LIVE | Full Race - Joburg Kyalami 9 Hour 2021

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to africa we have made it for the last race on the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge powered by pirelli race of the season we are here guys it is the joburg kyle amy nine hour i'm amanda busek i'm gonna be covering all the action from the active pit lane here today inside the booth we have your five-time grand prix winner john watson alongside our lead commentator bruce jones gentlemen take it away thank you very much amanda us joined by john watson the country box bringing harry benjamin is the third voice but john the stage is set biblical rain yesterday we've been watching the flags the clouds what the weather brings we do not know but it's going to be a scintillating finale between those crews trying to work out who is going to win the title ferrari audi and the outsiders from mercedes all in the mix yes one thing i always say at the start of any race that we commented on please make sure every competitor can get through the opening lap without making contact and there's a view we didn't see much of yesterday bruce clear skies over the great metropolis of johannesburg and there you can see this the the gap between the city and thailand that used to be nothing but well wide open spaces the city is encroaching even more on the kailami circuit well it's a fabulous place to go racing and john's pointed out we'd like them to get through the opening lap without contact there are little wet points around the circuit still three points at least around the lap where the little stream runs across the circuit the drivers be very wise to that but it could yet catch them out and there's the view on the exit of sunset one of the greatest points of the circuit but so the drivers will be looking at every image they can get john to just see they just don't want to find a surprise on the opening lap well it's always coming through sunset on the opening lap cars will probably be coming through not line or stern but side by side so if anybody catches that wet patch or those wet patches they need to be aware that uh the grip will suddenly just go to zero well good crowds coming in and earlier we caught up with stefan rotell the boss of ceo the man who makes it all happened and he caught up with amanda after two months it is finally time for the last race on this 2021 intercontinental gt challenge powered by pirelli season we are at the kaialami nine hour joined by the founder of sro stefan ratel and stephan i'm sure you just have a sense of pride that fills you from your team pulling off this event when you look at everything around the points battle within the drivers what do you make of all of it right it has been one of the most challenging event to to organize ever when omicron burst out i mean we were literally the team was flying the next day to south africa and uh breaking news at eight o'clock in the evening i'm like what go tank region johannesburg can't be it's a joke it can't happen to us but it was of course we lost a number of cards on the way because teams you know in the world of gt racing have a lot to do some had to go then you have the dubai 24 hours and then so on and and so it was it was sad to to lose part of the grid but i want to thank the the one that that made it so like of course they flew to the middle east and threw back the cars it's a lot of effort and you know we have less car but we have a very high level of competition and uh and also the the weather in in kylem is always challenging we changed we thought it was only at the end of november beginning of december the rain season but apparently it's still like this on the first weekend of february so uh but it i'm sure despite the the lower grid i think it will be a good race when you reflect on the history of this event and the list of prominent names that have raced here including our own john watson how did you know that kaialami would be the perfect destination for your series oh but you know the idea of the intercontinental was to have five iconic races on five iconic circuits with gt only no prototype gt wins overall we had spa it started with a link between spa and bathurst then we suzuka joined with the thousand kilometers that became the ten hours and then we had to create our own event because it was not gt only endurance events in america so we started with the california towers that we finally moved to indianapolis and then we i think we found our own a growing grid and when you have four continents then you did africa and in africa there is only one circuit to international standard and it's kylami and to revive the the once legendary kailemi nine hours was was really the thing to do i mean the list of cars and drivers that won this event it was it was always the closing event of of of the the world sports car championship for for many many years so it was a great addition to the intercontinental gt challenge forward by pirelli well this will be the last race on the 2021 season what's on the horizon for 2022 i mean you know it's been such a challenge to to promote a global series uh under covered condition you know the the bathrooms are always been moved around and it it's it's really a challenge so after this race we're gonna regroup we're gonna sink what we do and and i think we we have to come back to to the traditional calendar of the five race we had and and hoping post covied so we we're we're discussing with the promoter and we will soon announce what we're doing well it has been announced that valentino rossi is going to be joining the european series tell us more about that and how it came to be oh it's uh it's the best one of the best possible news we could have dreamed of for the championship you know it's beside beside the the sport man the character in itself is a real hero he's a legend and to welcome such a legend in our championship he's it's absolutely epic and i'm sure it it's already giving a lot of publicity to the the fanatic gt world challenge and uh and we look forward to seeing motorboat bike fans coming to see four-wheel racing thank you stefan thank you always interesting to hear the thoughts of stefan ratel and i think anybody organizing a championship in these straightened times has had a considerable job to do but i mean it was the 11th hour and this race got postponed at the end of last year but it's here it's now and let's go down to the grid because amanda has caught up with the man who'll be starting from pole position that's the man in the 89 mercedes it's rafael martiello well from that pre-qualifying session the 89 mercedes will start on the pole here today at the kyalami nine hour and rafaeli as you get set for today where's your mind at currently no i mean i i'm quite calm it's nine hour race so i mean you have to see the start it's quite wet still in the mainstream there is a big river so i mean it will not be easy but i mean it's the same for everyone and then it's nine hour race can be wet a bit so i mean we just have to to survive i don't expect many safety cars because yeah there are unfortunately not so many cars so speed will be quite important and yeah we will see we'll be in front of the pack you'll get to set the pace for this race as we kick it off what wins this waste here today i think today can be the speed because as i said there are not so many safety cars so i mean if you lose a position then maybe to recovery will not be so easy so i mean it's important to stay in front and yeah not to lose so much time well as we continue on to the grid i want to go catch up with nicholas nielsen over there who will be piloting one of the ferraris that we'll take to the track here today and kaialamia nicholas as you set your intention for today what's ahead for you and your team yeah i mean obviously it's a long race i think we're looking really strong but obviously we have to see what is going to happen when the race start but i mean we're in a good position i think uh i think we're more than ready to uh to try and do everything we can when you look back over the season you guys won spa indy was a fun stop for you guys as well but here at the kaialami last race of the year for you guys first time racing in the intercontinental gt challenge what will you take from this year it's been a a good year to say the least i mean we've done a fantastic job over the whole season not only in the gtl challenge but if you've seen all the championships we've attended in and yeah i'm i'm really proud of everyone um from af course and uh hopefully hopefully we can can make a great job here and take another championship nicholas what would it mean to you to be the driver's champion this season it will mean a lot i mean like you said we've had a fantastic season and and it would be nice to to add this one to the cv as well well guys i know uh take a look at this packed greg here to be here in kailami when we faced the chaos of this year that we weren't sure whether this race was going to be pulled out you got to thank the igtc team for being able to pull this out take a look here at the sun energy car they are the car at the top of the line for pro am and i know we're going to get ready to get to this race the national anthem is coming up for you guys bruce lead us in thank you very much great job down on the grid there by amanda great to see so many people looking at the cars getting up close but really the scene is set for this what i think will be an epic battle between uh the ferrari challenges that leads on point they've split their drivers between two cars and audi who are the challengers just two points behind have also split their cruise so they've doubled their opportunities uh last chance to see the cars really before they get going and that's the sun one sun energy one mercedes kenny harbaugh's car michael grenier will start that and it's a real outsider that's a pro-am entry uh but uh the canadian racer who's just going from strength to strength will be seeing if he can get that nose in front we talk about if we talk of ferrari john because the mercedes on polo this is the outsider for the driver's title this is rafael marchello he cannot win the title but his teammate one of his teammates can that's team of bogaski all they can do let's not do clever math they've got to win the event yes and it was interesting hearing rafaeli marcelo describing what he felt his strategy needed to be and because we've got a relatively small field of cars here this year he indicated that he didn't anticipate having very many safety car or full course yellow interventions so the race is going to be won essentially on overnight speed and one thing that has been clear over the two days but particularly on friday we saw in that pre-qualifying session the speed that 89 mercedes has got is very impressive so now playing off the south hey us [Music] so [Music] so a rousing rendition of the south nash african national anthem and for the crews down on the grid has the that was a lovely sort of rendition there it adds to the spirit john but for the crews they've got one focus they're going to be leaving within they leave five minutes before the top of the hour on their formation lap but right now it's the final chat between the drivers and all the three drivers in each of these teams have all been on the grid the designated driver he's all dressed set to go the drive that's going to be in third probably still in the cities we saw nicholas nielsen in the cities now he could be second in in uh in that uh 71 of course a ferrari of course supported this year which i think is wonderful by franco shaw motorist which of course frank shaw murders was the the belgian based team ferrari team that had so much success in the 60s and 70s so they are on that card the yellow flashes on the car are recognition to the creep uh frank rochon it is a lovely nod to history but the person wanted to make history is kelvin van der linde who's here this weekend south african on home ground but let's look at the points and it's super close at the top there's 25 points for a win bear that in mind the three ferrari drivers alessandra pierre guilicon leader guard and nicholas nilsson have been split pagini and letterguard stay together nielsen is in the sister car and likewise the audi cruise uh wrinklehawk and nederhauser stay together but christopher haaser goes to a sister car so those championship challengers are spread across four cars and the next driver down who can win is in fifth place overall team of bogashlavsky his car is on pole position rafaeli marcello will kick off in that asp mercedes he is the outsider simple match for him victory or nothing but for the others the difference between first and second is seven points so it's really going to shift around but our next interview is coming up very soon indeed it's chopped shipooka who's been racing for a good 20 years he's in the 23 stradali into africa lamborghini and he's down on the grid with amanda busick who's going to find one of the local challengers and chops superstar in south africa let's hear his thoughts before his big race on home ground well we're also making history here today for the first time there will be an all african black team here racing at the kaialami nine hour and i know this has been such a special endeavor for you guys bringing this team together it is happening now what's going through your mind a lot of range of emotions because this is like a dream come true and it's happening in our soil so we just got to keep our composure and wish for the best you're going to be racing along with an international grid how meaningful is that to your career absolutely i mean it it's it's something that we can tick in our wish list and say we've done it we've been there and we can only hope for the best good luck and have fun thank you very much well great to hear from chop cipooka just to point out he's he's now got to get down towards the back of the grid the car you saw in the background with the livery of the sharks rugby team was actually not his car and chops is starting a little further back the 23 stradali into africa a lamborghini we've got 13 cars ready to play we've got the eight international challengers plus the local cruise and a couple of those john are only doing the opening hour yes i mean there's they've got their own internal championship here in south africa so those cars will only run for effectively the first hour of the nine hours of of kailami so they will peel off at the point where pretty much everybody else in the field will be coming into the pit lane to make their first round pit stops of course tires fuel and driver change but not necessarily a driver change at the end of every hour that's up to the teams they may decide to keep a driver in for a double even i mean can you imagine doing a triple stint here but because conditions in terms of ambient temperature are very comfortable it would be not particularly difficult for a driver to certainly double stint or even consider doing a triple stint i suspect people like rafael marcello and maybe alessia rivera but more likely come ledergaar in the 51a of course a ferrari those two drivers may double stand but we wait and see we're second guessing the teams don't come up and give us a job sheet and say we're coming in in this lap and we're going to do that so we'll have to keep an eye on what happens in that pit lane and of course there's a minimum maximum amount of time they're permitted to do their pit stops with anyway well plenty to play for but let's go for a drive who's got a huge amount to play for alessandro pierre guidi he's at the front end of the grid with car 51 one of the two challenging ferraris one of the drivers that will battle here for this driver's championship is alessandro pierre greedy he's never even raced here in kaialami and as you get prepared for today not much qualifying action we had the brief qualifying session how prepared are you to race well we had luckily we had some free practice in the last the previous day with a dry yesterday we didn't drive so much we had a decent starting position because we had a good uh second practice and uh that's why we start third day his second lineup is good for a nine hour today looks okay the weather the high also and we we are waiting for since two months to start this race so now is the time to go and we do our best where do you feel that the ferrari is really strong here on this track i think so generally the ferrari is quite well balanced everywhere maybe we are not sometimes we are not the quickest car in some specific track but we are quite okay in every track that is the strong point of our car uh for example here looks like the mercedes quicker than us but we are more or less with the same pace of audi and we are fighting basically without the championship so we try to stay in front of them this year has been pretty incredible for you and for the ferraris and the sea in this series what's been the highlight uh probably i'm not sure is the both spy and lemon together in the same month because the the coffee there was something some different schedule so we won le mans and spa 24 in in the same month and it was uh probably the allies of the the the month with the pinnacle of the of the season good luck today thank you well a big challenge uh john for alessandro pierre gidi and you can just now see the grid has pretty much been cleared it's just uh down to the minimum number of mechanics allowed one per car good chance to see them this is a car with a brand new race livery the high class racing audi and uh bearing allegiance for the the pro rugby team from down in durban the sharks and michael marcus and who'll be kicking that off for high-class racing and his fear tough uh field back unable to come because like many drivers suddenly he became coveted positive but uh young terry for moulin has slotted in there that's a big opportunity presented on a plate it certainly is and you've got to stand up and deliver because this is a quality field albeit it's a small field so if you uh do a good job that will go on your resume and you will be looked at and considered for future opportunities later this season so we've just seen the cars on the fourth row that's lucas letter and the sansa look audi number 26 matar drudy was brought in at the very last but it came to the circuit yesterday uh because the regular racer and that dries van tour unwell doctor's orders you shouldn't be racing here he'd been racing last weekend at daytona so that would be mattai judy alongside marcus finkelhot one of the championship challenges only two points down on the championship lead and he's got uh the starting rights today in the number 25 audi that is on row number three let's move forward to the second row of the grid we do like those camouflage colors that certainly would work well on safari you wouldn't stand out in the eyes of something that wouldn't want to spot you so let's take a look at the cars in front we'll move up on to the second row again the south african flag on the flanks because of course teammate kelvin van der linde proudly south africa done most of his racing's overseas but delighted to be back now mikhail grenier canadian racer sharing the sun energy one racing mercedes and he's the one who's kicking off in kenny harbaugh's car martin conrad will be the third driver in that number 75 mercedes certainly stands out whether in day or night with that uh really lurid race livery and john's very fond so am i the frankenstein motors livery the yellow flanks of on the side of the two af course of ferraris come let a guy will be sharing that with alessandro piergini we just heard from him and miguel molina often in the sister car has been brought across into their team because nicholas nielsen has been extracted from the number 51 ferrari to be put into the 71 to double the chances they decided to follow the lead that audi had already instigated so will it work well it's got twice the chance of working john yes i'm just listening to alessandro describing the highlights of his year and certainly one of the highlights of the last season for me was his drive alessandra pierre's the final hour of the sky 24 hour when again weather and rain played a pivotal part in the outcome of that race and he agreed he was just mesmerizing and appalling conditions and took victory for a of course now we had those conditions similar to those in spa in 21 here friday and um we didn't get any running in those conditions so we don't believe that the weather is going to impact on this event as it would have done yesterday but you never know in south africa you never know what will how quickly it will come in and if it does come in how heavy it might be and there are contingencies in place if the weather gets so bad that the racetrack is just too too much water too much standing water and particularly on certain parts into turn two turn through the yuksuki sweep then around sunset and also on the run down from near cop as you come down through what they call mine shaft down to crocodiles those are three areas where there was a lot of water running diagonally across the racetrack we don't have it we hope we're not going to see it let's have a nine hour race here in kailami in dry conditions and see real motor racing and not something that's going to be segmented by maybe bulk yellows or maybe a red flag to temporarily stop them well what we'll get to see john as they set off on the formation lap uh very shortly indeed about a minute and a half from now with rafaela marcello leading away in that number 89 sb mercedes is where those little streams are still running across the track we spied earlier about an hour ago there was still one running just on the exit of the first quarter which is a right-hand kink he was running from the top of the circuit well gravity takes it downwards to the outside of the circuit and then after the first of the second corner as you got towards the just goes to sweep it's been weeping all weekend even when it's been dry so the drivers will be aware of that but uh they will have had spotters out around the circuit but this outlap just gives them that chance to get that feel yes well this is the first time any of these drivers will have been on the circuit aside from the lap that they did from the pit lane to form onto the grid so they will not have necessarily seen the area just at the just literally a turn one where there is water running across the racetrack they will have seen the bits around look around the uk which is not particularly a problem there is standing water still on the inside of sunset but hopefully cars should not be trying to go through three abreast or two abreast and for as far as the rest of the racetrack is concerned i would say it's pretty much ideal except of course with the volume of rain the racetrack has been washed clean of any of the rubber that would have gone down over thursday or friday morning we've had support events here earlier in the day but they have been in the case of their local championship but maybe some of these events that carry out uh in kyle army clean racetrack let's hope it's a clean opening lap right a little bit of history was made yesterday we were due to have three qualifying sessions one for each of the three drivers and then the top eight cars would go to super bowl but uh the very first of those three sessions was stopped after one lap the rain was just too impossible so we moved straight to super pole for the first time and then that didn't happen either so basically our grid was formed off the pre-qualifying system the high-class racing audi has gone nowhere so far is it now moving a little bit yes it is so michael parks there is the stream across the track that is appreciable and that has actually increased since we last saw cars on track about an hour ago so the weep of water that's coming diagonally across the racetrack an hour ago it was drying up because there were cars on racetrack but subsequently the flow has increased so that's going to be just a little focus now these slick taj will be they may not be up to full operating temperature but they certainly have an element of heat in them nevertheless at the start when everybody's very confused compacted together it just takes one little quick snap oversteer to set off a chain reaction so everybody has got to be on their toes now just worth pointing out right at the very front of the grid we've got uh front two rows of mercedes and ferrari and then ferrari and mercedes then come the audis four of the more weepers that's the exit of sunset you should actually be on the right hand side of our screen and generally missing that but on the opening that that is not a guarantee one of the questions i had to you last night as we look at the 13th driver on the grid local races sylvia scribanzi that's his graphic off the screen now he's only doing the opening hour of the race but we'll come back to that later but my question to you was just how much water that came down yesterday would be held by the ground it's on a slope here of course inside the car alarm it can drain away but unfortunately the lower part of the circuit the kink at turn one is clearly a point at which it's popping back out again that could be a big big factor certainly the concern for me would be on the just when the cars take the start the opening lap when everybody is very compacted together and they're all over the racetrack they're all looking for that opportunity to come down and to turn to and make up a position so it's everybody needs to be alert and not try to win the race before they even get to turn to tempting as it has been but uh i i'm not going to stick my neck out i guess if they'll get it right or get it wrong this is the view the fantastic drop down from like up towards mineshaft and uh what the drivers love when they come for the first time brilliant drone shot up above the circuit just showing the lie of the land it's the gradient change and it really is a magical circuit and certainly when we arrived here with the intercontinental gt challenge for the first time in 2019 with a bumper grid of cars before we had the pandemic we had uh we had lightning strikes we had a phenomenal phenomenal time but the drivers have loved this circuit more weepers on the exit of mine shafts and you approach crocodiles yes it's not going to be a particular problem i suspect but it is there so drivers will note it as they now come through turn 13 then the second part of crocodile 14 turn 15 which is called cheetah the curbing there has been a curving that's been constantly attacked by pretty much all the cars in the field we've seen some really go at it big time and i think let it go i was one in particular but now the field is forming bruce over to you well two by two exactly as the race director would have wanted them to be it's rafael marcello on the right-hand side of your screen in the blue and white mercedes on the then he's got those two ferraris alongside him he might get a helping hand from fellow mercedes ratio michiel grenier separate teams working out of parallel garages brilliant start by rafaeli marcelo and of course the ferrari number 51 is on the 71 he's on the side that has the weep he moves away from it and he gets the kick a huge spray up for all of those in behind all 13 cars have gone into water and out the other side but marcelo has got that lead down into turn two for the opening time and it's very much a grid order for the top four cars in fact the top six cars i don't think there's been a place change neat and tidy well done gentlemen yeah come there to go had a little look and try to take the second pace away from rivera but didn't quite get it done so everybody's got through now the first four corners of this lap quarter five bbq now the short run up into sunset so just be careful against the middle of the racetrack to the inside where that standing water is but everybody has more of a single file for the entire field so they're avoiding it and uh consequently we've gotten through sunset for that incident we certainly have and have there been any place changes yes i have but they're down at the tail of the field all eyes on marcelo at the front but just looking for those that have uh making a rise i think mikhail pitamba look for the number 17 yes he has the number 17 audi seems to have worked his way forward and he's only driving that car in the opening out but he's having fun as he goes around the top of the hill at doing up and down the other side marcelo's starting to stretch his legs easing a little bit clear that's all he's got to do in this car keep going clear this is the one that has to win forget the mass this has got to win for his teammate timo bogaslicki there he is in the middle of the graphic to take the title but it really is an outside shot but with uh marcelo and junior as his teammates he's got every possibility and certainly he's no slouch himself either and really he's achieved what he wanted to achieve on that opening lap was to open up into the lead he's got a half a second or so gap between the second and third place ferraris but the ferraris right now are not offering what i would call any sort of serious threat or challenge to marcelo so he's going to be fairly comfortable as he goes on now to the start of the second lap and right looking at the best lap 146.5 for that standing start lap a rolling start lap not standing stop because then i make the way down into turn two and already i mean it's settling into a pattern it is and um of the best of local races is charla ranges who's gone forward two places up into eighth place overall he's in that number 86 lamborghini it's white and largely black with livery in the background so he's having fun but he's here for the full race that's an entry that's running for the full distance hopefully in the joburg kyle army nine hour and it's great to have a race with the sort of full history that it has dating back to the 1960s and some illustrious natives world championship round for sports cars but right now i think gt's the cars you want here and even at the high point of the circuit there you can see more weepers across the track but the drives have got the measure of them right now but that's when they're running line the stern one josh john because when they get side by side it's gonna be a different matter now the leading six cars the one i'm going to keep an eye on us in fifth place matteo rooney who's deputy housing for free stuff came in got into the car friday morning didn't have a lot of track time didn't have the benefit of running on thursday so he is now looking at the back of the mercedes so that it will be he'll want to try and clear that and get himself attached to the back of the two ferraris because those are the principal challenges to that 32 rd in the ultimate end of the championship nine hours is the race duration but uh judy needs to make that move pretty soon and it may well be if he manages to edge mikhail grenier white that uh he'll be followed through by marcus finkelhack who's tucked in behind but for those in the pit garages all they can do is watch on the race is a nine hour race the maximum time you're allowed in a car in a single stint is 65 minutes so we reckon those first pitch stops will come pretty much on the hour or thereabouts because of course in this it's going to be super close on the track but any transgressions that earn you time penalties they really do scramble up your chance big time because all those strategies are for men they end up being nothing if there happens to be a full course yellow or something a safety car deployment that's the point of which teams start to do all the calculations and they're monitoring real time exactly what's going on that little battle coming up into sunset and that's a pinch getting in wow oh that was the well that's the place in the lamborghini yeah he's gained the place so he he picked up two places in the opening lap charla rang is really enjoying being on this uh in this full international field he raced here back in 2019 as well and certainly i remember back then john walking up and down the pit lane seemingly about a thousand times but for the local drivers it's just great to have international competition coming back here something to peg yourself against see how well you're going and certainly charles is really having a great hoot at the moment so they're not just keeping with but getting ahead of some of the international runners so well done charles and again coming to calami over many many decades one of the highlights for the the south african base drivers not just south africa but the southern africa based drivers was to compete against international drivers and to match to challenge themselves against the what was known as the class of the field yeah the charles running for study motorsport which is fairly active because he owns finale motorsport but uh certainly putting on a very very good show in the opening laps now what's the gap at front to back it's almost precisely a second the lead marcelo ahead of alessio river that was the end of the previous lap with another lap on the board marcelo you can see the gaps gone out he's gained four tenths of a second he's one point four seconds to good then second place rivera the second ferrari driver come nedergarh in third place mikhail grenier sticking with them you wanted matar julie to get up with them but unfortunately he's actually falling away rather than closing in the lead audience i mean like marcus finkelhock running behind uh rudy the two audis don't seem to be able to match the pace of the lead three card but what's really impressive is the base of michael garnier who's now putting pressure onto connecticut in that third place so a mercedes that is running in a different class that's a pro-am entry is running hard up against the back of comledica in the third place of course they keep frankershawn or frankershaw motors uh ferrari yeah well he might be driving a mercedes but he could in some ways be a friend of audi if he can keep the pressure on those ferraris early on and certainly he's the one taking to challenge them as they go out through the s's up to louis cup at the top of the hill such a sensational view from the crest there as you look out over what john described as once being countryside and it certainly was on my first visit but time passes and joburg expands and so does the racing scene here at this this fantastic circuit you know full marks to toby venter who's uh pulled it back onto the international stage made kyle army great again but the racing is great too rafaeli marcelo yet another sector to the good as he pulls clear of those two ferraris it might be a case of status quo at the front behind it's still charla rang he's trying to make progress he's just the background of the shot just out of the top of the shot there but the top six if anything now starting to pull away oranges is in seventh with about two and a half seconds deficit behind this lead group well the gap as they come across the line is 1.4 seconds first to second but there's the gap between third and fourth which is the one that's probably the most interesting and then fifth and sixth the two bodies which actually seem to i shouldn't say powerless that's the wrong choice of words but they don't seem to be able to run at the pace of the four cars directly ahead of them and that's going to be well the race isn't going to be won in the opening but eight minutes or nine minutes or so it's going to be one after nine hours and that's that's where the strength of the wrt id team lies that they've got such a great um technical and support crew they can turn a fourth place into a victory okay so we mentioned the fact that the sun energy won mercedes the orange one with the yellow nose on it and the multi-colored flanks that is a pro-am car kenny harbaugh as ams go he's as good as they get so he's getting quicker and quicker as the years go by but he's got uh martin conrad alongside but the quickest driver in that trio is the one that's keeping that 75 mercedes in the hunt at the moment but don't forget really across an endurance race it's the strength of your sort of average strength of your of your lineup and certainly the ferrari pairs want for nothing but the lead mercedes wants for nothing in terms of its drivers and likewise the audi crews they are all tip-top international standard drivers so you won't see any drop in performance when one particular driver gets in but some of the cars further back they won't be all equal across the board well you know what we're saying in the racetrack is basically very eagerly matched performances from the lead three brands or the lead four cars on the racetrack we mentioned it yesterday during that horrendous period when the rain was just flooding the circus where this race ultimately may be one and we heard from rafaeli marcelo saying it's going to be one on pace well that may also be a part of how you win it the other part of winning this race is cutting out any errors in the pit stop procedures and we saw bruce you and i were talking in barcelona last year at the final round of the spring championship where mistakes were made by teams didn't understand the rules and they would stick their fuel hose in before the car was fully raised up on its air jack you're not allowed to do that and likewise before you can release the car off the air jack you have to remove the refueling hose so it'll be little detail arrows that can creep in maybe just somebody gets a little bit over excited and pools the air jack plug before the car has been fully fueled so that's another area where this race can be lost it can it's not just about preparing a car the team team boss has to be fully on top of the rules and last weekend the daytona 24 hours fabulous race back to its full strength who were european teams that just didn't quite get on top of the american rules and you think of all the expenditures to be slapped with a 30-second penalty it's too competitive these days to give it away talking competitive alessia rivera is now the fastest driver on the track he's taking a third of a second out of the race leader he was picking up the pace he's dropped home nedergar so the 71 ferrari is the problem with the bragging rights at the moment but certainly uh the young italian racer is getting closer to slightly older italian racer not the raphael is old no and i suppose one might suggest that's an unexpected uplifted performance from rivera because he was running about 1.4 seconds a couple of laps ago behind rafaeli barcelo then the leading mercedes now he's got that gap down to just fractured him for a second coming across the start finish line to complete lap six so let's wait and see whether the gap has now stabilized at a second or has he managed to get under that magical second he's gone up to one point two seconds or marcelo either had a bad lap on the previous lap and he's now regrouped and again got the advantage from what was the charging alessia alessandro of rivero rivera now i just start to sense jon that uh okay how hard you go how soon on you on your pirelli tires but i'm just sensing the audi's now starting to come back a little bit or maybe simply comb neder guys dropping back a tiny bit in that third place we're not talking giant gains and on this left well the best lap of the race now back in the hands of rafael marcello so he's responded to the attack immediately that was coming from rivera and and likewise watching the two idols matteo brudy the lead of the two i just wonder is uh the pace that we're seeing from marcus finkeloh is that going to be a pace that's going to take the other the uh audio sport team santa luck audi to with that would there be cooperation between the two rd families to let marcus finkerlock maybe get ahead and see if he can put a challenge and they're already laughing is that one of them where's the gt4 card no surprise it's the one car of the junior class if you like and uh no disgrace at all anyone driving that would be that sooner or later but uh but michael for marius jackson he's doing what he can that will be in all race but it will be a chicane would audi have a have a conversation between the two teams and suggest if winkelhawk feels he's got more pace than trudy has let winklehoff go at this stage to put a challenge on to come lennagar and that third place ferrari yeah so vincent hawking in the audi team sansa carl it's the dark grey rather than the dub grey one the one in sixth rather the fifth that's antelope the sister car the lighter color scheme running in front that's the one that's had christopher harsam moved across to it that is run by team wrt a team with no stranger a stranger to winning but it's doubling their opportunities is that color would you call that taupe not like t-o-p-e which is the fish but the color two i personally wouldn't john okay well we'll leave it there bruce look any further leave it there but i'm glad you brought that to the table but anyhow we call it what you want these cars were designed and they were brought out to africa for the race in november and as you heard from the ceo and founder of stefan organization stefan himself the cars were all ready to go omicron raised its head and these cars were they're fabulous sort of on safari livery so they didn't stand out in the bush have been kept here ever since and the world of gt racing moved around the globe and brought back here of course this is a 20 20 21 50 22 we'll kick off this year's into continental gt challenge all things being equal at batters for the 12 hours at the end of february but um you know that bruce has been put back now has it been i thought that's why i said hopefully because i scribbled on my desk it's no surprise championship picture the last three this year well not yet really this year but uh 20 and 2021 it's been a constant juggle it's been a logistical nightmare and i really i am in so much admiration of the crews who then you go one at a time crossing borders with all getting all your or your pcr tests it's it's a real fiddle yeah yet motivation is continued yes but when you consider i mean take wrt id for example that that's a very large team and they operate on a global basis so the cars that were sent here were cars that may have been had the reach taking place in november there'd be cars that have been transferred or shipped out to australia four pound thirst which should have been in february now the bathrooms twelve hours has been 1000 kilometers which over 12 hours has now been put back until sometime in may but there are gt3 cars belonging to probably every entrant here either here in south africa or on on route on sea to maybe going to australia maybe going somewhere in the middle east or the far east well i'm glad we've been showing uh charla rangi's because he's had a fantastic run he he started in 10th worked his way forward very very quickly and in fact he didn't he started in 12th on the grid yes so four places on the opening that then one place on each next two laps and uh so he's leading us leading the national challenge in seventh place overall he's uh nearly four seconds down on marcus sprinkler and i mean that's a massive accolade in itself but um he's ahead of lucas letter he's the head of mikhail markusson the next uh of the national runners is uh mikhail patamba in car 17 and uh the car on the outside of the circuit they're being passed number 23 this is the one who's got khalili led lacker at the wheel at the moment and he was his car was put into the tire wall very early on yesterday and they did well to get it prepared but that's it for the duration i'm glad to see that got fixed and a great experience and of course that car i don't believe had any running at all on friday so you know jumping into the car having had a it wasn't a major incident but the car wasn't able to be returned to the track before the weather closed in but just what's interesting to me is we saw a rafaeli marcelo in the lead mercedes reclaim some of the ground he lost a couple of laps earlier [Music] back down to fractions over a second so ribeira is not giving up and marcelo is going to be kept on his toes and kept very much the honest broker here in the lead of this race as they come across start finish line now it looked to me like it could be fractionally under a second but it's still on that 1.071 of a second so you're talking about maybe a meter or so difference between one lap and another marcelo has been kept honest he certainly is and now in third place coleman guys being kept very honest indeed mikhail guerinia is just a third of a second down on him and likewise but how droody's suddenly got company certainly i reckon that marcus finkelhock in sixth place is getting closer but uh if grenier could get his nose in front of bladder guard it looks like he's got the pace to go away but i think cold letter guys do what he does he's a very sm smooth driver he's keeping his tires sweet well whatever he's doing he's got the mercedes keeping him topping it and again i just make the comment about the two bodies running behind rudy and fifth and winkerlock and sixth i would if i was part of the rd family i would be suggesting that give wigglehog the chance to see if he can put any distance between himself and rudy and allow wiggle hog to have a pop maybe a grenier in that fourth place uh mercedes-benz extra impetus for marcus fingerhot this weekend is that the car written on the roll cage both of the two of the audi's two works audi's have got nicknames that one's called eliza after his daughter who was born around the time of last year's in the eight hours and the sister car number 32 is ida lorena named after the baby of one of the mechanics of that crew did you know that john i was i was totally aware of it but i thought i'd leave you to bring that information to the public's attention there's the helicopter view looking down and you see the car as they come down they just come through mine shaft and now they're through turn 15 cheetah and into the final terms called ingway and ingway is african uh for leopard but it's a lovely name yeah it's great i'm a big fan of corners that have names rather than numbers now that audi battle is it's status quo but yeah i well they're two different teams are you agreeing with me bruce are you agreeing not yet it's early in the race for that john [Laughter] i don't want to go into accord so early in the joe bird kyle i mean nine hours so it's really a case of uh four pairs leading the the eight cars we've got marcelo being challenged by rivera covered by under a second for the lead of the race nedergar chased by grenier covered by almost precisely a second then the audis together drudy and finkelhock covered by half a second and then in behind we've got charla rang is with who'd overtaken lucas legere but the audi has tucked it behind there it is the santa lot racing out in the traditional center lock blue white and black livery having been passed can't work his way in front and charla ranking is using all his circuit knowledge to great effect and for those that are interested in these facts it's that lamborghini of our anguish who's actually the fastest car don't pass through turn one down into turn two at 236 kilometers per hour so lamborghini not only has it got good overall that pace but it's got great straight line speed too yeah clearly plenty of punch out of turn 16 ingway is there i am saying i don't like corner names quarter numbers and immediately mentioned 16. but the final corner ingway you get good exit speed from there of course all the way up over the ridge to start straight then curling down through the right of the kink all the way down to the corner that many drivers get wrong on the opening line this time not which is turn two which of course it's not just about going into the corner it's about getting the car's position for the truck size sweep sweep that follows behind him it's a good little scrap there's a scrap for eight seventh place that's what it's all about when you come up to race on the international scene how many of them can you get behind them right now it's the international score behind charla rangi's is [Music] looks as if he's got the pace uh he might be caught short when he's managed to find his way around in the lamborghini but now i'm thinking about can i get close enough coming down through turn one into the breaking of turn two the opportunity offers itself but maybe a little bit of hesitation or lack of conviction and making that move it was it possibly was available but you know we're still over 20 minutes or so into this nine-hour event plenty of time and unless you're absolutely clear and certain that the driver you're competing against because south african drivers race in south africa they're not traveling around the world and competing in other championships so just a little bit of hesitation from the audi to make its move but certainly the opportunities you can see look he's all over the back of the lamborghini now coming into clubhouse yeah lucas literary been in gt racing for a couple of years but he's only just uh in fact just he'll be turning 21 later this year so you know many moons ago there wouldn't be drivers as young as this competing at this level in the sport in cars with ruse but it's very much been a sea change gt racing is the desired destination ahead of drivers who uh previously 20 30 years ago john they all would have been clinging to the master the single seater batter if you will but uh now many see the way to go and a number of drivers who've sean in gt racing are now looking as manufacturers of moving into the world endurance championship to race in the hypercar championship well the top category suddenly from work seats on offer like a carrot well the single cedar ship has left port unless daddy is a squillionaire because now even if you look at junior formulas the budget watch on the inside can he make it work it's going to be to know well certainly space gibbon and good job by both drivers that was a difficult overtaking opportunity and it didn't quite come off but it certainly was available the laboratories there's something coming out of the back of it now it looks like it's there's something has happened to the lamborghini it has i noticed there's a lap earlier there's spruce smoke coming from the back of it and just looking to see if there's any body work rubbing there no it could be attacked but i fear it's from the bit ahead of the body work yes it is this part i noticed a lot earlier i thought i saw a little whiff of smoke or something coming from the back of the lamborghini and certainly coming down into turn two you could see there was a lot of blue smoke and you could just what's the left rear there's our right rear there's something coming around the right rear it looks like fluid of some description there's a it can't be bodywork touching surely not it's on the right rear where it's i thought it might have been a well it's very very hard to call because i thought if there'd been any contact we've been on the other side of the rear of the car but i don't think lucas lettering got quite close enough any of that in that move into ingway that was happening the lap earlier up there there it is it's the right rear i think the right rear might be deflating or something has happened to the right rear whether it's body work contact or whether it's something else but certainly it's a it's a problem for the lamborghini you look at coming down the hill through the mountain shaft now secondary gonna have a look down oh they're gonna say the outside got the job done the lamborghini has conceded uh and i wonder whether we're going into the pits at the earliest opportunity you do wonder i just checked his lap time last time around charlotte ranges was two and a bit seconds down on his best but of course that was compromised by the attack from lucas legere into the finances so clearly something either he's spotted in the mirrors or in the gauges or his team just calling up and saying by the way we spotted something so that's a shame great little run from charla rang he's there he had a fun 25 minutes they seem to think it's a puncture bring out um a replacement pirelli for him but uh there's stradali motorsport nicely on the on the spot and that uh right rear tire just being changed if i would i would change the whole lot of wood change one yeah that would be the way are they fuelling as well or are they just going to do the the right rear it never looked as if it was actually a tire that was