit lane instead of back towards your car fires are down for me and of course you go from this very brightly lit pit lane basically out into the pitch black right now because it is proper night time outside and you're trying to you're trying to wake yourself up i mean it's it's uh you know half past 10 here and the drivers will start to feel a little bit tired around about now and you've had enjoyed a nice bit of rest outside the car you got a job to do obviously get him back in it and you're trying to you're trying to g yourself back up trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible yeah does he come back out in the lead or does the number seven car go by him mike conway is a little bit held up coming out to start his stint sebastian bremi it looks like has retained the lead for the number eight car so battle commences between the two boys that started uh this fight the two toyotas mike conway and sebastian boehme seven seconds quicker in the pit lane on that stop the number eight car one minute 22 stop one minute 29 for the number seven car so what happened there is that enough for a tire change because they both had a driver change you would assume that they would both have had a tire change but what else happened i wonder as you know jazz it's not just about the the time that we see from the last lap of the car that is all about the pit stop it's about your in-laps and your outlaps as well that boy is on now that's true i think the smoke that you saw earlier martin even is uh uh it's probably locking in right to the pit uh limit line and uh you can see cut off here porsche curves does yeah right from puncturing is miguel molina sparking as well has he taken the whole wheel off i wonder you know if he's hit the barrier the safer barrier yeah on the first left-hander of the poor skirts because that is a lot of doubt i think wow more than just a puncture no yeah wow he looked like he failed as well on the upright but the good news is that he's less than a kilometer from the bats and from oh that's the two pro cars that's at indianapolis so he's traveled much further than we thought so we just saw the aftermath of this now was that just a puncture going up up the straight towards indianapolis and he's struggling to slow the car down and that's where his teammate overtook him right back in the pits well that is a puncture going into indianapolis we were talking about what a huge bulls corner that is that is a massive moment for migo molina there's damage to the front splitter as well on the right wheel was not rotating that right front wheel either and so that looks like suspension collapse well fingers crossed for them it is just a puncture but that is completely damaged the front splits on the right hand side as well driver change goes ahead as normal but is this going to be just a routine pit stop i think they're going to have to wheel that into the garage once this stops done well corvette have had issues now they had that brake change just now in the 64 car they had a little excursion because it had a a bit of a clutch issue as as well i seem to think so 63 is still healthy porsche have two healthy cars look that's why the wheel wasn't rotating there was nothing left to rotate of it there's not even a rim left on the inside i think it's damaged all of the inside of the wheel arch as well well it's collected loads of bits of tyre debris they're fitting new tyres are they just going to send him out to keep him on the lead lap they are they they are it's not the first time we've seen this happen in this race today the vector sports send their car back out as well didn't they drivers stayed in they just put four new tires no there was a driver change there was no there was a drive change yes yeah so driver changed there so louise beckett can hopefully uh go and have a quick word with miguel molina we've got in the meantime we've got a there was a yellow down at uh molson corner one of the lmp2s quickly withdrawn so they have probably had a little gyration and carried on either the penske or the prema car they were both down there manuka versus lorenzo colombo i think it might have been the nelson racing car number 24. they seem to pop up once i looked at the circuit map and the yellows are being removed they are on their way again antonio 250 k's 260 k's 160 miles an hour so where could you get climbing front right puncture around that part of the track i'm just trying to think uh well anywhere is the answer anyway where we go over the outside of the white lines and onto the hard shoulder i mean we talked about this uh half an hour 40 minutes ago you don't do it on a public road for a very good reason because it's full of muck and dirt and gravel and stones and rubbing you see this kind of moment there running on board there in the middle of the first chicane where they run right out wide and they do take more of the right-hand curb on the exit on the apex than either of the lmp2 or the hypercar the other thing as you will both know the kerbs are the serratus so when you ride up them you go smoothly from the curb up but then the wheel drops off on the outside and it's rough concrete and jagged rough concrete on the outside when the wheel comes back in gets pulled over i know sorry martial on the left-hand side there i know that a few years ago gt cars were experiencing punctures on that curve but that's left-hand side so but so often it is the inner side wall that gets punctured as you drag the tire back up over this rough concrete yeah you know you wouldn't run your foot over it a barefoot you definitely don't want to run your tire over it yeah they must have pushed through that stint um over that curb and might drag the tires on but it's a shame because they lost a lot of time during the stint and had to do an extra stop just to change uh um set ties but uh they might just catapult it by uh by doing a full uh full service he had only done a double stint had molina yeah in the 52 ferrari as much as you want to do in one of those closed cars but it's it's not like they were pushing that tire over its lifetime no no i think that's the thing luis beckett has more miguel molina i can see your face uh we saw the team deciding to just change the ties and go back out tell me what happened how you picked that up and what the decision was yeah just i had a contact with a prototype i think and we got the her i don't know i would like to see the image because i couldn't see him and probably was in the blind spot on on my mirrors uh i have no clue what the what will happened but yeah it was a shame because we are struggling a bit with the pace uh but we are pushing hundred percent and when you push hundred percent all the time uh these kind of things can kind of things can happen but still long to go what corner was it on okay wow early in the lap thanks luis thank you miguel lee battle in gte am that's your race leader with the weathertech porsche right in front 77 the dempsey proton porsche harry tingle at the wheel of that and this is cooper mcneil he stays in full fresh set of four and a tank good to go in third place david pittard now in the 98 north west amr so it's a porsche 1-2 with the uh ashton's 3-4 by the way from toyota the tire change on the number seven a little slower than normal that's why the pit time was seven seconds longer than the number eight and why the lead has changed and you know as as with everything else drivers make mistakes and pit crews make mistakes and it's you know seven seconds is it would have felt like a lifetime to the driver it would have felt like a lifetime to the tire change crew as well and it will be one of those things where the tyre wouldn't settle properly on the drive pegs or the gun wouldn't do it up properly or the nut wasn't coming off properly just one of those things there's your leaderboard as we approach the seven hour mark in this race toyota one two glickenhaus three four lmp it's still jota prema jota tds panas into europa anyone's race basically of the 27 the cars that started that class all 27 are still going mighty 38 having a wash and brush up that's the one with the green paint on it same as the other joe to carp and that's de costa back in yeah so gonzales out phillips de costa in they were one minute 16 ahead of the premier car with lorenzo colombo at the wheel so this might be close i need to leave the pits here when the pros are triple stinting and quad stenting the gentleman drivers are double stinting because that's pretty much as much as as much as you want to stress them gentlemen drivers will need to do six and a bit stints in a gt car not quite sure how the minimum drive time works out in stint length in the uh pro in the uh lmp2 cars so decosta out there to start his fifth stint yeah so far i mean their shorter stints of course they're only doing nine laps these days as opposed to 10 to 11 from last year that's right that's right i agree with that [Laughter] but uh so gonzales just did the two stints there plain double stint out the car and felix de costa back in and you were saying before um jazz that jota had quite a audacious strategy that they're about to embark on yeah i think uh they wanted uh roberto to feel comfortable and they wanted him to uh do the stints that he's familiar with obviously he's done this a couple of times but they didn't want him to drive deep into the night they prefer the more experienced drivers uh no not more experienced but more uh highly rated drivers like antonio and and and will into doing uh quads uh later on and just explain why that would be you know what what are the extra challenges i think for roberto mainly is is solely on pace and his confidence uh they don't want to fall into uh doing other errors but having said that this is his fifth le six lemon starts um and he knows where his weaknesses are at and he knows where his strengths are at as well and he's better off to maximize his strength than his weaknesses we saw a lot of this last weekend in the fim endurance world championship the bike 24 hours race at spa where the real pros were doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the night time to keep like team owners gentlemen drivers like roberto physically in one piece as well but i because on bikes you single stint so you get 25 or 30 minutes off before you have to be back in the garage ready for the bike to come in after the second rider so stints are short and it's very physical and so some of the older riders some of the more mature riders and and again you know that would be our our classic jump or driver guys like roberto or francois perot physically they they don't spend all their lives training like pro drivers do so they're not going to take it as they can't take quads so get them in get them to do a double and do a couple of quad stints and give them three hours rest and then they can get back in so it's a really good way of preserving your gentleman driver that help keeps his lap pace up and that keeps healthy it helps keep the average speed of the car up now you got a little bit excited with that corvette we both did didn't we jazz we both sort of flinched at the same time because we think that uh antonio garcia in the number 63 corvette may have touched that white line hit exit it's a bit of a far shot but it looked very close to me i don't know what you how you felt about that but yeah you reacted to the same well at the same point as i did as long as there was chalk dust he's okay but if he crossed it well eduardo says in his driver's briefings and this is part of the eduardo bingo that i used to play in driver's briefing that if you touch that white line i'm going to bring your car in to check that it's okay because for me it's a concrete wall okay he would always say that fair enough to us 91 porsche is in fred mcafee and uh a little little chatter on on the uh on the team uh one of our colleagues in radio le mans was looking for an interview with kamui uh sorry he's already left for hospitality because that's what the team boss has to do has to keep the uh happy yeah absolutely yeah yeah absolutely it's a good thing that didn't lay the carpet for him all the way to hospitality though yeah the carpet roller has gone off for the night so he has to walk without a car that's under his head that's uh so porsche kevin estrich currently leads but owes us a stop yes he does uh six stops only for that car and uh that bigger part yeah those six stops for that car seven now for the corvette antenna garcia that should cycle back to the top of the pile he has just left the pit lane as you say speaking of new angle i don't know sorry i'm getting very excited because the screen changed and i didn't read it entirely properly speaking about uh working right through the field the alpene with andre negrow at the wheel has only just overtaken his first lmp2 car since that uh lengthy pit stop where they had to repair the clutch there's fred macko drive through penalty for track limits fred makaviki now once he's learned a bit more about gt racing he won't make i know anthony i wish you had some i hate booth camps what i wish you could see is actually he's just going no yeah when we know how close the fight is in gt pro and uh you know these things happen it's he's a pro driver of course he knows his way around here he knows that car like the back of his hand but it's you'd never have you know no two lemana the same no 92 comes in behind 56. yeah okay 56 has lost his pit garage and uh couldn't find his way in sub-optimal there for the 92 car and again you know we think about great gte pro battles at the end of le mans you think about that corvette aston martin battle from four or five years ago that in the end went to johnny adam and the call and the aston martin team by inches and then suddenly all these little tiny details add up 56 the other team project one car their problem child has uh remains in the garage a 46 car that has been in a very very long time so basically 46 and duquesne engineering's very much delayed number 30 prototype richard bradley at the wheel is just setting that car's fastest first sector of the race out goes to the number two 92 porsche so again like we had in qualifying corvette porsche but then no corvette and porsche 64 car with that brake change particularly dropping it down the order that is corvette racing's problem child i'm afraid this weekend so far speaking of fast split times i'm looking at mike conway in the uh number seven toyota that's second place at the moment gap started around well it's eight seconds wasn't it when the two cars came out it's now 5.9 fastest first sector of the race for cool racing's yiffi yi he's in eighth place the man who's winning car last year died on him in the esses in the closing stages on the final lap of the race kubish mikowski uh just behind teammate fabio shera at the bottom of the top 10 in lmp2 and here is antonio garcia in the corvette and he has got closed company that's kevin uh no it's not kevin est behind him he's just gone past uh another car kevin s just 17 seconds back and coming up behind them sophia flourish back in the algarve pro car number 47 that car bounced out of the race on the opening lap again she was the innocent recipient of somebody else's accident the other wrt car as well that suffered that one minute stop and go penalty obviously with the contact at the start of the race uh renee rast who's again at the wheel of that uh that car uh is working his way up nicely actually just behind the panic racing is a minute behind them now one minute nine seconds graeme goodwin reporting from trackside the wind has really picked up well that's what a weaker catching will do for you uh headwinds now along the start finish straight so again all of these little changes affect the balance of the car because it means then if you've got a headwind on the start finish straight all the way down the mulsanne you've got a tailwind and that will bring you into braking areas guys just a little quicker than had been the case earlier on so when you've been out of the car and somebody else has done a quad you get back in it's dark it's cooler more grip but suddenly you're actually arriving at the braking area just a little bit earlier than you expected to yeah before before jumping in uh martin you you the engineers we informed you where the wind is picking up so mentally you already prepare before jumping in um and also you see where your references first on the outlet before you know where to break yeah [Music] [Music] well you hopefully won't need to turn your tv volume down um i hope that wasn't deafening for you as much as it was for us they must be using a different circuit map to us because i've always called tetraroos turn six that's what it says now circuit maps so turn seven is the kink after turn after tetraroo so if you're trying to make up time there try just going flat out on the corner that already is uh i guess they mean tetraroos well now we were talking about the reliability of these cars in the race and that means that wielding the marker of doom is always a little bit all there checking the mirrors there on 709. uh always a little bit of a preemptive action he's not checking the mirrors he's emptying out the gubbins from the uh cooling he was using as a as a kind of handle wasn't he to lean on having a little polish of the numbers all these things are important but i think we are going to have uh sam haven i'm going to get to be the official wielder of the