deflating but whatever it is there was certainly blue smoke clearly coming from the back of the lamborghini in the meantime the gap in first and second as we watch what's going on in the pit lane has now again creeped up to 1.3 seconds uh come later guys a further 7.4 seconds behind the lead mercedes but there's the gap between droody and winkelhawk well that's at the last time going across to our finish line just under a second i think breaker lock can only run for so long so close to the rear of matteo droody uh without hurting either break temperatures or obviously oil and water temperatures well i was interested looking at that that pit stop that wasn't that was a local team trying its best but it wasn't a well oiled um pit stop proceed that you'd have from the top teams no come no criticism at all it's just the high high level you have to be in the front end i am not persuaded that what we were calling as a potential right rear tire was the was the problem i think there's something actually under the hood under the body and whether it was uh look there they're looking at the car so what have they done we didn't catch what put down or should we cut back to the track action the car is going back so there is there is a mechanical or a hydraulic or something issued and whatever was coming out of the right rear was fluid of some description whether it was hydraulic or whether it was oil that was water has been getting onto the exhaust system and that's where that smoke was coming from yeah so probably getting messages from the car instruction from the driver as well because he's also it's his team strongly made support charlotte so he 25 minutes of huge fun for him finding his way up the order waving the flag for the national championship cars but at the sharp end of the field it's rafael marcelo now just found another two tenths of a second to stretch his lead [Music] so let's take a look at the fastest feed through the mine shaft so the downhill sweep from uh like up that's coming up and uh see what the pace is it's always something very much a feature of the championship in recent years uh to see who's fast at the fastest point on the circuit let's have a look coming down at my shelf it's come let go who's running in third place overall so the two ferraris first and second try the ranges we saw we had fantastic straight lines speed down the main straight but also there as well and the race leading car two kilometers down but it's good enough for rafaeli marcelo but uh great that race fishing powered by aws graphic we'll be bringing up through the course of the race things may change but right now on a dry track we've got a pretty dry track those are very impressive speeds well the reason in part why the mercedes got pulled position is because the level of downforce they're running in that car works for the car other teams have opted to go maybe marginally less down force to have the benefit of straight line speed and the opportunity to overtake but overall if the balance of performance in terms of arrow and grip levels it would appear to me that the akka asp lead mercedes has got it absolutely right further back in the field it looks as if by the winkel hawk has decided i've given it a go i'm not going to continue running up the rear of the 50 uh the sort of 32 audi of mate rudy so he's fallen back and the gap between first and second has increased even more in that last stop by about a tenth and a half of a second up to 1.56 well the reason it's done that is marcelo's just banged in the fastest first sector of anybody at any point in the race so he's proving his point but i have to say alessia rivera is keeping it very honest indeed he's staying within two seconds marcelo like clockwork at the front of the fields and uh certainly for hola jerome polycorns i've got him i've got him what clockwork orange he's got his orange hair clockwork orange is that that is that is that too creative too early in the race i think well it's a weekend crossword clue isn't it but anyhow down down in the garage the creative side of the country box is falling quiet for a second but uh down in the garage the good news is that channel ranges is not out of that lamborghini so it's not over and out they're still working on the car it's always that moment when the driver gets out walks away even worse john is when the mechanics stop working on the car but hopefully that will be fixed australian motorsport lamborghini but car driven by the clockwork orange rafaeli marcelo now leading the race about to put another lap on the board he's got 16 laps under his belt he's about to make sorry 15 under his belt right now he's got 16. his advantage has it gone out it was 1.5 it's 1.7 seconds so just actually that's an impressive margin two cents just about midway through the first stint there's a half a couple of minutes before we get to that point so every you know particularly the pirelli tire is now in that middle area of its operating your performance certainly at the beginning of the race the tower might have been a little bit more in a single lap but then it was offset by the weight of fuel carrying so the fuel load is falling away the tyre is operating and it's sort of the sweet spot of its normal one hour so stint and marcelo is just doing what we've seen him do over so many seasons so many events he's just so metronomic in the manner and approach to his driving and marcus finkelhacker's closing the gap between the fifth place matteo drew di mateo drudi and again now is he thinking well i'm going to give him a bit of a hurry up oh when he just watched away the ideas come off the curb and the exit of clubhouse so droody has responded but fingerlock has got clearly extra pace that rudy has not been able to access so far in that 32 id well good to see the stradali motorsport lamborghini number 86 back into the pit lane about to be put down onto terra firm but when has got his tail up he's definitely decided now is the time to attack and you can see last night he took three quarters of a second out of trudy there's the gt4 class audi that looks almost standing still in front but well done by marius jackson keeping that out of the way as they went down through the mine shaft doesn't interrupt this battle so for marius he's got to be driving his race looking at his mirrors even more when he's looking out of the screen in the gt4 audi but did a good job what marcus winkelhoff has got to be acutely aware of is if he thinks he's going to make a challenge and matter of fact rudy he has to do it in a manner which will not in any form or whatever compromise the safety of the 32 id because that's the car that has got to get itself into the points and finish near the front well you think how many years decade and more the move has been made there is winklehawk coming through so he's made it a run so up to fifth place goes uh marcus finger hall but i think the message was loud and clear let's hit him through mattar trudy but let's hear news from the pits because amanda busik went down to see what was happening at stradale motorsport well guys as you look ahead on this 86 lamborghini it's probably going to head back to the track right here as he gets ready to head back it was a fender well issue on the back right tire it was puncturing the tire they're not sure how that happened maybe went wide on the track somewhere to cause that issue but the car's back you can see the the disappointment in charles however i am able to talk to arnold neveling and they're planning on just playing the long game here today thank you very much amanda tough luck for charla ranges but uh really that was great move we just saw on the track with marcus finkelhock making it stick he'd been hunting for laps but uh here it comes here's the replay well it was clear the message by the time they got to the king clearly matar judy had decided i'm seeding the corner he put his indicator on say go to my left and the move was as smooth as could be but they didn't do what you were worried about which is clash correct and i think that that's what i would describe best as a a corporate decision to allow that overtaking to happen rudy stayed right on the right hand side of the racetrack opened the door said marcus there's the racetrack drive through and take my position away that is intelligent management from the pit wolf because the team are aware you don't want two drivers going bare knuckle with one another trying to win a race we already have into the first 32 minutes or so of the race it's vital vital that those two cars keep air between each other it doesn't matter who's in which position at this stage that can be reset if it comes to the point where if the positions have got to be given back and changed again well that will happen it'll be a corporate call from the pit ball yeah no nice and clear and well done and uh marcus sprinkler hasn't been an audi works driver for about 14 15 years now for nothing and retired he's got a few years under his belt but he'd like a long career like he i've had rudy i think is a an outstanding performer in the idea we've seen that over the past two or three seasons but what we're also seeing now is a stunning drive from this man raphaeli marciello he's not just increased the gap by a couple of tenths of a second it's gone up to 2.7 seconds between first and second so all of a sudden just over halfway through this opening the mercedes and macello are pulling away and doing it in significant chunks of time now over the last two or three laps since rafaela marchello came across some single-seaters you know fabulous career up to gp2 level came across from single-seaters and immediately john remember how he took to these cars but it's like there were two rafaeli marcelos there's the bare knuckle fighter when he needs to and then there's this side we don't see so often because he's often got more cars around him where he could be super smooth metronomic super fast as well and he stretches his advantage has he this like 3.3 seconds to good now so this is a supreme drive the other quality that marcelo has is he is exciting to watch i mean i remember racist at mazzano for example in the turns 13 14 coming up to the final turn he was doing things in the mercedes-benz and so it's inevitable he's going to take too much of the inside curb he actually did and he ended up pushing the front suspension almost out through the front body work he hit it so aggressively and that was a retirement but the raw ingredients are within the man and just now he's becoming much more accomplished in the art of how do you drive a long an endurance race it's one thing doing a one-hour sprint race when it's very frenetic this is about getting a rhythm consistency that's metronomicisms or whatever that word means not making mistakes as he pointed out it's it's not a big field so we're not anticipating the likely intervention from full course ellos or a safety car intervention so it's up to him to make the maximum out of what he's got in his opening stint whether he'll stay in for a second stint teamwork boguslowski looks like he's just getting out of bed hi timo you got those sleepy eyes still excellence is clearly overrated but he you know in this situation [Music] we keep mentioning the fact that asp and particularly for team of bogus flysky he's the outside bet in the championship and for his two teammates rafael marcello who's doing the job now and julgunya will be taking over the second or the third stint they've got their role to play but then you strip that away regardless of if he wins or not ferrari are still in in the pound seats because they're leading audi and they're two drop dead two audis and the two ferraris have got the works drivers who could take the drivers championship so theirs is a different story they won't they're not at the moment heading for the 25 points for victory they're heading for the 18 points for second place but that would is three points more than the 15 you get for third the difference between the audi and ferrari cruisers is only two points so this is really really pivotal well say something but the bottom line is in the case of the 89 mercedes all they can do is win the event score the maximum points what happens behind them between the audis and the ferraris is beyond their control um so that's a simple equation for the asp team just go by deliver the victory and then we'll sit back and see how the mix and match of the audi and ferraris deals us either a victory for timor burgoslavsky or we have to wait until next year entirely so we'll look at the points as as it stands with the cars the positions are in the track nicholas nielsen his car is heading for overall victory but he's the only driver in that one that can take the title but the sister car alessandro piergidi and colm ledegar will be second in the championship if their car continues where it is and that's running around in third place overall so nielsen is doing all he can but he isn't yet he's standing in the pit lane waiting for his go but alessio rivera is doing all he can to help nielsen he's nearly eight seconds clear of the sister car so fabulous job from the italian and for a team of bogger slice he looking a little tired but his car you know he needs these these works ferraris or audi's to take a stumble really well whatever happens right now ferrari is the team that's going to walk away with a championship mercedes may well walk away with the victory here this evening but it will be evening will be there'll be water that'll be 10 o'clock in the race by the time the race finishes and it'll be absolutely a little flinch there from the ferrari under brakes and rivera just noticed overtaking but nothing to worry about but there's the ferrari crew sitting back watching and uh inevitably waiting so eight hours twenty minutes so what another 17 or so minutes to go yeah so um interesting there is the driver in the white uh race top sitting down whacking the near the others was nicholas nielsen he's been looking at that graphic and the hit the two drivers alongside him the sister car and at the moment as it stands hold on i mean we'd be looking for them it's starting to spot with rain and john we didn't have to look far yesterday the rain came to us it's coming through john has been are now you need those tiles those are lovely hold fire on the tire front well why would they want to beside the rocker putting out a fresh set of rubber of snakes why would they want to have those setting out if we're just saying only one part of the circuit is coming through the esses or going into the s's uh it may be spotting around other little parts of the circuit this will be a little bit of i don't know whether the pits will have had what we have just seen there certainly will be monitoring the images so they'll have picked it up but the wind direction normally is the the sort of the tell tale of whether the rain is coming or not the way the wind is blowing it doesn't look to me as if there's any concern of major rains we had yesterday no in fact that uh tree at the end of the pit straight to the uh turn 16 is blowing around a little bit but this morning it was certainly more agitated now let's take a look at the second and third third fourth place battle combat agar being caught little by little by mikhail grenier and then come the audi battle having had winger hot go ahead of matteo judy there's been no change droody's just tucked in behind here is the gt4 class audi marius jackson bringing up the rear he's now four laps down but he's kept out of the way well so far but it's every one of the three drivers have to lock in santa lock in and this should be number 26 that should be the car driven by lucas legere into the pit lane that was the first crew to put out fresh rubber but do you want to make the decision so far in effect going off message very early not whether they have been looking at the longer range weather forecast and thinking let's do something now or maybe did they start the race with a half tank of fuel or three quarters tank of fuel so that's the first stop routine stop and um sort of very early indeed it really is and if you wanted to respond to drops of rain arriving you'd like a few more laps under your belt to see if it's going to be heavy or not at the moment it doesn't look as though it will be easy for me to say from a commentary box but i think those might have been three random spots of rain that uh hit the camera lens because we have not seen any further indication that the raid is falling anywhere around the racetrack and certainly the 26 audi goes back out on a brand new set of sticks as we watched race theater rafaeli marcelo come around to complete lap 23 4.4 seconds advantage he had at the previous lapras look at the water there is still flying as it's just like somebody's left the tap open 4.7 seconds first a second well that best slap of the race one minute 43.08 eight seconds that wasn't produced last time around but uh very close to that one minute 43.24 seconds and uh cars good in a straight line the vmax which is recorded just on the approach to turn two he's obviously very good down the start finished straight he's good through traffic won't have much concern but actually luke is literally sort of in his way when they get to sunset eventually uh the young racer moved out of the way of marcelo it might have cost him a tenth or two but he's negotiated that again the spots are rained down at clubhouse what i feel is pretty impressive is the pace that marcelo is running out because running in the the 143-0 fastest single lap his pole lap the lap that was sent back by joe gunoff and this car was a 142.4 that was with fresh tires low fuel single lap you know go out and nail it so it's a very impressive pace from marcelo and uh well he's the gap has opened up to 4.7 seconds and it's extending more less 10th here 10th there by the lap so [Music] pretty much now when you come on to pitch straight marcelo won't have a ferrari that's the second place ferrari in his mirrors he won't see it now just having a quick look at little messages at the bottom of a particular timing screen and it's pointed out a few of these drivers have already started to be worn for exceeding yes john track limits your favorite that's at the final corner there it says very tempting to run wide there but it's a very tight left-hander probably about 120 degrees there there is a car going through those that's the limit that's the little bit because you if you run any more than that that was almost four wheels off the black you know black top the hard black surface here down the inside looking for well okay didn't get it um the message has gone through obviously because they already sort of not quite sure which part of the racetrack it wants to be on and the second base ferrari is ducking and diving and putting himself in every mirror that's on that rd2 wing mirrors and the mirror or the video screen now he's up alongside the package being made there's the wave blue flag i didn't notice they had them wave to warn literary who's a lap down but he made that very hard indeed alessia rivera the second place ferrari driver okay remember at the start of this lap was a five-second gap between race leader rafael marcello and the chasing rivera marcelo had been slightly delayed by legere come back out after that pit stop but rivera was really monstered through about four corners and i'm afraid legere didn't help him out yeah but remember leisure is on a fresh set of tyres so he's got more grip than the pursuing ferrari so it's a frustration you you come out you think wow my car feels great compared to what it was when he came in everybody else behind is on the use of the tires and they'll have quite those levels of fight and grip they don't but importantly as the fans wave their flags very patriotic and uh great to have a crowd here for the joburg kyle army nine hour and enjoying the fun plenty more to come but the point is john as rivera was turning out to ploy cop unfortunately race leader is now being slightly obstructed he could see marcelo and when you lose that line of sight when on that run down to mineshaft then it starts to play in your mind i've lost him it's gone so let's see across the line another decent lap from marcelo not the best traffic in the way let's see what the gap would be when that 71 ferrari comes across four point seven five five you know what actually rivera had a better lap so did marcelo lose all that time well i think the mercedes had to pass the la beginning coming into turn 16 whereas we saw the difficulty that rebecca had getting past in the audi the net outcome is that the gap between first and second fractionally to the favor of the second place ferrari but once that washes through and all the back the traffic that is being lapped his lap for the next maybe eight ten laps i would assume that the gap between marcelo and rivera will extend back up to the five or maybe more seconds that we saw just a few laps ago so looking to see where the moves will come from but i did touch a moment ago on the fact that uh a few drivers now getting warned for exceeding track limits you get a number of warnings and then they start to turn into penalties so it'll be a while yet three warnings and then you know it is a cumulative thing and quite often you get a driver being punished and it's not been the one who had all the offenses he's the one in the car at the time now grenier having to work very hard indeed to get around uh let's black lamborghini the 23 car which uh it gave him a moving target yeah i mean it's just it was being caught at awkward parts of the racetrack and he's trying to stay out of the way of these quicker cars but coming into the asses once you're at the point of commitment going into the ss you cannot really get offline because the nature of those two corners the left and then the right indicate if you if you go offline it's the dirty part of the racetrack and you'll be a bigger actually a bigger moving target than you would be if you stood on stayed online and just waited until you got up the hill up towards lyrico no entirely the very nature of the circuit there makes it so so hard but also it's another matter when you've got two cars coming past you because you've made space for one but that's the moment where the chasing car in the pair that's coming around you might want to make make a move and try and dive bomb but 11th place overall at the moment and just to report that uh the lamborghini from e motorsport the 86 car that made uh that pit stop having run so well with charlotte rankings charlie's still at the wheel but uh you know so much time has been lost for them but uh yeah they've lost the race the best part of four laps uh having to go into into the garage to affect or determine what was the cause of the the errant blue smoke coming from the right rear so there is the battle that's been going on for the last well what's it now i've been on lap 26 27. so the gap between the nagar and grenier is 1.8 seconds and the fourth place mercedes of grenier is now 15 and a half seconds by the lead mercedes of rafaeli marchello well in fact i have to report that uh back in the pit so it's the second pit stop so all are clearly not right for them so most unfortunate really good start for the 86 stradale motorsport lamborghini but clearly you know there was a concern if you don't identify the problem immediately and we heard the report from amanda i fear we may be having another one at some point because it's been in the pits for uh best part of seven eight minutes now for the second stop yes i mean whatever was that one of the cars that was one of the the sa national uh championship cars was going to run four days excuse me for the one hour or so before then that uh would peel off and let the rest of the field continue for the remaining eight it's certainly a master class at the front of the field and our race leader raffaeli marcelo back out to the best part of six seconds clear of alessio rivera he's got a bit more traffic up ahead closing in and we'll should be able to pass it without too much trouble but he's not in a position he needs to take any risks he'd probably make the move when they get down on the exit of sunset wave blue flag good marshalling there alerting the lamborghini driver i mean when you find yourself in a situation marcelo was in and you've got a comfortable at the minute just over 5.8 seconds lead to second place you you don't need to be impatient there'll be parts of the racetrack now for example coming into the ss there's nothing to do it wasn't even close enough to challenge there may be an opportunity in the run-up into leocop but again you're coming up a hill and you've got a dog leg to the right now you can think about moving up the inside you have to be confident that the lamborghini is going to give you that space and that's the case okay team mcbogger schleske now suited so he's clearly going to be the second driver in that deep car but good work there from silvio scrubancy in the 55 lamborghini from scuderia scrabantia team with a rich rich history going back to the very late 50s early 60s yeah and neville liddell and all sorts of other south african races dave charlton ran under their stars but and of course the circuit down at port elizabeth named after aldos come down 2019 and meet so many of the families still racing two generations on but uh silvia kept out the way very nicely there and uh we'll put his uh that'll make it i think his 27th lap on the board so he's having good crack but that's a card that's due to pull off uh in just under a dozen minutes only during the opening hour of the race that's the yellow and black lamborghini and another one that's only doing the opening hour of the race is mikhail patambra in the number 17 audi just up ahead of him but because pitamba's race will not be over because he's hopping out and hopping into one of the other cars that's doing the full nine hour let's look at the speeds at sunset fastest through there you talked about the downforce john the brace leading mercedes there it is number 89 170 kph through there it's hydroni in the audi that's back in six places next closest to 1k down but then the ferraris that's not their sweet spot they're running second and third in the race but they're third and fourth yeah but where is marcus finkel i would have thought he would have been second or third but he's not even in the top five and that's the car that is currently running in fifth position having ever taken or been gifted the overtake on uh the sixth place matteo de rudi there is in fact the 32 idea going through clubhouse and there is just a head over you can see marcus finkelok having been the overtake which we i called a corporate overtake fingerlock hasn't really been able to draw much gap from the the 32 idea of droody um i wonder what was the the thinking behind making that pass if i to if marcus vince isn't going to be able to put some heat he's 3.9 seconds behind the fourth place uh grenier in their mercedes and he needed to get a lot closer to that mercedes than he's currently doing well all we can say is marcus finkelhop's last lap was his best but unfortunately it was also grenier's last uh like that was his best and that was marginally faster so the advantage stretching all the time and gold his best lap in third place and this is going to be interesting because third and fourth are going to be very close together and they've got legia in the audi but those fresh sets are pretty tired so the ferrari squeezes through and uh 28 then is going to try and look but look at going down into turn two grenier he's going to sit back and watch because potentially that was a little bit of a moment of danger for lineage absolutely so and on such small moments bear in mind that uh ferrari come here with its crew two point clears the others thankfully around the outside in the wet in the very final moments of the spa 24 hours that was the victory that put them in the pound seats but grenier would be super frustrated you know what lucas destroyer it's great to have you in gt racing but you could be shaping a championship that's beyond your reach and the light being flashed but you're not allowed to flash more than three times okay you burn the back of the paint off the back of the audi you only allowed to do it in a very restricted pace so that's frustration and you can see what's happening the ferrari is escaping and the mercedes is trapped behind the audi with that fresh at the brilliant tires not up the inside so granny i mean i wonder what he's speaking as he's speaking french canadian is speaking english in his helmet swearing whatever it is i'm sure the pits are fully aware i think it's what we'd call speaking the french canadian version of very anglo-saxon oaths in the car but come on may uh he got it down to under a second and now it's gone right out again well let's go down and find out what's been happening on the pit lane we'd be looking at the the santa look at racing audi let's find out with amanda why that stopped so out of sequence with the rest came in early well it was out of seat with that you said and it was all on purpose it was a team order to come in to get that car out of seats so they could play the long term strategy for that audi of the number 26. another update i was able to sneak by the stradali team and talk to aaron neviling on what might be going on with that lamborghini well the car lost power steering which obviously is a big issue when it comes to racing the cars back out that aaron had a big smile on his face you can tell that these guys already feel like they're winning just being here racing on home soil thank you very much amanda so power steering to watson was correct in his presumption he gets a point but so great that they haven't had to pull out of the race great they're back in but out of sequence we saw it coming in we couldn't work out why we did wonder did he start on a lighter fuel load but anyhow he's back on the track so he's trying to fight for position bear in mind that santa luck audi did we see the top of the screen is a lap down he's made it very difficult for the first four runners to go through but rafaeli marcelo alessia rivera cole ledegar and granny have all got passed next one is vehicle yes no prisoners that audi leading of this group of three oddish on fresh rubber finkelhog well he's made a very good fist of getting around and a fair bit of cooperation likewise so maybe the message has gone through that letter that he's gonna let these cars go through it's all well and good having your own little bit of fun oh i'm ahead of the leading mercedes they can't get past me well you've done that bit for your day let this group of cars running fourth or fifth and sixth in the case of the two bodies let them go they are the championship contenders along with the two air force and ferraris well legendary just had a bit of a twitch he ran and ran a bit wide there but i think it really was a case of i'm the game keeper what is the password magic word audi through five one zero seven that's the password not at kyle army i don't think but clearly audi is the magical word there but look the cars are now having sunshine bouncing off their wings we have the little flurry little drops of rain but particularly on silvio scrantzy's bright yellow lamborghini things looking very bright indeed so we do know we don't think that would be the last of rain that passes through but that was a mere mere nothing in comparison to yesterday yeah i mean we've got an ambient temperature just under 23 celsius track temperature not not actually high as you would imagine you'd get in kailami at this time of year and normally sort of beautiful late summer autumnal conditions it's up at around 31 and a half celsius but you've still got these streams because the volume of water it's as if you've had your own little wells have been filled up and now they're emptying out across the racetrack charlie so what we've had just in the last two days has been a change of position in the national class and it's now serious gravity leading the yellow and black lamborghini he's moved ahead of mikhail patamba but mikhail due in fully factory supervisor five minutes he's only doing the opening hour but mikhail hey he's enjoying his racing so much he's going to be doing the remaining eight hours the race sharing the mjr motorsports uh he's jumping into the gt4 class audi that marius jackson's been driving around bowmere will be driving that as well but so he'll get a full run but he'll be jumping out of that little gt4 out here you can see it's way slower but at least because with the white blackout if just dive past the gt3 car will be continuing in the race but that car will be pulling off the tampa's doing i think an excellent job he's driving the audi and he looks like he's making the car work which is what we expect to see from the pro drivers from europe but he's doing an excellent job indeed we're coming up just four minutes short of the opening hour of this race and i wonder at what point we're going to start seeing the bulk of the field determining whether they're all going to come in one big sort of flush or whether they'll sort of stagger it but there's a lot of room in the pit lane and there's no real need to have to sort of go to your buddies in the next garage and say well if we if we come in this lap would you come in a lap earlier on that later which is what we see for example at spa 24 where you've got a congestion in the pit lane in both the pit lanes at spa oh absolutely so and if ever you're there when a full field of gt world challenge cards dive in monster for example i remember being there i literally was pinned against the walls at the front of the garage with you remember in the commentary booth i know sometimes i get confused but on that particular occasion i was down there and i thought so the national class race will be about to to to run out and uh who needs to get back in front of me is michael pitambo the white and black audi but he's being challenged by the ferrari in third place coneredega and mikhail greene he's going to let them through certainly won't win any favors if he obstructs because mikhail grady i know he's not obstructing that's fine but grenier in the chasing mercedes has had the wrong side of the coin in terms of getting past back markers so far but uh also uh infuriatingly for potamba he'd like to be right on the tail of silvio scriventies granty passed him but the really john body language that was catching but he's not going to do it now in the last three laps so his charge has been rather plugged in yeah i mean it's been a good battle between the uh and the lamborghini and tambor in the audi there there's the lead car in the national south african championship and again just watching the body language of that cash garmantee as he comes through the exit of turn 16. these guys are not just making up the field they're actually really really racing yeah i know it's it's great it's great to catch their action it'll be a shame shame they can't do the first two or three hours but let's take a look at how sylvia scribante got past you he had a works ferrari in behind and uh as that was coming out to catch the pair of them he then just chose that moment to dive past bhutan but then pitamba started closing in again but he sees the moment so silvia scribante will be parking that lamborghini in just a couple of minutes but uh hats off good move yeah a lot of local knowledge and making that dive down the inside of the clubhouse once he got to the inside then the tampa was more or less compromised so again the third place ferrari and the fourth place mercedes coming up to the back well the ferrari clears the lamborghini now once again mikhail grenio being the one that always seems to lose out when it comes to lap trafficking if he's been following all the way through come linda and the ferrari let a guard just about sneaks through and then at the critical point grenier can't quite get so he has to wait another couple of corners and then the momentum he starts to rebuild and uh near corp and down the hill down through a mine shaft the quick flick to the right flat out no need to do anything other than bury the throttle pedal into the carbon fiber bulkheads then a bit of a break as they come down into the first of crocodiles turn 13. and then the next corner of note is turned 15 cheetah watch the curb on the inside how many drivers are just clipping it look at that little front end bounce then the shorts sprint down to any way or leopard and uh watch the exit on the outside wow look at that marcus finkelok and the lamborghini really sliding on the exit so their tires are coming to the end of their useful life [Music] so this should be the start of the final lap because the lap at the moment is around uh let's say one minute 45 for the national south africa gt runners and the sylvia strobanti lamborghini there it is just going through turn two for the final time mikhail batamba closing in in the number 17 audi behind this should be their final that they will then withdraw to the pit lane but possibly at the same time as the front-running cars are coming in to serve the first their pit stops they have to do under 65 minutes busting but now patamba has got clear air between himself and scrubante so he lost track position when the quicker cars were coming through now he can see his target there it is bright yellow there ain't any way you're gonna miss that so he does miss it because we don't want contact but uh certainly look at that he's he's gained a tenth of a second in that corner alone absolutely he's flying well silva scrubante sees the moment when one of the ferraris i think it was a 51 car of conan a girl was coming up to lap them and that was the moment he pounced to get into the national class league but at the top of the hill looking at the inside there's a lot of inside and he's grabbed it with both hands i mean he had just had you can see in the last lap once he got that clear gap and the the lead cars had gone through he was able to get back to his natural pace and uh he did so really really sweetly up the hill into leo got up alongside got the nose of the id inside the lamborghini and that much gravanti was sort of compromised couldn't do anything and he will be the winner of this one-hour event within the nine hours and the laboratory he actually peels off into the pit lane when i tell you what that's they've squeaked in one lap i thought the clock had got to the top but certainly for the stradali into africa lamborghini it's a driver change brought in by look like i don't know who's taking over as yet but uh swinging in getting out swinging in doesn't have to be too fast the pit stops have a sensible sort of minimum time to afford plenty of time to get in get strapped in sensibly john which always makes sense and ordinarily the driver getting over the sister driver came with the seat belts and whatever plumbing in the radio uh communication others are sometimes drivers carry a drinks bottle so work carried out now [Music] the driver getting in dolls need a little bit of assistance and a new fresh set of perennial tires going on as we go back to scrabbani who's just lost at that position super tambour but [Music] so the move at the top of the hill was was trudy there's about a three and a half second advantage uh for sylvia scramanti so apologies for jumping to the pale uh the car we're looking for talking about the tampa's car is white with the blackness there's car 17 going down mine shark so uh much as we quite enjoy the the safari livery's uh works out he's challenging the front head to the field more traditional blue and white livery of a santa luck card might have been easier to pick out but for sylvia scribanzi job done national gt honours and he'd be peeling into the pits obviously no check and flag could be waved a metaphorical one because obviously if one was waved rafael we haven't been focusing on the battle at the lead but it's not really a battle it's a demonstration marcelo has now got a 10 and a half second advantage over the second base ferrari by alexayo rivera marcelo consolidating and we will be coming up to this opening round of pit stops for this field of cars very very shortly indeed so not wanting to run up too close to the maximum 65 minutes per stint so who will be first in the ferrari or the mercedes there is third place linda carr still being hounded by mikhail garnier in the fourth place mercedes and finkel hawk just in view as is mateo worth pointing out that um of course this lamborghini also picked up points in the national class but that's behind it now because we've reached the hour and that was third that car that philip kakana is leaving the pit in 23 lamborghini and the car that was fourth but some distance back is the 86 tridali motorsport lamborghini and charlotte has had two unforced pit stops but they will pick up the points for that and uh applause for sylvia scribante so he's got the job done mechanics got happy but uh for two of these national fast cars and the national class gt4 audi they're continuing for the remainder of the joburg kyle army nine hour but uh a nice little story within a story there high class racing the first of the regular front runners to make a regular pit stop just after the hour mark came in with an hour and four minutes on the clock and the ferrari's also in the pit lane just far end they came in slightly earlier back out onto the circuit a little bit of debris just sitting at the side of the track there now interestingly of course the santa lot racing out in the with the blue nose has served its first pit stop way ahead of the others and he's right on the tail of one of the ferraris that's rejoining so matteo drew d has brought in the 32 audi likewise let's wonder what the team is doing change of drivers and fresher rubber refuel so just to let you know who's coming everybody's coming as a simple answer all the top eight runners now have a pit stop on the board mark patterson south african racer never raced in his home country 70 years old having his first race experience he's with high class racing there's silvio scribante very pleased with life indeed job very well done the 25 is rolling and that's we marcus finger lock again gets out ahead of the 32 the sister car but what's more important is look at the mercedes has also managed to maintain its position ahead of the two audis but where are the two ferraris because we saw them both come in and we need to get just one more lap or two to get the the wash out of the particular points what i will tell you is the ferrari crews opted for short pit stops in terms they didn't do a driver change river and lender guard stayed on board whereas marcelo is handing over tima bogashleiski grenier his handbook headed over to harbaugh van der linde has taken over from winkelhawk uh charles fiat has taken over from uh mattaya droolie etc etc effect so the three drivers who've done the first in the stadium for the second stint are the two ferrari drivers rivera and ledergaster they'll be leading the race and uh lucas legere who we saw in the short george sloth and he stayed on there he is there he is and in fact he will be coming through well clearly ahead of one of those ferraris so just waiting for confirmation there they had a short pit stop he had a long longer first place let's have a look waiting for the type of screens to catch up there is the car that has dominated so far now in the hands of team boguslowski so where will he currently indicating the car is now in third place so he comes across or comes through turn 16 and again runs just to the edge of what is considered acceptable in track limits so the mercedes comes across bogoslowski goes through that never-ending stream of water running across just at turn one down into turn two big gap currently showing as 39 seconds between first and third place yeah exactly but it's also down to where the uh cars were in the pit lane but don't forget bogusleiski he had the longer pit stop as he took over from marcelo but those two works ferrari's uh rivera and nedergar stayed out so bogusleiski in that third place 30 seconds down but the driver change takes that extra time well but why does it mean it shouldn't the driver change should be done within the period of time to change the wheels and refuel so i'm not clear as to where they would have lost that time certainly you know the way that these teams practice those driver changes they can certainly get them done within that window but there we are ferrari rivera leads ledegar ferrari second place okay but there is something which is called official short pit stop in which you're only allowed to change two of the tyres that saves you the time that is where the 30 seconds 40 seconds difference so okay the driver change really had nothing to do with it it was the short pit stop but yeah i just threw that out there stretch the commentary john indeed indeed so ferrari lead as they had planned to do and clearly their decision to do that short stop is to give them the advantage the lead it'll be interesting to see where that leaves them when they come to the end of the second uh pit stop they should still have a comfortable advantage over the mercedes especially with respect to team of bergoslavsky who is of the three mercedes drivers the one that is the the least experienced yeah in many ways but it really it's it's sort of yin and yang if you do a short pit stop now you'll definitely be doing a long pit stop next time around and vice versa so it's different ways of playing but do you think that as a consequence of what ferrari have done there of course i've done that mercedes is it's gonna mirror that and do a short stop to try and regain the position that they've given up no entirely so that that's sort of where i was heading on that one but uh just hearing from amanda down in the pits that uh a little bit of um gay but uh ferrari back in the pit replay and you can see replay of the ferrari having done the short stop you still got the 89 mercedes sitting up on the jacks the driver change going on and this was the tactic it's moved it through miguel molina i'm being told was a stretching and making so he was going to be taking over the car and then they flipped it around and said stay on board for rivera and ladaga and that is why those two ferraris out front but next time around they'll be wanting four fresh tyres they only put two on that's why they were so quick during that third time in the pits and you can see look 22 seconds at a standstill one minute and nine seconds there we are that is how much time nearly 50 seconds gained by doing exactly what they did in the pit stop they came short they're going to pay the price for that later well mercedes could do the same thing if they so choose to do but i'm not persuaded that uh the choice of doing that is the one that's going to be beneficial yeah well let's wait and see but that's a bold roll of the dice seven hours 50 minutes remaining a lot a lot can take place in that time interesting to see the the the pace of the cars as the drivers settle down on uh respectively some on two new tyres and some on four now santa lot racing lucas legere rolled the dice early with a very early pit stop but he hasn't got him higher than seventh place so no particular gain really not in the mix never expected that uh 25 audi to be in the mix with all respect to nicola bears and lucas legendary seem against very quick indeed but then up against the full works runners on the lap times or the leading three cars on the last lap the lead ferrari was a best part of sort of seven tenths of a second quicker than the third place mercedes very much the same the second place uh leather guy was actually practically quicker than the lead ferrari so in terms of lap times ferrari have clearly got the advantage over the 89 mercedes clearly have and uh if you just joined us and you saw the horrendous rain we had at carl army yesterday we had a little a few spots a short while ago but really it's got brighter and brighter since then still some weepers across the track notably at the kink at turn one but uh for the rest it's the lap it's fabulous up and down the mid-range countryside just outside johannesburg and uh nice and tidy as they go through that's the high-class racing audi keeping out of the way in the background that's uh mark patterson gt2 european series champion last year born in south africa has never raced here till now this is a very special weekend for him now the pitstop it was pivotal there's the high class racing this is a replay the ferrari goes flying past the high-class racing audi is waiting to get on its way but wait where comes here comes the audi release no the paddle went up the paddle went down oh my word but that must be said the paddle had gone up mark set off then it came down and that was a close one and we're talking about these small moments beautifully caught by the camera crews there that could just effect this we had a few back markers that could have maybe might have taken out the eyes of the works out those are the details that will seal success or failure here today and it's in the pit lane it's not going to be necessarily only or exclusively on the racetrack it'll be in the pit lane where somebody will say oh if it hadn't whatever i mean that was a release but you can see the car coming down the engineer holding up that signal could see the car coming down i'm assuming he could see it yet he lifted it up and allowed the audio to go and then all of a sudden hard on the brakes yeah well luckily that was all was avoided there and that wasn't a particularly crowded section of the pit lane so thank goodness uh that was sorted out the ferrari must have been heaving aside from relief at that point because it would have been the second of their cars the 51 car that's the one with two of their championship challengers on board cole nedegar and alex santro piagini then it got still at the wheel after that opening stint and again a gentle flash of the lights he's like uh santa claus racing audi with luke's legendary to get out of his way he's a lap down on them we've got the slower gt4 class audi in the middle of the track it almost looks like it's standing still it's not it's doing a cracking pace down the start finish straight but it's cornering speed is so much lower there's nothing he can do but keep out in the way well the gt4 audi is more or less the surum stock car the gt3 is the evil version of that which is a it's not quite a silhouette of the the stock car but it's such a different vehicle but right now the ferrari wants to clear that idea as quickly as possible remember they already's been in for that early pit stop what came in just over 30 minutes of the race nedergar has only been out on the racetrack five or so laps so he's got the benefit of the fresher rubber but again he's running with a little bit more fuel than the yard he's doing so it's an offset between a little bit of extra grip but a little bit less acceleration off the corner okay just looking at the gap between the two ferraris 8.7 seconds on the start finish line last time that was the lead alessia rivera had in the 71 and the cisco with cochlear guard the 51 is clearly going to lose more time on this lap so it could be getting closer to 10 seconds and now diving up at the top of the hill at loycott from a long way back but not going to happen because uh because that's right turned in at the top of the hill still in front this is costing more and more time for the ferrari in second place maybe john buying a little bit of an advantage for the audis that's right but they already had the the slight advantage on that kill the climb up to the up the ferrari that little bit of extra weight but carrying a larger fuel load just didn't have the punch where he wanted it let it go i knew what he wanted to do he knew where he could get alongside the other he could take that corner away so now he's had to wait until they come up to the conclusion of what is now in that 43 and i was at 42 so get under the rear wing of the yard sit there sit there sit there and hope that when you get through the curve at turn one and watch the water because you'll get a little flick for the car now he's alongside now he can afford to break that little bit deeper with the slightly fresher rubber oh contact well that was unnecessary and interesting to see a professional driver having contact with the driver and silver cup will that be viewed as that's an issue because the pro drivers that