market of doom because graham goodwin assures us that the number 46 team project one car is out of the race it is in the garage it is last had a ride across the gravel at about 7 15 they've been trying to fix they've changed the tire the diffusers stabilizers they've checked it end to end they can't figure out why it is a death trap and so as a result the car has had to stop so [Music] sam haven wield the marker of doom and we will officially cross the number 46 team project one porsche off our big spotters guide so 46 is the first although it's yet to be official abort of the race how many more we will have i'm not sure [Music] there are a few cars that are still a long way back in the field on the comeback trail after problems early on one of which is the algarve pro number 47 car sofia flourish at the wheel of that andre negrow in the pits for alpene elf and that car is still just ahead of the gte pro leaders and really literally just ahead of them on the comeback trail that is in 28th place overall they had a clutch issue then they had a couple of coil packs pack up on them they are our championship leaders as louise beckett points out so and really important that they finish they know they're not going to get a podium unless they send out some snipers into the forest in the middle of the night to take out some tyres but points make prizes yeah exactly and uh yeah you've got to stay out there keep plugging away and hopefully you get a bit of luck on your side so nico lapierre changes over from andre negro driver that started the race of course [Music] tough day for the opinion today [Music] so nico lapierre navigates his way around the dunlop chicane back out there with all the other drivers it seems that started this race today and uh trying to get yourself back up to speed through that donald curve to the right bit bumpy for the uh the left-hander of turn five and what's this a puncture to the left rear of the car 63 antonio garcia corvette racing how has this happened we heard earlier on from uh the problem is completely disintegrating the bodywork going way too fast there you have to be disciplined at this stage and just keep it slower than you believe you should be going otherwise you may not make it back at all how has this one happened so we did hear from the ferrari 52 didn't we that there was contact that's how that puncture happened i suspect it may be a similar story antonio garcia this is in the 63 second position gt pro he is making his way up to indianapolis he was 17 seconds ahead of kevin est so uh lost the lead already losing time hand over fist disaster for corvette racing at this stage and as that tire delaminates the rear of the car then drops on the ground and then you start pulling apart all the bits underneath the car that make it efficient to make it work [Music] so kevin esch takes over the lead of the race then fourth for porsche corvette starting to find issues with a break issue for nick tandy about an hour or so ago down now uh in behind the air of course ferrari is nicked handed so fifth in class it will be fourth once that corvette does come into the pits and suddenly a huge advantage here for 92. of course it's uh it's the news you kind of hope for when you are a driver like kevin ester and you've been trying to chip away tenths of a second and you know how closely fought this gte pro category is and then you see your competitor there limping around with a tire disintegrating the bodywork and you sometimes you do need a bit of luck in this game um being 17 seconds behind it looked like the corvette had the speed but you can see the the chaos going on in the in the pit garage the other concern of course is that there was a lot of detritus when that tire completely ripped itself apart pulling bits of car off the car itself and that was on the racing line on the exit of mulsanne heading towards indianapolis so there is lots of bits down there that in the dark will be very very hard to see oh absolutely i mean you're so limited for vision the cameras actually make it look better in many ways the the than what the human eye can cope with in these dark conditions and you're looking in the mirrors quite often especially in the gt cars and you you're getting blinded by the lights and you're back onto the racing line and you're trying to pick your breaking marker points for the blue boards in the distance and uh yeah it's definitely watching these on boards it makes it look easier as it often does back out onto circuit lorenzo colombo in the prima all-in team second now in the race behind the 38 jota that does have antonio felix de costa back aboard [Music] good news for that car that'll be back up to full speed but just look how much time the 63 is losing by having a puncture so early on in the lap had it been around here no problem at all but it's got to travel so far like we saw from the 52 a little bit earlier on you got such delicate body work around that part of the car as well the the diffuser of course um doesn't look like it's damaged too much of the uh the rear end of the wheel arch um but i think it's it's definitely a harder part of the car to repair than what we saw of the ferrari being the front end so uh nasty times there for antonio garcia we'll be able to get a better look when it comes into the light of of pit lane and you start looking at other cars when they come into the pits like this car 37 have they got any damage body work could it have been them if they touched that car how did this puncture happen number 37 is the cool racing if ye was aboard that car not sure if there was a change of driver this time and with this pit stop drops to ninth in class as we cycle through the next round of stops for lmp2 every just over every half an hour they're coming looking right at the head of the field been monitoring that gap between the two toyotas it's consistently coming down mike conway driving a phenomenal race so far not just to start the race but the job he's doing now is down to two seconds from eight sebastian buehme is telling being told on the radio that most of your times being lost in tetraroos that's the corner to really focus on as here is garcia makes it back into the pit lane now how long is this stop going to be but so much time has been lost already yeah looking at mike conway's race pace as well as you mentioned anthony he's about one second one point three seconds quicker than uh sebastian voemi's uh lap time so first of all look they're checking the brakes they want to see whether it was a brake disc i guess exploding and causing the an instant puncture but that looked fine as far as i could see [Music] this is a definite well-oiled machine down there at corvette they know exactly how to make a quick repair on a car and make the right call as well the driver needs to trust their judgement they've been at this for many many years they know this race they know how hard it can be and what it takes to uh minimize the the time loss i guess in the pits six tenths of a second lost by this car uh in sector one alone on that last lap pretty equal sectors between bohemian conway in the middle sector of the lap but uh that's quite a significant amount of time never quite know whether that's down to traffic or various factors yeah when you see the the lap time ebb and flow quite as much as that so the gap just for example is back up to three point seven seconds um last step for buemi was a 334 they slapped a 332 as he crosses the line now and conway does a 333.2 so that's why the gap's gone back up and uh yeah we look to see where the traffic was but there's another yellow flag out there uh this time marshall post 17 double yellow that's after the chicane that's been removed what happened there maybe it was the somebody having an issue with the chicane and recovering perhaps just after the chicago yeah the straight line [Music] so here is running on board conway the corner where he's been making up time at all cameron what happened to the camera there but i thought for a moment he'd lost his lights corvette goes into the garage so more than just a puncture then some more damage to repair for the 63. garcia out the car look that is not a good sign so they've refueled the car driver in there but they put the driver in ready to go but they need to do a bit more repairs look how much blanking's going on that radiator at the front now that we're into cooler temperatures i wonder why we've done the driver swap because he's he's he's only just got in there so this is where we picked it up molson corner is that guessing it i'm guessing it if it happened anyway it would have been the second chicane so at that point the tire is still in one piece but then just as we cut away from that it then disintegrates