they have contact with am certainly watch again and see gets alongside fair and square alongside and then the id just turns in well whose fault was that then tell me well we'll give you a choice of two and answers on a postcard in oldie worldly style so bear in mind of course that santa lot racing out of the lucas legendary is a lap in arrears i've been looking to see the flags and uh certainly ferrari might be thinking the last thing you want we've seen already a car pulling in with a puncture is any contact at all the gap but 9.4 seconds didn't quite reach 10 seconds with the the delay as lucas legere a lap down in the santa lot racing out he was holding up cold let it go how much does it help the audis well it might have gained them a second in their chase but they're a long way back just to point out again john these two ferraris had only 22 seconds in the pit lane they were super quick the rest were a minute and 10. they're in front imagine in that little contact had it been actually front body work with a front tower in the ferrari or a rear town the ferrari cuts a tower down absolutely those are the elements but leniger had done all the hard yards had put his car fair and square alongside the audi and the only turns in well i'm sure we'll see further replays of that but hopefully not because of puncture results from it but almost a lap further on the board and clearly the lamborghini the ferrari is faster it's about a second better towards the end of the lap but a new tyre being brought forward is that by the ferrari crew just double checking it but yeah of course so you can see the refueling units in the background so they think that ledecker has collected a puncture from that they're waiting to hear from the driver but he's gone for a further lap well they're prepared and they've also got the refueling hose also in case the ferrari is going to have to make a pit stop we i don't think the tar has been cut down but we're only looking at it from that view from the camera on a long range a long lay long range lens so it looked to me to be more body work contact than it was a tire contact but af caution are sufficiently concerned that they're preparing in the event right john the stewards have spoken driving standards warning flag thank you very much for all right benjamin for pointing that out uh driving standards to lucas letter a car number 26. so they deemed that move wasn't acceptable i mean certainly made it tough for all the front runners coming through he's gaining experience in these cars but i think a lot of people will be saying afterwards you've got when you're a lap down and out of sequence you've got to let the front runners come through here side by side the ferrari is fair and square in fact at that point he's ahead so the left front of the audi hits just just behind the rear of the right wheel and the ferrari as we watched that replay just heard from amanda in the pits that the 71 ferrari is coming in so it has picked up a puncture so this has spiked one of the guns of the ferrari challenge and it will be the right front that gets changed wait to see the car comes in that's the only tire that possibly could have been damaged so here the team are bringing the air of course they've got the fuel hose are they gonna go to the driver change as well so it's a full service yeah well of course they're going for a long pit stop now they might as well make the driver change that would have been fitted into when they served the long pit stop but their hand has been forced they rolled the dice both 51 and 71 ferraris and you know had it all totally under control but then suddenly with that side on side contact look at the brake dust i know it's a fairly heavy brake circuit that's a lot of breakdown i'm just wondering seeing that are we going to have the possibility of teams having to maybe make a pad change at some point as well so in fact john we have uh that is the 71 car not the leader car that across the weepers this gives a chance for bogusleiski to move up into second place in the akka asp ferrari but the 71 again having done what they've done has come in ahead of the game and so they will be again out of sequence with the 89 mercedes and the 51 ferrari there is 51 will be coming in this time around so i'm being told so they've decided they're a little tactic to get to the front with those short pit stops and certainly with the question mark of the possible puncture for uh the 51 car he's coming in come what made but they rolled the dice now of course this race will sort of unfurl the other way so let's go down and here live from the pit stop with amanda in the pits well guys behind me you'll see bernardo sarah he just ran out here to overlook this for his team as the 51 makes it in it's been kind of strange over here back here when the drive-throughs happened bernardo sarah he was looking over his options well here the 51 is now miguel molina is getting in that car finally he was stretching as i said earlier but it was just really strange with those drive-throughs they had the tires out the crews were getting ready and the cars just went through it here they are now driver changes for a ferrari thank you very much amanda that's clarified it the 22 seconds was driving from one end to the pits no two-tier change as we feared in the first pit stop but now comes the pitch stop so this really is a weird one they've stretched that to first change uh right out so the 71 came in first and now the 51. fuerko has taken over just waiting to see who is going out in the second of those ferraris which was the one that had been leading and the fry is going to be almost identical piece of the track as sister car rejoice oh big twitch track turns right and the stream running right across it and uh there's uh well there's going to be the swapping of the positions of the ferraris but uh we'll go back to as we've got 51 just ahead of 71 but fuerko who's got a bit more speed in his car a bit more heat in those tires side by side and it's miguel molina who's in well hold on a second every time you think this is a championship battle to be fought so who is the happy party now don't forget ferrari split their challenge with uh nicholas nielsen being separated from laroga and uh pierre gidi but that was a really really strong run from col ledegar and he looked very very animated in the background i mean maybe that's just the sort of thing you have to do to be a ferrari driver no let's move away from those cliches but it was a great stint but they didn't have the pace to stick with rafael marcello but in so many ways for these two ferrari crews from af course that they need you their target is the audi cruise it's ferrari ahead of uh and he's still he's shaking his head and of course for colb leather guard there was that contact with lucas letter he hunted him down it was a side-by-side contact he's not happy he might need to calm down but hopefully we'll grab an interview with him at some point but that has been a dramatic change of events but uh the ferraris they've moved back into second place and third place because tima bogashleiski back in the lead of the race in the 89 akka asb mercedes he's clear by uh 20 seconds kelvin van der linde in his audi the number 30 25 car is into second place another audi charvets is into third and the ferraris are going to be fourth and fifth so the drive through and then the bodily contact and then the long pit stops have not helped ferrari it's been a strange one yes i mean the whole essence of doing what they do was principally i assume to give themselves the opportunity to take the lead and then they would do a reset but then coming in almost within what number of laptops maybe 10 laps are having the initial pit stop to do a full pit stop and service and private change is a strategy which i'm sure they will explain to us uh or just only to amanda in the pit lane so it's uh not as you were before mark patterson keeps very nicely out of the way but uh now really needed to chase antonio fuako pushed on good see the track has tried out a lot since the start of the race that's through sunset clubhouse but already through the the esses working his way in the lead is team of bogus slice he has to win this race to stand a chance of taking the title he's doing all he can he's leading and uh ferrari at the moment has been the mark that's been not in the wars but certainly bodily contact uh for luke for come letting go has been a scare and that strange tactic a drive through the pits he's still gesticulating down there and then the standard pit stop has put them on the back foot and now he's moved into the vacuum john yeah i mean just watching timber burgers his last lap just has done he's just completed now it's the first time he's actually got into the 143 point seconds and comparing that with uh others around him they've been running in the 143s again the high 43 so it's taking burgoski a little bit of time to get down to a pace where he can you know take the opportunity to consolidate i mean good exit on the barbecue there you can see carrying a load of speed on the exit now the run up the very slight gradient then turning into sunset can carry a load of speed in the first part of sunset be careful you don't overrun on the exit the curbing and then the grass beyond and big break before you turn left into clubhouse as we go back to the two ferraris and they come down into turn two so they're virtually half a lap behind the lead mercedes well just can't wait to hear news and try and find out why ferrari's played the race the way it has we can sort of understand what happened but uh let's go down to the ferrari pit and here from comb let it goes with amanda i'm sure he's got a story to tell standing by with come later and as we watched along he was animated after you got out of that car talking to the team here and talking to alessa what what had you so full of emotion why you got out no i i'm not so full of emotion i think the the conditions are i quote i quite are quite uh tough hot in the car and we try to extend the driving time so i think this is good at the moment we we look okay just i know we need to keep can because it's a nine hour race but the team uh audis antelope played a really bad game because the the driver was one lap down and it blocked me for so many corners and so many laps when we are not the same category one lap down there is no point of racing so i think the it's not the spirit of uh sro it's quite far from it and but we we need to uh to go ahead we have a strong car we have a strong lineup and a strong team so when you talk about the strong car you have seen the track at this point what can you tell us about the track conditions and how it's opening up so it went up from the start and it started it started to get hotter but then i i was looking a bit after more more after the tires so i think our car is quite consistent through the stint so that's why i think we're confident and then we hope we keep a good balance for the night and could you explain to us the thinking behind the drive-through prior to the pit stop that you had maybe explain you at the end we try to change the the pit stop strategy uh to uh to open the strategy i think uh when when i did it in 19 we played a lot with it so i i personally think that it's quite smart and we have uh one of the best team in terms of strategies so let's say in the end you never know before but you need to take a decision and to uh to stick to the plan thank you [Music] uh thank you very much to amanda great uh questioning there and a good answer i think from complete ago we'll tell you after the race but it is about working the tactics and often they of course i have been masters of those but it hasn't revealed itself john until the final stage of the race you then get to understand excuse me understand what it was they're doing but it was a really rare one to see a drive-through from first to their cars yeah i think part of the decision process had to do with the pace of the 89 mercedes and i think ferrari realized that on our night pace they weren't going to be able to match what mercedes had gone so they've they've gone slightly in a different direction and as kubletagar said wait until the end of the race to see whether what we have done is the smart tactic or not yeah it's very it's very interesting always finding an endurance race where you sort of the first part of the race you're just focusing ahead and then you get to a certain point you start counting from the end backwards but this is very early to be doing that but clearly you're quite right john the pace of the akka asp mercedes has been something that it's a distraction to them in some ways because really their battle is against the two the 25 and 32 audis but they've got the legs on that or did have but now of course they're behind but they're running a different sequence they they came in and then pitted what another 20 minutes later for their second but first proper pit store probably seven and a half hours of this race remaining so what they did basically is so early into the race whether have a night come up airing in the outcome or not we wait to see but what is clear right now is that the the lab the last lap of the elite mercedes was 145.4 which was almost two seconds slower than that of kelvin rather linda in the second page 25 audi commander linda currently 18.9 seconds behind the lead mercedes very unlikely he's going to catch him before the end of this second hour but it's indicative that van der linde's got lots of pace that maybe that was a bit of traffic that got uh and to interrupt the flow of timor burgoslavski's last that need to keep an eye on what bergoslavsky is doing certainly we'll do now just keeping a little look at the battle on the track for second place kelvin van der linder on home ground at the number 25 audi going very well indeed but he's been caught by charvin so they they were running their cars in effectively positions with the ferrari drive through and the secondary pit stop they've moved ahead of them and that is going to be a super important battle but there's still the inter nissan battle between the two audis but out front it's the akka asp mercedes but uh since the outset of this race let's take a look at the highlights of the first hour and a half of this race and from the outset it was raphaeli marcelo pulling away very comfortably as the ferraris battled in behind and it was uh alessia rivera who wanted the better of their scrap to get ahead of homeland michael grenier tucked behind him fourth place as uh the first group of cars started to pull clear the national class races uh what in the action two charla ranges in the black and white uh stranale sport lamborghini moving his way from 12th up to seventh place a really really good run from him there's still weepers across the track the ferrari's having to pick their way through that's the stradali into africa motorsport lamborghini keeping out of the way but this little scrap there between the lamborghini charla ranges and lucas lettering got very tight indeed down into ingway the final corner but uh charla rang is held on but then his lamborghini started to smoke and that was to peel off into the pits running in the national class but really putting on a great show sadly that was pushed back into the garage but it has returned since then then the audi is fighting very hard indeed but matai trudy requested to move over and let marcus finkelhack come through into fifth place to see if he could chase off after the two ferraris that were second and third but it was all about the akka asp mercedes master class from the driver at the wheel rafaeli marcelo then the 25 center lookout he came in to the pit stop 26 audi i mean made a pit stop out of sequence came out to the track and then made it very hard indeed lucas letter wasn't every driver's friend and certainly he really rather delayed the ferraris as they came through marcelo made a better fist of it leading the national class was uh sylvia scribante great run from the sun energy one mercedes of mikhail grenier but the opening hour was all about rafael marcello and a great race here on south african soil it's nine hours after that uh run through the highlights it's uh rafaeli matchello's car now in the hands of timo bogasley leading by nearly 20 seconds and for those that might be concerned about the pace of teamwork burgerslowski have no fears that was an anathema that one particular lap because his last lap was 143.8 the gap between first and second still around the 18 and a half or so second so again traffic may be just a spike causing that loss of over the second plus about three laps ago so boguslowski running very much within sort of a window of two-tenths of a second of the second third place cars well i'm fortunate for fans of the sharks because they've got their name on the car but the shocked car the high class racing audi in the pit garage this isn't something we want to see mark patterson not that long into his stint about half an hour into his stint and the 33 audi are we looking at any damage on the car it's been smoking a little bit but well certainly there's work going around the left rear of the car so you can see the team constructing so whether i mean it doesn't i'm not we're not aware we haven't seen any contact but whatever it is it's around the left rear so that car being pushed into the garage to enable more than the mandatory two people permitted in the pit lane to work in the car aside from the refueller of course so what are the problems well no doubt amanda will be down there and ask the hard questions and give us the answer well what's the finger pointing although it's quite calm down there but uh mark patterson is out of the car looking out of the way so it's not a quick fix because otherwise they'd have kept him on board oh how frustrating because he was really really keen to be racing on hope soil for the first time having cut his teeth after a very successful business career in the states and did his early racing in the states and then has been racing globally since then in all forms of uh gt and prototype cars but uh such a keen racer kelvin van der linde second place on home ground john so that'll put a smile on his face what's he said he's he's gained a little bit on team of bogaslicki but really it's his pace relative to the proof it's i love watching kelvin and kelvin van der linde drive a race car it's just you can see that he knows what he's doing and he's just extracting the maximum amount of performance he can out of that 25 rd certainly isn't his lap pace is good slightly faster than the race leader last time around one minute 43.6 seconds and he's dropping charvets who had been closing there's now five and a half seconds between them so again there's pride between the two crews this is the santa look crew that's running the the audi in second place is wrt running the one in thirds interestingly in the last laps the two rd's have been quicker on that last lap than the two ferraris running in fourth and fifth position so and again going back to that strategy that ferrari implemented uh it's interesting to try and we're only at second guessing it so they think that they've done something which is probably going to benefit them at the end of nine hours but right now kelvin van der linden the 25 audi is giving us a master class and how to drag an idea around the skylimi circuit it is absolutely great to watch yep another respectable lap from him and he's gained another margin out of the race he takes seven tenths of a second so not only could you identify a quick lap but you've got it spot on john so kelvin van der linde closing in in second place but still a huge margin 17 seconds for the akka asb mercedes team of bogashviki doing a great job charles vitz in the 32 wrt audi also nothing really impressively he's faster than the race leader but slower than vandaling yes and i mean he at one point he was certainly within maybe a second and a bit of kevin vandalinder when they both returned to the circuit for their second hour but right now kelvin van der linde has put the pedal to the metal as they would say and charles branch has not been able to respond so he's been falling back a little bit by little bit each lap he's six seconds in arrears the the young belgian now but he's got seven seconds advantage over antonio furoco but uh let's go down to the wrt camp to amanda well guys you can see the car is getting pulled out right now i was able to talk to michael markerson about what happened with the car there was some contact with a car in the corner so they ended up pulling the car back in the arm was built behind behind that left rear tire right there all good to go now thierry b millen who is in his first gt3 race ever is still behind the wheel uh thank you very very much so two for moulin going back out or going out but patterson had been at the wheel at the time but uh whenever you whenever you see um contact well you see the damage of a contact on a corner of a car it's invariably from contact with another car yeah so just we never actually saw they the contact normally all the camera guys around the racetrack and the production unit and working out which pictures to show us would have found that one but doesn't appear to have been anything so it may have been a very momentary contact and nothing that actually registered very much so uh whatever the damage was has been repaired and the cars rolling down the pit lane back onto racetrack and just also just to highlight what uh amanda said there's for terry famous he was uh drafted at the last moment it must be how he whether he was in south africa ready for this or not but uh andersfield back couldn't drive the 33 high-class racing car having been found to be covered positive and this young racer having his first run in the gt3 class car so what a place to come what a circuit to do it on and yesterday when it was driving a huge amount of rain he must have thought what have i embraced but he's young he's dutch and he's giving it a go well you know there's a funny thing about driving in the rain some drivers embrace and some drivers just hate it but i mean a young driver coming in getting a big big opportunity like this [Music] it was for him to make the best of he didn't get the opportunity because they only did one lap before all the three qualifying sessions were abandoned and then eventually the super the super bowl shootout for the eight cars that also had to be abandoned because of track conditions but nevertheless use those conditions trinity and just looking behind bruce look the sky that's not a bad sky for this time of day here in kailami it'll do for now that's for sure right the two ferraris and molina fourth and so for all halfway through but if you look at the car between them it's sun energy one racing mercedes but unfortunately that's a lap down now kenny harbaugh has taken it over he hasn't found the sweet spot in space after a brilliant opening stint for mikhail grenier of course he ran along the first pit stop that they did but uh he is about to be put a lap down by the 51 car as well so miguel molina in fifth place would go past harbaugh is now in seventh place but he's a lap down so that will uh unfortunately put him a little bit further back but he's got martin conrad still to have a third stint in that car yeah but remember kenny how old is in the the pro-am category and as pros filling the top five positions and then we've got the silver cup uh audi of leisure in sixth place and then the first of the two pro-am cars kenny haber running in seventh and vermillion in the audi in eighth position it's difficult to find a way around that mercedes because it's got very good overall lap performance so you have to work hard to make your pass and make it stick with kenny abu hopefully we'll have seen and of course he's not in this particular battle not a championship battle per se for uh overall honors no he's got his own battle to fight but up front what's the gap first a second it was 18 seconds it was 17 seconds it's now 16 and a bit seconds kelvin van der linde really taking the chase taking the battle to tima bogasliceki but the russian driver has got things under control of the front he knows his car has to be gosh there's even sunshine yeah on the hillsides in the distance again looking at the lap times last lap and there was just overtake being made up into barbecue and that was a big threw up the inside deniable either he if he didn't see it he had to say it once the ferrari is alongside but he made the pass and uh it's not an easy part of the racetrack to do but just to go back what i was saying that burgoslavsky's laptop are not as consistent comes to traffic he's back again on the last half into a 145. so whereas those around him kill help and vanderlinda and arguably charles fiat and maybe the two ferraris handling the traffic situation maybe that little bit better there is another problem for team of bogus it's gone from um being asked to respect track limits now a warning flag has been shown to the 89 mercedes so what he needs to do is keep it between the white light stay on the dark stuff in the middle of the circuit he does not want to pick up a penalty he has to win in that car to take the title i'd like to know which part of the racetrack it is that he's been pinged four track limits i suspect as we said turn 16 is the usual corner where most drivers will stretch the limits and it's it's a natural sort of exit uh trajectory for a car to run that little bit wide so you have to restrain yourself or pull it back in that little bit turn two is also a part of the racetrack where you can get done for track limits but and there again just on the exit of club uh clubhouse you can see how close that kenny apollo is running just getting all four wheels off the black stuff and that is what gives the the warning and if you do it over three times then you will have a penalty there is the car that is leading and coming out of turn 16. oh it's running the limit absolutely on the edge but it would be acceptable okay well it's about to be busy in the pit lane but only if you're at sound spot racing because lucas legere remember pitted very very early in that first stint after about i don't know 25 minutes and uh he has then done sort of a half stint followed by a full stint if you will and uh he is about to be bringing that number 26 land um audi into antelope garage area and he's got a choice of nicola bear or simon gashey to take over but uh legere will be coming in from a lap down in sixth place overall and again just looking at the messages about cars being asked to respect chat limits uh 51 that's the ferrari in the hands of miguel molina that's been given you know notice of exceeding track limits and of the other front runners car 25 as well that's the one there again oh kelvin van der linde so pretty much everybody but it's a question of when a warning turns into a penalty or are these all occurring at the turn 16 that's all i don't keep your eyes off the screen too much and though it's supplementary information but uh certainly that appears to be the only quality kelvin is running the limits coming out of i mean why would we talk about track limits because obviously it's important because if the driver transgresses too frequently then the team will suffer those are the things that teams and drivers have to bear in mind and if you've done one well you could say i made an error if you do two you're pushing it three you're on the edge and you're going to be penalized as that time santa laguardia comes in 2026. i have an answer to my question who will be taking it over thank you very much mata boosik letting me know it will be nicola bear and also patrick nederhauser is apparently getting uh ready for a driving change but i don't expect that one just after the top of the hour the patrick need a house a car and uh at the moment and he's the second run so i really don't expect uh the houses to be taken over at all anytime soon but we watch and wait and look at any messages from the pit lane but a standard pit stop for the 26 audi and uh lucas lester a very tall figure of lucas legere heading out he might have some drivers coming down to have a little chat with him well he's a big lad isn't he but anyway what he did was the right thing he used got out of the car and then he assists uh the driver getting in to make sure that the the seat felt particularly in the buckle uh there's a six-point harness in all racing cars these days and then there may be a radio connection there may be a drinks connection but car rolling down pit lane exit doesn't must stay to the left of that demarcation white line before you rejoin the circuit and just at the point where habu is about to turn in well runs very wide and probably just to some degree maybe you might give him an excuse of a saying force measure he just wanted to make sure that the audi was not going to be close enough to result in contact so habul is on his way and he's cleared the audi which you'd be very happy about now it's been reloaded with fuel they've got a fresh driver on board but more importantly fresh for any rubber so it's better to be at the front and consolidate than have to find a way around a car that could potentially hold you up just simply because it's got that extra grip and pace with the new set of pirellis yeah it's a sweet sweet moment when you're ready to roll but let's go down to the pits because amanda do six we'll have lucius legere who's had a very very busy first it let's find out what he has to tell us about his opening stint lucas we spoke with come ladaguar after he got out of the car he was pretty animated on his stint alongside you on the track and your reflection of the moment what can you tell us i have not too much to say it's racing and at the end of the day every team has their own target to to to get and i had mine and we had ours and i had i had to do what to do when you look at the racing that you've already put under your belt here today what will you use on your next stint that you've learned already yeah well i don't know when i will jump back in the car uh we'll see i need to talk with my engineer and we will see from there so that was lucas lettering 21 year old swiss racer he played a very straight bat in cricketing terms on that one he wasn't accepting that he did anything wrong at all was he well i mean it's always the way of a racing driver he'll have an opinion of an incident and the other car will have a diametrically different opinion of an incident but the camera in that instance to me was very clear that legere did move over on a car that was absolutely square alongside and that was avoidable and he was given a notification for driving standards and rightly so but he's 21 years old the jolly green giant is an enormous driver when howie unfolds himself to get in and likewise getting out now the drivers have seat inserts so i suspect that dj oleg is sitting pretty much on the bones of the the floor of his id because just simply as height absolutely so so let's just flick back to take a quick look at the leader board in this race and it's still team of bogaski but it's actually stabilized it's around 15 seconds because kelvin van der linden was getting closer and closer to him and in fact in the last two laps it's been the story of charles vitz in the 32 audi we're looking at that now on the screens it's been actually having the best of the front three runners pace around the circuit there has been a little bit of traffic in the way for them and always as the gt4 class audi it's now in the hands of uh mo mia south african racer he's minding his own business keeping out of the way but uh when you do come across it you have to maybe have a little bit of cautious and your pace drops away accordingly yeah came across the line and he is uh 5.2 seconds now behind kelvin mandolin that gap had been up to around six and a half seven seconds at one point so but maybe just the rob of the green the way he's caught traffic uh lapping traffic has been looking favorable we've seen certainly kelvin van der linde drive the wheels off that 25 audi i mean i think been very impressive drive from vandalinder but perhaps is coming back and uh he's doing a good job he's not as dramatic or spectacular behind the wheel but that doesn't matter it's the stopwatch that tells the tale well actually that said when he entered went out of turn two towards the truck size sweep he was very lively indeed and his last lap was that car's best for the race so he is picking up the pace he's got line of sight up ahead of him uh to kelvin van der linden kelvin we saw just the edge of the shot there turning into sunshine a short while ago now over the crest and you've left the esses up towards up he can be seen terry for moulin the orange and black audi is between the pair of them as they go out of look up and then down the hill towards mineshaft so but again it's that moment john when you find it or when you lose it contact visual contact with the car in front is so important yeah i mean it's nice when you're in the lead in the car behind you goes out of your vision equally it's wonderful when you're the pursuing car in the car that you're pursuing is getting closer and closer so i think that is the case right now for charles france he's just waiting to get the opportunity what rainbow i've been very quick exit out of turn 15 watch out of 16 to make sure he doesn't get too enthusiastic and he's marginally just over the white mind that demarcation line so he will be being observed a couple of corners where he's on the edge of what might be considered and i know it's a bore to all the enthusiasts around the world who what are they talking about track limits all the time for well that's a part of the rule and regulations now they're being administered very strictly okay we're talking about strict we might have to reach the rule book uh again very soon because track limits been exceeded by car 75 the sun energy one mercedes after its last warning well so this is the mercedes in the hands of kenny harbaugh in sixth place overall we did see going off the track literally turned two on the exit of turn two i gave it a sort of a buy because it was because of the audi of what was the number 26 audi rejoining the racetrack but maybe there's been other transgressions that we haven't picked up the gap has dropped a little bit more quickly now between first and seconds down to 13.2 seconds so kelvin van der linde irrepressively pressing on and charles brett's just still 5.8 seconds behind the third and i have an answer you don't need to read for the rule book it's a drive-through penalty has now just been issued for exceeding track limits two yes car 75 so they were very quick from uh exceeding the warning too well you know what the rules are and here are the rules of the drive-through penalty and that is the sort of massive setback that takes you out of the mix yes we pointed out there competing in the pro-am class but that gives a little bit of hope for the high-class racing out he was delayed in the pits but it buys him a bit of that time back absolutely i mean the time you take to drive into the pit then it's not a particularly long pit lane here in kailami the entry is very much at the beginning of the pit lane so just watching a lot of caution coming down into turn two from the 25 as it makes his way past the lamborghini and it manages not to run wide on the exit so good job by kelvin van der linde but you could see a hesitation before he committed to passing the lamborghini because he he's not familiar with the national drivers he doesn't want to put himself into a position where all of a sudden he finds himself getting into contact and as a pro driver he will be held responsible absolutely so and i mean we see this year in year out when you get some new drivers who they haven't competed against on a circuit haven't competed on very much so you know you do need to know your foe alongside you but of course you expect exemplary standards from everyone but it's been the universal nature john of motor races since time began some heed the rules others left so be it v405 [Music] but certainly the choice at the moment is team of boguslavsky in the akka asp 89 mercedes 12 nearly 13 seconds clear oh we have different colors sky but i'll take the blue sky on the left hand side of the screen not the grey clouds on the right that is the cloud base that's coming from johannesburg whether it's going to visit here and stay here or just leave a calling card in the form of a few more drops of rain we wait to see but that's the first time we've seen that dark glide over the circuit all day [Music] okay i want to throw some numbers at you john i know you're a big numerologist spell that no i'll get you to guess what it means right timo bogaslicki leading by we've been talking about his margin over kelvin van der linde it's down to 12.7 seconds so it's starting to come down again charles will be about another five six seconds back now and then it's the question of the gap back to the first of those two ferraris it's antonio just waiting for across the line he's 20 just under 26 seconds down we'll talk about this a lot through the course of race ferrari have done this before oh blimey car going very wide past the high class charge verts well it's charles it's going past uh tyrion vermoulan um but ferrari do this they take a different tactic and you think oh god they're 26 seconds down they're out of it they are absolutely not out with this because they will be running a different sequence and if they've done their maths right we reckon you can do an hour and 20 in theory based on a drive through with with the drive through the way they've done it yes um calculate back from the end of the race mind you of course you've got to factor in will there be torrential rain will we have you know will there be safety car periods but by doing this they put themselves back behind but it buys them an advantage at the end of the race that will or should become apparent about how they got their sums right but there are lots of variables they're always variable i've forgotten the beginning of the question you're going to ask me but in the meantime in the meantime we're just six minutes away from the conclusion of hour two and very shortly we're going to see ron two of the regular pits and servicing taking place yeah well effectively letting us know how the asp mercedes is faring against the number 25 and 32 hours driven respectively by kelvin van der linde and charles vitz at presence um another thing i need to throw at you well interesting they're showing the high-class racing uh audi because that has uh under investigation for an infringement in the pit stop do you remember the lollipop came up and then went down charvin's worked his way through this is where that was he hit four wheels literally off the racetrack so that is again sort of the consequence of having to get past vermillion in the in the orange audi so whether that will go down as a track limit abuse or not as we go back to these two magnificent ferraris running currently in fourth and fifth place antonio fiona the 71 car there it is and he is what four and a half seconds really ahead of miguel molina in the sister car in fifth place yeah just that little bit the fastest pair and um unfortunately we had the drive-through penalty for kenny harbour who just pulled into the pits to serve that but between then and now he's also been playing for another time exceeding speed at turn 16. no this is track limit so what before he carries through the pit lane through the pit lane he goes do not get down for speeding so this is the drive-through for exceeding track limits but since that was sir not cersei that was just chewed to him he's got another one clocked another one up put put another one in the pot for when he clipped the white line coming out of the pit lane as well but he didn't go over it but you'd want to stay away from that demarcation line and there are so many rules in racing i mean they should be almost second nature or should be second nature to drivers when they get to the international uh level in motorsport but each track has a different pit exit than you could i see the white lines that are covered with water you know it's a long list of examples what we've got today is cameras covering everything look in the good old days you had individuals called observers who would stand out in the midday sun only mad dogs and englishmen are meant to do that and they would then make a report that charlie humming top exceeded but it was so far behind the eight ball by the time it all got processed at least what we're seeing now is more or less being conducted in real time as the ferrari exits and again just on the edge of what is going to be considered that was the lead too and the second place ferrari miguel molina was well and truly off if they want to take an issue about track limits on the exit of turn 16. well there are so many offences that you could stumble over you know name would it be didn't respect track limits did respect yellow flags made a full start cause the collision speeding in the pit lane etc etc but uh it's constantly exceeding track limits that have done for kenny harbaugh so the drive-through penalty will hurt and be others earned the remaining seven hours of the joburg kyle army nine hour but it's been a an intriguing race so far cat and mouse and certainly actually more like a game of chess in so many ways or bluff if you will well they of course and ferrari doing what they did not making a regular pit stop just after the hour mark when everyone else came in came in at the same time but drove straight through and served their pit stop properly it's like buying a property it's all about position position position and what teams are doing now is essentially creating a position for themselves that when they get into the final hour assuming that we don't have any further interruptions either through weather or through a full course yellow or a safety car it's getting yourself to a position where you can then either force a win or defend an attack upon you yeah so much to think about i think just the sheer pace of the cars the pace of the car in the lead still very comfortable but timo bogasway is being caught little by little both by kelvin van der linde and charles the two audi drivers but uh on some blacks by the ferraris but not often he's still faster than the ferraris but of course their tyres their fuel load is heavier they they serve their proper pit stop when they've got fuel and tires rather later about 20 minutes later and that would be the factor by which they will adjust according to the end of the race we know the race will end after nine hours unless we have an insurrection except the unpredictability of elements nature rain or incident on racetrack so full course yellow and safety coverage all the things that those are the things that teams they almost create sort of what you might call a war game or a team game if hat this happens what do we do the unpredictables are the things that they try to factor into their equations i think it's one of the hardest things to do in motor racing is voluntarily put yourself back in the pack when you could have been right at the front end but that's what they've done and if if suddenly all came to a halt and uh just hearing of more penalties as the clouds get a lot darker over in the background stop and go penalty pit stop infringement for terry vermouland so welcome to gt3 racing for the young dutchman that was the high-class racing car there it is in fact the ferrari behind it wouldn't mind if that pulled over very quickly uh for its drive-through penalty but as they go through the s's up towards the top of the hill for mulan ought to stay to right-hand side of the circuit he does up the inside goes the ferrari and uh that was well done by family and a lot of drivers when they step up to this level of racing have got so much going on in that cockpit john trying to concentrate on learn a track that they make little errors and sometimes you've got to con you know to deal with the enthusiasm of their ex of youth and again when you're in a battle or a race whether it's with cars lapping you or you're trying to overtake a competitive car you need to have spatial awareness you need to have what i call time behind the wheel time to be able to look into your mirrors keep a check on who's behind you keep oh faye with your pitball and team information and also your pit board giving you an indication as whether you're catching or being caught so timo bogashlyski leading comfortably in this race but the advantage has come down it was 18 seconds it's down to under 12 seconds he's smooth he's sort of on the money but kelvin van der linde is closing the gap all the time but it's this it's the smooth smooth approach from team of bogusly that asp seemed very comfortable with two hours within 20 seconds are going to be over so this car is going to be coming in within the next five minutes maybe less than that and i have wonder will boguslavsky stay on board i suspect not so that car will be taken over by julio and he'll be an exciting challenge but again bruce you mentioned the sky it is getting a little darker uh still yet not over the racetrack but keep an eye on that right so seaman bogless possibly coming down to the pits the final time he's got that breakaway he can't be seen by the car that's chasing him by by calvin vanderlinder who is the best part of a dozen seconds in arrears and charlie it's about another seven seconds or so behind him so they just have to rely on messages from the the pit garage telling me exactly the pit wall what's the advantage of the race seat i can't see him because when they turn out and turn 16 the akka asp mercedes is over the crest and away here comes kelvin van der linde how he's turning into turn 16. over the crest onto the start finish straight goes the race leader here it's our race leader get her number two and wait for it wait for it wait that's not it that's the car coming out of second place the car in second place there he is through the splash ten point seconds that's what it is and let's see the gap back to third place will be about six seconds but here is the championship as it stands marcus finkel hawk and patrick leader has them take the title of their car to finish as they are in second place overflow with their teammate in the sister car will finish that's the car that's just going to add a shot now the wrt entry will finish second in the championship but the ferrari drivers because they scrambled if the race suddenly finished now they would end up down in third and fourth positions again like the audi cruz they've split but look they're only just coming into shot as the audi second of the audi's goes through sunset on the two ferraris first of those is four ko and miguel molina and i think john next time around they'll be in the pits yep anyway so we're now into the third hour by about a minute and a half and we're still waiting for the race leader and i assume he's going to be making his pit stop at the end of this lap we're not following that right now we're following the second of the ferraris as it makes its way down in fact they said the first of the ferraris in fourth place the twentieth will go up through the s's then the climb uphill the steep climb the camera tends to flatten the right then you've got a little plateau when you get to the top you gotta lift off before you get to that plateau otherwise you'll carry too much speed that you have to break heavily into this sort of quite a long late apex corner all along staying between the white lines also hearing messages that drivers are starting to transgress down at turn two as well effectively the first real corner of the circuit but it's about picking their way through the traffic tiri vermount moving out very nicely in that 33 high-class racing outing so that the ferrari coming through but that the ferraris will not be diving into the pits they are out of sequence by about 20 minutes borges slyski the race leader ought to be in we think maybe next time maybe another lap beyond that but very soon indeed i suspect it'll be at the end of this lap because we're now uh six hours 57 by the time he completes the slap he's going to be coming close to the 65 minute restriction time for a single stint by a driver so i'm assuming this will be an in-lap for thomas boguslowski the gap in first and second at this point or the point when they both went across the start finish line was 10.3 seconds so this is an important lap for burgoslavsky to not let any further time slip he doesn't want to stop the idea vandalindic who is currently in second position get to with in less than 10 seconds at the point of the pit stops yeah he's almost exactly he's 10.3 seconds at the start of the lap more fractions would have been gained are there a few more drops of rain on the lens up at look up maybe there is a second place uh audi kelvin van der linde at the wheel down the hill they come into crocodiles watch your money on bruce in or not this time in perhaps a hundred percent there goes my money 100 in he's gotta he can't just stay here longer he is staying on one more lap wow [Music] but you know they're doing the math and again skirting the edge of the circuit there just within track limits for team of bogashlowski but it was 10.3 seconds his advantage over kelvin van der linde last time around but how much does the 25 audi close or has that dived into pits no signal as yet 9.4 seconds he's taking the best part of 8.85 of a second out of leader now very ragged into turn two from here and that's that's a significant lump of time that kelvin van der linde has gained and uh again you know that message will be transmitted to timor boguslowski just to keep and hey look you can see the last three laps eight tenths of a second half a second eight tenths of a second that's two and a half seconds by any sort of quick calculation there's that raindrops there in their lens coming into sunsets second part of the circuit we saw it fleeting the up at like just a lap ago or half an hour ago and uh maybe the drivers it won't be enough for them to feel it yet but i think uh timo bogash slice because he goes over one of the weepers that are still there from overnight rain he'll be coming to the end of this stint at the end of this lap surely having taken all of my money by john forcing me to guess and guess wrong well i know i thought he was going to come into because he's not six minutes i mean he's just over six minutes uh since the turn of the hour just coming up to six minutes i should say this is the turn of the year and it's well he is coming in this time slight spring hills of rain in the pit lane as well so drivers will be down there helmeted ready to get in and yes there you can see that on the back of the garage the akka asp garage so he'll be taking over the team of bogaski marcello is probably out back dying his hair another color for the sheer fun of it but look so another lap is going on certainly certainly junior was at the back of the garage not at the front waiting he was what he was watching the monitor is it down another second the lap let's see it was nine point four seven one seconds last time waiting to see if kel van der linde comes over the crest he's staying on what's the gap coming down to just waiting for confirmation a lap that's a lot of time over the last two laps for timo burgoslavski to a larger step away because you know at some point that's going to pay it's going to hurt put it that way well let's face it that means over three of the last four laps he's gained the best part of eight between eight tenths and nine tenths of a second that's and with the other lap that looks like half a second eight tenths of a second almost a second on lap 72. so i i don't know what the issue is wipers are going and boyle's life mercedes coming through the exit of sunset a few more drops of rain on the camera at clubhouse but that's the first time we've seen the wipers in action since uh friday afternoon okay so there's not at the back of the garage anymore he's at the front of the garage doing that thing that drivers do the windscreen wipers going a little bit for pogba schleisky just moving up and down on the balls of his feet and yes oh that's about your pit stop that's a big one on the camera lens isn't it yeah that's probably a dark cloud and always you can just see what the camera is showing you but what's coming from behind the