and does a bit more damage what else has been done what are they doing now what's the cause of it well i guess i guess the cause of it is that uh must have been contact we got louise down in the pit lane i can't um i can't get to the team at the moment because there's 14 men working on this car at the moment it's incredible to see them all hands on deck but as soon as i can get to somebody i can speak to i will call you again i don't know sorry if louise if you're still there i don't know if that was garcia that was out of the car and i don't understand why if it is why they've swapped the drivers i don't know if you've got a better view of the pit box there i did see a driver get out as i arrived here but um let me get round there there's so many people in front of us as well i wonder whether they planned on sending the driver the car straight back out thinking it was just a puncture and on further inspection realized that there's more to do so then the car then has to come into the into the box having already planned for it to just go straight back out because they've refueled it they've done the tires as you would usually do [Music] it's just that garcia just literally got in the car yeah we were talking about him leaving the pit uh maybe crossing the white line and yeah he'd only done a handful of laps but we don't have their we're not privy to their strategy tools we've got our own our own strategy tool that only tells us mere numbers of laps that they've done in in stints and their average lap times which is always good fun to see cycling through the vehicles that are still in the race and we do have 61 cars still running uh a couple obviously in their pit boxes as we've seen and just the one retirement from the 46 car gap back down to two seconds mike conway and sebastian buemi i'm liking this fight and uh for those of you at home watching thinking wow there's just two toyotas out in front boring they've probably got team orders and uh they're not really pushing oh they are they really are pushing it's uh it's a personal fight between those two car crews and uh yeah they've both won them on they've both been world champions those two car crews are well apart from rio hirokawa of course that replaces nakajima this year in car eight but they they want this race desperately and uh both have had a dnf in in this year's championship as well so um it's even stevens for them so this race scoring more points here of course there is puemi in front conway can see him he's got to get past this uh this slower car which he does that was a good lap from conway 29-4 very good so he really is very close now just 1.1 seconds yellow flags down at marshall point 25. plenty of uh flag waving down there today that is a corner isn't it jazz it can really catch you out really catch you out in the dark particularly and there we go okay car 93 car 93 so that is a michael fassbender porsche who is in that car right now michael is in that car right now i'm afraid and it looks like it might be in the tire barrier if not parked very close to it oh michael just as we were saying so obviously he had a quite a hefty crash in fp1 if you can remember back that far it's a lot has happened since then but in the barrier once again michael fassbender what has happened so oh he's lost a bit the front end oh no he's not giving me contact it wasn't his foot he's trying to make room for the car on the inside now who was that unfortunately he's made big contact with the tyre barrier but i would say that wasn't his fault i think you saw the car lurch to the left in desperation to make room i'd love to see another shot of that one he does get the car going but oh i i'm not sure i can blame him for that one actually tough cars on the inside that's that's a risky place to overtake but he's facing the wrong direction isn't he look because he's followed the access road don't put it behind the barrier no no that's an exit path isn't it through there we'll be in on our village if he goes that way he needs to get it turned around because if he turns around in the gravel they'll get stuck in the gravel so he's trying to find a way to do a three-pointer to get to use that access road that he's on to get back onto the track but i feel as though there'll be some work to be done on that car anyway question is who was the other car diving down the inside of the gt it was a funky livery as well it's maybe the 61. it was it was mostly white i thought maybe it was the weathertech 79 the number 80 iron links good spot there jazz he's he's frantically pointing at all the white colored cars we have oh now on our spotted guide trying to figure out not the 46 that has a massive cross drawn through it [Music] but it must be very dark and um it's hard for michael fassbender to just spin around the car and and get on track and yeah it's not an easy location [Music] i wonder if the car trying to overtake went over the curb on the intel is just trying to look at that corner and let's see a bit more detail this is this is the world this is the one 61. nicely nicely spot and kind of [Laughter] aboard the car that was on pole position in fact uh this uh monaco sponsored gtm and here is it a view again see he's trying to go let ah i think it is the car on the inside from that view it looks uh pretty damning for him but uh i it looked like michael was trying to give as much room as he could trying to drive off the track almost in avoidance but um when you first came on that shot it felt like he was about to understeer into the gravel yeah because he was pointing completely wrong direction he's he's behind the barriers here trying to do a three-point turn so he can get back onto the access road that he's on and i've not i've not seen this before come on imagine what angle the cars had i thought i saw it's hitting the barrier facing the facing the outside of the circuit and because he's on a strip of tarmac if he goes into the gravel to turn around he'll get stuck so he's effectively off he's up way off the track he's on the other side of the back yeah he's found a little place where usually a tow truck was parked and now he's trying to do a three-point turn to use that stripper tarmac on the way back you've clearly done a lot of investigative work around the outsides of the barriers i know lots of things about crashing cars [Laughter] just trying to remind myself on the regulations on that the moment you escape rule is that considered dnf [Music] that's a good point um he's still in the car i think is it considered a dnf if you get out the car and you move more than 10 meters away from it which obviously he hasn't done that reminds me of the delta wing spending hours out out on circuit trying to fix the car and he had marshall's joining mechanics joining him but he wasn't able to get too far away from the car oh the delta win right anyway the fight continues mike conway and sebastian boehemi that's where me in front as we ride on board car seven brake lights come on for the first chicane ease the car into the right flick it to the left get on power as early as you dare to get back on to the molten straight got a car in front so mike hovers to the right to pick up a bit of toe now the gts give off quite a good slipstream compared to the more slippery prototypes so a little bit of uh extra speed there for mike is he going to make it past this one he flashes the gt before the second chicane late on the breaks but it's compromised the line into there it gets the job done but uh not as ideal as just attacking the corner like he had the privilege of that time around and you're constantly assessing this from inside the car thinking okay they've had the better run that time i'll get the better run this time and it's like this massive high-speed game of chess going on using the pawns out there of the chess pieces the slower cars to your benefit as much as you can it is fascinating the way you describe the approach to to driving these incredibly fast laps because i think most of us assume you're just going all the way around the circuit on the very limit i've done a bit of that but actually there's so much thought going on and that's a clicking house facing the wrong direction 708 yes plat exit of tetrarouge by the looks of it wow so he's if he's funny spun into again a kind of a space on the inside there well he's found reverse that was the car that was closest in terms of competition team wise to toyota so uh they were already a lap down it's an outlap isn't it yeah has he so he's only made three corners seems like it's a long time since the start of the race of course and in the warm-up we saw a spin on the exit with that car was it the seven or eight or seven or nine i can't remember now it might have been a seven or nine but i was just over the curb hit the inside curb and it's bounced around and made a gentle bit of contact with the barrier left front by the looks of that yeah i think he just clobbered the curb a bit too much on the inside and the car didn't like it the bounce then started to move the rear of the car out yes it was his outlap so cold tires as well now these these uh these these cars don't have the turning circle of a london taxi that's for sure conway's in this lap that's that well are we taking advantage of two yeah he's done 11 laps just time flies when you're having fun all that we got yellow flags down uh at 33 they've now come in so just covering off the clicking house that should be on his way up at tetros and we go back to green flag racing again the gap was so tight between our two toyotas pre-pit stop [Music] i can see on the circuit map the quicken houses got going again heading down towards the uh first chicane mike looking so chilled inside that car he's driving a cracking race really really driving brilliantly so uh catching that gap and putting buena under pressure now it's all about who can get the best out laps and in laps as a fassbender makes his way into the pits first thing to do refuel the car look at that damage to the right hand side wingman are gone right hand damage and absolutely sideswiped side slapped the tire barrier didn't he well that's the damage from the car i think that's that yes that's true i mean the catapulted car that launched itself over the curve i believe um into that corner so yeah gutting times the annoying thing is he's going to take this so personally right and and it's really nothing to do with him it's not his fault but you can you know that he's going to beat himself up louise you down there yes i'm with uh vincent abraham you've just been watching the team work on the 61. uh tell us from your point of view what happened we saw the damage uh yeah i mean it's mixed emotions at the moment because we we're doing a perfect job since the beginning of the week we've been executing at his eye level every time we went into the car and then we realized in the race that were three seconds off at best so to be honest the feeling is very very bitter at the moment i don't really know what to say in uh when we're in traffic if we stay behind we lose 15 seconds in a synth so i mean we have to go for it it was an am driver in front so i thought you know i had the corner and uh just we have no straight line speed so you have to make some sort of moves to get in front i mean i was in front and or at least i was side by side and but anyway i mean the the bigger problem is we have no speed and it's just uh it's a porsche cup at the moment and it's it's a bit uh disappointing all right thank you great to hear there from vincent abril who was in the 61 car yeah it's quite busy [Music] what was the what was that message he was saying there's lots of traffic yeah complaining about the traffic so i've never seen this which is saying something because he's very experienced around this track and he's seen a lot of traffic in his time but uh he's trying to see the circuit map where he is uh in in relation to he looked pretty clear in front of him because of course he's on a push because he he gets to come in and the inlat on the outlap so important just as i was saying you know that that race between himself and mike now is is critical with who can do the best in laps and outlap so um mike's already done his stop as does uh felix de costa car 38 and he's just looks like he's harassing that uh richard mille car in front of him just look like uh the pit lane speed limit was a little bit too slow bit too conservative from the number one car and acosta's thinking come on get on with it it was and now trapped behind there as well in the in the dunlop chicane losing valuable time nothing you can do around here through the left-hander of uh turn four into five and here is buemi in the pits so what no wonder he was frustrated he wanted a fast lap in otherwise he's gonna be leapfrogged by mike conway where is conway and how fast is this stop in comparison to what we saw from the number seven just a few moments ago conway working his way through i can see on the circuit map through the ford chicane final chicane coming up for him when he's still trundling down pit lane this is going to be close pit lane released see the bright lights come on the toyota i'm looking to the left-hand side of the screen where is conway he's going to be around there somewhere was he ahead and might have already been ahead it looks like ah wait a minute he gets squeezed by the ferrari didn't he i'm not sure the ferrari realized he was there i think he's still ahead you know i think we're still in front of conway he is gap saying 2.6 so by a slightly increased margin but of course for amy now in this traffic gonna have to be careful here he's going for it oh this to the right of me we know how it feels yeah and going through in the middle of the night especially trying to gain as much time as we can it's it's nerve-wracking you put a lot of trust in the cars around you when you do moves like that you you you're quite bullish um sometimes you have to be when it's tight like this and uh you're hoping that you're seen basically and you almost go into a move like that wincing just thinking i could i could feel contact here and do you treat some cars differently than others do you know like for instance that that porsche or that house and that ferrari is going to react in a different way to most to be honest ben every overtake is a lunge so we just dive in and get out and get out as fast as we can so take no prisoners i think he's always sure no you you you do end up taking you you eyeball different cars throughout the week we've been here a long time now and uh you assess your opponents [Music] every car you come up against you're always assessing who it is who's at the wheel this is a very slow oh they're clicking out freaking out yeah so this was more than it was more than just a spin wasn't it very slow into pit lane we saw the car loop on its out lap so he's not due back in the pits but unless the the spin has damaged the tyre and therefore they need new tyres or it's got a puncture yeah it could have just severely flat spotted all four oh is that crabbing it is complete yeah so it's he's hit the barrier hasn't he oh he did glance the barrier didn't he when he on the inside but it was a kind of a it was hard to see though it could have been worse than uh or did it happen when he hit the curb on the inside or is that the reason for this yeah in the first place i mean who knows into the pits then the 708 was the better of the two clicking houses we've lost the alpene it's got toe out looks like to me isn't it and that would be the side that touched the oh no it's just yeah the right rears yeah yeah but as we know from the alpine too much time in the pits and you'll never recover it against the lmp2 cars that's a good point yeah so a p2 cars about to move ahead of the of the glickenhaus here's how it happened he was off the curb wasn't he he like the moment had gone and he still had a bit of a bounce going on the car but uh i mean it was cold tyres out loud the team see it react to that was the tyre gone already there but already crabbing look yeah already the car not pulling straight so what has happened here to the suspension [Music] always this time of the night isn't it where these mistakes start to creep in [Music] there is olivier plows i just come out the pits being the star of that car that cut the driver that qualified that car and then looking at the left rear which would have been the side that tapped the barrier wouldn't it yes as it did that 180 and so going backwards [Music] i think you would uh you and graham worked out it was only you could only spend three or four minutes in the pits and you would never recover it across the the rest of the 12 hours and and and they lost 10 minutes to get there as well that's a good point yeah and you just have to look down see where the alpine is nico lapierre currently lapping in that one and uh he's still only overtaken one lmp2 car in position [Music] he was a lap down on the uh p2 car in front now two minutes 15 and that it seems like an eternity ago that we were talking about him being one lap down on board with porsche 92 leading the race with kevin estra being pursued by jim maria bruni in the 91 car entirely sure what the uh graphic was telling us that they were seven kilometers apart they're certainly not close from what i can see on the timing screens [Music] yeah bruny's uh current still bruno's current stint he's on in the 91 353.3 the nine laps kevin astra he's telling me that he's