cameraman at the top of the could be a whole lot can you imagine what julion's thinking the awareness that there may be rain coming he's going to be sent back out on a set of slick tyres and he may have to come in again if the weather doesn't change wipers again just coming through the exit of cheetah i'm sorry crocodile did the cheetah now he's into the pit lane now he's diving in so sprinkles in the pit lane and i've just been told the the rain is actually coming towards the camera at the top of the hill so from the bottom end of the circuit first that's that will be out of the right hand side of our screen it may go past it often does here but in fact uh look drops on the lens and sir julio wait's ready to take over the leading car niederhauser and harza also have their helmets on of course they would they're the drivers who'll be the third drivers into the 25 and 32 audi's as well you're waiting for pogoschleiski to step out and the french driver takes over from the russian but the russian that's the right thing john he stays to help yes indeed and that's part of the teamwork and the the training that these teams operating at this level asp one of the top teams in gt3 racing and any continent around the world so just checking around the radiator area to make sure any rubber that may have been picked up doesn't block the air intake so waiting waiting waiting so giving indication fire it up joule fire it up so he's having to wait for the time to click by and then he gets rolling okay now just worth pointing out i talked about niederhauser and haas are getting ready their car's not in they'll be out on the circuit trying to claw back a few more tenths of a second or great chunks of a second but maybe there'll be a next time around because the only car from the top five that came in was yaka asp mercedes but much more rain at the top that's what we're seeing so that it's coming today from the bottom end of the circuit to the top and the last thing you want is just to set your driver out on dry weather tires you have to send a driver out not anticipating what might be the case but having said that think back to spa what happened at spa 24 rd wrt used their local knowledge and did something completely different to the rest of the field and it looked like they were going to win it but then they were overcome by again the away events changed so quickly as we see kelvin van der linden now in for his so patrick need a house has seen the swiss driver waiting for the number 25 audi audi sport team santa lock entrance this weekend so down it will come and the car from wrt in the background charlotte vince is bringing that in the number 32 and christopher harsa will take it over looks like a standard uh driver change their code abandoned a very impressive early stint so we're going to have uh change in our own booth as well because john watson is going off for us a fresh set of rubber or at least some food and uh we'll welcome harry benjamin on board who's new to the crew this weekend and uh great to have him coming out for joining us in the commentary box but a good standard pit stop but it's a real question of uh as john said you go with the weather conditions as they are now as they are now the track doesn't warrant wet weather tyres the windscreen wipers are going for juvenile but it's a little flurry of rain but the big question here you can often see the rain approaching you can often see the rain moving away sometimes it hits a circuit sometimes it goes past and it really is a question for the crews to sit and wait and just check that all out the ferraris of course carried on they have uh did their first pit stop out of sequence the first proper pit stop after a drive-through but look how the gaps come down here's joe gooney on and the car that was about seven and a half seconds behind him before the pit stops is coming out take a few quarters to get the heat in the tires and get going but patrick nederhauser is a whole lot closer you're talking probably about two and a half seconds it will stretch for about five seconds as sneederhauser gets up to speed but uh so still the akka asp mercedes in the effective lead but then we'll have to talk about exactly where the ferraris are but they're ahead but they will owe us a pit stop in about 20 minutes time so it's antonio fuacco leading the race from miguel molina 71a of course of rory 51 good moment to come on board harry benjamin hello bruce thanks for having me in what a race so far we're having strategy is clearly coming out to play for the ferrari boys well strategy reared its head very early indeed caught us on the hop we they came in from third and fourth in the second and third in the race behind the akka asb mercedes but drove straight through the pits with that first uh run of the pit stop and said their pit stop about 20 minutes later um but it's the long game it's the joe bird carl denier the clue is in the name absolutely of course you know we don't want any heroics there were none in the first quarter thankfully and we're now into uh well into our third hour too um and more pit stops underway too jawbone in the car there there's the live gap just under five seconds so it was about two and a half seconds when they came out i said it was stretched to five that's pretty close but patrick need a house and by now i'll have a bit of heat in the tires here them assess where the weepers are still weeping those little wet patches around the track looks like this flurry of rain is just a light one at the moment another lap to the good in many ways getting up to speed just waiting to see what his lath pace is and julgunyan one minute 43.6 that's very good indeed but the new fastest lap of the race leading car probably 43.251 has done been done just now by antonio fuocco but i suppose the big question going on to need a house 5.3 seconds on the start finish line but this is the lap at which uh niederhauser the swiss racer in the number 25 audi gets the heat in the tires gets going and we'll see if he can stabilize it but throughout this meeting the audi's just haven't had the legs of that echo asp mercedes no not at all that akka mercedes just looks like it is the fastest on raw pace it's gonna be interesting to see how the ferraris play out obviously they're going for this alternative strategy but they clearly just don't have the outright pace of the aka mercedes so they're going to be hoping i think for maybe a red flag maybe a full course yellow maybe a safety car because at the moment on raw pace they don't they can't match the mercedes but right now different fuel levels allowing foco to put in some good laps at the moment as you say a personal best last time around okay well that's interesting most of these cars just seen the race leading through the windscreen light not on occasionally but there he is setting his fastest lap in the race so the track is still clearly dry rackets are part of the bits where water is running across the surface circuits a bit of a sort of barry walker sort of comment there perfectly dry apart from the wet parts but you know it is they know where those are and uh running through the duke size suite nice and neat and tidy from those two ferraris but uh i suppose what other factors do we put into the mix okay here's what i'll throw at you harry what we thought for a couple of laps before he came in was that team of bogoslavski would come in we waited we waited but what they did there was very clever he has now served his minimum driver time so we may not see him for the rest of the race and quick as he is he's not as quick as rafael marcello so effectively it could well be that is his bid for the championship it's now up to his two teammates to see if they can deliver the victory which is the only result that could work for him for the russian to take the title and i think that's probably a very very wise call because broken slicey is the only one in that car that can actually take the title it's an outside chance he's paired with as you say marcelo and google just look at the pace marchello had who he took the lights out at the start of the race he built up nearly a gap i think it was approaching 20 seconds at one point he was fast joe goodnot we know is fast as well just look at his history record so to put those two to give them the best possible chance of a securing the win out right for the mercedes team and to give that bonus lifetime the best chance of taking the title because that's all they can do we've said it before he can just win and that's all he can do the rest is out of his hands it all depends on where the ferraris and where the audis end up because right now i think the best chance that bogash lives given mercedes haven't taken the driver's side at least at least is if the audis and the ferraris end up having a bit of a fight in tripping over each other so all eyes on the skies the pit lane little drops of rain but not too much you can see miguel melena in second place no windscreen wiper going at the lower part of the circuit on his a af safari that's down through turn two that's the juke size sweep up the slope he goes but uh they're napping comfortably one minute 43 and a half seconds one minute forty three point six so joe gooney by the way bang very close to he's a half four tenths of a second quicker than they are but he's about uh waiting for the interval to come through because it's very tricky in a long-distance race when someone's running a different sequence because their advantage is actually not so much now it's later they've got the lead now but these cars will be coming in in about 15 minutes to take their second proper full pit stop certainly straight on the pace and his advantage over patrick niederhauser 6.8 seconds so he's really pulling away neither house has to just get the measure of the audi but what we've seen in these in almost any conditions the hakka asb mercedes is the class of the field here at carl army it's got the mixture of circuit corner types gradient change it's got the downforce that works absolutely 4.5 kilometers 2.8 miles 16 turns it's not an easy track at all something that might be useful to note as we look at miguel molina currently in the number 51 in the uh second of the ferraris in second we've seen already that the stewards have been quite honest with track minutes and he is uh now under investigation for track limits after his last warning so that's the 51 air force with miguel molina in it at the moment so that's the last thing ferrari they're playing the alternative strategy they're taking a gamble anyway the last thing they need is to come into the pits to serve a penalty unnecessarily well that is really yes it could just be the effective end of the challenge but that's stream across the track at the kink and turn what it's still catching drivers out some perhaps um on their first into the cars and perhaps still getting their tires up to temperature but you don't want someone to drop it there either we got them through on the opening lap but it's still there are still little points harry around the circuit that can catch a driver out interesting though we just saw one of the spectators putting their umbrella down but suddenly miguel molina had his head his windscreen wipers on all the more but she was at one point in the circuit he was down at the bottom end around turn two and clearly it's a little bit wetter molina's head rinsery wide bits aren't on the higher part of the circle that's the thing we're seeing is that in the last half of this lap the track basically kind of dips down and goes downhill so it's a completely almost different change of conditions change of altitude as well so you're going to get slightly different uh conditions and we need to know where the cloud is being blown in from interestingly uh in terms of driving and hearing from the pit lane as well that uh we were talking about bob schleich earlier um has done his minimum amount of time in the car the team is expecting him to do one more hour but that could well change well i think team is going to look at the numbers on the screen and uh work out whether he might go back to bed he can contribute enough or if he's going to go out and just make sure they've got a supply of decent widened beer to go with the bride the celebratory fry at the back of the asb garage but they certainly don't want to count their chicken six hours and 40 odd minutes remain in the joe bird kyle army nine hours and the windscreen wipe itself will start to finish straight through the splash and turn one it's almost like a rally crossed a rally stage with a water splash before a quarter it really is we're seeing a lot of attract limits because i bring it up try this is my favorite word because already uh we said the car 51 ferrari has been given a warning investigation now car 71 the sister af courser the one that is leading this race currently with antonio fuoco at the wheel has also uh been given a where he says from race control a message saying you must respect track for this it's turn 16 that's catching a lot of these uh drivers out as well particulate of the ferrari drivers drive through it's a disaster for the 51 crews speckles of rain but that message will be coming up on screen very shortly indeed and uh that's the chasing car it's the molina car so fuako it suddenly looks as though all bets are on for the 71 cars slightly off for the 50 ferrari having split its uh trio of championship challengers championship leaders combined again alessandro gili will now be the ones who are cursing a bit their car is the one that's picked up the drive-through penalty and the sister car into which nicholas nielsen was transferred leading the race and antonio doing a fantastic job he's actually lapped below the one-minute 43 second mark and he's enjoying conditions very much indeed but he should be in in the next handful of minutes maybe five minutes here we are track limits drive through penalty those are dark words i mean john watson thinks track limits are dark words drive through is a whole lot worse it is it's almost commentators cursed a little bit because that's what we're feared of and that is what has happened and completely wrecked uh their alternative strategy after they'll try and make the best of when to come in but they will have a certain amount of time before they can come in and serve that penalty but as you said at the front of the field so far antonio fuoco although uh still uh getting uh getting that um uh number 71 with a little warning for track limits doing a great job up front the 25 year old from italy of course with us kind of making the move really from single seaters early on his career realizing uh his ways that were in gt uh part of the ferrari driver academy from a young age and now racing ferrari in gt's doing a sterling job so far well let's take a look antonio fuako super super fast this is the 71 ferrari let's see track limits well he's within the limits there by the looks things that turn 16 there's always a question down at turn two as well it's been a corner now here's the chasing ferrari and the 51 car all over the light white line it's all small margins but the difference of about of 30 centimetres left and right is what's taken the 51 ferrari was we've taken it out it's put it onto the back foot and don't forget that both ferraris are due in for their second proper pit stop any time soon you can see nicholas nielsen has his helmet on already waiting he's going to be going into the car but hasn't been given a drive through that is the car that's leading the race antonio in the 71 ferrari so effectively the 51 ferrari is going to either come in and service the drive through penalty and then come in again oh no the drive-through has been the ferrari um lawyer has been up to talk so that's under discussion the driver has been not rescinded suspended but then ed but uh there could be a subtle difference between the pair of those so that has been suspended i'll have to cross that out of my notes but uh certainly they've still got over six and a half hours not to transgress even that lap he's he's now moved in 20 centimeters to the to the left and that's been enough to keep the wheels on but you know you can see the drivers they want to be as close to the edge as they can but just go over you're being watched there's some bartering going on i think between the uh ferrari higher ups at a of course and the race jurors we'll see how that one unfolds as uh that uh driving penalty has been suspended the sister car has just set a new overall best time 142.9 just under the 143s so uh really going strong at the top 7.4 seconds at the gap at the top between the two ferrari drivers joel gunion though in the third car currently placed in the third in the mercedes amg gt3 reeling them in ever so slightly he's setting personal bests as well that's the thing with its endurance racing isn't it i know you've done it for such a long time but also for me watching this it's it's so fascinating to see how it plays out and also it is all about the long game and you and sharing the car with two other drivers as well it's a it's a mind game as well because the other drivers that are in those cars have been given a penalty or in this case suspended penalty you can't get upset about that can you you can't get all in your head about it you just got to go out and drive your best race at the end of the day you do it it's about having a car that suits all three of them you know every driver wants the car set up slightly differently it's about not just the ultimate pace that any of these drivers can achieve it's about consistent excellence of being within a tenth of a second every lap which is exactly what antonio fuerco is managing i mean he's actually within thousands almost every lap leading this race it's been a fabulous drive from the young italians so here comes swako we mention him and he comes in but this is for a standard pit stop the team mate the sister car the 51 car will also at some point possibly just that possibly the next no clearly the next is going on past they don't want both their cars in together will serve as standard pit stop there is still the question mark of a drive-through penalty for the 51 ferrari but uh that is suspended for now i i think i've just seen race control have said uh drive-through for car 51 confirmed track limits that's just come through gmt so that we'll there and there is confirmation on the screen now so the battery hasn't quite paid off uh for the af course uh team managers so that will be yes car 51 currently miguel molina at the hands of that he's just taken the lead because his teammate in the sister car has come into the pit nightmare for uh for car 51. okay so what's the question we have to ask now where will the ferraris be when oh sorry where will the sp mercedes be relative that when they have both served their pit stops and unfortunately for the 51 ferrari it's a pit stop but then next time around or sometime very soon there after a drive through as well that will drop it down to the back of the pack so effectively instead of having two ferraris in the challenge would be just the one lights flashing from the audi's don't forget in so many ways it's really not so much mercedes against the rest it's uh mercedes versus audi sorry the ferrari versus audi and uh down into the first corner with enough pace to go on through the audi comes through christopher harsa at the wheel his teammate patrick needed as well know his manufacturer mate patrick peterhauser is further up the road so ferrari but of course they will move ahead again presumably in an hour's time in 40 minutes time or so when the cars on the standard sort of pit stop rotor come in and make their calls to the pit lane but it's a real seesaw battle now here comes the second of the ferrari in well which way round will it do i think it'll serve the standard pit stop and then next time around it'll be the drive-through they might choose to do it the other way but uh they're seeing more of the pits than they would have wanted that is for sure and so we've talked about it time in immemorial in so many ways so the drive-through comes first actually i suppose it's better because the driver who then takes over doesn't have to deal with someone else's errors in terms of the frustration of coming in and out and it means as soon as the car is taking over uh that will be able to go up to full speed with the the third driver which would be alessandra pierre gidi he'll be taking over the 51 ferrari yeah one thing i've learned over the years in recent years you never discount af course or in ferrari and you never ever discount one driven by alessandra pierrghini and uh so his car is on the back foot still going to serve the pit stop off that drive-through penalty but uh we've got six and a half hours remaining weather could produce almost anything fast snow and um we will see how the story is going to unfold for a super successful italian but right now though the ball is in the court of sister car in terms of ferraris but it really is still in the hands of af of akka asp with their mercedes with joe gunion setting some very tidy laps since he's taken over well if i was miguel molina i'd be very happy to have pierre gidi in the car they're obviously off the back of that absolutely mega year for him winning two 24-hour races the biggest 24-hour races there are this season multiple champion across endurance categories if anybody's going to call something back and make an opportunity it's going to be pierre gidi uh in that af course of ferrari is stepping out for uh in that driver change so rivera has got back in the car so he's having another stint there so they're leaving nicolas nielsen a little longer he's the one that's supposed to move across to the 71 car to have a go at the championship challenge uh both manufacturers that are going for the title obviously ferrari and audi splitting their teams to give them more of an option as the a of course the ferrari comes in to the pit molina so there goes the lead and now the standard pistol the drive through his last time around didn't cost him what would become the lead but uh this time of course the standard pit stop will so for alessandro pierkidi you know superstar in so many ways very very quick but [Music] that appeared to be that was the second drive second drive through he didn't stop looking if he liked something you might as well do it twice ah now hold on let's have a little think about this before we were caught about the one hour of five minute mark worked by ferrari resetting their clock their stint time coming in and driving through so there we were expecting the drive-thru has been served for exceeding track limits from the 51a of course of ferrari now comes a standard pistol no such thing they've got to try and gain another chunk of time and that is af course's way of doing it but you can only do that so many times in so many ways because eventually you're going to need some standard pit stops and it doesn't mean how much longer will miguel molina be able to go on for well he can do a double stint no problem and everyone else has been doing single stints effectively in terms of driver time but uh well just when you thought you knew what you were talking about ferrari and of course threw that curveball in well you're interested you were right when you said hey of course always have a trick up their sleeve and and that is certainly got to you've got to do something different in that case haven't you and just a correction as well to what i said earlier that was a mistake but the graphic i think it was not revered nicolas has got in the car and is at the wheel of that number at 71 a.m uh ferrari currently in fifth at the moment so molina still out uh in front for the joe bird kalami uh kyle army nine hour ahead of your boon on and patrick nederhauser currently the first of the audis in third ahead of hasa in the second album two top four okay right due going on in second place comes up the crest that's nice and neat and tidy let's wait for third place there's patrick need a house at the number 25 for our audi in third place christopher another eight seconds behind him [Music] fourth there's the car in fourth place came up the hill christopher harza next car we're waiting for is nicholas nielsen and there we are as if ordered up he comes with screen wiper on a little bit at the bottom end of the circuit again track looks pretty dry but you say that but you are still getting especially in the kink you know turn one that river has not dissipated much at all and there's a bit further around as well but there are still these little rivets of of water that have just sort of stayed there it's clearly not causing too much of an issue but drainage here is clearly you see it there on the screen it's clearly not brilliant in that part of the track yeah it's actually there's a slight sort of drop into a valley there it's everything coming off those paddocks behind and all the grounds on the hillside there's uh it's obviously something they will fix for future but to say there was enough provocation for rain yesterday i think is is uh absolutely fair so here we are in the background as well but also on the other side dark gray clouds no entirely it's like a normal day in norfolk but so what we have is ferrari has taken a different tactic once out of choice and then because the drive-through penalty was thrown at the 51 crew and miguel bainer they have opted to do it twice right overall time in the pits two minutes 15 that is all for the 51 ferrari that of course though is yet to serve a proper second pit stop it's had a drive-through penalty in that time and it's had two runs through the pit just to reset the clock it's making a very long stint for miguel molina he's leading the race by 6.2 seconds but it's a false lead because of course the asp mercedes has not long been put into the hands of its third driver and uh lapping faster just about than the race either but let's hear we haven't heard from amanda in the picture while a lot's been going on amanda what have you got well and a lot has specifically been going on here at af corsa talking with bernardo sarah who is uh looking over the decisions here for the teams and as you've clarified that first drive through that you did was strategy the second one here penalty what can we expect from this 51 car as we look over the next hour or so yeah i configured that the first stop was just to reset the drive the drives in time the second one for serving the penalty and now we'll stay on track until we have fuel in the tank looking over the efforts that have been so far for the prancing horse on the kaialami track how happy are you with your team's performances so far yeah we are happy at the moment we are honestly happy about the performance of the car the race is still longer thank you you're welcome thank you very much amanda down with uh of course bernardo sarah but uh when he he said the first was uh for the reset the second was for the drive through then he said we see how much fuel we have and then a nervous giggle but clearly he's getting close to fumes so we have a ferrari leading the way but a lot has happened since the start of the race so let's take a look at the highlights of what happened since the outset and here it was it was a ferrari mercedes front row with the pole starter raffia marcelo very comfortably into the lead and in behind it was about picking their way through the local runners that was like out of the way tyler rankings had a really good run the top local then cruelly spoke coming from the back of the stragati motorsport uh lamborghini pull that in the garage it's still in the race though but much delayed and then matajudi pulling out of the way for audi teammate if you will michael fingerhot going through to chase off after the ferraris sylvia scribante and yellow and black local lamb again run in the national class fighting with mikhail patambra in the white and black audi tucked in behind for national pride on home groud and you can see what it meant when the hour mark came and they withdrew from the race and victory went to sylvia scribante but then it was a time of coming into the pits and if you're in the works ferraris you came in and drove out again you didn't take a pit stop and that put them into the lead of the race it reset their clocks they meant they came in a whole lot later than all of their rivals by about 20 minutes to make their first standard change and then there was bodily contact and come let it go and the 51 ferrari was not happy that's him afterwards having cooled down with that clash with lucas legere who was being put a lap down and the two ferraris back out very close together after their standard pit stops were made on consecutive laps and you can see the difference between one car that's got heat in the tires having been going around for a lap and one that didn't around the twisters here at kyle army but still with the weepers across the track just at the kink turn one very tricky conditions indeed and a high class racing keeping out of the way but again one corner where drivers are getting pinged for track limits was turned two more of that later but mainly it was turned 16 and one of the cars that got pinged was kenny harbaugh's sun energy one mercedes just going out of the shot the santa lot racing audi in the hands of lucas lettering going around but it was getting in the way of quite a few of the front runners uh who weren't entirely happy about it but it was really a master class rafaeli marcelo leading the way and then he handed over to the team of slavsky he had uh the lead of the race then he got out at the end of his stint and it might be the last of his now in the hands of asp hunting down it's still the lead in the hand to make well molina but with the drive-through penalties and the run through the pits he's going to be coming in very soon indeed and that will hand the advantage back to akka asp with the 89 mercedes jugunian on board and he's flying [Music] so the big question harry is how much fuel is left in the tank of miguel molina's ferrari the others have had pit stops they've had fresh tyres even a fresh driver and fuel he hasn't he's had a drive-through penalty and he's had a run through the pits but surely will be coming in in the next not so long well after hearing uh yours and uh watty's predictions of when teamwork is coming to the pits i dare say anything about when i think molina will come in but um i think it's well it's difficult that ferrari can clearly run very fast when the tank is nearly empty that's their one sort of saving grace in terms of matching and beating the mercedes aquaculture which has to beaten on pace but interesting looking at nida house oh not near house nielsen uh in the sister ferrari which has he's looking good on the timing screens right now a couple of personal best sectors uh purple sex i should say so he's pouring back the time he's behind the hassan the audi r8 lms um in the number 32 car so molina can't stay out too much longer what's the gap 6.3 seconds he's gonna get reeled in eventually six point two seconds is already down and uh down to the space of a couple of corners so time's running out for uh air forces to make a move with molina right gap between molina in the lead and joe cooney on the second place 6.2 seconds and i actually not a great difference in terms of pace but what uh the french race has just about started another lap knows he's got fuel in the tank he's got rentably fresh rubber underneath him molina has neither of those the gap came down by oh down to 6.1 seconds it's edged its way down sun energy one kenny harbaugh has uh come in from his run out of seventh place overall still the leading pro-am runner i'm just waiting about presumed by purposes of rotation as fresh pirelli tyres put on board that one it will be martin conrad taking over but certainly mickey or grenier's been mighty in that but this was the first car to be hit with a drive-through penalty and then subsequently he was already getting warnings to add towards the next one so for each of the drivers getting out of the car well for martin conrad before he even got in the message we put just don't do it just don't do it stay within the limits i think there's been a few messages to all the drivers because we haven't had any warnings pop up on our screens for a little while so i think they may be telling their drivers to take a little extra be a little bit more cautious uh on exit and going into the corners as uh kenny hubble comes out of the uh oh it's conrad now of course uh in the car are coming out of pit lane as well that's the number 75 driver change and of course what you can see there with the head-on shot of the sun energy one mercedes was the three-letter acronym for the driver's name flashing over moments later to the position in the race zero zero seven famous number but it's nothing to do with aston martin james bond it's just seventh in this race uh joe bird carl army nine hour but it's uh still miguel molina leading the race the 51a of course of ferrari but if you either have been paying attention or you just joined the race at this point it's not an outright need in many ways because twice driven through the pits he's also had a drive-through penalty only some regular pit stop he can't get through uh this thing for the race without needing another a second one of those very soon indeed so while his advantage over julio in the 89 mercedes is actually stabilizing 6.1 6.2 seconds that 51 ferrari is going to come in very soon indeed to serve its uh second regulator you know regular pit stop well assuming ferrari presumably would be getting ready in the pits at the moment for that so suddenly molina and the 51 ferrari will not be in the lead and one feels he's slopped back in in about fifth place overall and i think that will elevate and promote shogunyan into the lead of the race patrick nederhauser in the 25 audi entered by ali sports team santilock the second third place christopher harsa uh in the 32 ali from team wrt and the better the two ferraris will be nicktus nielsen in fourth place overall but as harry pointed out nielsen's been going very well indeed but in so many ways the driver battle has be is all about the battle between the ferrari drivers and the audi drivers and that water has been a little bit muddied by the different sequences but as the rain seems to have moved away now we might have even playing field but until the very end of the race because ferrari rolled the dice super early getting out of sequence by not doing that first pit stop until a lot later than their rivals the sequence is only going to count really from the end backwards when we get towards the nine-hour mark exactly well still six hours and 20 minutes to go and the ferrari i'll hold the record jointly with porsche of having the most amount of written wins around this circuit with eight with a piece so they know how to win round here so if they can call it back and we've seen af course and know how to work a strategy yet they are a bit on the back foot molina uh still goes around for another lap but we do have the the number 33 car coming in the high class racing uh for a uh a stop there double check the title screen they've come in from a little bit further down pitting from eighth spot overall at the moment second running in the pro at the moment of the moon at the wheel of that um who received the penalty one of the unlucky ones who did receive the penalty for a track limit i know it was for the pit lane violation that was it it was a pit lane violation so not really necessarily his his fault unless it was him on the way out so you often get the penalties for your teammate so mark patterson is taking over from tierra vermouth but we're just waiting for the ferrari we know he can do 46 laps we're guessing it can it's got very close to that but still miguel molina the spanish racer pounds around at the head of the field 6.1 6.26 seconds flat it's his advantage over joe gooney but the advantage for union is the fact that he can stay out for a whole lot longer molina will be coming in and alessandro piagetti presumably uh amanda boussik down the pits will be heading down to the a of course the garage to see that driving change when it happens the other option of course to think about here is there's also of course a manufacturer's title up for grabs and we've got to take that in mind and it is audi with a shoe in here really they don't even have to win it title ferrari will be thinking about that as well so it just depends upon we saw audi playing the team game a little earlier on and they're gonna be thinking well okay we've just got to win this right we just got to finish this race ferrari even if they finish sick for a buff still can't close the title if audi are up there in in the top six as well you know what i really like though is it's just simplicity things have become a little bit complex here but um in many ways it's almost like the the final line of the story is being concealed from us until later in this event certainly looks very simple in terms of what akka asp is doing [Music] in the they have to win this race they're out front nothing confusing about that they're running a regular pit stop sequence nothing confusing about that but um looking at the pace of gun it's exactly where we expect it to be and uh one minute he's doing one minute 43s bang on the nose so is the race leading miguel molina but he's on fumes or maybe he's he's got through all those fumes but uh looking quite tidy at the front right what's the gap between guna and niederhauser 11 seconds is that advantage at the moment and uh just welcoming john watson back into the booth he's had a little bit of sustenance but couldn't draw his eyes away from the screen so things are happening very differently indeed yes it's just kind of catch up with what's been taking place and with the ferrari in the lead but of course having gone off message so early in the opening stint uh it'll only be when we get to the back end of this race that the the true picture of what's going on will unfold what's interesting to me is that in fact the ferrari now of uh the 71 ferrari not necessarily nicholas nielsen is the car that set the fastest race lap 142.9 which i think is pretty impressive at this phase of a 9r event but ultimately is the battle between the ferrari in the lead which is miguel molina and julio in the mercedes 89 in second place and that's been hovering around the six seconds for the last number of laps with hundred niether further 11 and a bit seconds behind in third place so there is a ferrari hop skipping and jumping up through coming through turn 14 and 15 as we go back now to barbecue there's the overall lead with the pits and then you can see miguel molina juguno patrick you need a house of the top three christopher hauser in the audi fourth nicholas nielsen in the 71 ferrari in fifth and nicolas baird in the rd in 26th so what we're just two and two hours of coming up two and three quarter hours into this nine hour race it has been fascinating actually to see how these first couple of hours have played out we've had a little bit of body work damage with some of the uh the the pro and of course the cup very early on because we've got this strategy unfolding right now still watching uh miguel molina out on track not having uh come in just yet we're expecting him in any any minute any lap now really but i mean john oh we can see the next driver waiting there uh but who will that be coming in uh to the car there to uh replace melina either be over pierre do we think we'll be coming into that car so um of course as i mentioned earlier the man who who sealed the 24 hour of lamont and spa uh wins earlier this season so ferrari and they of course have got uh a play that have done a gamble but they've still got all to play for but john i mean you've done endurance racing you've raced this very track how are you seeing it on board as he does come into the pit lane what what can airforce do to to get this back into their their court well i have to say back in the period when i raced here which was the last time i think raced here would have been somewhere around in the the late 70s when it was actually a thousand kilometer race not not the nine-hour race and those days was very much more simple you didn't have these complicated race strategies worked out by computer and by genius computers so ferrari have they took the opportunity early on to roll dice and do something but i call it going off the message to girls what they believe is going to be the advantage uh come later in the race the one thing that they can't position i've just come back having had a little break but looking sky wasn't just wondering that the the black or dark gray ruling sky that's behind just the exit of turn 16 whether that's gonna have a function in the outcome of this nine hour race or not uh julgunya of course now in the lead with neither heiser in the id number 25 in second place but 11.2 seconds behind in the meantime the ferrari certainly supports the problem with the audi coming back to the pin lake so that is either out of fuel or there's a mechanical issue and i wonder is it out of fuel so the ferrari rolls down the pit lane gets back in the race good job by air of courser stays well and truly and that's just on the exit of turn one so that may well see a full course jello for that car if it cannot be reset or the driver is unable to reset the issues so it's actually just before the entrance into at the pit but of course he cannot receive any outside assistance other than from a food court jello or whatever would be required so watch it's slowly rolling down though so is he trying to roll that into the pit lane to get it off the track he'd have to roll up into the the pit lane to the entry pit lane line which then will protect you to the pit lane so and he's trying to get into neutral but if it is a hydraulic issue he will not be able to or an electrical issue he will not activate the gearbox to my knowledge to get it in and look just watching the other audi having to make its way around to dive in so a difficult situation so we think now this is that we're seeing coming into the pit lane as well but bears has just come into the pit lane we've still got double yellows out right now so this could flip everything on it's on its edge right now we've got the audi coming in the sandblock audi for a driver change that's the uh the number 26 car in the silver cup see here so the white flag is being waived for a slow car the group four is the audi the group for rightly so that's the patamba car number 80 i believe yes so it's caught at the worst possible place on the racetrack and the team cannot run down the pit lane to effectively run onto the race to factor recover it so if the team or the driver is unable to do a reset then the car will have to have external assistance from from uh track assist track workers and whether that will then require a full course yellow to be uh issued or not we're still we're waiting to see whether the brother has got the ability to make that reset as the 26 id comes off it's jax and a good stop and that's back on its way you can see the the fire marshes as well running off in the background to see if they can uh help roll that into the pit entry there but also look at how much that pirelli banner is fluttering in the wind there so it definitely looks like the wind has picked up as we see uh simon gashe uh getting into the car in the number 26 antelope racing in the audi currently the class leader in the silver the only sort of cup entry that he comes out you can see them running down now i mean i don't know why these individuals are running down to retrieve a car because their rule is not in my view to i know everybody's what can we do because you can't run down a pit lane entry road when the actor the pit lane introduced is as active now you've got somebody from within the organization on our radio deciding we've got to get this car removed from the pit lane entry we can't leave it there and we ourselves cannot go down and retrieve it and it sounds like there will be though a full coarse yellow so that is going to uh stabilize everything as we uh get that car cleared the audi entry of course we've got people down there trying to clear that out but full course yellow coming in place uh in any any second now there it is confirmed and also it's quite convenient because it's almost at the point where most of the teams will be making their third round of pit stops so will we see a rush of cars coming into the pit lane or will that car be removed sufficiently quickly but of course you've got to get a recovery vehicle to it and that might take a lap in terms of time we've got the full course yellow the the safety car will have to pick up hopefully we'll pick up the race leader which in these circumstances or not to be particularly difficult because it's the 89 mercedes well there is uh mikhail patamba stopped uh at the uh entry in the mjr motorsports uh being run but in this uh category in the audi so it sounds like the pit lane they're going to close the pit lane by the sound of it so right cars are going to be allowed in because where the car is placing across the full course yellow but we've got a driver there waiting to look the car is being physically pushed i i have to say that is an unusual sight we don't often see cars stopping literally at pit lane entrance but the decision has been made in the interest i'm assuming of safety uh that that car needs to be manually pushed into the pit lane whether it'll be pushed all the way down to that car's garage in the pit lane i don't know but certainly it's the pit lane is now safe that the safety car that's not the safety car that is the mercedes coming in so the pit lane must be opened so yeah that's that's live pictures we've seen not a replay there's no there's a light you can see they're still pushing in the car there's into the pits from the lead [Music] in the uh akka mercedes amg gt3 but full course yellow still out in place here he comes what's the service going to be there's not a service he's doing a drive through he's doing a reset yeah so that's again thinking on your feet by the akka asp mercedes-benz teams they have used the circumstance to advantage now there looks as if 50 car i think that might be the safety car is finally being deployed we're not seeing the lights activated on the roof to indicate that that car is an active safety car so i wonder that's a small issue so who actually is leading the race i assume it's patrick nederhauser because he would have been able to complete his lap and get ahead of the mercedes uh while the mercedes was doing that drive-through lap so all you would think that but actually because it is full course yellow of course they weren't being able to travel at race speed uh so i think jules union has maintained he may have done so so christopher haas has come in and what was the third place or is well certainly was the third place audi uh a confirmation there that we are going to have as a safety car so we saw the 50 car come out of track but oddly enough no lights as you mentioned on the top of that car flashing away they they they did activate them by the time they got down to uh yuksuke so uh but certainly i would have imagined they should have been but it's only an issue they should have been uh lights on at the point it left the pit lane so pit lane getting a little bit busier one of the ferraris the 71 looks as if it's in so that would have been nicholas nielsen [Music] so this completely well this changes all the strategy all the games as well right now we're just over six hours still to go and it's almost like a little bit of a factory reset with the safety cover because they all get up behind the safety car and they've all been able to that's effectively almost a free stop in a way isn't it for the tires especially for the air force cars who have been so out of sync in the building in the first few hours of this race so what where do you go from here what mercedes have reset joel goony on stint time by driving through the pit lane without stopping niederhauser and the two audis with trudy are currently separating the mercedes in the ferraris so it's gonna be quite a tight battle up front well i think by the time it all washes through i wonder has 89 been actually wrong-footed or not but um because they gnome came into the pit lane and drove straight through to do a reset so he could then go on and do whatever length of time but i don't know what his fuel situation is uh having stepped out for those 30 or so minutes so there is the race leader and following it is the audi number twenty as we've said so audi is now taking the opportunity so well once again you would have to wouldn't you if everybody else is dived in and you've got to sacrifice that track position i suppose haven't you because otherwise you're going to be further on the back foot once the safety card comes in so niederhauser coming in to the pit lane in the number 25 audi coming in there for the uh audi sport team santa lega and it's going to be a driver change as well so niederhauser out of the car and we'll get confirmation of who is swapping in for him as well as he helped upset well i would assume it would be marcus winker look if they're going fire they they drive it started kelvin linda took over so i can't imagine they would change that routine little wipe of the uh the front grill there you can see that the dirt actually is picked up on the front bonnet is there racing around uh this kyle army track as well as most of us are rubbish schmutz [Music] picks up on the car and out he goes so uh we think that will be um uh marcus vince yes and it is marcus vince who has uh slotted in to replace patrick licorice coming out he's going to be coming out more or less behind the two ferraris with the mercedes uh running between the two of them well let's take a look here at the uh the overall time in the pit lane as it stands currently so uh mercedes uh team akka asp with the the least amount of time in the pits at the moment of course so with their uh alternate strategy and also uh drive-through penalties that of course miguel molina uh received when he was uh in the uh uh 51a of course so that's uh increased their time in the pits but so who is this safety card benefiting then it looks like actually the ferraris have kind of got away with their indiscretion earlier on of course with the with the trap lip and their alternative the strategy is almost thanks to this safety guard brought them back into play that's what i would have to say and well this is like we've got six hours of racing so akka asp did the drive-through to give them an option to go on they didn't know we're gonna have to so they had to base all their guesswork or all their strategy at christian government guess what strategy on what was known not on what as all known as it turns out this is the all-known that may have a bearing on their car and team uh later in this event so the 32 audi matteo drew dee in second place but having made the pit stops and then alessandro pierre greedy followed by nicholas nielsen then marcus finkelok and simon gash jay in the silver cup car simon cashier is equal to any of those other factory audi drivers and he will do a strong job behind the wheel of that 26 rd you can just see there when it had the amount of times in the pits as well obviously the top two had only been in three times and alessandra pierre gidi's 51a of course registering us six times in the pit lane uh already so uh it hasn't been the smoothest of starts for the the air of course uh team but uh they are once to play around with strategy so they are absolutely making the most of this uh safety cart period so at the moment as it stands we are under safety card conditions after one of uh the audis at the hands of uh mikhail katamba stopped at the entry of pit lane so here we have the uh the 89 the akka mercedes coming in to the pit lane let's see what service did it receive but that's coming out of the pit lane so it's just driven through just through the reset to reset it's uh the key will be what happened to the other teams okay so this has really split the the top view actually because of course now the mercedes did not stop the fuel whereas the others did under the safety car in the pool trying to see how this is the safety car light out or not it was difficult to see whether it is still flashing and still flashing yeah so it's slightly longer safety carpet because that car was cleared actually relatively quickly i mean i don't have no reason i can't think of a reason why we needed the safety thing just to stay out as long because there was unless there's something that we're not aware of on the racetrack at the pit lane entrance race control just said safety car will be in this lap so just to wait confirmation on that when it pops up on screen hopefully in a minute but uh it will be in this lap and it's that journey in the leading mercedes as it stands trudy behind him in the audi alessandra pierre gidi in the first of the af course ferraris in third ahead of nicholas nielsen and fourth but of course they've got traffic in between them as well which they will have to negotiate goonan will let the safety card go and i think he's already led him far enough and he's already gone as they uh get into the breaking zone of the final of the left hand which brings you out onto the start finish straight and it's a great getaway for sure green flag running once again for the joburg kyle army nine hour we're just approaching six hours to go just under six hours to go jill cuny on down into the breaking zone through the king we're gonna get a little move here for the af course are having a little look at the audi in front which in turn is trying to negotiate traffic ahead of him so uh thankfully no one tripping over themselves just yet but good on away and running yeah and i just gave dunya sort of a little mini break uh as the ferrari and the audi behind were trying to get past the back the the lamborghini now again a battle between the audi and the ferrari coming up in the sunset and not an awful lot marcus fingerlock and pierre handwood really almost side by side almost touching they do touch in fact but alessandro being really stewed his ground very courageous got away with it that could have been a moment where there could have been again potential for an incident but certainly certainly potential for a car a tower getting cut down but a brave move to do what alessandro pio really did marcus winkelhoff will have thought well good on you that was a pass i would like to have made at some point brilliant move there for the a of course which gets ahead of the uh 32 throws that is a switch for position so uh yeah greedy up to second now in front of uh drewdy who's at the wheel of uh the audi behind he's now in a bit of a of course a ferrari sandwich with nicholas nielsen reeling him in as well howard nielsen's time's doing they look at fairly similar at the moment of course we're only just getting running here after the safety car period but julian has really utilized this well and pulling a gap straight away very similar to what rafael marcello did at the start of this race it just managed to edge out more and more and more of a gap even when they were starting so close to each other that mercedes looking absolutely fearsome right now and don't forget this ferrari isn't exactly escaping from the audi no but uh the battle with the two ferraris the irish sandwiched in between so uh matteo drew behind the wheel of the rd and uh pier greedy just ahead in the 51 ferrari the 71 of nicholas nielsen behind so these are the two protagonists in the championship in terms of the most likely suspects but nevertheless is still the 89 mercedes that is leading the race that's the job they've got to do [Music] so let's watch and see what goes on alexander appear greedy he pulls out to the left as they come down to the right hand at sunset very courageous because he's sit he's standing as ground marcus winkerlock is giving him working room i mean touching touching then they do finally touch and just the left front of the ferrari catches the grass but by that time getting into clubhouse the ferrari has the inside line there's nothing that marcus finkelhawk was able to do and i mean that's real racing between two professional drivers brilliant move there from uh pierre greedy who uh is still being kept fairly honest you have to say although it does look like judy is almost at the same time being caught by the chasing ferrari two these are the championship points though as they stand at the moment if the race finished now it would be alessandra pierre gideon come let go to take the title in the af course and christopher hassan just missing out uh in the audi in second and that was the opposite way round uh an hour or so ago wasn't it so how quickly this race could flip on its edge i think it was two it was it was hours laps they all moved into one of the day it was two hours ago probably about that or two laps ago i should say but pierre gidi at the moment at the wheel in second place if it finished as it does four point one seconds behind shaw goony on he would take the driver's title with comb ledegar uh in the af course ferrari and timo bogaslavsky the outside chance of this race uh sharing the car with your union would be down in about fourth as well at the end of that but uh we can see now that piergini's made an escape for it in the air of course are leaving drudy in a clutches of nicholas nielsen yeah and the ferrari just looks to have have overall more pace than they are i mean greedy did a stunning job to make that overtake coming into this corner and uh nicholas nielsen well he saw what took place but uh i don't think it's going to be an easy opportunity a second time around in sunset top speeds overall brought to us by race vision and powered by aws 239 miles an hour or the 86 lamborghini wow and the ferraris two ferraris next to 239 but all three at 239 all four of 239 so even mikhail grenier where's the 89 mercedes it still hasn't managed to find its way to the top six in terms of top speed into turn one which is actually just been given a 10 second penalty at its next pit stop for a pit stop infringement so going fast um but unfortunately a little bit of trouble in the pit stop which is uh meant that that car 86 at the hands of van royen at the moment the lamborghini hurricane and the the south african national uh gt3 champion which is running here a bit further down has to serve that penalty but at the front we are looking at the audi being hunted down by the ferrari because audi is shooting to take the manufacturer's title here ferrari can't take it but something drastically needs to go wrong for the audi to not clinch it at the end of this race and right now it is certainly a ferrari sandwich between uh with the audi in the middle but you have to say he's doing good job at defending defensive turn into into turn two keeps the air cooler at bay yes he does by planting the audi in the middle of the road which he's fully entitled to do that so precludes nicolas nielsen from finding a way either up the inside or around the outside so that's what you're entitled to do if you've got a position he's not weaving around he's not doing anything which i would consider to be inappropriate just using the racetrack to his advantage and nicholas nielsen is going to have to think what do i need to do where can i get an opportunity we saw an opportunity those laps earlier with me agreed he really was outstanding in what he did but took a massive amount of commitment and courage whether nicholas nielsen wants to follow suit and try and repeat but i suspect once judy's been forward he's forearmed and uh up the hill they go up towards leo corp now on lap 104. if you're nicholas nielsen are you getting frustrated because not only you're stuck behind rudy liani but your teammate and your rival now for the title because nielsen has been split off from the his previous crew into the uh 71 car with the river and woke up but nielsen is the only one that could take the driver's title here and his rivals fell for that at the moment alessandro pio greedy and the other af courser is scooting up on the road so is this all going to be factoring in for nielsen right now he desperate to try and get past the audi to catch up to the sister car of course he'll want to find a way passed but it's not going to be an easy job judy isn't going to give up track position because he's got his responsibilities to the audi family so all nicholas newton to do is think about where is my car what are the strengths that i've got and where am i going to be able to pay those out one of the strengths that they've got good straight line speed this part of the racetrack but it hasn't got sufficient they need what i would call outstanding drive off turn 16. so they were back now to almost the status quo that we've been watching for the last three or so laps up through yorkshire sweep up into barbecue get close and barbecue if you can maintain that distance hopefully you might be able to follow suit but again for a pier greedy was smart he was quick off barbecue and old baby got on the outside of the racetrack coming into here sunset we're just seeing the edge of the sunset he was able to hold that position against the army but nicholas has never been in that position so whether he has got the pace or whether he just doesn't really wants to put himself in that level of danger because it was a dangerous situation that pier greedy forced through but nielsen who's the one that is that could be potentially the biggest loser if he thinks he can do something his teammate did successfully and while that has been unfolding joel gunion has extended his lead in the akka mercedes to 5.5 seconds uh setting a new overall best lap time 142.9 not quite beating the lap record of matt campbell from the 142 0 but uh there we're seeing as well the af course going off the road and that has been given a warning flag for track limits so another a of course are going off the road and yet another warning flag the track limits they've got to be careful and this is live now well well that that that's get away with it that did get away the previous one clearly all four wheels were over that white demarcation line you know when you're in a battle as nielsen is right now with judy all of a sudden things like monitoring your exit distance you should kind of let it go because you're focused on getting that the drive off turn 16 to give you the extra little bit of impetus to come down and maybe get alongside the audi going into turn two now he's in a better position this time coming through barbecue but not sufficiently close but look how much closer he is now than he was if you think back one lap ago this has been a good lap [Music] that looks much faster and much more all over the back of droody in the audi r8 in front of him but just nowhere to overtake right now i can see his teammate skirting off into the distance into the quick left-hander which takes you downhill no way through there not close enough at the moment truly doing a sublime job it has to be said of keeping that audi in front right now a great battle unfolding between the the two manufacturers and this is just allowing the gap to open up even more so in front of them 5.8 seconds between the top two but look at this nielsen getting a good exit off the back there john yeah he's quicker into and through lyrkup again he's closer than he's been previously down the hill down can't even think about a move it'd be a very courageous audacious move to think he could swing around the outside but he's looking for the undercut trying to force judy into using parts of the racetrack in defense that normally he wouldn't want to do and therefore maybe compromise exit speed so again back to turn 16 watch the exit of the rd that's okay thanks for the ferrari yeah well within the accepted limit how close is he now is he going to be fractionally closer than the previous time well maybe you're talking about a meter or something not very much more but not sufficient to take a punt down the inside he shows the news but the reality was he would have had to have been very very certain of not just throwing the car down but making the turn and then not being again undercut by trudy in the audi nicholas nielsen had a little think about it didn't he there the 24 year old from denmark hunting down droody still four tenths of a second between them but he's right in the wheel tracks of him and that is where his teammate was able to go around the outside and get the move done but nielsen still not close enough this time around more and more time ticks by and nicholas nielsen's title hopes disappear the longer he cannot get by judy but of course with five hours and 49 minutes still remaining there's still a very long way to go well we're not even at half distance yet so you know these guys are going at it you know absolutely nothing left on the table up again to neocop you can see how close nielsen can get to the yardy but he hasn't then on the acceleration into the second phase of the their cup the audi is able to just get back and control the the real estate down the hill nicholson nielsen showing the nose one side showing at the other side trying to frustrate uh matteo drude into forcing an error of course trudy brought in a fairly last minute to this race placing dreams and unwell dreams we should say so wishing him a speedy recovery so droody i don't know how local he was and how quick he was to get the call but really adapting well to the car and nielsen all over the back of him yeah now he's in a better position than he's been he can now think about making a dive but it's going to be defended look at rudy now he's going to make the cut back as trudy compromises entry will he overrun the corner will be an undercut from the ferrari yes there has been and he's finally got it done brilliant move there from nicholas nielsen who finally gets by the audi of trudy better exit better traction on exit and just a slightly quicker pace but look judy's not giving this up with that fight he's pulling up alongside door-to-door once again he's got to do what pete did to him some laps earlier but he's not sufficiently alongside to make it stick and no he can't do it because he's got to drop in behind the ferrari but that all began as i mentioned earlier the exit have turned 16 the drive off 16 will pay you dividend and judy defended and lindsey then went cut back to the right-hand side but trudy had too much pace going in and the angle he was going in to turn to to slow down and nielsen read that well made the undercut got ahead before they got into the yorkshire sweeps and the position was taken and that is now ferrari running second and third and rudy down to fourth brilliant battle though to watch here in kyle army for the job nine hour race five hours and 47 minutes still left on the clock as it currently stands joel gunion leads the way but this epic battle unfolding right behind him with nicholas nielsen a championship title contender sweeping past mattia trudy in the audi and getting by finally after about five or six laps of trying that's the reason why judy thought he could come back because nielsen had that very tight entry into barbecue where drudy had the natural racing life so his exit speed was going to be marginally quicker than that of the ferrari but again because the ferrari had tracked position he was able to consolidate just about before he got into sunset and therefore entertained that third just taken and judy hasn't got long to relax either because uh marcus winklehawk in the uh audi behind him is closing up quickly as well so he might well yet uh have another fight on his hands any minute now as the af courser leads the audi through with the secondary lurking in the background jugul your knees ahead of alessandra pierre greedy nicholas nielsen judy and fourth wigglehawk in fifth and simon gashey currently in sixth so uh nielsen not escaping up the road but uh he's able to claw back up those seconds he's lost now to his teammate who currently lies in second in the system and again we've been watching the battle between trudy and nielsen but this man marcus finkelhog on that last snap i know that baby droody compromised himself a little bit but certainly marcus winkelhawk is on the last that was but the best part of 1.6 seconds quicker than mateo drudi and that's the reason why i know you're now saying once again these two audi's getting closer than we've seen over the last number of laps look you can see almost a second and a half on the last step he clawed back from matteo druidi that was largely because of the the defense that trudy put up to try and prevent nielsen getting through and then the compromise that he had to suffer as of the consequence and audi then gonna play the corporate game once again if it gets closer and closer is it going to be another switch in the audi camp or are they going to let them you know play ball this time and it'll depend on the pace of the respective drivers i would have thought now that droody has reset at his own natural pace that one lap where he was one on a bit second slower uh that's been cancelled out so now whether marcus finkel's got any more pace in the tank on a consistent level i mean on that last stop the lap times were within a hundredth or so of a second of one another so i would say it's unlikely we're going to see a change of position from a corporate perspective rather than a sporting perspective in other words an overtake on the racetrack well it's just under one and a half seconds splitting those two audis winklehog and uh and rooney and nielsen at the moment not able to reel in his teammate too much at the moment now that he's been set free from behind rudy's stapling out about four point just under five seconds at the moment and 7.2 seconds splitting the top two currently union leading the way still for aka mercedes whose only job they have this weekend today is to win at this race to give timor bukaslavsky uh the chance of winning the title that is all they could do it's an outside their alessandra pierre guilis it currently stands with come let's go would take the title if it finishes like this five hours 44 minutes still remain on the clock so the 25 audi marcus finkelhawk well am i going to help get help from my pits or am i going to have to wait until uh we could do a round of pit stops or we get another full course yellow or safety car intervention or whatever it may be marcus vigolog needs to be careful on the exit of turn 16 because in his pursuit of his fellow audi uh teammate or team driver uh that would be sort of an enforced error that could pay a drive through so i'm sure marcus is thinking like be careful and the exeter turned two that looked like it was on its way to being slightly wide on the exit we cut back to the entry into yuksuke and into barbecue so didn't get to see whether marcus finkelhawk actually kept it within the limits michael von roon and the lamborghini running in 11th place that's the lamborghini hurricane gt3 evo bruce you're back did i miss anything gosh i really did miss i couldn't pull myself away from the screens chance to just get a little bite to eat but uh some great overtaking maneuvers there john alessandro pio greedy one water one i mean that that will go into the the end of year real or outstanding outstanding overtakes and uh at the beginning of the year yeah well but actually it takes place in 22. you can have it in both areas one for 21 and 1 for 22 and head your bets yeah no one complaining outstanding maneuver anyone who overtakes in the wet around the outside a blonde shimmer spar frankish shot and then around the outside at sunset here they're ticking off the corners the ultimate corners and alessandro piguet another sort of feather in his cap there really fabulous move great to watch friend the ex driver alessandro pierre agreed he is i know it's unkind to refer back to one of his more stunning moments but when he was on pole position for spa 24 about five or six or five years or so ago i spoke to him on the grid and said look start of the race through o'rouge over radio what do you do he's no problem whatever of course what he did he got to top radio span like a tops like topsy and managed to not get hit by the entire field so that contrasts some of the outstanding maneuvers we have seen from the italian driver over the last number of months spa in particular here today um i mean great to see that commitment behind the wheel now one of the things i've just noticed after my little little period away from the commercial booth is the fact the skies are darker again by the things or is it just my imagination john it's been it's depending on the camera position around the racetrack some parts you see what looks to me like another thread over maybe a very light rain shower but in other parts different parts this you're looking over there maybe a different bit of the topography around kylami and it looks perfectly fine you get on occasion a little raindrop appearing on my camera um but there look that's a lovely sky beautiful sky yeah but the shots if you look the other way as you go through the edges up the hill to the darker for sure so we're looking at a margin of 7.2 seconds lapping very well indeed regularly around one minute 43 flat that's a very impressive pace in fact he's within a tenth of a second that car's fastest lap of the race which was set earlier on but alessandro piergidi yeah he's got the legs of those behind seven seconds down five seconds clear of his teammate nicholas nielsen and then come the audis this is the story of the race it's the ferrari versus audi battle but because they're out of kill sir you know it's going to have a twist i did some maths when i was out about how ferrari effectively did 20 minutes more on that first stint but it means they will have if a standard pit length stint time is the maximum is an hour five minutes you do an hour and five minutes second one two hours ten minutes third one three hours fifteen you work it through and you get to eight minutes eight hours and forty minutes it's a nine hour race so they've got the 20 minute stint and they've done that look at the graphics sunset corner speed it's still as it has been throughout this meeting advantage mercedes at the front the fastest we're not the fastest quarter the toughest corner and kelvin van der linde to kph so that's a big margin john between the mercedes and the the audis but where are the ferraris they're nowhere near it in that corner no they're not but flowers have had very good straight line speed so that's the usual story mercedes have got that little bit more aero on their car and they're gaining the benefit around corners like sunset so it's always a balance you decide you're going to go for slightly more aerodynamics and aim for a lap time or you go for slightly less aerodynamic to give you more flexibility at different parts of the racetrack especially down into turn two or even possibly possibly and this is where perry greedy was able to use that speed advantage coming off barbecue that little bit quicker than the than the audi and getting into a position to make the pass around the outside so it's hello it says horses for quarters yeah without that speed look at the sun looking that direction the sky is very great but looking now in the opposite direction it's lovely yeah well tale of two two weather patterns but uh we saw how quick that car was through sunset so with the faster speed and his teammate rafaeli marcelo through sunset curve but he just said that car's fastest lap in the race one minute 42.822 seconds followed by a lap that was what just 30 000 slower than that so that car very much the akka asp race leading mercedes look at that 42.82 and so close with the next one so it's in a very sweet spot at the moment michael von roy in the 86 lamborghini the stradali motorsports south african entry and up behind the mercedes so different race for these two competitors but uh michael von roy enjoying his time michael conrad in the 75 uh mercedes the the sun energy racing kenny carr so michael van roy maybe i don't know of all the the the local drivers of the south africa oh big slide oh michael von roy they're just about to say what a great job you're doing that almost ended in the gravel trap well listen isn't that the gift if you've chosen as a tv director to focus on a car and it performs that's a little trick for you but it's a good catch that notch again how quickly it goes i mean wow he did good job to keep that car because he got a slight sort of over correction but didn't get into the the gravel beyond the grass and uh might have been a brief hard movement well i reset i'll not do that the second time around yeah reset what comes next sunset but that's not easy but anyhow kept it under control now one person not having kept things under control uh the drive from car 26 sigmund gashey running in sixth place overall in that santelok audi the blue and white one in the short space of time being a lot of warnings to that car for exceeding track limits and fields that's going to be followed a new improved faster slap at the race one minute 42.802 from your faster and faster it's eight and a half seconds clear and there was the 26 uh we saw i think on the edge of the turn 16 this corner now a lap or two ago how wide he ran again he's really really flirting with that demarcation line so uh he that's about as much as he'll get away with anything more than that but i think a couple of laps earlier we did see it getting all four wheels over and maybe that's where another notification is uh arisen from yeah because the most recent one was at 20 hold on 19. so two minutes ago so i think he's added a further one to the further one yeah i think that was at the previous lap that turned 16. but simon gashe you know pressing on right now his last lap was 144.2 the best for that car is a 43.8 currently in sixth position and just waiting to see where exactly in terms of time they are behind the fifth place party of marcus finkelhock vigalok only 2.8 seconds now behind mateo drudy in the fourth place so are we going to see yet again a decision made to let vince go or are we still thinking about the long game and uh let's not get over excited and just keep doing what you're doing yeah well i mean it's it's quite hard because uh for the audi crews with drew d and wigglehawk they're two leading representatives at the moment they do not have to play this in the ferraris and this is the straight battle in terms of manufacturers elements of the intercontinental gt challenge it's very much advantageous but in terms of if you've got these two battles obviously the driver's battle is something entirely different but in that the ferraris have drivers have an advantage as well yeah i mean obviously the the driver's championship was always what you might call the headline champion which people relate to a driver but for the teams it is absolutely i mean so important to be the champion so two different weather patterns one in darkness over the if you're looking up the hill towards lake up but you look the other way just behind these cars and the sky is relatively bright and that's always been the story of this race so far we've had smatterings sprinklings of rain but it's come to know more than that and when we were looking at the weather on thursday and particularly yesterday looking ahead to the race there had been rain due and so far it's largely steered clear john yeah i mean i had a look at my uh so-called weather app and it indicated in general terms that it was going to be a dry race and okay we've had little hints that there is something around to tease us but there's nothing more than a few raindrops in the camera lenses but it does look as you go up to leo cop that part of the sky clearly has got something there that given an opportunity it would certainly unload on the racetrack at the first opportunity yeah something all the teams have been fully aware of and sunshine in the distance and really the story of this race has been akka asp setting the pace and still zhugunyong extending his advantage best part of nine seconds clear but let's look look back to the beginning of the race it's a nine hour race and uh let's look back to what happened at the outset with rafael marcello on pole position lights went green and the blue and white mercedes macca asp into the lead of the race and the ferraris giving their best in trying to keep up really promising early run from charla rang he's the best of the local cars but the lamborghini started smoke pushed back into the pit garage mattai eventually they've been holding up marcus finkel for a while was told to pull over and uh swapped over which was the lead audi they did their best to keep off after the uh ferraris that were chasing the asp mercedes but then of course it was going to be all eyes on what was happening in the pit stops there were local races as well and sylvia scrivanti leading the way from uh potamba at the end of the hour he withdrew from the race as planned and took the national points victory there and then it was the pit stop time the accuracy mercedes came to a standstill so did everyone else apart from the ferraris they drove straight through which confused everybody and it took a while to work out what exactly they were doing audi controlling their race between the two cars 25 and 32 then contact col ledegar had lucas letters in the santa lot racing audi pull across and clash with him he was less than happy but after the proper pit stops from the ferraris it was a chance for 51 to get its nose in front but the 71 ferrari has been the one with the advantage all along and on the with a bit more heat in its stars worked its way around through the drift sky sweep and they didn't have any contact they are teammates they are going for the championship so they stayed out front still a weeper across the track at the kink driver's all fully aware from it but it's still even long after the rain is continuing to make the track slippery there sun energy one mercedes pushing on very hard indeed that would get a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits and then of course the 26 cents look out he also had penalties coming its way as well no penalties for the rarities at this point but one would come their way unfortunately to put one of their cars a little bit further back down the order but no such problems for the 89 ksp mercedes here's timo bogaslicki climbing out sand was uh being handing over to julgunyan the ferraris pressed on they were running out of secrets but they had that full pit stop to serve they served that and antonio really was a star pressing on very very hard indeed top of the hill down out of blue cop down the slopes but don't forget the 51 ferrari was hit with that drive through and that really hurt its race and has pushed hard ever since and then the one gt4 class car in the race the mjr motorsport audi nearly got into the pit lane and pulled over at the side of the circuit that brought out the full course yellow and that was a good thing for the 51 ferrari because that bought it a little at the time was regained through all of that sequence and the drive-through wasn't as costly as it could have been but really in running a standard order at the front it was the akka asp mercedes pulling clear and then this great battle with around the outside at sunset alessandro piageti around mattaya truly oh there was contact but knives of the drivers backed out when they got to clubhouse it was the ferrari with its nose in front nicholas nielsen took a look and a few laps later he would also pass drudy's audi but all along it's the akka asp mercedes at the head of the field ferrari doing things differently we think that will unwind by the end it is nicholas nielsen going one way and then the other to try and get past trudy does it very well down into turn two and judy didn't make it too hard after all because don't forget he's trying to win some championship points and maybe take his teammates to do their championship challenge and no problems at all and now having seen what was done to him but i truly decided i'm going to try around the outside of you nicholas nielsen but uh just sort of run out of road there and uh the ferrari kept its nose in front well when i say in front in front of that battle but in front overall it's the akka asp mercedes are leading the way and uh the clock is counting down through the berg kyle army nine hour but uh joe gunyo's had a great run and has been stretching his legs at the front of the field so it's been a very good run for akka asp might be all that we see from team of bogusleiski but he could yet take the title here is the race leader back from the highlights it's live now and the advantage is ten point three seconds between joe gooney are leading the race and alessandro pierre gidi another round of pit stops will be coming up very soon indeed one would feel the sky relatively clear but only for this driver julgunya will be coming in the others have taken fuel under the safety car and he didn't so again a different twist john watson on the way the teams have tackled this race when you have an instant you respond to it teams have options about what they want to do but he's going to come in for a full service sometimes teams actually out think themselves they try to create situations and come up with solutions and answers to it maybe as they used to say keep it simple stupid now is that the case of asp or is that the case of course of course a ferrari and to some degree the audi teams likewise what mercedes have done is in the relative terms the straightforward thing to do follow if you want the form that everybody would have imagined they've not gone and done something creative what they've got is still the lead of this race by just over 10 seconds from alessandra pier greedy in the 51a of course of ferrari and nicolas nielsen only a further just under five seconds behind now what's that ferrari going slowly for up the hill the yuksuke which ferrari is that there's a problem for one of the two ferraris can't read the number it's the one in third place chris nielsen this is their better place ferrari they're pulling off second place but it's second and then that's that is the secondary pit lane entrance here in kyla army and there is a technical problem now is that the right rear wheel does it look a skew or is it something more either again hydraulics or electronics but that is a non-predicted issue and throwing a real spanner in the works for the air of course look they're looking at the tv screen there it suggests they haven't got enough fuel on board are they checking the monitors i thought they were checking oh well there we go so they're all having a look why is that car i can't see any problem with the rear of the car there's lots of camera on the front maybe not so much the back could be a trick of the light and just the way the pirelli markings hit the side he's got the car into neutral because it rolled back if the car was stuck in gear it wouldn't have been rolling back but the car is there that is the entrance as i mentioned to the secondary pit lane here at kyle army mainly it's used for non-international events so what will happen will this be again a full course because for this ferrari is while it could be pushed into the secondary pits or pulled into that they want that car back here in the pit lane so let's take a look we've got the 32 audi going through oh no you can suddenly see the ferrari going very slowly out of turn two clearly or next to no drive that's just momentum going up the hill there and there must be a bit of life because it got through uh the drugstore suite and then you can just see the start of the it's there it stutters there momentarily and gets a little bit more momentum and now the car is he's rolling it back and um well he's got it off the tracks off the racetrack indeed but it's going nowhere other than backwards and uh is that a lack of fuel god imagine if it was but all trying to work it out hey of course you can see the busy he's got a thumb up well that's actually incredibly positive but that's maybe trying to find it i just wonder is it an electronic problem that nicolas newton's having to deal with i'm sorry um yes nicholas knew something to deal with well maybe thumb up was let's see nicholas saying i've got it fired up we have some lights visible on the car but no drive that we can identify the trouble is he's rolled back onto grass and that grass has probably been still pretty saturated from the rain on friday so i don't know why he chose to do so maybe there was an instruction to get off the racetrack because where the car was is technically still the racetrack albeit is the pit they mentioned christine so race leader in the best part of 11 seconds a series of really quick laps from young but as john's pointed out they've done everything sort of by the book it's been all the other teams that haven't had their pace we've been trying to out-think them but in fact particularly of course disregarding what's happened to the 71 car have regained advantage as the situation's come their way but uh back asp it's driver out and look so team of bob is going in for a second run in the car we thought having served his minimum driver stint time he wouldn't be getting back on board but uh he's going back out there onto the circuit as soon as this pit stop is complete i think i might have seen that the the gt4 audi also might have actually rejoined the factories as the mercedes was coming in and audi went past looked i don't i wouldn't want to be 100 certain but it looked like it might have been the id that uh rejoined but we wait to see it maybe it was another it's [Music] on the windscreen but we know for a while that jewel got out and he looked like the blue and white helmet so here is the 86 uh beginning in the pits the background that's michael van royen but coming out of the pits it should be timo bogaslicki now where will that is behind the wheel [Music] well we need to know what's happening from the pits and uh we're looking forward very much to find out what amanda's caught up because it's exciting times amanda well there are definitely some long faces here in af corsa actually hearing it is a gearbox failure for the 71. you can only imagine what must be going through nicholas nielsen's mind as he was in contention for this driver championship they're still working trying to figure out what to do to get this car back active but an unfortunate break for that prancing course 71 mata thank you for bringing that news it's the sort of news you never ever want to hear but it's going over the start finish line nicholas nilsson well we can't tell at that point if he's a full speed well he is pretty much at full speed there you can see the sister car closing in with alessandro pikidi but uh unfortunately a course of a lap later no drive for the ferrari at the edge of the circuit that is super cool what else this is why they split their drivers they've got two chances they've got two cars well the car is stationary but it did roll back so um i don't know what the gearbox problem whether it's a hydraulic problem whether it's a mechanical problem and i mean undoubtedly of course i will have a pretty good idea they may not want to be sharing that with us at this particular point okay newsflash with that retirement ferrari can't score enough points to take manufacturers championship so the first championship has been landed audi and our manufacturing champions whatever happens from here and five hours 22 minutes remaining very good but it was always that was always one that was almost in the bag before they got here so in a way we can now turn our attention to the drivers championship but what we know in terms of a ferrari champion it can only be kobe ledigar or his team alessandro piergee it could not be the driver who's raced with them through the season one 24 hours with them he was put in the other car he could in fact in many ways the 71 crew seems to have the advantage over the 51 crew but unfortunately so this the snatch vehicle has gotten to nicolas nielsen's ferrari number 71 there it is so whether that car will be pulled into and left in there is the alternative pit lane or whether it will be pulled back and unable to get back to the team's garage on what is the international pit lane wait to see but i mean an unexpected uh issue for normally the ferrari is as trouble-free technically mechanically as you'll ever find well that problem was instantaneous because his lap pace nicholas nielsen's lap pace on his final lap before it broke was one minute 43.2 seconds which is right on the money so clearly whatever happened happened maybe as he was changing down into turn two or just accelerating out and turned two but as we saw as he left that uh tight left-handed there was literally no driving he was just going very slowly indeed [Music] on board michael conrad in the sun energy racing mercedes-benz that comes across start finish line completes it's uh well it's two laps down completes 121 laps against the 123 for current race leader alessandro pierredi with mateo through the in second marcus finkelok just 3.6 seconds behind then at timor burgoslowski having just taken over the 89 mercedes from julgunyo [Music] well it looks a very empty racetrack at this part put your lab you end up ironically you'll have an empty race track for a number of laps then you have a complete congestion for another few laps i don't know the actual scientific law that uh dictates what happens in motivation but it is random random and the fact you will have nothing nothing nothing then you have six cars trying to take a corner all together so now one of the elements in this race was uh at what point points can be scored but they have to take 70 percent of the distance to have full points to have full points so come what made the 71 ferrari out of the mix cruelly suddenly for nicholas nielsen who was separated from his season-long teammates in the intercontinental gt challenge he's going to have to sit on the sidelines and it'd be bittersweet for him if his teammates uh come later guy and piergidi take the title but he just will have to take it on the chin he's a young racer really talented racer came up through the ferrari challenge ranks in very very short order after getting out of carts and was taken to gt racing like a duck to water his time will come mechanical failures in in this race series is something that's relatively rare when you get hydraulic things or electronic things but purely mechanical failures and that car is a 24-hour race-winning car and here it is only what after four just under four hours uh there's a looks like it is a mechanical failure to send energy in so that was michael conrad coming in and he'll be getting out oops there we go is that kenny harper or is it i think it's nico grenier we'll get proof of that he was the driver that started the car and don't forget he grenier really kept very volatile that first stint but he was the first driver to start getting worn for driver exceeding track limits this was the first car the sun energy won mercedes to come in and serve a drive-through penalty and it sets them back yes they're not going for outright victory in this race because they're going for the pro-am points but it was still a setback but it was just a warning to other crews but unfortunately a lot of the drivers particularly the 26 antelope racing audi seem to have been just exceeding track limits at will they will pay the price for that it's amazing that it takes quite a long time for the penny to drop and we have seen certainly throughout the 21 season uh racing in europe in the challenges both at sprint and in endurance there that regardless of what the regulations are drivers always think they can get away with or know better so now the single ferrari in the lead of this race right now having completed 125 laps makes its way up lap 126 it was the long way around the returning mercedes to the racetrack and obviously what you can see if you look at the graphic john is that team of boguslavsky came out into that fourth place he's actually set some pretty decent times since he came out but not matching the pace that jugunio was setting for he coming in now just looking at the lamborghini keeping stepping aside to let the two the mercedes uh getting clearly into sunset without any interference [Music] just to finish my thought it was indeed mikhail grenier who took over the sun energy one racing mercedes alessandro pierkini leading this race by 10.3 seconds over mathias so ferrari against audi and in so many ways this battle uh was about the ferrari and audi drivers uh matar judy not part of that equation he's a butch audi driver but he wasn't once one of the three who came here challenging for the title that's patrick neither house or marcus finkelhock and christopher harza they're split between two cars but uh droody is in the 32 which he's sharing with christopher hassell so he's sort of championing his cause haase's cause as he tries his best to stay in touch with alessandro piageti but the ferrari's just got the legs on the audi yeah i mean when you're a part of a of a factory team albeit you run through independently operated teams themselves but you are a part of that general umbrella and you get placed wherever it's to the well that's a nice one alessandra a good example of ignoring track limits coming out of turn 16. now that will be again something that will go down you don't need to get another again a drive-through penalty for just slightly careless exits it was careless he wasn't under any notable pressure nobody on his tail in fact his lap was it wasn't even enormously fast easy for me today but 43.9 seconds he's been doing one minute 43.2 one forty three point threes his tires are getting a little longer than two sorry and uh rudy coming into turn two either he hit the wiper switch by mistake or there is something down there that he wanted to clear his screen so he's on his way the wipers have stopped but just it's again looking around the sky is a mixed sky and parts it looks very dark and gray other parts is reasonably good but into turn two he chose either accidentally or by design to give the windscreen a bit of a clean yes it's been almost a constant since about 20 minutes into the race from the first little drops of rain were to be found and i mean the drivers after yesterday it'll have to take some serious serious downpour to really impress them yesterday was phenomenal they're driving their car controlled john when the conditions were so super fouled in that first qualifying session which was stopped after one lap you can hardly see the cars well you almost needed what they call japanese super wet tyres which were tires that were developed by all the time manufacturers for races in japan where they had regularly biblical rainfalls but they still raced and had a tread depth almost double that of a normal wet weather race time well john over the years you and i go to japan you just when it rains by golly it really really does come down but you have to take a advice the cars pouring down the main street at fuji that massive ball of spray where are they nobody knew just phenomenal i know all about it bruce thank you i don't have enough time in this broadcast to tell you about it i again again just i don't know whether there's a laxity or a bit of carelessness but just don't flirt with the line on the outside of the turn 16. well there's enough evidence why you shouldn't be doing it but i can understand if a driver is getting towards the end of the entire life towards the end of their stint but uh well one person who clearly has just done that is the drive of the high class racing audi mark patterson last year's gt european series champion with high class racing alas his partner in crime anderson back not able to come down and run for the family team but for mark patterson it's been a i'm sure a huge experience and he was so excited he's always excited about any racing car he gets in whether it's sports prototype or gt but for him at the age of 70 to be competing on home ground it's impressive i mean to be 70 and racing so this car the rd the high class racing and of course the sun energy one racing of the two pro-am cars and they wear prior to that pit stop they were running more or less sixth place for grenier and they 75 mercedes and seventh place for paterson and 33 audi so they were one following the other in that pro-am battle okay there's a gap between them there's there is the gt4 rd back out in the field so we don't know what their issue was but they've tried to get the car back and they're back at the races well great they're still out there but one of the things oh here we have let's have a look at the driver's points as they are nielsen out we've seen the car stop to the side of the track he's on 41 points he's not going to pick up any today the car is haunted but for his compatriots and fellow ferrari racers oh well fellow ferrari races they're leading the way he started the day as a rival to his own season-long teammates but alessandro pierkini come later girl will win the championship by nine points if they stay where they are at the moment which is heading for 25 points for the win but of course the asp mercedes will take some of those away from them it's running fourth out of sequence with them but could get back into the lead after the next round of pit stops but for now and that's all you can touch it on absolutely ferrari that has got to be af courses concern it's unlikely that on sheer pace that the audience are going to be able to challenge the sole ferrari but clearly the 89 mercedes can and undoubtedly will try its hardest to do so because their driver timo burgoslavsky has got the outside of outside chances to clinch the driver's title they will push for that victory regardless they're not looking at anybody else no they're not and in so many ways everything that the mercedes does will hurt the chances of the audi cruise because they've got to get past them and they will push them further down on points audi we know have now taken the manufacturer's title that happened that was clinched when nicholas nielsen's number 71 ferrari pulled over to the side of the circuit and with what we now know is a gearbox problem but uh they want the driver's title too and it it really does look john as though it's going to need a massive change in weather conditions or something to bring them back into it because on a dry or almost fully dry track the ferraris have the legs on them yeah slightly irrelevant in some ways have the legs on everyone it just means if mercedes win the race and ferrari finishes second then rd finish or whatever the id is the difference of those nine points between what is currently the points that the ferrari drivers have over the audis what way does it work or not does it still still favors ferrari clearly no it does it certainly does and i mean in so many ways the sp mercedes it's a distraction it's very interesting one but they they weren't fighting against them per se but uh let's have a little look so alessandro pegidi leads the race by 10.3 seconds from mattaya drudy and just looking at uh marcus finkelhock he's another nearly four seconds 3.7 seconds back in third place coming up the hill in the number 25 santa look racing audi giving chase you can see the sister car from just up the road ahead of him by under four seconds through sunset he goes such a tricky corner effectively two apex is on it and you have to be committed full time yeah imagine going through that corner with about four thousand pounds of downforce i tell you what it was breathtaking in fact you didn't breathe going through the corner there was so much grip let's take a look at the uh aws race vision figures this is the top speed and it's the 86 it's the local lamborghini from mrdale motorsport 239 kilometers an hour they have the top prize at the moment just a whisker clearly small fractures ahead of the two ferraris the 75 mercedes and another local car another lamborghini oh it's another driver in the same car the 86 sorry i beg your pardon 86 lamborghini so they've clearly got it very quick and strong yeah i mean look it's at least they've got performance in one part of the racetrack and that car has been driven extremely well they're doing a very good job uh they've got a slight straight line of speed or not an advantage they're matching the best of the rest so five or four four cars five drivers are all doing 239 kilometers per hour and yet we've got to see where the 89 mercedes is because it's not doing 239 kilometers per hour on that long or that that's straight into turn two yeah we know the strength of the mercedes here has been its downforce but just looking at charla ranges this is the 86 lamborghini he's got to raise his gate because his two teammates have set that uh fastest