done a 359 so far this didn't and the corvette number 63 is still in pit lane so that's a big long fix for the it was the better of the place corvettes it was the leader of our gt pro category when it had its issue [Music] and that is having its rear suspension fitted fixed so we lose that car from gt pro and again it'll be very very hard to recover we've had seen the 64 car with brake issues we saw the 52 ferrari from gt pro with a with a puncture as well which actually lin leaves just the two porsches and the 51 air of course ferrari without any maladies in gt pro so far after seven and a half hours it was such a shame that we lost the uh 63 corvette but not lost but from the the lead of the race because that was really hotting up between kevin ester and uh garcia [Music] and that uh 52 ferrari that uh chases kevin ester at the moment is uh is not for position with antonio at the wheel there [Music] no because of that puncture they had the front right uh the contact wasn't it in that corner there tetra rouge [Music] that clicking house back out no that's another mp2 car glitter now slips down now two places behind three places behind the lmp2s now they've caught up those laps that they were behind and now every position they lose this is for position so as we see that uh bodywork damage getting slowly repaired there here are boys that have worked incredibly hard that car was completely written off of brand new before yes we know how to do this we did this we've already done this in a day but half the car being repaired and renewed in the 93 having already rebuilt totally and it should be stressed that uh whilst we weren't completely sure what happened to michael fass bender with his crash on wednesday it was actually a disc failure that sent him into the wall so it wasn't driver error and that's why he got spat onto the inside of the first chicane and wrote off the chassis wrote off the car they had to rebuild a new car from scratch but when you look at the way that those porsches are built it is it actually looks quite it's not nothing it's never easy but it it's designed in a way that it can be rebuilt pretty fast in the event of contact like we've seen yeah there's certain um parts of of um it's like a lego actually in in in other words like the front body parts has a certain number that they they just plug in and plug and lock lock into it so they have like a a brochure at the back with a ikea one one to fifty fifty exactly but um yeah even the design for the for the brake days and the um brake pads as well um certain races uh for example the spa 24 hours it only takes uh three minutes to change them so this is rear left suspension on the glicken house with a you can't fix it whack it with a big hat in the mallet that's like my kind of repair job i'm good at doing stuff like that ah dear oh dear and there is jim at the back of the shot the man behind the project puts his name to the car to this and to the road car that is com that competes in other championships two types of clicking house [Music] and disappointment although the engine cover going back on obviously whatever it was it was a relatively fast fix maybe just a tow arm that was uh damaged let's hope so um what we were saying about how easy it was to put the porsche together i'm not sure ben if that's on the ikea manual yeah i've never put a lego kit together lightly only when i get frustrated i know i give it a try kick right then back on board with mike conway through the porsche curves ferrari gt car in front it's gonna be tight mike to do that yeah you're gonna have to wait for that one get the car on the exit before the right left kink make sure you're seen on the left-hand side it's another place where you always wince you think i have to do it have i been seen and now look you see you get held up into the fortune cane now it's just the way it goes you just got to be patient pick your time your moment and get on power as early as you can focus on the exit draft pass you see con uh you see buemi in front going into turn one 3.2 seconds behind now yeah it was 2.4 on the last lap so slightly elongated just catching the traffic at the wrong times up and over that uh dunlop chicane under the bridge sends you down the right-hander into the slightly cambered left right section it's a fantastic part of the track to drive right the 7-0 708 glickenhaus back out there in pit lane they have lost one two three four five six twelve lmp2 cars have overtaken it so not on the same lap not as bad as the lp no uh penalty for its issues and now olivia plays still aboard that car don't make the same mistake again on your brand new tires well was it his mistake did the car fail on him he still looked a bit weird to me but he i think he did hit the barrier i think you're right he it went 180 and i think the left rear did hit the barrier and that probably broke through the toe link tie graphics there saying m m on the front and h on the rear is that medium and hard well is that just a i missed the graphic okay have different compounds available to them i'm wondering i mean there's something you do in rallying quite a lot split the axles and have different things you can put yeah all four tires a different compound well you know you have the two softs on the front two holes on the back or you mix them side to side you can do whatever you want um in these in these cars the lmp2s they only have one compound so you can't it's it's easy for them um but yeah you do play around sometimes to uh you know it's a clockwise circuit um the left-hand side of your car naturally will take a bit more a bit more of the brunt of the force and uh you can heat them up obviously go ahead look you see him weaving around so it could have been cold tires making him have that spin before and we've heard so much about getting them in the window and making sure the tires are at operating temperature otherwise you're losing lap time and losing comfort in the car the problem is that if you're on a harder compound that's faster once you get them up to temperature you need to suffer the pain on the out lap before they get there [Music] 2.5 now the gap between the two toyotas of the head of the field 708 down to 17th position so we're going to have some enjoyable uh laps with the clicking house as it gets back itself back up through the pack should be fun to watch the 709 machine still very much in like in a comfortable third position but with a two-lap advantage over the jota that's six minutes that's a i mean it took 10 minutes for the looking house to get back to the garage so very very easy to lose that prince and abril has been given a penalty for that contact with michael fassbender we heard from louise with him about how it happened and i think pretty much a slam dunk there yeah one minute stop and go penalty as you can see on the top of your screen now penske we're at the sharp end of the field lmp2 now seventh position and this is manu color with fabio shearer just behind him in a battle four fifth position as we approach another round of pit stops for the lmp2 field they do come very very quickly don't they this year it's hard to keep up with the amount of driver changes it's rapid isn't it because of the the short amount of laps they're doing uh antonio felix de costa meanwhile personal best lap time for the race for him or that car in fact a 332.7 last lap around [Applause] he's flying out there again and a personal best first sector on the board this lap extended the gap to 38.8 seconds over lorenzo colombo who's still out there in the number nine premier what i find amazing as we're coming up close to midnight here at lamar is this is the time when the drivers can't see as much but yet the times still come down and we're seeing best laps from various different uh cars antonio phoenix decosta on the best lap that that car has done throughout the race it's amazing well don't forget the last time he was in the car is blistering sunshine um then we had uh will stevens in the car that was a bit of a late move there wasn't it was that the number that's a clear cut especially at 11 year 11 p.m 11 30. go for it yeah what's there to lose um well everything louise we can go to you let's speak uh to glickenhaus about their issues jim glickenhaus we saw the 708 crew do a fantastic job repairing the car tell me what was wrong with it i don't know we either got a puncture or he went out you know from the out lab and he lost the car he spun it unfortunately he hit the nose the rear of the side and he had to lift around which took a bit of time but it's a totally modular car it's designed to be fixed quickly we replaced everything it's back out and it's running fast so we'll move back up what did the team work on excuse me what