equal time through the speed trap but charles at the moment is lapping in two a one minute 44.8 about a second down on the car's best just to give you a guide most the front runners are doing mid one minute 43s in fact race leader alessandro piggy's just done the 51 ferrari's fastest lap of the race so far he's down into one minute 42s anything below one minute 43s is impressive one minute 42.93 he's at speed but alas the sister car has now been dragged and so it's one of the slopes between the upper paddock and the area down towards the pits but so there's there's no clearer message that the car is out of the race i mean i don't know how you can get the car from that position into the pit lane uh other than going into where access to the pit lane exit is and then pushing it down against the flow of traffic and i think that would be a controversial regulations likewise so unfortunately the 71 day appears to be truly done and uh you've now just got this one remaining here of course a ferrari still hopping skipping and jumping over the curbing at turn 15. but of course when you've only got you came here and you split your challenge so you got double the chance now you're down to one chance it does mean one further because we've got a ruling here bruce i know he's been towed just been given a little bit of a tow and again that's top right of your screen i suggest i know you can see it just near pit entry just above the top of the weeper you can see the ferrari but they've got other corners to negotiate to get i think they're taking it down so it could be packed up but uh yeah i mean i'd like to think they're taking it down so it could be fixed but with the toe like that i don't think from where they are i don't see how they can get it down to the the level of pitch because there's quite a dip and you've got to use access footpaths to get down so i suspect that they've brought it back as far as they can the only way they'll get it into the pit lane is to try and get into the pit lane entry and then drag it but i think that's against all uh sporting regulations but i'm sure it is and also physically getting around the back of the pit building is is very very tricky indeed at kyle army so we've nearly got uh four hours remaining in this race and all is calm at the front [Music] this ferrari all the way and it's alessandro piageti leading by 10 and a half seconds but a response from a tied rudy he's now started just put the best lap into the chasing 32 audi john so all hope is not yet lost for audi they're still just about there and you know that 10 seconds would just evaporate if we had another incident on track or something beyond the control of uh a driver so alessandro p greedy while he's got the benefit of a 10 second plus advantage there's no space to relax and of course the ferrari team must be concerned about what caused the failure on the 71 ferrari to think well if it happened to one of our cars is it conceivable that could happen to the other car now the one thing i'm interested in timo bogaski in this stint has not been matching the pace of the front runners he's just slapped him one minute 45 that might have been a slightly slower lap but last time i checked he was doing high on one minute is he just we we thought he'd done his minimum driver times stint time in that first tip but maybe just maybe i could be wrong in this they're going to do a very short stint and he'll get out because they do need a 20-minute stint at some point in the race for asp to match what ferrari's done they played their joker if you like early on and maybe that'll be that and then timo will step aside rafael marchello will get in and share the rest of the remaining five hours i mean it's possible those are the kind of scenarios teams are going to look at because we know that timo bogoslavsky is the least experienced of the three drivers in that car and you know he's got very good pace but at the end of the day what joel gunion will deliver and what marcelo will deliver will always be that little bit quicker than boguslavsky so if that's what the team has got to do to ensure a championship win for the russian driver well then they will enact that okay so looking to see who's going to be coming in soon and it's the audi number 32 by looking for tired droody he's second place he's still staying resolutely between 10 and 11 seconds down on alessandro piaget he was overtaken by piaget who made it look easy in the hardest place to ever take on the entire lap around the outside at sunset but since then trudy sort of settled down and don't forget that that all uh took place at the restart after the safety car so fear greedy just got on that little bit quicker maybe just felt a little bit more confident with the level of grip he had in the ferrari compared to that of the audience which makes his way into the pit lane bruce as you predicted so that was opportunistic driving from here greedy and maybe a little bit of over a caution on the part of of matteo drude very tricky almost invidious position for judy to be in because if he drops the car and does something wrong he spikes the chance of one of audi's championship challenges he's sharing with uh christopher harsa so he wants to ruin you know a driver who he's raced with over the years and probably very good friends with but uh you're the outsider you're asked to come and do a professional job and don't forget but i drew he wasn't expected to be here he's supposed to be dressed van tour as uh one of the three drivers is that you've had a driver change or not i can't quite see if they're doing a driver change i don't think they are i think rudy's staying on board he certainly would have been out pretty quickly but the cameras were focusing on the other side of the car but i think that's a very good point we'll find out very soon when he goes out and i'll get a message as he leaves the pit exit so watch for the fuel hose being removed now you release the car then you have to wait for the man on the left of the screen right of the car to say when you can leave the pitch because the teams are capable of doing these pit stops under the look there is the mercedes goes through so bogoslowski is ahead on the track now ahead of i think it's still matteo drudy it looks like judy has stayed on board certainly we didn't appear to see a driver change so that's a place gained by the mercedes up to third place wonder what droody will do on fresh tires all again with a heavier load of fuel but normally the fresh tyre performance will overpower over balance that of uh whatever fuel you got on board 51 ferrari race leading ferrari due to come in driver change shaping up and uh alessandro piggy very good stint in that and just just as he comes in point out bogus he's picked up his pace he's now lapping what mid one minute 43 so he's got a couple of bad laps out of the way but alessandro here giddy with a great move for to move ahead of mattia drudy clambers out [Music] there's no urgency a rush on that change because the drivers know they've got a particular period of time in which to make that so there's no fumbling or no unforced errors you know if you drop the seat belt buckle or you can't get the crutch straps in place or you know number of issues so big ready he's done his job there is the mercedes making its way through 14 now coming in to turn 15. so where will that see the mercedes vis-a-vis the ferrari the ferraris waiting to rule the mercedes is probably just coming in to turn 16 as we see the ferrari whereas the mercedes there it is so actually this is closure everything we anticipated bruce it certainly is and i think actually i i expected the mercedes to be in front so i'm afraid there's a couple of slower laps now you can see let a guy wanted to make sure he was in front but uh bogus he wasn't having that that was should that come under the cheeky category i think it probably should well let her go i had to do what he had to do but vergoski held his ground and uh forced a guard to get out of the throttle so i think that was uh a moment for tumor boguslavsky to feel watch again here we go the watch at nethergarden strike across the racetrack the undercut but has he got the track position the ferrari is still a half a car's length ahead but on the outside and then the mercedes just forces leather guard to stay on the outside all the way around turn two now there's a couple two or three or four slower laps from pogo slice i wonder if the team got on the radio said um actually you want to be in front you've got to pick your pace up but but certainly he was determined uh to write and he perceived wrongs there and got in front but for come letting go well he gave it a go and that's that's all you can ask right the second of the out he's coming in the again drivers staying on board yeah wrinklehawk staying on board so sky getting darker again in the background keep an eye on for that as well lamborghini driving through the pits full set of fresh rubber going on really p zeros but now can pogba feisty stay ahead of ladder guard let a girl be getting the pace up after that pit stop he's in the background of the shot probably about two or three seconds in arrears but one feels as soon as he gets uh really moving having taken over the 51 ferrari from alessandro piageti he will close onto the tail of the russians i think that was just a drinks bottle change going on so no driver change there and there is across the line boguslavsky is in the lead of this race his last lap has 144.8 and he really needs to get to the low 44s or certainly the high 43s because that's what the ferrari and arguably the audi's in third and fourth place will be capable of uh running at well this lap obviously his entry line to turn two was compromised in trying to get that position back ahead of uh combination just come out of the pits in that 51 ferrari but uh i'll just be interested to see how quickly lady gaga can get on the pace he was uh very good in the opening stint of of the race but it's also where you find the back markers going past the stradali into africa lamborghini burger slice he got it right oh and nielsen that's sorry not neil said to go gets it even more on the money didn't waste a moment but did have to swerve oh no he had because the pace the lamborghini was running at uh can i uh kakana behind the wheel there we watch again and see look look look look look all of a sudden boguslavsky overruns the back of katana in the lamborghini and almost forces himself off the racetrack and likewise the second place ferrari having to do the same thing cuminitica so now ledegar's got clear sight of the lead mercedes and he can set a pace and he will be able to carve in to what is a 2.8 second advantage to the mercedes favor and i suspect that that agar will start to carve away a few tenths over the next number of laps well we've got news for the pits let's head down and hear from amanda she is with nicholas nielsen driver of car 71 the driver that came to halt let's find out just why and gentlemen he's made his way back over to af corsa when he got here there were hugs from the team and nicholas as that ferrari came to a stop on the track what was going through your mind um yeah i still don't know i mean um we were running really good until yeah until we we obviously didn't run anymore and uh yeah i'm really sorry for the guys you know unless you did an amazing start of the race opening stint uh same for antonio in the second one and uh yeah the car was was really really good i think it was easy or clear for everyone to see that we had the pace and yeah i mean i don't know what to say was there any warning and what happened no it actually it came out of the blue so we still have to investigate i'm not really sure what happened um the only thing i know is that i lost drive so we have to investigate when the once the car comes back what uh what went wrong but uh yeah it's very unfortunate it did appear to be a puff of smoke next to the car uh during the incident that happened is there anything that you would guess that it could have been from your perspective as the driver i'm gonna wait and see um i mean yes there are there are a couple of things that i i i mean i could imagine that is but i'm going to wait and see until the car comes back uh to confirm what it is well this is the last race on this 2021 season but you had one heck of a season what will be the highlight for you um i would say spa 24 and um and the 24 hours of le mans and i mean in general we've had a fantastic season with uh i mean with with com and uh with ale as well and now we change them to to go and take the championship well as ferrari made the choice to split the drivers here at this race and the 51 still being uh at play are you going to stick around and support your teammates yeah of course i'm gonna i'm gonna stick around and um i mean audi did the same thing with their driver lineup so we we thought we might as well give it a double shot as well and i mean nobody could uh could ever predict that we were not going to finish so in any case it could have gone both ways i mean uh both 51 and 71 were really really strong and uh i think it could have uh played out differently than it that it did but uh obviously it's not in the hand of us so uh it's not in our hands but um nevertheless i'm really happy with the job the team did thank you nicholas and good luck on the upcoming season thank you very much amanda boosik down with uh crestfallen nicholas nielsen but i i sense the way he drives the way he handles himself you know he was very politically not wanting to guess he's or he let on as to what if even if he does know what it is that broke on that ferrari he's going to be a ferrari works driver for a very long time indeed and i wouldn't be surprised in the years ahead when they have their ipa car project that he will be one of the drivers elevated to that so he's in the right place at the right time and doing things very well today it didn't go his way yeah one of the things that drivers young drivers are educated in when they join a major team look at this over the curbing of turn 15 so that's teemo burger slushie getting around the gt4 audi in an awkward part of the racetrack there we can get a different angle of it by goslowski he's going to take a big lump of curb up the inside oh there he goes oh ugly when you see that but going back to nicholas nielsen the drivers are trained taught as politicians are as we well know right now never to answer a direct question with a direct answer and whether he knows what the issues are on it could maybe maybe an input shaft for example it could be a driveshaft could be anything mechanical in the car and it would appear that it probably was something mechanical but they don't want to speculate they don't want to talk about it because that's information to your competitors exactly so now just interesting looking back at that uh little clip showing the audi gt4 car trying to keep out of the way but at the moment you know they're lapping 20 seconds a lot faster they're coming across about every seven laps they will come across that audi there's no disrespect to marius jackson who's at the wheel he's in a gt4 car it's almost from another planet to the gt3s or look around the other way maybe it's a gt3 car that's from another planet it's a performance is absolutely staggering and uh we become accustomed to them but certainly for some of the fans here they haven't seen a lot of gt-3 cars and it's you know a considerable education not just the diversity but just their sheer performance [Music] so audi came here with a very very high hopes of that they've already managed that they've got the manufacturers championship when we get to 70 race distance they will have the manufacturers championship but let's go down to the pit lane to hear from amanda who's got chris ranker from audi second ferrari out it does seem pretty likely this manufacturer's championship is over and chris when you look at the dominant performance that your team has had this year you guys came in with a 36 point lead what paid to how did that dominance performance happen what do you contribute it to well for us it's for sure as a customer racing core business yeah we're always out there with a lot of cars because we have a lot of partners and customers who support us out on the racetrack to collect all these points to get us into this position uh and get us yeah into the situation here that even so we're in the middle of a race and we start to keep the focus to fight it out and obviously still have a shot at the driver's championship but for the moment uh are a bit relieved that at least uh the first box is ticked we're roughly 20 minutes away from the halfway point in this race what would you rate your team so far sorry how would you rate your team so far well so far a very solid performance out of what we can do i mean it's a flawless race uh overall for sure um when we talked about the manufacturers championships now i mean obviously we want it now on bad lag of the competition which we not came here for to do as such but you got to take it as it comes along uh but from our performance you know uh nothing to be said as a big compliment flawless performance so far and we hope as the race continues that also you know on the on the balance of performance maybe we get it sharp if it's a track rubbers in maybe we are lucky some rain uh rolls to dice again let's see we'll stay focused and on it congratulations to you into audi thank you [Music] always good to hear from chris reicher he oversees a very large empire and audi being such a pivotal company in the history of gt3 um with all the sro series and have supporters all around the world but uh title nearly there for 2021 in the intercontinental gt challenge but as chris pointed out john not quite yet got to get 70 percent race distance no no and aside from that particular matter of getting to 70 of race distance to enable the team then to score maximum points as opposed to getting half points what's interesting listening to chris ranker is that you know he's still thinking this is not a done deal we've got the manufacturer's championship wrapped up we still could win this race there are going to be elements which are beyond our control and we're aware of that and we want to be in a position to use that to our advantage yes i mean not so long ago not so many decades ago in any form of endurance racing you basically you know they used to say it the more you get first you get through the night then you get to lunch time and then you see what's happening but now you know yes we've seen the 71 ferrari have what we think is a gear box problem but uh site of cars put into the side of the circuit with mechanical problems is really something that feels almost like from another age so it is a question of what other variables can be brought into this equation the most likely one to challenge things certainly and shake things up will be a change in the weather well i mean the quality of engineering across the board you know compared to let's say going back to an era when in 24 hour races or endurance races the majority of those races were won purely on reliability not on a competitive field and uh you know looking at spa again as an idea we've got 55 odd cars in that race and that race was won because of the reliability of the the ferrari and the pace of the car and the outstanding driving by the drivers back in the good old days going back to the early years of kailami you you could start a race in 15th position and find yourself on the podium simply because you stayed out of trouble and you had a reliable car quicker cars around you failed and the quicker cars rarely fail these days the mechanical engineering and reliability is just unbelievable well also from season to season of course the cars do not change too much until you get to the next evolution so there's a lot of data to be added that all the teams can consume consider and uh then apply to what they're doing so first a second it was 2.5 seconds last time it's three seconds this time around three seconds on the nose that's timo bogaslicki leading in the akka asp mercedes number 89 ahead of the 51 ferrari from af courser and in the background of the shot well no just coming into the background the shot shortly should be the number 32 audi which is in third place 10 seconds further back interesting last three laps leader guard took about about three tenths of a second out and that was cancelled out on the last lap where ferguson clawed three tenths of a second back so the pace of the mercedes is matching the pace of the charging second place ferrari so i mean ferguson now running in the well the last that was 143.4 which i'm not quite well is that his personal fastest lap certainly it must be very very close to him yeah i've seen him do a one minute 43.5 a short while ago i can't work out why he suddenly i didn't see any overtaking on that lap around the gt4 audi that's a car that obviously if you get it before a corner get past you don't lose time if you get it after the corner you know but no noticeable no obvious reason as to why the russian race has suddenly got it together and come literally got lost out a little bit but right now running down to mine down the mine shaft uh bogalski has clear track ahead of him up to crocodiles he goes back our asp car very good through the slower corners it's such a a wonderful i mean i talk about a turnkey race car i think of all the brands that are operating here this weekend that we see throughout the year the one that actually i mean across the board anybody could almost almost anybody could jump into and have a competitive drive is one of these mercedes amg gt3rs absolutely brilliant ferrari likewise a stunning turnkey car completely different configuration it's a mid-rear engine car the mercedes is a mid-front engine car ferrari the ferrari maybe ultimately has got the the greater pace but that you're talking about such a very narrow window in which you can access that pace so across a broader platform the mercedes really really a magnificent race car yeah and i think really one of the key components to the design of the second generation of the amg mercedes to make it drivable for everybody maybe drivers of a higher caliber can squeeze more out of the ferrari but across the board that mercedes since it was introduced has really been a tool of choice for many people but there are a lot of people coming to gt racing the only manufacture they'd want to race for would would be to get themselves the ferrari now let's look at the points and clearly being a ferrari driver is a good thing because as things stand alessandro piergidi and colem ledegar will have 50 points five points in the bag they're five points clear of crystal bahasa and fellow audi racer marcus fingerhawk and patrick niederhauser on 47 points of peace actually equaled team of bogusky in the race leading uh akka asp mercedes so it's still very tight but it takes one change of position effectively uh if that ferrari goes back one more place then suddenly the things will look very different and the audi drivers will come into the mix first a second three point one seconds two really really good laps in succession now for team of bogus fights he gets past the audi gt4 the same part of the racetrack only about seven or eight laps ago he was hopping and skipping and jumping over the curve but i'm just it's coming up larger ten past five in the afternoon now the light i think is beginning to get a little less than it was earlier whether that's due to the natural you know the sun beginning to drop back in the sky or whether that's because we're getting a bigger cloud base coming over or a combination of both but it is i just sense there's a slight change in the character of the racetrack certainly appears that way and i felt that was probably time to just have a quick look and see if anybody's got a last warning for anything and whenever it comes to last warnings for track limits uh after about the second hour the race is car 26 unfortunately that's taking the wrap it's the santa look junior team entry nicola bear simon cache and lucas legere it's lucas on board the driver who started who may well have uh had the latest track war infringement warning so track limits still a matter the blue white santillat racing early running in fifth place overall could well be heading for another drive-through penalty but the last couple of laps have been uh pretty good for team of bogus flysky but now with no audi gt4 between them it's the closing comb ledgo who's had a better lap last time around took half a second out of the race leader down the mine shaft they go through the left-hand kink not the bottom of the hill but of their way down that drop from luke and then they get to crocodiles the ferrari really does appear to be closing in this time around they were 10 and a bit seconds clear of mattia trudy in the best place of the audis they're now nearly 13 seconds clear so it really is their story at the moment ferrari and mercedes and audi just playing watch from the side yeah that's what durian's racing is when there's no action in the pit lane the team members are sitting back relaxed but are always aware that there could be a very quick call to be get back into the pit lane so the gap this time is still hovering two and a half seconds and the difference in lap times was actually fractionally better yes better for ladaga than uh than boguslavsky by about a tenth and a half interesting though just they dive past the pit exits and across that little stream the stream across the circuit maybe the light's just not hitting it so much i was just thinking it doesn't look as bad as it has been since the outset of the race um but as i said that let it go it's a real twitch as he went through the king you're probably accustomed to it now but it doesn't look so it's finally sort of not issuing as much particularly as we head into darkness here you don't really want that stream to be getting any worse it's been it's been a feature but uh if you weren't watching any of the broadcasts yesterday the amount of rain that fell here was it was epic so the fact that even now at this point after you know really nearly half distance we're getting towards it uh indeed another 13 minutes will be there there are still damp patches of tarmac well there's little there are those are eucalyptus little weeps but inevitably as we've not had rain since whenever i think earlier this morning in the latest so just by nature the little river or river that's whatever you want to call it is beginning to dry up and [Music] it's because it's not never it's never been an issue per se but you had to be aware of it every time you crossed it you couldn't be you couldn't be complacent so the gap coming down well it was coming down in fact a sudden response a half second game for the race leader quite hard to tell from head-on but yes again as ferrari goes through the little weeper across the track at the king he's now three seconds in the rear so giving chase but it's ebbing and flowing without too much provocation and interruption from any of the back markers at the moment but bogusleiski did the second stint in the akka asp mercedes after rafaeli martiello built a very tidy lead came back a little towards the opposition he's in his second stint now doing what he can he's had a good run but don't forget not so many laps to go he just did enough to get ahead of the ferraris it burned emerged after it's pit stop these swap positions down at turn at number two with the mercedes getting in front i honestly thought the ferrari would start to to close in towards him but that hasn't really happened it went out to two and a half seconds and it's a pretty much there ever since he's now at three seconds and what happy laps on the board 145 laps on the board another 11 minutes will be at the halfway point in the joburg carl army niner it's a battle of chess yeah we're sort of anticipating approximately 300 laps for the nine hours so sort of on course for that 11 minutes to get another five laps in to be at 150 laps complete i guess that would be rather neat and tidy usually mathematics that one wasn't it yeah well it seems like that but don't forget to we could suddenly get a full course yellow we can get a safety car period and all those maps go out the window a lot of people get hugely excited about ultimate number of laps it's really to me it's just the time that's a thing that counts fabulous shot looking down over inway the final corner and the team of bogus slice seems to have it under control i didn't check if both of them stayed within the track limits on the exit of the final corner turn 16 is almost identical to that before in terms of the margin between first and second almost pretty much flat on three seconds john so nothing offered nothing no i mean both drivers running in clear air so they've got no interference affecting them while there may be a very marginal aerodynamic wash coming off the back of the mercedes it's not having any real uh or meaningful effect on how the ferrari might be handling it certainly might do if it gets up the rear wing of the mercedes but certainly not at that distance these cars are not the hypercritical hypersensitive darlings that single-seaters are quite interesting now i just noticed that going through the first part of sunset that uh bogusleiski didn't even use all the road whereas almost everybody else just looking at guard giving chase you know the traditional two wheels on the curb on the outside but pogba's nicely stayed you know a good foot or two about half a meter in from the edge of the circuit so there's a bit of caution there perhaps well he's in a nice rhythm he's not having to drive the thumb under the chin pushing like mad he's got a controllable three seconds advantage nedergarh hasn't been carving any significant amount of time out of boguslavsky over the last number of laps so drive within the car and don't overwork your tires you know don't put loads shock loads into the mechanics of the car by slamming into curbs and doing potential damage looks very cool for there we are clockwork orange roughly and in fact that despite me spotting a little bit of caution it was a better lap for the race leader he's gained a quarter of a second so 3.1 becomes 3.3 seconds doing exactly what the akka asp team would like but almost exactly the same part of the circuit but this time it's not the gt4 audi in front and stays wide at barbecue so very well done so who's in the 23. kept out of the way but you know a driver in a slower car or a slower driver in the car in front doesn't have any options at barbecue headlights are coming on that was it did we miss an instruction for headlights to come on or is it on naturally dark for what is now 20 past five in the afternoon i've noticed any warning but uh often it doesn't look a great deal darker but i think it's as much as anything to make sure that the drivers of the national class cars are really get to see them but it looks like that's definitely gone the way of timo bogasleski the advantage his way he got past that lamborghini stradali into africa car very easily it was a bit more of a struggle for combination so a bit frustrating you push hard for laps but traffic because it's famously known and give it and it take it yes i mean it just said there's a seven floor whatever you want to call it sometimes you get lucky sometimes you find yourself compromised but inevitably it all levels out the law of averages and all the stuff so but it's frustrating when you feel you sort of get a touch of paranoia and you feel why does it always be that's being you know wrong footed by back markers well actually the law of averages usually equals everything else [Music] giant pit building looks like almost like a beached ship like the deck of an aircraft carrier without all the superstructure yes yes but a fabulous shot from helicopter looking down over that final corner much much tighter than obviously the kind army circuit has changed enormously over the decades but it was its reinvention that effectively put the low the lower half of the current circuit was added to the lower half of the original circuit if you understand my picking this was the lower part of the original circuit they run from barbecue along to sunset but of course then the track no longer continues on up the hill past clubhouse but uh goes off towards luke and then plunges down the slope again still a fabulous circuit much more up and down than before but um when the circuit was originally reconfigured the turn one particularly two three that was slightly different to the version that we have now and uh i think what we have now is actually a better incarnation than the initial uh version that was up the hill sort of slips through again how many times has he ever taken the gt4 out here goodness so it must be into triple figures by now well of course when the circuit was reconfigured in 1987 the the other pit they was used the one on the run between uh before sunset so the pits were up there but then the new pit building was built and the lower end of the new circuit was extended and given more of a kick which is that final corner you can see the track kinking and coming further to bottom left of screen down to ingui turn 16 the last corner leopard is the translation and certainly if you've ever get the chance to go into that pit building very spectacular building great pick garages brilliant off the tail optionality areas i mean it is a truly world-class facility and also it's quite a place to be when if you can be in the pit building and the big terrace looking down over the track at the start of the race it's fabulous to be able to see the track some distance below you and then going off down the hillside it's a very spectacular place to watch plus simply the view out over the countryside beyond is well you can spot the members and the uh the hissing cobras i mean they're all visual from that height only if they're misbehaving right the world of audi second third and fourth position is mattai trudy he's now 14 seconds behind coleman to go that's gone out by about six seconds during this stint but he's got uh marcus finkelhack trying to close on him but they've stayed around three and a half seconds it's now 2.8 seconds between the wrt audi that's number 32 this is the pale one at the bottom of the screen and the chasing gray version from santa look behind with uh marcos finger look on board these two drivers were fighting the opening stint of the race and in fact rudy was thought to be holding up vince hawk was told after a while eventually just pull over would you on the run down to turn to letting through which dutiful worst drivers he was and is here's the example of a gt3 audi making very easy work going around the inside up at the cop off the gt4 audi the lone gt4 car in the world i think the the gt4 rd has spent over half the race looking backwards as you know they the pace has about 20 seconds to lap off that of a leading gt3 car and you know when you're driving your race you want to enjoy it you ought to be spending all the time trying to keep out of the way of you want to get a rhythm yourself and in fact it would be nice if there were more gt4 cars to play with but i'm sure for the 2022 running this is the 2020 one running the finale of that uh intercontinental gt challenge but when we come back to this circuit and it's due at the end of the year hopefully more now we've got a picture as that gt4 rd coming in okay so it's faded into the bit lane and has managed to get into the mid lane of that in the assistant yes well that's good this time around that's marius jackson bringing it in it's his team that's running the car but uh certainly when it gets to darkness and it's more about headlights coming up this great speed the speed differential between the gt3 and gt4 runners is going to get harder and harder the job in hand the drivers of that gt4 audi but they've done a good job so far they kept out the way as best they can not always easy at certain points around the lap but they've been very neat very tidy about the glitch where the car stopped just on the approach to the pit lane uh somehow about an hour ago when i was out for my little break did we ever find out what was the cause of that uh stoppage at the point in entry nothing ever the team didn't volunteer you were i was on my break but it's still that's what it was yes [Music] oh the ferrari the back end sliding around a little bit under acceleration that's we don't see that too frequently from from ledger or from the ferrari so how much where are his rear tars struggling with that's sort of something we should keep an eye on i mean not that clear comfortable slightly different kind of corner you're exiting on a darn slope and the the ground is falling away from you but nevertheless i want to keep an eye on that one you do his last hat was within two tenths of that car's fastest lap of the race one minute 43.1 was uh his pace last time around this time maybe with that little slip will be a little bit slower yeah he loses three tenths of a second so that means the gap to the race leader will go out as well and yes it does to 3.5 seconds the asp mercedes leading the way and for the others in the pits particularly if you're the driver who's just got out you know another teammate will have a stint before you get yours but uh by the time i think driver two along in the driver chain gets in we will be in darkness i would think or edge of darkness darkness here isn't meant to be until seven o'clock or something i checked on the the actual sunset i think is something around about seven o'clock uh and what we're now 20 past 25 past five okay so that's what i mean so if the next driver gets him does a stint that lasts an hour five minutes by the time the following driver gets in it'll just be it'll be on the cast bob which is actually in many ways the hardest stint it's better it's easier to go out to full darkness absolutely anyways that changing light the forty night but the light here yeah this hemisphere falls uh it goes it goes well there we see the gt4 rd and that's having a bit of attention on that right front so [Music] so just had official notifications 722 is dusk in johannesburg do we count as in johannesburg we might be just outside it might be 9723 but we will find out well i think we'll just wind it up boat time because it's probably convenient and also remember we're out in the country so there's it it is there isn't very much additional ambient light from that that you would have in the city but that's 19 or 19 22 20 minutes 22 minutes [Music] so the gap for burger slice ski to come later it's sitting well two thousandths of a second the difference between them so it's three and a half seconds between first and second we're at the halfway point in the raids so let's take a look back to the highlights of what's gone on so far since the start four and a half hours ago [Music] weather conditions a little bit brighter track conditions dry apart from the stream running across the circuit at the first corner and a great start from rafaela marcello and then picking the way past the local runners the ferraris trying to give chase charla rang he's going really well for stradali motorsport but alas a puff of smoke in the 86 lamborghini pushed back into the garage and then audi said to matar judy pull aside because we think your teammate uh marcus finger was a little bit faster than you are they let in through but winklehog didn't get away and then in the first hour it was the story of uh who was going to be the top driver in the south african gt series in this race during the first hour and it was the sil the yellow lamborghini of sylvia scribante that won that honor he then retired from the race he was only planning to do the first hour just after that ferrari pulled a really unusual maneuver they came in when the others were serving their first pit stops drove through the pits they didn't take on tires didn't take on fuels they served their pit stops a little bit later but it jumped them into the lead of the race audi's kept on swapping positions but he didn't have the legs of the ferraris one of the ferraris though that's colm ledegar side by side contact he wasn't happy latest and luca legere in the santa lot racing out he really did not do himself very many favors at all after the pit stops though with the ferraris it was a question of which one would come out in front would it be the 51 car or the 71 and it was the 71 that got its nose in front but uh they're supposed to be fighting to entertain the fans but they're also fighting for the championship uh with the ferrari crews split and swapped between the two cars but it made for great viewing indeed and then trying to overtake down into turn two patrick need out running a little bit wide they got it back onto the circuit sun energy one mercedes going very well indeed and the santa lot racing addy both of those cars would be pinged given penalties uh for offenses and most most obvious one of these was track limit problems notably at turn 16. the ferrari's kept on giving chase but really the story of the race so far has been akka asp has had the pace when it wants it but it was also to do with the timing of the pit stops and they were traditional in their approach whereas ferrari had rolled the dice early on so timo bogosleiski out of the asb mercedes getting on board but it's a 71 ferrari really taking the battle to them high over the hill the top down from lucop down the slope going all along trying to do their best to chase after the akka asp mercedes but then suddenly the only gt4 audi in the race didn't quite make it into its pit stop agonizingly drifting its way down the slope no power bringing out the full course yellow and that was uh a problem for all concerned and the mercedes did not stop for a standard pit stop and that sort of maybe took its advantage away somewhat and uh for the ferrari cruisers 51 car had already had a drive-through penalty but the full course yellow really benefited at the restart no problem at all for the racing akka mercedes but around the outside alessandro piergidi at sunset a bit of a body shoulder thump there with uh mattai druti got through to take the lead and nicholas nielsen in the number 71 ferrari was looking and learning and waiting and closing in on drudy escaping at the front of the field but uh trudy now very much the meat in a ferrari sandwich wasn't gonna make it easy though you go one way i'll go the other i'll cover off turn two oh except i've gone a little bit too deep into the corner but uh he decided to fight back nielsen got in front but judy was far from finished and that's why so many people have a lot of respect for this italian racer he's a proper racer better exit from barbecue along the straight towards sunset he'd been bitten there before and now he was looking to do the biting around the outside just as pierre gidi had done to him but not quite just as peter gudy did because nielsen pulled across his nose and that was that the ferrari stayed in second and third positions but a good little scrap marcus winkelhock fighting to stay up behind them there is the dark gray audi but up front it was always the akka asp mercedes zugunion pushing on very hard and just making it look very easy indeed as he pulled clear at the front of the race it was up to the audis and ferraris behind to fight and at the moment that very moment suddenly the 71 ferrari slowed its way up the hill and pulled off nicholas nielsen not knowing what was wrong except there was no driver this is the moment where ferrari's constructors title challenge effectively came to an end still got the drivers battle to fight for and uh it's really fierce and furious between the ferrari drivers and how's this remote but timo bogalski full speed as the ferrari the remaining ferrari came back onto the circuit and he wasn't going to leave give it the lead of the race got in front and he stayed there ever since the head of comrade agar but it's been tight it's been a great fight but conditions are starting to change light is starting to become a little little lower local cars still in the mix and there it is jumping over the curves bogusleiski stretching the lead at the front of the field it's a ksp for now but it's ferrari versus audi for the drivers title back to live picks under four and a half hours remaining this race we're past the halfway point let's take a look at one of the local cars the stradali into africa motorsport lamborghini car number 23 driver at the wheel at the moment is phillip kokana of course racing here with the international runners but been running for south african gt championship points and it's a crew all black crew chop ship hookah lily little arca and let's go down so let's go down to the pits because uh amanda busek has caught up with holly lee and let's hear from the all african crew well it's a wonderful story making history here this weekend on holm style in south africa and exo i know you've been racing for 3.5 years but how long has this been a dream of yours it's always been a childhood dream i mean growing up as a young man in the villages you always dream that one day you will not just get to drive a car you get to own one and a far-fetched dream to raise one so here we stand here uh three and a half years later from starting racing and we are in one of the best stage of uh international gt racing well when you look at your car that's driving on this track amongst an international grant how much pride does that give you it gives me an amazing sort of sense of pride because you know driving a gt car just on its own is a dream come true and driving amongst these international race drivers is just awesome you know i wish uh one day a young man of the same age with the youngsters that are on those cars of our own home will be racing against them you know so it makes me very proud your teammate philip kakana is currently in the car chop zapaka also on the team with you how did you assemble this team for this weekend um with tops it was a little easy because i grew up in the from the group in the trans guy i grew up with chops we were made since we were kids and when chubbs went back to retirement it was just when i started with motorsport then i recruited and asked jobs to become part of our development team just to coach the youngsters and he said to me no no not he's not ready for that a year ago i then asked him to become my race partner on the south african ninja series which is a three and four hour series and i knew that when he gets into the car he's not going to let go and that is how i got chops in and for me it was important to get chops in because he is a hero to many in this country he raised in an era where there were few black people racing cars and he did so well i mean the only guy who won championships back-to-back and it was something amazing to have this guy back in the car to inspire young people top uh phillip um i got introduced to phillip by one of the team managers uh in the early years i followed philip and i sort of lost track of him and we checked him down and we said philip you're one of the few legends that we know that we're good in the sport [Music] you come from soweto soweto is the biggest township in south africa with over two million people and i asked him if you could come and join us for the people of sorry to inspire those kids that are there that one day they can be where he is and yeah he took that challenge and here he is he's in the car he's enjoying this chitty car you know what humbled me was the fact that when he came out of the car he came to be and said to me his dream as a young man was to raise a formula one car at his age at 55 you know that that would that will never happen but the fact that he's in a cheaty car in his heart he's ticked the box he's in a f1 car that's it i said you know what it's an f1 car from now on yeah so that's how we got him in in a lamborghini nonetheless and exo when you look at i know we talked earlier on the grid prior to the race and you said no matter what happens here today that you guys have won what did you mean by that we have won we are winners we are the first team of african people put together racing in a gt championship in a world stage it has never been done before so whether we come last or we come first or we place anywhere today we have one we have one not just for us we have one for a child whether he's black white or whatever that has a dream that that dream is just hindered a little bit so by having these two legends in a race car in the world stage we have won we're the first people of african descent to be in this world stage so we're good we've created history hi halami is a track with storied history history rich in tradition here in south africa what does it mean to the community kailam is a special place you know kailami by the way in in our banach which means our home it's been a iconic venue for motorsport in this country for the longest time for us to debut or even launch ourselves here as participants it's it's amazing you know done at home soil in an iconic venue like this it can't be better than this it can't be well congratulations thank you for sharing your story with us you guys have won and guys the car is already here in the pits for a perfect ending to the story from mexican thank you very much what a great story to hear from holly le little so you could see even with the mask on his face the smile was huge behind that mask and a great story about stradali into africa running their lamborghini here and they will be learning with every single lap there's just been a pit stop and that was the race-leading mercedes having come in and it's now in the hands of rafaeli marcelo out into fourth place so come ledegar now leading uh by a tidy margin in the 51 ferrari from af course we're ahead of mattia droony in the 32 team wrt audi who's got uh nearly a two second advantage over the third place sister audi from manfred winkelhock of marcus finkelhock but rafaeli marcelo has taken over from team of bogoslavsky the sky is bright john watson has been for a very long time almost the start of today so as we go into the evening the light is coming from the side but there's much more of it so maybe the rain that had been threatening is staying away for now yes clearly you can see one part of the racetrack it is considerably brighter but just i would like to mention one thing bruce i thought that that stint that boguslowski completed i think it was a very good stint indeed he did very well he kept the camera from the second base ferrari and himself around three and a half four seconds or approximately and uh that's a driver of the level of connecticut who one would assume has got slight skills above and beyond pogoslavsky at this point in his career so let's watch and see what rafieli martiello who is essentially the star of the car in the asp academy well this is the big question was that booker schweinsteiger doing a decent job in a brilliant car or was he doing a really good job in a really good car you know we have to see because it's the question of what sort of pace marcelo can go to he's always been quicker they've been paired together for years no wonder teemo loves racing with with rafaela but the fact he was resisting everything matching everything that was thrown at him the the fuel loads were coming down and uh certainly the ferrari is still lapping right on the money one minute 43.1 second laps time after time but uh a good stint we've wondered early on if that first did which was sufficient for teemo not to get back in the car he did the second step did a good job so he's still better absolutely and i think that and i want to give him credit for a very very good session behind the wheel now we've got raffaele marcello and we'll see what he's got they know that the ears has got that inherent speed advantage but i mean arguably even over should go i have to say between the pair of them there's not a lot to pick and choose so now marcelo has just completed his first flying lap and we wait to see what he will do when he goes on to that first full timed lap to give us indication if he can run that car in the low 143s or even one a high 142 to get back as all the other the for the single ferrari the two audis cycle through for their pit stops yeah no exactly now just looking at the battle between the audis it's sort of been simmering since the outset of the race it's team wrt and versus sansa they're both audi works entries but there's a lot of professional pride here at stake john it's the wrt car in front with uh mattia julie on board but as it was it was in the opening stint he's pitched up against uh marcus wincock and the gap between the pair has come down and down one point what exactly one and a half seconds between them last time around not so long ago with two and a half three and a half seconds so the dark crew at the darker gray out he's closing in with every lap this is fabulous but remember christopher harrison is in that number 32 rd and he has got a mathematical uh chance so maybe that's ultimately where this battle between the two independently run after factory factory id teams will end up so right now we've got marcus winkelhoff running third place what about one and a half seconds behind uh mateo derudi in that second place wrt entry yes we've talked you know intensively about nicholas nielsen have you been separated from con later going alessandro piageti to be put in another car but likewise christopher harsa was taken out of the santelok car leaving niederhauser and winkelhawk there and uh has been put into the 32 audi his is the one that has the lead in this audi battle as they go past the gt4 audi no problem at all into turn two but bring hook still very close it's down well 1.4 seconds he's getting a tenth of a second giving chase that bright orange band across the chin of his helmet just getting the light catching it as the sun goes lower in the sky one thing is for sure he was working overtime on the headlight flashers for the gt4 version of the audi as it came down into turn one wanted to make there was no misunderstanding that pick a car catching you quickly and step aside so pit stop time in the world of sun energy one racing mikhail grenier brought it in but clearly a driver change going on but of all the places you don't want to be interrupted by a slower car gt4 car is into turn two because then you may not even get past until you get up to the top of the hill at barbecue it would be a nightmare a little bit of information rapidly marcelo and his first full flying lap with a full set of fuel but brand new predators has just recorded the fastest lap of their race to date 142.749 the boy is on it he is he obviously likes the color pink his hair might be orange this weekend but pink means the fastest time of anyone in that section in fact the driver who brought the sun energy one mercedes into the pit labe was the driver who previously had the fastest lap here this weekend one minute 42.761 that has been beaten by the driver who now races with the swiss flag on his car was an italian racer until 2022 but rafaeli marcelo absolutely nailing it as soon as he gets out and he just has this wonderful flow in the car has to take it to the curbs if he must but he's not a rough driver he's a driver who who just is super super smooth well he's really evolved into that he certainly had his ages when he was in his early years but that last lap time was within just under three tenths of a second of the fastest lap in the pre-qualifying session on friday morning that julio so to be able to get close to the time i mean 142.7 would have put him actually in the front row of the grid because that was quicker than the second place quickest time in that pre-qualifying run which was alaseo rivera and the ferrari so that 689 mercedes would have had front row grid lockout in first and second quickest positions oh he's dropped the pace by a whole tenth of a second four minute 42.7 one minute 42.8 that's the difference between the time being brand new and one flying lap and then you you go into this period where the tire then settles into its operating window what he has to do well i mean of course the pit stop sequence is all very different he's effectively 43 seconds down on third place which is uh marcus wrinkle hawk but of course his pit stop has now been served winkle hawk will have to come in judy will have to come in come later guy the race leader by 20 seconds ahead of those two audis will have to come in long long before the akko asp mercedes makes its next dive into the pit lane all marcelo can do now is just keep producing lap after lap after that with the sort of speed he's managing now so come later in contrast his last that was 143.6 against marcelo's last which is 142.8 so 1.7 1.8 of a second to round it out no john i just want to point out it was the next driver up that's 42.6 so the fastest lap for the ferrari has just been produced where did that come from droody was the one in 43 he's the next one down the timing screen so yeah he suddenly you know he wasn't really able to lap anywhere near that pace yes the fuel load's going down but uh come let it go maybe maybe the simplex message from the pit lane uh bartelo's absolutely flying you've got to replicate i mean that that's come out of the blue and unexpectedly we didn't anticipate suddenly let a guy would go and knock the fastest previous lap just set a few laps ago by let by marcelo out of the water well rather hot looking mikko grenier they talking in the sun energy one garage to the taller figure of barty conrad but uh is kenny harbaugh the boss of the team the man who puts the whole deal together who's out on the circuit he's running in sixth place overall in that sun energy car now that was a really spectacular that from i say the ferrari it is the remaining car they came af courser came here with two of these uh red ferraris with the wonderful frankenstein motors yellow flashes up the side but unfortunately the 71 car the sister car into which nicholas nielsen had been put to see if he could double their chances well thank goodness they uh unlucky for nielsen he therefore could have otherwise if they hadn't made that move be in this car that's still going still in with a shot at winning the driver's title but uh he was the one that lost out when a very very rare mechanical failure you know used to be prevalent in sports car racing and gt racing back in the 1960s it really was okay to get towards the end and see who could put the pressure on but mechanical reliability john it's just gotten better and better and it's also the fact a lot of these teams have been running these uh ferrari 488s for about four this is the fourth year now yeah they moved from the 458 which was they the naturally aspirated motor to the 488 which is the that's what you might call the low pressure twin turbocharged engine which is all done for co2 reasons in terms of the the the road car to get those figures into some kind of context but it has been an outstanding engine for ferrari for many many years and uh particularly mentioned was winning spa 24 last year a long over ferrari victory in that particular yeah event was an extraordinary race it always is the spa 24 hours there are more stories that you can shake a stick at that unfold through the corpse of that event but uh right now i'm about to take a take a break and john's going to carry on with our new friend in the commentary box so harry benjamin will step forward for a second stint and see how this race unfolds over the next half hour well thank you bruce so we're just keeping an eye on what connecticut is doing as he continues around on his 165th of the car's 165th lap we've got four hours and eight minutes remaining so before we know we'll be into well we're just over halfway through uh let it go i would go back to graphene marchello oh i don't like that hitting the kerb aggressively so these are replays all replays from turn 15 and just getting a glimpse of the the variety of cars the sun energy one racing team kenny bull behind the wheel right now is uh kennyabu so there is the lead ferrari so harry what are your thoughts you've been sitting back watching and uh admiring what has been going on with the pace of the ferrari but now of course the pace of the mercedes 89 there it is again going through turn five and just i hate watching a racing car thump and curb like that well i mean it makes for spectacular imagery though doesn't it when you see sparks that fly off the uh the front bumper there but i mean let's be honest from the very start that akka asp mercedes uh at the hands of rafaela marcelo who took the start has just been almost on a bit of another level the outright pace of that car has been spectacular well they'll just give you an example to sum up the pace of the three respective brands that are competing really for neither drivers championship the pace of the ferrari just set the fastest race lap of 142.6 the fastest lap of mercedes of 142.7 marcus finkel hawkins third place in the 25 audi has just set a personal best for that car over 143.2 there is the story of the pace of the audi versus the ferrari and the mercedes absolutely and of course a little bit of pressure already eased for audi although it was a dead cert that they are now congratulations to them because intercontinental gt world challenge manufacturer champions with the uh the sad retirement of course of nicholas nielsen in uh in the second of the the 71 af course so that was uh gutting to to see their title fight will his type of fight end that way but we're watching uh now the uh mercedes of marcelo scoot past the uh the lamborghini on the i think it might be into africa around the corner right we're catching this track when you look out to johannesburg it seems so bright and light but there are certain points of this track where it does seem like the light is is chasing and closing hard so i know it's sunset for another couple of hours isn't it an hour and a half away so but you know the lights are in full there's gonna be that crossover it's gonna be who's in the car how long are these stints gonna take it and that crossover i suppose you'll know how does it how long does it take to adapt from you know having race in the daylight to suddenly you've got not just darkness but around here it gets very dark it's pitch black i mean obviously i prefer either daylight or darkness it's the bit in the middle and especially on a racetrack which currently is bone dry all over those little weepers coming across particularly there you can see it's still running almost unchecked but when you get a racetrack which is damp but not fully wet and it's in that period of dusk it's horrible because you can't read the tarmac you can't read the different shades of the tarmac and you need to be very very you're literally honored and careful so we're not yet at that phase but the principle is that the racetrack is essentially a dry racetrack and as far as i can see from my weather information will remain so for the duration of the next four hours and four minutes absolutely well uh yeah as you say four hours and four minutes left we're watching uh matthias at the moment on board the audi sports run car by team wrt in second place overall at the moment home lender alongside alessandro pierre gidi leading the way if it ends like this they will take the title as well but still a long way to go here marcus vince we've seen this battle already today it's seemingly never ending it comes it ebbs and flows the two audis and then of course marcelo chasing them down and fourth at the moment as vikkle hawk sets a personal best goes a temp faster along with droody who goes and sets the new person the best of a 143-0 so you're right john the pace of these audis is just getting better and better when it's coming but there's still about three four tenths of a second on a consistent basis and a night-night pace off out of the ferrari and off the mercedes interesting now the last lap for marcelo having done you know a 42.7 is the fastest lap for that particular car so far he's down and i won well he's just returned now 142.9 he dropped back after a 43 3. we're talking about nickel and dime in terms of tenths of seconds here and there and many of those lap times are affected by going past a car this case the sixth base kenny herbal uh sun racing one and uh so it's it's very small most important thing is to try and have over the duration of your stint which is round about the hour maybe an hour three or four minutes if you're doing a single stint is to have a continuity of consistency absolutely well small margins can lead to very big gains around this 4.5 kilometer 2.8 mile track 16 turns of course and in its time it's seen seven different layouts i think in total but of the current layout as we watch the sunset uh car race through have you got a particular favorite corner well i never raced on the current circuit layer i'd only erased on the sense the circuit that was in place from the early 70s i came here first in 1973 and raced in a series called spring box which was a a multi-national south african uh series about five different races and five different nations and unfortunately it concurred with the the 1973 fuel crisis so that that particular championship was curtailed only got to do two races both of which one was here in kailami and the other was in cape town which is a magnificent city and a wonderful racetrack well it's uh it's a beautiful place to come as well as we continue watching the the number 75 which has received uh a warning for uh must respect the track limits once again turn 16 coming a cropper for a lot of our drivers uh in this field today so you don't want any more than that either but now i think it's time to go down to amanda music in the pits who's well nick grenier was just in that number 75 car prior to kenny habul and mick you were ripping it around this track tying the fastest lap prior to your lap in how is the mercedes getting so much pace here it's a very good very good car uh our car is good in fast corners and there's a lot of fast corners here so yeah team is doing a good job car is good so we just have to hope we can finish the race you guys are leading in the program class and it's pretty certain that you guys are gonna win the championship here today sharing this alongside with kenny and martin how cool is that for your team yeah we have a very nice team together a lot of fun now we just have to do 75 percent of the race so kenny can win the bronze cup so that's the goal no risk at the moment there's not so many cars so it's not so dangerous with traffic and yeah just have to have fun and enjoy the last race we're over halfway into this race now how is it going to play out for you guys as we get into these last couple hours uh kenny is doing his lasting now then i will share with martin the rest of the race so i guess i'll finish the race as well at night because the the bronze guys it's quite tricky here at night so i should finish the race thank you thanks amanda down in the pits for us as we get back to the track action but uh you can see it in all the drivers that are getting out of their cars as well for their changes or indeed if they're stopping it's hard work out there they're putting a lot of effort you know we're looking at track temperatures at 27.9 degrees air temperature 20.6 degrees so you know they're really feeling it of course when you're inside these cars you're even hotter yeah but it is quite a high work rate racetrack you know there's no big long straight to draw your breath you've got the pit straight which is the longest straight part of the racetrack but there after you're into big breaks at the end of the straight then a lot of busy corners through yuksuke and into barbecue then another brief straight into sunset then sunset clubhouse s's the aircon down the hill so it's a busy circuit for a driver and a lot of energy being expanded expended unlike say for example again using 24 hours of spa where you've got long sections of racetrack but you can in a sense relax and draw breath and then prepare yourself as we see the yeah matteo drew coming in so through the in from second place 32 audi into the pit lane and that will elevate marcus winklehuck momentarily and obviously that will then have a benefit to welfare marcelo in fourth place and he comes then in the audi r8 lms gt3 it's gonna be a full service fuel going in tires off and a driver change as well for the number 32 so i think with that coming into the pits that will put uh marcelo up a place when he does eventually come back round there he is so we'll see how it all pans out eventually really ragging that mercedes benz around this track we're in the midrand region of south africa just north of johannesburg around the final corner ingway a slow left-hander door shut driver change complete now just time to refuel marcelo through on judy still in the pits yes and marcelo has gone through and audi's still standing stationary waiting for the animation to there we go off he runs spins up the rear wheels and uh some spinning at the rear wheels or some championships i should say other championships it is a jury girl never even think about doing it that's a penalty and a bit of a wobble as it hits the weeper coming through the pit lane action well what their thing got to get i bet they used that by now because that bit of water has not changed or dissipated at all since the start of the race but it's interesting i picked that up watching all the audi uh pit stops when when you know when when the lollipop is raised there's always a little bit of a pause before they go so are they waiting for like a beep in there as we see the air of course the ferrari as well come in for the pits that's going to be a driver change fuel and potentially tires as well is that just going to be a driver change it's going to be fueled tires and the driver changes it's a full service of the leader the lead car the 51 ferrari into the pits look at the brake dust and i thought of alluded to the possibility of maybe a pad change for some of these cars bearing in mind how much brake dust the wheels are carrying when they we see the pit stop so nobody has appeared to need to do so uh but there's the previous two runnings we've always had before the completion of nine hours applied another and a half to two hours of wet weather running this looks like it could be dry until the end and that will put a different dynamic into the pad where in particular maybe not quite so much with the disc itself but certainly teams will be looking at it keeping it being kept aware of it what's going to happen with the ferrari who's that coming through and it is marcelo side by side all the way down into turn one turn two and marcelo has regained the lead to second place and that will be a disappointment that will be a disappointment for miguel melina who has taken over that car from comoletica so nothing to do with him it was just the the way the pit stops played out he couldn't do any more he couldn't drive any more quickly down the pit lane he's restricted 50 kilometers per hour then when he got past the demarcation line he was hard on it but so was raphaeli marcelo and he's going look at the gap he's pulled while molina is on a fresh set of rubber the tires on marcelo's cars are well and truly you're probably now into that little period when they're not as sharp so melina will happen to benefit at the end of the slap but of course the gap look at the gap it's what three bit seconds maybe more as they climb up the hill up towards leo marcelo and mercedes proving to be a powerful couple around here so we have another car into the pits just to keep you updated with where the driver changes has happened we saw judy coming to the pits he's out it's a viet now in the car there and as uh you said john molina has uh got into the car to replace leather girl got another driver change as well now marcus vinkelhoff is out of that car full service once again uh as well as the number 25 audi comes into the pits and it all looks like a fairly smooth running there driver change being helps of course always helpful if the driver helps the drive getting out helps you out rather than running away from the garage i mean i mean the professional drivers do that so there are some of the national drivers they get out of the car and they run into the garage they're probably you know quite tired because it's it is a physically physical circuit it's a tough race so waiting to see who's taking over once they've transformed him it might i have a suspicion it might be kelvin van der linde who's gotten in that car it's been a while since he's been in i think we'll get confirmation that when he exits the pits um we'll just wait for that to pop through but he comes out there you can see the water linda yes it is so the home hero out back on track so he slots in just just ahead of the 20 of the 32 and that is a pass and the 32 will be mighty upset that'll be charles fierce and he's look he's going to be all over the back of kelvin vandalinder well i'll tell you what sunshine mandolin in south africa if you want to try and pass them don't take gauta's in the process and in fact he's thought the wiser over his best opportunity arose coming out of barbecue up in the sunset and now that van der linde is behind the wheel he's got his tires coming up to raise temperature and charles france will be absolutely spitting bullets in this balaclava thinking that how did i lose just a second that would have given me that comes over there's dad that's keeping an eye now he's thinking about making him move up into the aircraft just he needs to be very very cautious in that he doesn't get carried away and try and do something out of a pit feet of pig please feel whatever it is so down the hill and uh so you can almost say it's consolidation for vandalinda you can almost say it's not a done deal but it's pretty close to it great battle between these two audi teams and of course they had to negotiate the the slower audi gt4 car as well earlier on now having to negotiate one of the lamborghinis coming through the final corner both running out fairly wide track limits could play a factor in this battle too but vandalinder was in no doubt he was going through and bears had to also take a decision that once the lamborghini been overtaken he understood there was a second car directly behind so good work by the local driver to make sure there's mateo drudy getting some hydration i'm not surprised because although there's a drinks bottle in the car the amount of dehydration that you suffer because cockpit temperatures just built one of the issues you get in endurance racing and in particular what applies to both front and rear engine cars is you get a heat soak so gradually gradually the cockpit itself does get warmer and warmer as the race progresses just the heat soaks through all the parts of the the mechanical and the chassis elements so no wonder material drude is getting more liquids on board [Music] well the battle seems to have slightly dissipated ever so slightly the gap has opened up between vandalinder and uh viet to uh nearly a second now just over that uh so that will continue to battle out kelvin mandolin that in third overall ahead of verts who is in fourth both into the pit lane five times as well there but it is rafaeli marcelo who currently leads the joburg kyle army nine hour three hours and 51 minutes to go marcelo leads ahead of miguel molina third and just another little bit of interest who's got the fastest race lap of the race so far in fact two drivers have it was first established and on the last that it was matched to the one thousandth of a second by race leader well and you just on screen now comb leather guy has just set uh one of the fastest no but that's that's that's not a date better guard did that and i sort of and then the black following was matched to the thumbs of a second by race leader marcelo the gap 7.6 seconds so uh it's it's race on i mean these drivers less than second half of this race three hours 50 minutes remaining pushing as hard as they would have done on the opening laps absolutely we're getting ever closer with each lapper with each hour 0-2-1 that he's set in a porsche gt3r in 2020 so uh that's the lap record we are getting ever near after every near that they're never going to match a porsche there's no porsche here this weekend no well rafaela martial and that mercedes are hooked up nicely but the gap at the moment to find another six tenths of a second i mean okay i mean if you if you wanted to do if there was a maybe there is a point for faster staff but certainly you would then come in and do a specific pit stop lose fuel brand new sabotage and send a driver right but in context that we're currently in it would be i think surprising to see that matt campbell that time uh match but you know maybe i'm looking at the glass half empty rather than thinking about it being happy never say never anything is possible john yeah never that was not a james bond movie never say diet never say never for me maybe that was the difference and uh and no aston martin's in this one either but it is that a brilliant akka asp mercedes still out front leading miguel molina we were just watching there the former dtm racer as well used to german touring cars made the switch to uh ferrari and gt land and uh taking to it like a duck to water as well hunting it down been getting into a little bit of trouble earlier on though with some track limits but i think the safety car and the full course but in the meantime marcelo remorseless in this pace i mean he took a tenth of a second out of molina the gaps up to 7.7 seconds from 7.6 for marc jello that is good to know that i'm eking a little bit of an advantage jul google sitting there just giving his neck a little rub and he's got a bit of tape around his neck he's going to take his stress tape just to remember he's got a little bit neck issue that he wants to i mean again your neck is something that takes a lot of pounding around the racetrack so maybe he's had a little attention from the physio to try and uh release some of the discomfort he might be feeling three hours 48 minutes to go of this uh final round of the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge of course rescheduled from last year but it is the season uh finale happening in 2022 and out front it is rafaela marcelo currently in the mercedes leading the ferrari of miguel molina and kelvin van der linde in the audi for the joker kyle army nine hour and that gap has increased again to 8.1 seconds so whatever el molina is doing he has got no response to the pace of race leader rafael marcelo so i can't we're looking at a master class from the master in the mercedes well we've seen this i mean this has been the talk of the entire race so far hasn't it [Music] you know alternate um strategy and fuel loads and trying to run low fields but at the end of the day when all is said and done they just don't have the outright pace of this mercedes which is just flying here i wonder what would happen just out of curiosity if you put the the uh the clockwork orange rafaeli marcelo into a ferrari how much difference would his contribution make to the pace of a ferrari i mean we're only judging marcelo by what he's achieving in our mercedes amg gt3r guno actually was quicker than him in that free practice but as we stand right now between the ferrari and the mercedes swap the drivers around what would uh molina do in the mercedes what would rafaela do in the ferrari well i don't think we're going to see that though so all lifts and butts well the lights and the headlamps in all of the cars are fully glaring now darkness still an hour or so away fully dark as uh marcelo navigates the uh the number 75 mercedes that's the sun energy one racing cut up as uh marcelo runs around three hours 45 minutes to go here for the kyle army nine hour marcelo continuing to pound out the laps setting personal best as well currently at 142 602 the gap opening up to miguel molina in second who is about 8.2 seconds back as it currently stands and on it goes the metronomic performance and pace 8.251 seconds as the lead stretches it's a bit like an elastic band being slowly stretched it's getting further and further apart we look at the 32 id currently charles fitz behind the wheel in fourth place 3.3 seconds and he was very unhappy indeed that he got out of the pit after that change and didn't quite get ahead of kelvin van der linde so there is the 25 rocketing up the hill the south african up into leocorp and then makes his entry kelvin [Music] listen to the engine this is the roar of those ten cylinders those ten pistons pounding up and down like a bruce like a fiddler's elbow [Music] so just come back into the commentary booth and it's interesting to see how those fastest laps have been tied at the top john i mean i'm just listening i couldn't draw myself away from what was happening this seesaw battle between uh the crews in the front woman in 42.602 surely someone could go faster than that but as it is mercedes setting that pace and molina in the 51 ferrari doing the same by the way but was mentioned harry and i did discuss it a number of minutes ago and then we discussed the possibility of somebody trying to beat matt campbell's record of 146 0 and i suggest that that's probably in this event unlikely uh but you never know you never know what might happen if somebody wants to throw on a brand new set of towers near the end low fuel run that then it might well be possible yeah it's it's a side show alongside the main race but it's a matter of pride to the drivers but again from molina's point of view you know that's a that's an absolutely cracking lap because marcelo can more consistently be right down but their last laps are only separated by five thousandths of a second so those two cars running first and second but we've got eight in a bit seconds between them still incredibly equal at this stage in the race looking down the order it's those uh is the battle for the audis for third place at the moment they're separated by just uh three and a bit seconds vandalinder in the santa luck car in the number 25 in third and charlie it's in the team wrt and the paler great one in fourth place overall talk too much for a while about the silver cup challenges and that's nicola bear who's uh in that 26 antelope racing audi that's had its problems with track limits and certainly penalties haven't helped their cause they are two laps down on the race leader kenny harbaugh is behind them though in the sun energy one racing mercedes just saw him being past and mark patterson racing on home ground for the first time south africa has been based and domiciled in the states now has american nationality you know delighted to race for his first time and the last of the internet that is the last of the international runners and then comes the best of the local crews and that's arnold neveling in the 86th street ali motorsport uh lavigne had his problems early on spent time in the pit lane and the pit garage but now back at the front of the national glass brush i'm going to take my leave for 30 minutes or so as i leave you the gap being first and second is 9.1 seconds and i look forward to seeing whether it's increased or reduced over the space of the next 30 minutes john we deal in thousands of seconds but we will find out in half an hour enjoy taking a very very well earned break indeed so here's arnold neveling eighth overall national class leader here and it's a very well balanced driver lineup there with uh the driver who kicks it off charlotte angie's arnold neveling and michael van roy and they'll be really really enjoying this event as uh later afternoon lights still looking okay but the headlights are on on all of the cars so clearly darkness is beginning to be a factor not yet but the light is not as good as it was this afternoon but frankly after all the rain yesterday uh the fact that we've had dry running pretty much throughout this race a few little spots of rain but they didn't come too much at all and really the only dampness still on track is dampness there's actually residue of yesterday's rain still with that weeper across the track most notably at turn one the right hand kink on the start finish straight harry benjamin now move to the other side of the covery box john's departure kyle army your first taste of commentating on a racist it's a cracking circuit isn't it yes it's the two hours i think the slower the gt4 audi uh getting ever so close there to uh uh wrt ronaldi coming through but um oh it's been it's been fascinating actually because of course yesterday the washout that was qualifying as you just mentioned coming in today who knows what we're going to expect you know seen in past races and south african weather can absolutely throw a spanner in the works as well well they this is the audi that's running in third place overall kelvin van der linde forced to find the outside line at crocodiles which is a corner of about 130 degrees to the right but going around the outside of the gt4 audi who's mine it's minding his own business at the wheel but you know suddenly the options started to become rather rather shorter uh for uh kelvin van der linde luckily no contact there but it was it's one of these things that they know that cars there because they pass it about every seven laps such as the pace differential but uh again certain points on the circuit it wouldn't be a problem other points it most certainly could be i think his heart was certainly in his mouth for that little skirmish there as he runs ever so slightly wide but keeping one wheel on the right side of the white line um coming back to kyle army it's it's thrown up at a bit of everything actually because obviously it's a little bit of a smaller grid than we would have normally seen of course we're running this race last year when it was scheduled to so who knows what kind of action we would have seen but straightaway of course of pulling pulling the the strings and trying that different strategy and then you know the heartbreak of nicholas nielsen uh with that gearbox issue you couldn't write endurance racing whatever you say you know you we talk about rafael and marcelo absolutely uh nailing it in that mercedes amg gt3 which does look like the class of the field right now but there's still three hours and 39 minutes to go we're going to keep saying it because that is the nature of how this racing works it is and if we had a packed grid of cars as we did in 2019 before in those wonderful pre-pandemic days of course it'd be much harder for af course to pull the tactic like they did now could be more cars to overtake to get back into the battle but actually having a lot of track to aim at here with fewer cars it makes a their tactics clearer be more possible to take different options you don't want to necessarily if you've got one car that's set in the pace like the sakura asp mercedes to go too far from the script but you've got to do something to better it with the driver lineup being so strong with joe gunion and timo bogaski sharing with rafaela marchilla they're ugly cheeks very strong uh driver lineup across across the front running teams here actually has to be said and as we say that you know rafaela marcello setting a new overall best lap timer 142 592 john was telling me we're not going to get anywhere near the uh the lap record but marcelo's on a mission right now and he's got clear track in front of him he's he's clearly found the sweet spot with this car he's in such a good rhythm and uh and actually you know his teammate team member the only driver on this uh in this team that came with this iphone did a superb job as well in that car he's not the faster the two drivers because marcelo is is the full-on you know up to speed driver and that's been the case as you said for the last few years they've been paired with each other but he did an absolutely superb job which has made it even easier for marcelo to carry on extending that advantage did you see when bogotsky had just started his second stint not long into it and uh the ferrari came out the remaining ferrari and he couldn't he got him he got in front of the ferrari got in front but he immediately went past he had to do that he had a couple of slower laps had he had the ferrari come out a lap early ahead of him then he wouldn't it wouldn't struggle for several laps to get past it could have been many laps to get past because the the girl wasn't exactly going to open the door so fortuitous he just managed to retake the lead of the race at that point but after that he drove really well and i expected later guard to catch him he didn't so it was a job very well done indeed but on these small things you know races can really pivot because if you're held back by half a second of laps suddenly when it comes to your turn to have a pit stop you're running a different sequence then you know you could lose the track position that's so so vital if you're hoping to achieve what you're trying to do but as it is the rafaeli marcelo driven 89 akka asp mercedes ten and a half seconds for the good over the remaining ferrari with nicholas nielsen out of the race it's molina now taking their challenge he can't win the title but his teammates can mark patterson on home ground the american flag next to his name he's an american national but he was certainly born in south africa he'll be loving his time in the high class racing the yellow sorry orange and black audi but it's been pushed very hard indeed by a driver who's a lap ahead of it ahead of it actually the high-class racing and he's had a lot of time in the pit lane in fact it's smoking slightly there but i think that's because it's driven onto the dirty line because he's opening the door to let nikola bear who's close to behind him before flashing his lights the door's only so open he's uh yes he's left enough space for bear but you're gonna have to take the outside line there well that was neat and tidy the amount of cars we've seen going into someone whether that be laughing or slower car what's coming out of the pit lane that turned one really there's so many there's two different lines really you can take that you've got the tight line or the wider sweeping line isn't it and it could go very horribly wrong if you don't get it right and as you were saying earlier with teammates it's risk versus reward at the end of the day especially when it gets to crunch time in these kind of races because there may not be big chinks in the armor of all these uh teams but it's not the little ones that then add up at the end of the race whether that's in strategy whether that's through making that move into turn one and what multiplies the problems is when you pick up driver penalties drive through you know you can forget losing a corner here or there you know not the corner of the car corner on the circuit but uh certainly those are the ones that would set you back but with 183 laps on the board lap after lap rafaeli marcelo very comfortable below one minute 43 is the best so far one minute 42.592 seconds disadvantage as you can see the graphic 10.6 seconds it doesn't seem to be an answer from miguel molina but he's doing a very good job of keeping the audis behind him which in many ways is where the focus needs to be as long as he's ahead of them the title will go to the two ferrari drivers not the one at the wheel of the car at the moment he's the one who's being moved across this weekend but his teammates alessandro pierre gidi and come nedergaar who are sharing with the spaniard will take the title but uh time to go with that three and a half hours remaining just looking at uh the local south african lamborghini and we heard a great interview and it's now chopped shapooka on board there he's a far cry from when he was racing vw polos in the south african series and uh just anybody anybody with a racing blood in their veins a chance to get their hands on the gt3 car something they'll grab and i can only see the national the south african gt championship growing in strength over the years more cars will be coming into the top class that that you can be sure so but here it is you know they're not accustomed to such long races and uh well we're five and a half hours nigh on into this and uh of course it's not just the amount of time it's the competition they're looking to see how the international teams deal handle their cars handle their pit stops so much to learn but it's also the fact it's a day race that goes into the night so it feels like two races that's why drivers so much around the world enjoy long distance races absolutely for these local south african teams you know when they go especially there's still so much to learn for these guys because they haven't we haven't got to the pitch black darkness yeah so that's going to be a whole learning curve for them as well and particularly uh with the into africa team you know it's brilliant to see them sort of fake you know the first of all black african driver crew to uh to contend uh this kyle army nine hours so brilliant sort of progressive thinking going on across the intercontinental gt challenges as well as the local south african uh championship as well and it's so easy it's very easy to sit where we are and call it you know and call it as it is but it's also very easy to make little mistakes that can then send you in thought we saw them going into the wall in practice wasn't it and straight uh you know straight through the braking zone so to keep keep it on track to deal with the pressure of faster cars more experienced drivers coming up behind you it's very impressive i think what they've been able to achieve so far it is and they'll look at the videos afterwards and realize that oh gosh i strained a bit into the path there but who's straying off the path certainly not raphaeli martial you fastest lap one minute 42.446 seconds just repeat what the target time you talk about matt campbell's record is uh so that is a 140 021. oh that's got to be got to be he's a he's four tenths of a second down from that well it was six tenths just a couple of laps ago so he's absolutely reeling him in well his fuel loads coming down oh dear he's gone much lower rafaeli marchello the wrong side of one minute 43 or one minute 43.043 traffic of course that was getting past the high close class racing audi so this little story to be watching but all along he's stretching that advantage last time i mentioned his lead over the 51 ferrari the remaining ferrari for me of course it was 10.8 it's now 11.4 seconds and uh i keep mentioning this but at that moment when you're in the chasing car and you're catching and aha now i can see the car i'm chasing but unfortunately for molina now it's the car i can't see that i'm chasing because uh out of sight it except see even the start finished rate is over a ridge so you can't really see that many seconds up the track but he'll know that if he did have sight of uh rafael marcello he's lost it now it's got to be the worst feeling hasn't it because if you can see them and you can actually visibly see that you're catching a little bit more of them each time it gives you that more drive that more momentum doesn't it if you're falling back no matter what kind of mindset or how many races these drivers have that's gonna be a bit i'm only doing as much as i can it's just not you know i'm just not getting closer and closer but at the end of the day you can only do what you can do and miguel molina doing a sterling job slotting into that team as well um with the split ferrari entries of course because this could be added pressure on him as well because he was the one who picked up the penalty earlier on and they're the championship uh well they're trying for the championship title uh to win in that crew so imagine if that would have completely upset the race had it not been for the safety car that bailed them out yeah no it really really did that was during my first break and it took me a moment to realize how what had been taken away was handed straight back to them in terms of uh you know not losing too much time but imagine being the third driver in a car but the driver who cannot win the title all you can do through your mistakes is take the title away from your two teammates and retire judy's in that situation in terms of uh helping christopher harsa was supposed to be uh not materialized really in that cast but it's patrice santorus charvitz supporting the challenge of christopher harsa who was separated from his regular teammates patrick nederhauser and uh marcus winkelhock but uh anyhow neither of them have done what drew molina did but molina got away as near as from that bit of debris a bit of something tape or something lying in the track on the exit of bbq no chance to clear that but the drivers have seen that it's been there for a number of laps but it's when you get debris dropped on the track we're under foot in full dark conditions and with uh we've got uh ten cars coming through it's uh gosh three and a half hours remaining let's look back at the start of the race brilliant start from martiello blasting his way through and the ferrari's giving chase picking their way past one of the local lamborghinis but the best place for those was the stragali motorsport 86 lamborghini but alas that had a smoky problem went into the pit garage it has been fixed but it lost a lot of ground and then for the audi battle it was the retired judy car being told to pull over to let marcus swinkle hawk through so he could chase after the ferraris but in the first hour of the race we had cars racing in the national gt series and it was the yellow and black lamborghini of sylvia scribante that just held off the audi of mikhail pitamba and he was very pleased indeed when he got in he withdrew from the race as planned after an hour but just after the hour mark was the time for the first pit stop the akra asp mercedes up on its uh stands but the ferraris did something really extraordinary they just simply drove into the pits and out the other end that meant they could start effectively their second stint without exceeding a maximum stint time resetting their clock fox if you will and that point racy because lettering clashed with color guard there is comb in the pits looking well combing his hair but looking very upset indeed with that because a little bit of side on contact and you get a puncture and that can really scuff your race when it's as competitive as the intercontinental gt challenge but the ferraris had their own battles after their first regular pit stops and that was the moment that uh they changed position and uh didn't touch which is very good news indeed still a slick of water running across the track a stream ahead into the first turn height last racing audi being a move to one side to let the 32 team wrt championship challenging audi go through but almost running out of track at turn number two then two cars that picked up drive through penalties for their misdemeanors one was the 26th santelok audi and the mercedes just up ahead sun energy one racing they too would set their challenge back with a drive-through penalty most of the problems stemming from exceeding track limits but a car that really didn't do that at all was the akka asp mercedes number 89 cornering as if on rails here's team of bogusleiski the second stint for that car is over and jugunion taking over you can see the ferrari's really really pressing on here's antonio fuaco leading the race because he's now out of kilter without ekka asp ferrari absolutely hurling his ferrari around the circuit brilliant views around the kyle army circuit uphill downtail over the curbs a little bit at turn 15 into the final caller here is miguel molina in the 51 car and then the only gt4 car in the race trickling to near standstill this brought out a full course yellow because he parked the car unfortunately right across pitt's entrance at that moment others went for the pits and the akka asp card decided i'll go through the pits for i did that earlier no fuel no tires no driver change that would follow later and that would shuffle them down to fourth place but this is a race this is the restart and the akka asb car in front and look at the battle behind the tire trudy on the right hand side of the screen but around the outside at no less fearsome's corner than sunset there was clash there but pigini kept his foot in and knows that ferrari in front watching from behind nicholas nielsen thinking well you know what i fancy getting past the audi as well close right up onto its tail mattai trudy now the meat the audi meet in a ferrari sandwich better exit out of the final corner from the ferrari gets its nose onto the outside nielsen having a look on the outside a haha tricked you up the inside he goes so matar truly tucks in behind but he's got a better exit out of turn two up through up the hill they go to bbq bend and this is the point at which uh a better exit from there you can see more traction for the audi along past the club level pits at the top and then what comes next sunset corner this time he's the one on the outside but nielsen holds the inside line holds the inside and then spots he can just move across cut off the attack but it was a great racing between the pair sunset such a brilliant corner it's a clubhouse they go and off beyond chasing off the other ferrari but that really was a very well worked by the pair of them great mutual trust but it was the accurate asp mercedes chu guinea on just having so much fun in the lead of the race brilliant handling for that car not the greatest in the straight line here at carlinwe but talk about lack of straight line speed unfortunately for nicholas nielsen that number 71 ferrari is suddenly going nowhere fast and after a few more moments after that going nowhere at all over and out from the race don't know the problem we think it was possibly a gearbox issue but suddenly instead of having two bullets in his gun ferrari just half the 51 challenger left nick nielsen out of the race and the sister car back onto the track and fighting so hard but the 51 ferrari comb ledegar at the wheel got out just in front of team of bogosleiski but he immediately pounced got through into turn two that was a vital vital move in terms of keeping the mercedes in front and then pushing on really trying to get around all the the back markers in the field including that fabulous entry the stradali into africa lamborghini the eight gt4 audi flashing lights as they came up behind trying to make sure the message was clear i am here running a little bit wide there for team of bogaski that's turn 16 a corner where many a penalty has been applied first and second still trying to just make their escape but bogusleiski resisted everything lenigar threw at him and really the closest battle was what was happening behind between the two audis and it was a real swing between the pair of them the wrt car giving chase but at this moment it was the 25 car that moved ahead as we went past the half hour halfway point in this race but it's all about the akka asp mercedes seeming to have the performance whenever it needs it to stay at the front of the race the trio in that car know they have to win it the race outright for one of their drivers timo bogashlowski to land the title but really at this point his advantage swinging towards ferrari it's their championship to lose but uh so far so good the headlights are on the outies are still fighting but we're back live and it's the akka asp mercedes here we are i said the headlights were on and now they're really making a much more of an impact because the lighter round is starting to dwindle starting to reduce but it's sitting on a 15 second advantage over miguel molina now looking at him running towards sunset nobody in the back of the shot as yet because that is what a 15 second advantage looks like rafaeli marcelo stretching his leg stretching his legs through sunset through clubhouse and off towards the esses looking totally in control and his last lap it was a good one it was a new fastest lap of the race one minute 42.38 seconds he's got another third of a second to find for the lap record but what he's doing that record is marginally irrelevant to anyone apart from rafaeli it's building an advantage so harry benjamin this is looking a super smooth performance from martiello absolutely i mean regardless of his hunt for the fastest lap record in that last up alone uh compared to miguel molina half a second faster as well just on that last lap he is not letting up as we have race control have informed us as well uh that the knight signaling is officially registered to the lights all have to be on now they weren't already on which i think most of them had them on quite early anyway uh but officially uh heading towards night time as well not too long until sunset the as you say the light is dwindling and when you can't even see the car for a little