specifically did the team work on they replaced some of the push rods some of the rear suspension the nose of the car was damaged but uh basically it was just a very quick rebuild and uh cars back out it was fantastic you gave the team a round of applause and they deserved it oh they do deserve it and you know this is part of racing i mean uh you know it happens and it doesn't mean anything and the key is when you're knocked down to stand up and keep going thank you very much jim clinton house thank you jim glickenhaus just giving us a feel of what happened to the 708 with olivia platt there is actually a onboard stream that you could watch from glickenhaus and uh i am told by those watching it that there was a little bit of contact with the wall uh before we get across midnight there's an important anniversary maybe not to celebrate um but uh it is ten years since uh ant had his big chance at le mans i didn't want me to talk brilliant oh brilliant it's been mentioned already by our pit reporter louise beckett uh so we thought we'd mention it on air about why thank you very much well thank you louise did remind me of breakfast this morning as well which uh and you have mentioned it a few times on air when people do similar things down at mulsanne that's how it happened to me [Laughter] [Music] yeah it's best to forget about that but um don't want to put any negative thoughts into any of the drivers minds in their heads listening to this and uh 13 lemons i don't realize the first one because that was such a long time ago when you 2003 yeah first time here yeah but enough about me more about these guys the team i i drove for started this program for toyota it wasn't called toy to kazoo racing back then um toyota hybrid it was and yeah 10 years ago they came back to the world of sports car racing here at le mans entered two cars and just look at them now they were they were hard times a lot a lot to learn and not just myself and the other drivers learning this new hybrid technology this new machinery never thought i'd be driving a a semi-battery-powered car when i first started racing in my career at any point is unthinkable the technology didn't exist now look at them heading the field comfortably 10 years on great technology it's such an impressive different car to drive than anything else and toyota should be at the forefront of it because they had a road car hybrid road car miles before anybody else it was a horrible looking thing the prius but yeah and it was it was laughed at actually yeah and um it wasn't cool and hybrid technology was seen as not being very cool would you believe that at one point they asked me to drive it to try and make it cooler they asked you yeah i know absolutely bizarre a bizarre marketing move i bet that looked really cool going behind all of the uh secret barriers in the middle of le mans around the circuit and finding your way in all obscure angles there is also another reason why i know all the the barriers because there are there are various legends of lamar who tell you where to go and hide in the forests uh to get the best view and sneak through this this i'm not allowed to really say this but you know when i first came to le mans never mentioned any names six and seven it was get in the back of the car we're gonna take you down this farm track through this wood wooded area and you're gonna have the best view of the mulsanne you're gonna stand in a ditch you're gonna be head height to the car wheels but it's amazing it's all coming out now [Music] in the late hours [Music] do you think toyota have had it easy over the last few years i think the assumption is that they just turn up and they know they're going to win and they all they drive at 90 and and it's a done deal without question it's been easier than than how the program started and when we had aldi and porsche as well in the lmp1 category yeah of course it's easier now they don't want it like this yeah they want competition and um we're gonna get competition uh later on this year the next race in fact peugeot arriving uh in monza in the weck so um yeah hopefully this is the last race that we see this uh utter dominance from toyota and we'll we'll see some you know big manufacturers joining the fray and uh that's what they want and they've got the extra years experience in their pocket well that's important yeah and look how long it took for them to uh to turn into this slick operation um and i went through those teething trouble years uh you know it was it was tough but um yeah quickly they they got on top of things and the hybrid technology started to improve and uh the cars did become more reliable you watch i've just cursed it now both will break down imminently it is never but any even even a standard uh internal combustion engine you know you could have a normally aspirated v8 which you've been around for for decades now and they they fail yeah um well look at the ferrari um i know it's a turbo it's a turbo engine but bar is not hybrid and and they had to change engine first run in fp1 yes and they weren't the only ferrari 488 that had an engine change through free practice so yeah they are complex cars but as long as the racing's interesting and uh as long as i always say it only takes two cars to make a motor race and we've got that right now and they are pushing these two teammates boy me and conway are pushing covered by just half a second as we see here and conway in fact is in front now of cuemis who have been nattering on um we missed that that conway somehow has found his way past the car eight this is incredible to watch actually um having two cars and teammates [Music] yeah and conway is doing it a fantastic stint he did a 30.6 average earlier 31-0 at the moment and um he's pulling away from sebastian buemi for some reason he's a lot slower than uh mike conway that slow moving car was the triple seven this is how it happened ah that's how it happened he just let him buy wow yeah he backed out of it now we heard that there were no team orders from alex first so they were there to play fair when we had an interview with them earlier in the race but that was very much i think that's when the cars were at a more even even speed you know than what they are now like jazz was saying mike clearly had a bit more speed here now is the car rate saving a bit more fuel we don't know it has been done in the past bit of lift and coast costs you you know good four to five tenths a lap around here and you can go that extra lap longer um did they just looking at the stints from before has this been a trend no they both did 12 laps lasted to round and before that as well between the other two drivers that were in the car kobayashi and hirokawa so i mean he was suffering with the rear end of the car wasn't in the first in complaining on the radio and maybe it's happening again and the car was i feel like karate was the faster car in qualifying maybe the car was just a bit more pointy and a bit more of a qualifying emphasis to the car and do they approach you in the race to the two crews approach the race in different ways on purpose to to kind of split the load and try one with one thing and one with the other no you're always looking for the for the optimum in uh with your immediate car crew and that's part of the fun i'm sure jazz you've been there before as well with uh you know trying to kind of beat your teammates via getting a better car set up than them and being a bit more smart bit more wise with playing the long game yeah that's right i mean um different avenues of trying to save the tires not not to use too much of them um also trying to pull the gap so that it's a healthy competition with the teammates as well no team orders when i uh when i was racing earlier but yeah it's all down to lap time and performance at the end of the day it's quite tricky in the lmp2 class because you have many drivers that are you know to say that silver or bronze drivers in particular that are paying to be there yeah so they are really the customer so it gets quite tricky sometimes the teams say like jota they're running two cars with two separate car crews that are paying to be there it's very hard to start trying to give team orders whereas it's a little bit different with uh two car crews of pure platinum drivers and and professionals um but he's still an odd one you know you're you're your own entity as a driver um as well as trying to play the team game as well and um that's why we often see many tense moments between teams and drivers when it comes to team orders as this is a change of position or is it a kit between car 28 yeah that was i do think the car 13 was the tds car was just enough along the side on the way into the corner but just a bit unsighted i don't think he saw he was down the inside who was in car 28 jonathan aberdeen [Music] tds right up there with matis besch aboard third position at the moment for a car that was it was not even built uh two days ago crashed into a barrier driver bronze driver the money man uh penalized and told he couldn't race here at le mans because he was deemed to have too many incidents in free practice so then they were missing a driver so sorry who stepped in there to remove him was it was it the aco the fia is two points yeah they decided that he was after a free practice one incident as well as the ultimate crash in the free practice three uh he was uh suspended from the meeting and it also points out that there was there is no correlation after this as well [Music] on the race director's recommendation [Music] i don't think i've ever seen that before happen here i'm sure it has happened before but i've never witnessed it it was one of those unfortunate incidents i saw it happen [Music] he was sort of trapped behind a gt car and ventured offline just as he was getting overtaken himself by i remember it was the 31 wrt of uh sean gale in fact so we saw that aston martin going very slowly the triple seven uh the d station car it is now being reported on our timing screens as stopped now i think it has made it to pit lane but it was it's definitely an issue for the triple seven charlie aboard that car and uh as i said we saw it very slowly um is it in the pit though it's completed all the sectors so i think it is as we see the 91 porsche and that is our second place porsche in gt pro 92 with kevin astro aboard still out there on circuit fastest first sector of all mike conway on this lap track continues to improve and he's one second faster than bromie in the first section of the lap so the aston martin has made it into pits i guess our live timing defaults to a stop if it doesn't see a car within a certain amount of time and uh louise is going to be down there so we'll be able to find out exactly what's going on with that car other than it going slowly it's uh 15th in gtam at the moment [Music] and aston martin having a much better run in the race than we saw from the early parts with tf sport in second in third in gtam sorry and north west amr in fourth with david pizzard aboard that car right now riding on board with uh jimmy bruni car number 91 in second place in gte pro as his teammate kevin ester comes into the pits driver change going on here they've got a healthy lead at this stage over their teammates [Music] it's funny in gt cars how the drivers help the driver that's just got out helps to put the driver in they don't have a dedicated driver helper um like you see in the prototypes [Music] i think i've never worked that out yeah i think the gts is a lot easier to do the belts as well and they can tighten the belts on the way out of the pit lane and i love how all of the controls come to you all the drivers sit in the same position and the steering wheel will see them they they adjust the steering wheel and the pedal box as well comes to the to the smaller driver um it's very very cool system oh yeah good work kevin it's got some work out there let's get down to louise who's on aston martin duty at the moment [Music] we're still looking into it in the triple seven but um the report is that the the driver heard some sort of bang and the car didn't work properly the the team have just told me gearbox but it's still very early days with what they're looking into and what they think it is well there that's uh bad news for d station one of three aston martins in the gt anfield no aston martin's in gt pro this year and conversely no corvettes in gta although we will see that whole category amalgamated as one for next year dame cameron in the team penske car number five driver change collared out the car back out on track now they just above midfield in lmp2 i think uh collard lost a little bit of time but you'd expect that from the silver drivers every time you see that in uh in p2 you get a shift of position car 38 leader of the race felix de costa remains in the car and then like you said before ben they're just they're just in and out in and out all the time it's such rapid uh rapid fire pit stops aren't there's nine laps it goes by so quickly thank you very much to ian court uh on twitter you can get in touch with us using the hashtag oh that was a bit of a lunge uh hashtag lamar 24. oh it's cleared off as well lunging off not too concerned about the circuit at the moment look at the time he gained is that the 43 i think it was fabio shira aboard that car he's in a rush that's for sure if i was race director you'd i'd say you have to slow down you can't just you can't just drive through the chicane and pull away from the race leader like that in court reminds us that stuart hall in 2009 uh was banned from the race during the race yes i'm stood corrected yes that that is that's correct yeah i remember that now 2009. he uses the word harshly banned as well i feel like it was here that year but i do not remember it at all uh as i said use the hashtag lamor24 uh i'm at ben constanti and i'm monitoring twitter and davidson is on twitter but not really monitoring so much but what you weren't i'm just saying you're not on twit you're not actually on your phone looking at twitter like i am [Music] we are about to hit midnight here in france and that means we are completed seven hours uh eight hours sorry of racing with 16 hours remaining the gap just one second between our top two toyotas with the number seven mike conway leading the number eight sebastian bouemi the positions changed a couple of laps ago very easily for mike they won't be pulling over to the left-hand side and letting him pass and since then mike has done the best lap of that cars race so far even though it's pitch black out there there is pace in the in the temperature of the air as well as as the track and [Music] yeah it continues to come down temperatures uh fall and you get more grip you get more downforce you get more power you get more drag as well though with the lower with the lower temperatures um but uh you'll take that you'll prefer having the car with more grip and just the way the tires work better on the tarmac as well they're not overheating you'd have less of a greasy feeling going on with less sliding from the tyre and they last better as well so you can keep pushing and pushing the car harder and as long as you can keep your concentration up stay focused and get in a nice rhythm you can sometimes actually go a bit faster in the night than uh particularly the the race start when the tracks at its hottest but then the ultimate best time is when the sun starts to rise again and you can see a bit better something changes with the circuit they call it happy hour where you just the lap times fall even further and um that's really when when it's a real joy to be at the wheel when the car is working at its best whenever we do a track lap of any individual circuit you guys always talk about reference points look at the tree on the left break then you're talking about the the blue boards on the track when it goes to the night how much and after how many laps we've done around the circle 130 right now how much are you just relying upon feel as to where you need to slow down rather than actually trying to search for those restaurant points in the dark it's a good question actually ben i think it comes with uh instincts as well your references even from gear changes you know you're so used to um doing up shifts um at a certain area and your shift lights is coming sooner um breaking points uh you know in the middle of the night small grip that you can break slightly later early on the power because there's a bit more traction uh those kind of references um change as well and uh you have to adapt into uh into the grip and um whilst it's at it and while there's this extra boost of power and grip that's where you can capitalize more performance as well

Channel: 24 Heures du Mans

Views: 65,590

Keywords: 24 Heures du Mans, 24h du Mans, 24 hours of Le Mans, Le Mans, FIA WEC, WEC, FIA World Endurance Championship, Le Mans 24 Hours, motorsport, racing, ACO, Automobile Club de l'Ouest, #LeMans24, #WEC, endurance, toyota, porsche, ford, ferrari, corvette, ligier, oreca, Aston Martin, Gibson

Id: YwpQgDLPV58

Length: 509min 42sec (30582 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 18 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/insomniaccapricorn]

Finally, thank you. Been waiting for this so long.

[u/Abdukabda]

Part 2

Part 3

[u/bladepen]

Anyone else seeing that part 1 is only available as 360p whereas parts 2 and 3 are available in various resolutions up to 1080p ?