while because of the glaring lights you know we're starting to get into the uh the darker part of this race [Music] and a new personal best as i say that as well overall there's 142 309 now for marcelo yeah we don't want to miss the fact that molina is driving his socks off trying to keep up supreme performance but look the advantage uh for the race leader is now 16.4 seconds marcelo ahead of molina balloon is doing all he can marciello is just so so smooth at the front of the race and in all fairness to molina he was only a tenth off in that final lamp and that last lap compared to marcelo so he's he's keeping honest it's just on that consistent basis molina and the air of course just can't quite keep up consistently they've got pace there's no doubt about that as we still got some fans watching on enjoying the action too but uh marcelo an absolute master class so far but also let's take a look at what's going on to third kelvin vandalinder in the audi too he's uh quite a way back as well but he's he's actually going faster than molino in front of him so still about 30 seconds of drift or so of uh second place molina but kelvin that keeping audi out there in the top three you know one of the lovely things you know you get totally involved when you're involved with the team you're involved in commentary involved in tv but the fans they can just move around the circuit get a different vantage point go to another catering stand and good to see people as day goes into evening wandering around with a beer and just sort of quite a laid back atmosphere but uh definitely for the south african scene having the arrival of the intercontinental gt challenge has given them some great exotica to look at to aim at hopefully they will get to race them don't forget david perrell a decade ago was sitting in south africa enjoying watching the racing and since then he's become just a phenomenal driver up in europe he watched from home he learned he's now building many a an exquisite uh sim racing rig as well but it is possible and that's the message we heard from holly le leslaker as well put your toe in the pond and you don't know what you're gonna find but you're playing aren't you absolutely well it is brilliant also just to see how to enjoy this track as well because of course you know back it has changed a lot over the course of its years but to see uh seven different layouts culminating in the current one we're experiencing right now for the gt3 cars to showcase just how challenging and how how great this track is to drive you know undulating different racing lines you've got to deal with altitude as well and quick fast left right it's kind of got a bit of everything really so you can see why um the drivers enjoy going around this track too and uh home hero vandalinda at the wheel currently in third place making his way but i remember coming down here in i guess it must be 2008 end of uh for probably the first top single-seater series race when uh south africa had for a very long time with a one gp and none of the drivers not a single one but the guys racing 31 gp team south africa had raced here before and they were just wide-eyed after their first session because of the vertical climb and if you you know what it's like on television it flattens everything but you go on a track walk and that walk out of the esses all the way up to like it really makes your your calves burn big time side by side now these are moments where things can just go a little bit wrong nothing wrong uh the driver in the high-class racing car mark patterson but you see he just moves slightly offline and suddenly kicking up dust that's the moment where you're trying to help you're on the dust you're not getting your braking done and then you just pat it into works out mark if you did that any driver would be fortified but someone is polite and charming as mark would be horrified if that happened but these things can happen fortunately without you know 40 cars on the track less likely to happen but you know maybe also just in the falling lights you just break up your marker point has just changed a little bit that's all it takes especially these little things it's just it's it's guess work it's making the wrong call when you're approaching a slower car [Music] and it's just those little things especially as we get towards darkness we get drivers who are perhaps approaching the end of their stints or starting another stint already can just get a little tiredness can start to creep in and that's that's when those little mistakes can lead to those huge consequences as well and that puddle we really really thought that would have dried out by now because it hasn't rained properly since uh since uh evening yesterday but the sheer amount of rain that fell and again john was mentioning earlier that when nicholas nielsen pulled off on that verge just there that the car might sink because everything will be super soaked from yesterday of course it's very warm and that will dry things out but uh what's the amount of rain that will dry out overnight now i've got a question for you oh go on what this do you know what kyle army means in the local zulu language my home in zulu correct well done you got that in one didn't even look at any of your notes did you also oh well as we get a pit stop i remember it from my my time in what zulu in the childhood is of course not this is quite a time i know we're in a different province here but uh so the sun energy one car is in the pit lane that's kenny harbaugh see the driver change going on driving being strapped in by process of elimination i think that should make it martin conrad i think they're sticking to their cycle of drive as the car was kicked off into the race by miko granny i saw him looking hot and sweaty a short while ago after his driver change so there's the australian american domiciled australian out of the car and i like the little wave that i had off you go now and uh the austrian is leaving the pit lane and uh certainly kenny harbaugh sun energy gives a bit of a clue massive solar energy industry based in based in the states and uh someone whose house is powered by solar power and solar power alone i you know maybe britain's not the best environment for that in terms of the amount of sunshine but it is the way to go and certainly if you're in south africa and many other countries beside with a regular amount of sunshine it's uh you can see why the business is so massive and it's only going to grow wow that's impressive so again you could just see the difficulty a driver coming out of the pits he's just dialing himself in then he's got a car closing on him of course in the next lap martin conrad will be up to speed but just that moment you're processing the fact that circuit light is different to before now you've got someone closing oh how close is he that's always that element about gauging a car coming up behind you with headlights how close are they of course really easy to underestimate as well cold tires coming out of the pit lane and we're not actually hearing too much about tire degradation are we either it doesn't seem to be affecting too much but coal ties can certainly mean that look that could have gone a completely different way if kenny harbor just uh i'm sorry he's out of the car doesn't he but if that number 75 has gone up you know the wrong way again and we see that bit of debris lying in the middle of the track too so uh that's going to have an effect on where the drivers place their car coming out of the exit well kelvin van der linden was obviously not prepared to show any caution whatsoever you know he's got that battle against the sister ali but all along he cannot let any more tense of a second go the way of the ferrari the steven race right rafaeli marcelo into the pits he's done that run of fastest laps in fact we didn't mention the latest one when it 42.285 two on it 42.3 is now one minute 42.2 what's he coming for looks like it fresh rubber a refill as well the car is off the jacks and let's just wait for the signal for the clear to head out of his pit box that's dropped down at the moment but off he goes again marcelo pit stop complete and actually he's lost him come out in fourth overall behind the two audi reverts and van der linde but ahead of uh uh bear in the number 26 silver cup car the only one of the audi r8 lms gt2 cars registered for that class [Music] and molina currently leading yeah that gap well obviously we'll resurrect it as soon as we can once uh the mercedes fully back into the race [Music] so light is falling my point of interest here harry is as the temperatures fall just a little bit the light falls will the audi's coming to a sweet spot they've still got plenty of time in this race let's say they'll have two and a half hours in full darkness and uh you know the next half hour going through the dusk but they haven't had they're not the match of the ferraris in this race and they knew they didn't have to match the mercedes that could have its own fight it really was a question a simple mathematical one finish ahead of the ferraris and whichever of your drivers is in that car will take the title but at the moment they've spent the entire race in regular racing trim behind the ferraris it's uncomfortable for them it's like hunters not where they want to be but three hours and 30 minutes still on the clock but they're gonna want to try and find something to get in front of them i would say not all hope is lost just yet because the lap times that they're doing vandalinder and verts are looking you know at least on par with the ferraris behind so it's gonna take perhaps something on the strategy side perhaps this colder weather you know we're looking at the track temperature right now 26.4 degrees it's dropping hour on our air temperature 20.9 degrees as well it is a dry trap still those wet rivets that we're seeing every now and then so it could well play into audi's handed not all hope is lost in the certainly giving up until the very end of the checkered flag flies but right now i'd say it was probably advantage ferrari you definitely would have to have to say that's the case and uh molina putting in a very good state of course he is the one who potentially could have dropped the ball with that uh drive-through penalty earned early on but that was really ameliorated the lucky lucky timing of a full course yellow period and then that was the moment not a huge amount later in the race when of course mercedes and akka asp decided to do something different or maybe in some some extent not stray away from the script but they didn't serve time didn't serve a regular pit stop they simply drove straight through but they are down in fourth place at the moment they've just served their pit stop rafaeli marcelo has reported into the pits and reported out of the pit so he's going back out and as the light just drops a little bit with every single lap around cardinal three hours and a dozen minutes remaining in this race i want to see just how low rafaeli can get how close to that record he can get he's got to get down to the one minute 42-0 the best so far one minute 42.285 seconds and if he and julion do their job from here and go on to win this race and they'll give the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge title to their teammate they can't score as many points as him because he's got more points than them to start with so they will pick up the 25 points for the win if they're first to the flag will at least give an outside hope to team a bogus slicey about taking the title but they're just passenger to all else welcome back joel watson a suitable bowl of chili uh no i didn't go down the chilly route just a coffee and a kitkat very good looking after sufficient sufficient to get me through for the next two and a half hours i would suggest anyway just interesting listening to you and harry and uh picked up on the the observation that track temperature is gradually ambient obviously is going to drop as the sun falls but track temperature likewise and it's in the middle 20s right now still you know a comfortably warm racetrack but should it drop below 20 then it will change some of the aspects of our car response the length of time it takes to get tires up to temperature of course the other thing it does it helps the drivers because aside from anything else remember we're at over 5000 feet above sea level so air is scarce so your heart rate is having to pump like that to give you the energy at that altitude and because therefore your bodywork rate is going up and up and up so um lots of little asides that you know contribute to i'm almost but to me it's been one of the most enjoyable events through my life and career to come and compete at kylami and i've been done for a long time now i suppose in a different era also remember it was a different time in south africa and things changed dramatically in the 90s so here we are watching the nine hours of kailami that's watching kelvin van der linde south african racer of course started his career down here but very quickly he went up to europe and has done fabulous things since going up there and becoming a works audi driver he's one of the handful of the top drivers here who wasn't competing the daytona 24 hours last weekend so he feels he said a little bit rusty before this but just simply couldn't wait to get back into a car to do what he does well tell everybody shook the rust off pretty quickly just spied by the way i met when i was out having my little coffee break that rafaeli marcelo has further reduced the fastest race lap now i don't 42.42.2 so that's quite a big chunk of time off what had been the previous shared faster snap with miguel molina and the the one minute 42-0 that's the that time set by matt campbell in the 2020 the last running of this event uh maybe it is going to be accessible i mean the way you could do it is obviously in night time the air is more dense gives you more engine power but principally it gives you a little bit more aerodynamics as well uh so if you came in and you decided that well for the honor of having a new lab record you could put on a brand new set of tires low fuel go by and do what we see happening in formula one where there is a point for faster staff yeah just the the pride that would go with it here at kyle army but interestingly from my point of view was the fact that as molina was doing his best to keep up it was incremental the improvement from rafaeli marcelo i think you went out when he was on a format at 42.6 when he came back he had four laps faster than that just chipping away chip chip chip 42.5 two minutes with two lots of uh one minute 42.3 is that one minute 42.2 harder and harder to pick out the cars when they're coming towards you because the light is falling away the light's super bright whenever you see a tv image is actually darker than that in real life they magnify what little light is left so darkness is beginning to fall lap time still very quick indeed with the race lead miguel molina in the ferrari how far clear is he nearly half a minute clear of kelvin vanderlinder and the better of those two audis who's got eight and a half seconds advantage over charvitz and the last two laps the two audi drivers very much matching their pace but just falling little by little away from the race leading ferrari well there is the present fourth place which inevitably will become the leading car once the next three cars in line fulfill their pit stop obligations well there's an interesting one who spent the least time in the pits and on that graphic five minutes 44 it's the number 25 santa lock racing challenger that's the car running in second place that's kelvin brandon linda's car at the moment but ferrari of course did that extra run through the pits for a drive-through penalty which was uh the number 51 car so take that away and they'd have had the least time in the pit lane yeah interestingly that the asp mercedes 89 has spent six minutes and eight seconds and every single one of those seconds last or sacrifice whichever you look at in the pit lane is very difficult to claw back on the racetrack but the racetrack right now with the track temperature with the ambient temperature and with you know a relatively clear racetrack for something like rafaeli marcelo or molina or vandalinder or charles france or any of those drivers in the front running group of four cars is probably now pretty good although there's a lot more rubber down it's not at the point where the racetrack or a racetrack can become overly rubbered and consequently then you it becomes a rather slippery sticky circuit so opportunities here four consistently first times kevin brother linda has just set his fastest race lap at a 43 0 02 charles fetch has done his fastest race lap 51 thousandth of a second quicker than kelvin vandalinder so yeah he's closing in well equally matched can two different drivers from two from one from belgium one from south africa running in both identical cars but run by different operations and that's what i find remarkable that you take a complex mechanical sport as motorsport is and you apply the human factor and it sort of washes out with virtually identical times what do you think about that that's around that's not just in a straight line that's around four point five two two kilometers uphill downtail round corners and uh yeah as you say two different teams one car but uh phenomenal and all along while they're doing that rafale marcelo is going faster than they are so he's starting to catch up he's got to find 12 seconds to catch charlie's i'm sure it's been leading silver class it's nicola bear who his background is not in gt3 racing he's really come on in leaps and bounds and uh last year he was racing in tcr in europe the space frame touring cars and the season before here for that bit of spanish formula four so he's moved up the power bracket he's doing a very tiny job he's running in fifth place overall he's zapping about two seconds a lap off the pace right now but when you're not right at the sharp end of the race they just want to get the silver cup point but it's about banking experience to take it to the full 2022 season in fact he signed i think for the full season certainly it's all about experience and part of that experience is joining a team like center lock and using their expertise and knowledge and experience over many many years to re-educate yourself it's almost as if you're going to an open university of motorsport and you're driving a car which is a much more complex car than anything that he might have previously raised in his young career and all the the bits and pieces that go okay it's essentially a production based car but you'll never find a production version of a nadi in your local audi dealer anything like a gt3 lms uh r8 rd i've looked heritage in salisbury but uh nothing to be found it must be said the hill careful careful gt4 right on the outside giving as much space as he possibly could and and let nicolas get up the inside and this is momia of course he's in the gt4 audi miko patamba started in the gt3 out he did the first hour in that then joined marius jackson and moe in this gt4 car and it really has been a case about doing what you can keeping out of the way as the gt3 runners come through which does make it very tiring indeed and i'm sure in future running to this event if gt4 is permitted will have a larger class but i affect a full grid of gt3 cards at the end of this season i would certainly hope so but interestingly this is the car that stopped but hours ago now justified at the entry into the pit lane slowed at this point that's the point of putting and it didn't quite get into the pit lane and well how are they going to recover the car and eventually a group of i don't know whether there were firemen or marshals or whomever went down with the snatch group and attached pulled the thing pulled and pushed all the way into the pin but you don't get the cause for that cars uh particular reason of stopping at their pit lane entry but that's back in the races and where are they how many laps down are they well they're i can't believe it they're 59 laps down seems an awful lot well they get overtaken [Music] unfortunately is constantly broken because they have to move over to the side of the track to let the front runners come through in fact all the other runners come through i'm talking about the other runners the 86 lamborghini is the leading national class car michael van roy and he's got an advantage of about two laps over chop cipooka number 23 stradali into africa motorsports and lamborghini's popular down in this deck of the woods as well ever since i've been coming to south africa italian friends have always been popular although romeo's big time nancy is to a degree don't ask me what atlanta is because i'm sure nobody in the i love lance's i think they're a magnificent card and of course ferrari maserati and we saw earlier in the day there was a celebration a parade of some of the historic cars here and uh amongst them were a number of gt ferraris right john there's some concern at the front end of this sun energy one car and martin conrad only went out in that about let's say five or six laps ago trying to work out what the problem is but uh [Music] leader in the pro-am class martin conrad he's the driver in the large graphic uh kenny harvell and uh michael grenier i think i spied kenny harbaugh in the background trying to talk to his driver maybe so are they going to push the car back into the garage and work on it there's a dolly going under the back of the car so it's kenny harper leaning against the car he's helping out with his own crew by the looks of things be careful he doesn't put it on the dollies so the car is going to be pushed back into the garage and whatever it is they've got all four wheels and tires have been removed and i didn't lose maybe i'm wrong but i did suggest seeing the amount of brake dust that was coming out of cars when we're doing wheels and tire changes obviously there's something under the bonnet so delete any idea about needing to do a brake pad change so whatever it is let's get the torch in there is it again is it hydraulics is it a fluid issue okay i just want to point out it wasn't kenny that was pulling the car back so natalie and jumping over the hose he's standing in the background with amanda business taking a look but that sheer amount of steam coming from under the bonnet is uh not something they're looking forward at all but let's go down we saw amanda in the background and let's hear from her what's happening with that sun energy one mercedes with amanda well as you guys can see the chaotic scene here for the 75 mercedes i'm standing by with kenny what is going on with the car from your perspective oh man more dramas than an ass kicking contest here um they don't know out of power steering fluid it looks like they won't steer which is a problem but you don't have no power steering well as you take this in you're looking at this car what is your emotion happening right now oh nothing really i mean that's racing you gotta expect things that's the way it goes it's a long race they don't often go perfect you currently have a three-lap lead in the class you think we'll see this mercedes back on track here tonight oh i'm sure they'll get it going thank you [Music] thank you very much for madaboosa you could feel the shoulders going down for kenny harbaugh there but he's always been the realist so a three-lap advantage worth stressing over the high-class racing audi that got its own problems in early early on but it has got the crack akka asp crew all over that yeah so if it can be fixed it will be yeah obviously the the under the bonnet space of these cars is so compacted and congested to actually find what the problem is and then actually have access to the particular part it could be a leaking hose or it might be something more serious than that but having no power steering and to drive one of these cars with the amount of suspension geometry particularly the caster that they might be able to achieve uh is there's no easy task and uh i mean to run the remaining three hours of this race like power steering be a superhuman effort well it's you know the drivers have started to become you know kenny harbaugh isn't a full-time driver he's a businessman so he's going to start feel more and more physically tired through the course of this event let's hope they can get it just looking at the team i don't know what they're working at they've taken out the actual the mercedes grilled to get access behind now i wonder is that something more than uh simply what they say our steering whatever it is we can't get our cameraman and we need to get the camera to stick the lens in between the two engineers and see what the problem might be might it be a power steering radiator looks like an obvious place for radiation right specifically i don't think they have a power steering radiator there's power steering pumps but i don't think there's a i don't believe there's a radiator but i stand to be corrected on that uh look at these high up shots looking down over the paddock you can see how much darker it's become very quickly indeed we thought it was going to happen but we sort of knew it was going to happen from a previous experience but it's darker than it appears on the screen so for the drivers on the circuit it's almost darkness as they challenge to fit their way around the circuit who's leading the race it's miguel molina by 30 seconds from kelvin van der linden shelby it's another nine seconds in a rear but rafael marcello setting the pace he's in well actually that said last time around the pace was set by uh big world molina who equalled his fastest lap in the race so i sense his pit stops coming very soon indeed marcelo will have a long run now he's served the pit stop he's back out he should rotate his way back into the lead of the race while the leading 51 ferrari the 25 audi and the 32 audi will serve their pit stops sometime very soon indeed so i just got a glimpse of rafael marcelo getting past the audi into barbecue and out of the corner entire sunset doesn't take so long that relatively short straight just evaporates pace the mercedes is running at then the exit of clubhouse corner then the run brief run down again into the the s is one of the remaining corners from the original track layout and the climb all the way up the hill up to near cop but used to go up the hill and they would turn right and then you'd have one of the longest straights of any racetrack i ever raced on looked i mean probably was over a mile long but of course with the altitude effect on an engine the horsepower of the engines i was driving was reduced nevertheless the air was thin and the speeds were high as they are today that hasn't changed no indeed and speed has been constantly high for the asp mercedes so stand by let's go down to find out the thoughts of one of the drivers not in that car it's not well guys i was originally over at mercedes to talk to jule goon on when the action happened with 75 mercedes we'll keep you updated on that but jewel i want to go back to the pit that you guys made recently at the three hour 15 minute mark has that lined up your strategy for just two more stops here tonight well my my work is to to drive not to the strategy so i prefer to focus on driving and our engineer will do the strategy so to be honest i just know that we're gonna have to stop at one point i don't know when but i will try my best to when i'm in the car to to finish the work looks like it's gonna be really tight with the with the ferrari 51. so let's see let's see what's gonna happen well if it was your choice and as you talk about you being the driver what part of this last bit of this race are you going to participate in sorry what part of this last couple hours will you participate in so lelo is going to finish his team and then i will be finishing the race so let's let's hope we can repeat like barcelona we finish the season on the high and let's try to to do it again car feels good uh the brakes is a little warning point here we don't know really where we're gonna end up but at the moment looks fine so yeah looks everything okay just gonna be tight with the ferrari but ready to fight thank you joe and it looks like it'll be a double stint for joel goonan as we end out the race but one more note here raviola marcella has has set the fastest lap so far here today and with that he's gonna be presented a watch courtesy of topwatch if that happens it would have gone to the super bowl winner but because we were able to do that with the weather it'll go to the fastest lap contender here today [Music] well thank you very much amanda great job down there in the pit lane and it was almost what you didn't say but you forced him to say effectively that he would do a double stint after this one so this one more pit stop to hand over to juguno then a pit stop in the middle of jules double stint to the end of the race so two more pitch stops the 89 mercedes the car that's still constantly laughing right on the money running in fourth at the moment but big well molina will have to pick from the lead of the race in the 51 ferrari kelvin vanderlinder likewise and in fact 32 has just dived into the pit so that's one of the cards that needed to come in the sun energy one mercedes up on the jacks that power steering problem being repaired but marcelo is up into third place and uh charles vince is the first of the audi cruz john to blink and make a pit stop here he is right so we're looking at the 32 up on the actual stands and what is that all about why is that normally there should be well why oh that's an offer now just so just concerned that that angle is an odd angle it was very a very low camera angle you could not see the car on exactly looking as high anyway there we are it's rolling again so just double checking that with charvin's coming in is it charlie it's going going out [Music] so down the lights yellow and bright as they go down it is still charvin's on board just had to wait to get notification that he didn't have a driver change at the start of that pit stop high-class racing audi has that gone into the lead of the pro-am class yes it has with the sun energy one mercedes in the pit lane it is now the turn of the high-class racing audi and the danish racer michael markerson uh takes that pro-m class lead he's running in sixth place overall but uh the martin conrad car is still in the pit garage still being worked on they can affect this change all much greater capacity there's some of the fluid whether that's where they've detached the pipe or you can see there's a collection of hydraulic [Music] pipes in a very it looks a vulnerable vulnerable position [Music] so the ferrari is rolling down at the pit lane there should be a change from big well molina to alessandro piaget it is when you see moments like that john do you ever think i really wish i was a mechanic leaning under a car trying to fix it never no i didn't absolutely not no no no no there are certain people who are born to be engineers and race cars and there's some people that were born to drive race cars i fell into the latter category you took an extra joint halfway down your forearm for a little bit i had that at 19. you don't need that radius that was an extra joint so right kelvin van der linde leads this race now is this a problem for the santelot racing number 26 audi because that's not the way you should be finishing the pitstop is it is the driver's just waiting to be further strapped in can't see but they doesn't seem to run in the normal sequence of events for a pit stop there that should be nicholas bear brought that audi in but i think there's been a driver change he's been in for quite a while [Music] so kelvin van der linde into the pit lane is that is that kelvin van der linde i think it is yes i'm sure it is 32 25 25 into the pit lane yeah so there's a problem here clearly with the 26th centre lock id still lots of lights on the head of the driver but it might be a steering wheel issue we can see rather more of the gauges than normal okay so you've got to sort of ignore the santa lot racing car in the background except the fact it's back down on the deck and maybe about to rejoin it's the 25 card that came in from a very short-lived lead kelvin vandalinder bringing that in darkness john falling by the second a bit of a view in the background of a bit of setting sun but it's behind the clouds which brings the night when it goes it goes quickly here so you'll go from a certain amount of light and all of a sudden in the space of 15-20 minutes it'll be virtually dark and you can see in the pit lane just how dark it is looking that direction so i'm assuming that's looking eastward and the other viewers depending on the westward but there we go okay so a slower than planned pit stop from 76 and sunset racing audi but the 25 centilot racing one um seems to have a standard back into the race okay this is the car that was running in fifth place overall when nicola bear brought it in it was the silver cup a leader the only car in the silver cup but they've been looking for a good haul of points and that's being pushed back so that moment when you realize a problem isn't something a mechanic can quick fix quickly also get more people on the car the rear deck coming off the car now so access to the engine bay principally so they were looking around you thought it was the steering wheel so maybe it is an electronic issue and sometimes just a change of the steering wheel can rectify any of those problems but i think there must have something more serious than that as we look at the idea coming now down into clubhouse and 25 goes through with kelvin vandalinder behind the wheel [Music] so rafael marcelo trying to pull away the out he's trying to do what they can to settle in but it's kelvin vanderlinder who continues but at least that audi is going very well indeed but the one that isn't going well is the 26th santelop racing audi and we hope that amanda busing would head there to find out what was happening she's doing precisely that so let's go down to the 26 crew came down to pit lane for a normal pit stop but then the car would not start they actually pulled the car back into the garage and frantically trying to work on why this car would not start got it fired up they are ready to go racing now and i imagine you're going to hear an engine pretty soon guys thank you very much amanda very quick work and quick work for the santa racing crew waiting for that engine though to hear the ball is fine the door not a good sign being opened again obviously what they did inside the garage has they got it fired up they wouldn't have brought it out if they couldn't but by bringing the car right putting in the pit lane it looks like there's a bit of jiggery pokery going on uh again on the dash where there's the steering wheel where there's the the controls on that steering wheel which are many and many multifunctional and i just wonder have they actually rectified the problem or was it uh somewhat of a fool's errand and believing that they had because the car ain't gone anywhere right now so frustrating with the car that otherwise is 100 mechanically okay but just one little element within clearly that ignition system has you know we've talked john about drivers bouncing cars over the curbs and do try and stay off the larger they have here largely they haven't had to but those sort of elements but just still in this day and age shake things loose but for nicola bear and his teammates lucas lesure and simon gashey huge frustration they're still in fifth place but uh within another oh no they ought to get out in the next five minutes hopefully and that will still keep them in fifth place right if we finish as we are now these are the points as they stand still advantage to the ferrari duo of alessandro piagety and come later they are still five points clear of marcus sprinkle hawk and patrick nederhauser the third of the audi drivers in a different car is a further three points in the rear equal points with team of bogaski but at the moment rafaeli marcelo still heading towards 25 points to help his teammate timo bogastrowski to have a chance at the title but most in all likelihood it's going to go the way of the ferrari 51 crew 26 iron is still sitting on the pit lane and only two engineers allowed to work on it on the pit lane so a lot of work going around the steering wheel and the the connections that uh give that car the power to run so whatever they did how they got to run in the garage is a bit of a mystery and then when they pull it out in the pit lane it stops it sounds like it is what they would loosely call an intermittent issue sounds like what i used to call it still called a tbr well it works i didn't want to take those words out of here no you've got to set up all right i love your tv back into the garage well okay at least uh well they're still in that fifth place but uh niko marcus has taken a couple of laps out of the four lap advantage the santa claus 26 audi had now the camera crew starting to work all the harder to pick out the cars in the darkness and this one is the akka asp mercedes that's leading this race rafaeli marchello 22 seconds to good over alessandro pagini so it's mercedes ferrari and then it has been for so much this race two audi's giving chase but there are another 26 seconds in the rear that's kelvin van der linde and charlie it's behind him they're both doing double stints they both came in served their pit stops and have rejoined the race but they're a race pace at the moment not matching the ferrari and you know what in turn not matching the mercedes the mercedes lapping getting closer to its fastest lap again one minute 42.6 last time around for rafaela marchello with every lap a little bit faster i suppose in reality while i might be it might be able to call a vanity uh lap to try and beat already you're 142.285 there's no prize for doing so the big prizes of course create the largest gap between you and second place car which is currently the ferrari of alessandro pier greedy as we look into the garage or the center log 26 id back again with the engine cover off to dive into the pretty inaccessible engine basement had a look inside the engine bay of our mclaren 720 gt3 cheer me it is so complicated absolute hell for your roadside rescue crews when they turn up well this is the racing version no i know i'm joking but just just in terms of uh yeah i mean the racing version there's more goodies to be packed into that into that same area but uh also in a racing version of course you need to be able to get to things as quickly as possible for any any maintenance tasks required on the hooves the sky getting more and more dramatic they sort of flurry in that lovely shot from turn two back up across the pits the paddock and uh to the top of the hill beyond with joe berg in the distance is looking a picture looks to me as if the wind has has dropped and that's always a good indication if the wind has dropped then i think we're going to be set fair but we've got it back up for a second time yeah will it be third time lucky he couldn't fire it up into the pits garage good fired up back into the big garage now it's back on pit apron that's the 26 audi and the 33 high class racing audi will that move ahead no i think it's still going to be a lap behind it sweeping through yes the center lock car is going for high-class racing it's given a little bit of something to think about to where there was a four lap margin between now it's down to one lap and the glare of the headlights from the santa dot racing audi coming out did they make a driver change yes simon gashe was the driver who'd been strapped in he was the driver with the most experienced in the car yet he was the one that had the problems with him so it wasn't the case of a novice been racing these for a very long time so similar guys the innocent party nothing to do with him i mean maybe as you pointed out maybe if you pump a few kerbs you can maybe just dislodge certain components but i don't think it was that either right you always need as many eyes and ears around and amanda business from the pit lane just reported update on the 75 car a rock hit the little radiator to the steering so there is a little steering radiator for the power steering and it drained all the fluid yeah so it's still working on it now that's what they loosely call a hydraulic issue yes so what they've got to do is replace that particular cooling uh component and look again i'm talking about the complexity the compactness of how things are placed into these racing cars so to get access to it you've got to strip half the front of the car away and so the power steering and the fluid and the cooler uh are all going to have to be i suspect certainly the cooler will be replaced whether they decide to replace any of the hoses as well and then they're going to do a complete bleed of the entire system to get all that air that will have accumulated in the system get that out of the system and then hopefully it'll be back to square one so high-class racing michael markson goes through on another lap so he's coming through just looking at the timing cross side he's the best part of two laps action arrears he's one and a bit laps down on uh simon gashey who got going so just remember it wasn't uh it wasn't fixed it was replaced but the amount of liquid that came out of the tray the tray it was an amber reddish liquid which is the the pasturing fluid liquid which is a different form of liquid to other certainly to engine oil or other hydraulics on the car and there you see just how dark actually it is that kyle army that from that aerial shot and just a little bit of light appearing over the the burbs of suddenly the pit lane when lights come on in the pit lane and darkness sort of cloaks it that's when i i think you get the magic of racing into the darkness and suddenly for people in the grandstands the pits become even easier to look into it's like a theatrical stage set in many ways i always feel and that's my favorite place to be if i'm whenever i'm having time out in the 24 hour race go opposite the pits and spend your time looking across there's always drama to look at or even regular pit stops being so handled very nicely indeed but yes the nature of the circuit has changed very much in the last 40 minutes i would say well we're now into i suppose this start of you might consider it countdown to the checkered flag where two hours 40 minutes of this nine hour event remaining and when the mercedes comes in for another pit stop rafael marcelo will exit as we look at the 75 is it all set to go thumbs up from amanda well that's really good news because kenny harbaugh needs to get to 70 distance let's go and find out from amanda because she's down there with sun energy one well the 75 is about to hit out of the garage as you guys can see to the much relief of kenny habul he's worried about this championship that is on the line for him you can see him walking over there looking over this car as it gets back to hit the track i'm told that he's hit 65 percent at the moment so having this car back out there is a big deal for kitty as he watches this happen [Music] well done amanda great positioning so just to reiterate you need 70 race distance covered to short score a maximum allocation of points that is all that is needed but for kenny hubbell he needs about five more laps from that car and then he can relax they're about 65 ish is the word we're getting from race control so the car is rolling and the issues have been resolved so let's see what the mercedes number 75 can do there it is coming into turn two so taj will be pretty chilly by now because they've been sitting in the garage the rears probably weren't even removed the fronts would have been removed to get access into the inner guard and try to get at those uh those power steering components now what do you do do you just nurse it around for the the requisite number of laps to get to 70 percent and then check the condition of the car fully and then or and then press on and you go i think i think we've had a scare personally i'll just press on exactly if the power steering is the power steering is working why would you want to come in and check it so all is dark over the circuit very dark indeed at kyle army drivers can see what they're doing but only just they've had to adjust john from evening light to full darkness over the circuit we said john how you know the darkness is phenomenal out of the edge of joburg you got the lights of jobo but they're in the distance now we've got lights in the background but for the drivers it's suddenly just full darkness yeah i mean i i think i said yesterday during our broadcast when we had action on the track i have to add uh that the internal roads in kailami when you're leaving the circuit after the race there is no internal road or street lighting and it is even with the power of a modern cars headlights you're really looking to see whether the road uh to access the racetrack actually the directions it takes so it goes black as coal right now interesting john just taking a look at the cars in full darkness it's funny you pick different things out looking at the h9 race leading you can see the exhaust glowing on the race leading mercedes you couldn't have seen that when there's more light around so it adds another level of drama but what you do see on the audis is their exhaust tailpipes are always glowing orange but we don't see it frequently in the mercedes because the exhausts exit just behind the front wheels on the other side well it's another thing for the photographers out around the circuit that have done their day shots that have done the racing shots now they're doing the night shots and it's a whole different uh lexicon of sort of photographer's language for them to write you even see now the the the the disc glowing the red the front disc glowing almost cherry red as they were coming into turn 16. so the the brakes on this racetrack they do get a hard time there aren't a great deal of areas on the racetrack where you're not having to use the brake pedal while the top speeds are not exceptionally high you've got a lot of corners where you have to apply brake pressure and the brakes are just never really getting a chance to fully recover no no i suppose under cover of darkness you might get away with more moments when you exceed track limits and turn 16 and certainly rafaela marcello seems to be pretty close to them there that's a very cynical thought uh bruce and i can't say it racing drivers are not natural sheets we leave that to the pit crews exactly so 89 leading the race by 25 and a half seconds that's rafael martiello leading alessandro piageti they're lapping at very very equal pace at the moment but that is a comfortable margin for marcelo he will complete this stint and then he's going to uh hand over to gilgoony on to do the final two stins alessandro piergidi running in second place if it is this order at the end of the race it will be championship to alessandro piergidi and to his teammate come later they have a 25 an equal margin between first and second and second and third and the important one is really between second and third between the ferrari and piergidi and kelvin vandalinder in the fastest of the audis 25 seconds is frankly a lot of time to try and gain back in the remaining two and a half hours two hours 35 minutes john but the audis will press on maybe it will sort of swing their way just a little bit you've just got to keep pushing you've just got to believe that something might change something might come to us if you give up you might as well give up now and just go home so the whole essence of being a racing driver being a racing team entrance is never to give up to always believe that there's hope to be positive the realities are the the the race will be won by the mercedes the ferrari will come second the championship will be won by the audi the bride [Music] championship audi the ferrari drivers have a five-point advantage so there is one puncture job one puncture is already listen those are the unknowns you you can't factor that in because a significant hand and a butt but if and or but it happens you take advantage of it nice work with words something like that anyway there we are going through barbecue another angle of barbecue that long camera shot looking across uh interesting to see just a different perspective of what it is like now coming into sunset well this should be sunset that is sunset actually a sword it's lights out at sunset what happened to the light around the racetrack look how little light apart from the pit lane there is around this just like a it's black [Music] it is properly dark good thing is whenever we see sections of the track with the headlights hitting it we don't seem to have loads of tyre debris around the circuit and uh one of the good things at kyle armour you don't have any gravel traps near the track that drivers go into and then bring the gravel back on which is always just a little bit of a moving element to the drivers when they find it on one lap barbecue probably was the one corner where gravel was the bit of an issue we saw previous events drivers getting a little bit aspirational and how they take that corner but fundamentally there is gravel around a number of the corners here but it's sufficiently off linen and by and large everybody here today has been pretty well behaved it hasn't been any uh you might call loose or careless driving so far with two hours and 32 minutes to go that's called setting the stage in so many ways but uh all looking very very good and uh certainly the interesting thing has been the difference in the top speeds the difference in the driver space through corners like sunset but also we sometimes get to look at braking distances as well which is always good as much data as possible to separate these cars because the ferrari performs in a different way to the audi around the course of that likewise the mercedes is leading the race just seems to have the best balance overall and that's why he's been able to just rattle off back after that that's really really quick john that was really happy to work there okay let's sort of keep using the particular word as a metronomic performance from the mercedes from the akka asp team rafaeli marcelo in particular julgonyo who will take over for the final two driving stints and uh i mean it'll be it's a it's not a drive to the flag for them they've got to be on their toes i mean they could be the one that picks up a a puncture you never know you know it only takes an error cornering exercise to somebody through something on a sharp flint onto the racetrack and cuts down the sidewall it cuts down the tire right sunset we've had but sunset the corner is a place that's absolutely key and the audis have been very good and rafaeli marcelo has had loads of handling so he's equal with kelvin van der linde who's uh topping that chart at 172 kph in the number 25 santelok audi the asp mercedes equal on pace but they're 3 kph up on on the fellow audi races uh charlevitz and pattaya trudy and martin conrad another mercedes is fifth fastest no ferrari in that mix that's not their point on the circuit they're very very good in the straight line though yes i mean again it's what ferrari have chosen to do they've gone for a car to give them the benefit if there's going to be a straight line battle going into turns actually forget turn one that's only occur but it's a turned two so they have sacrificed a little bit of aero performance to gain something in a straight line and that's every team has to make that judgment the team that's made the judgment maybe one might say the best is asp with the 89 mercedes because they've got a car that is the quickest car overall in a lap all being very closely followed by the ferrari [Music] they would have maybe slightly more issues having to overtake a quicker car in a straight line so if they were running nose to tail the ferrari leading going into turn two i'd be interested to see how mercedes might find a way around it just simply in straight line face proper proper darkness at kyle army and we have six and a half hours on the board which means two and a half hours to go which means it's probably time to take a look at the highlights of the race that started in full daylight and it was a wrecking start on the pit wall side it was the pole starter rafaeli marcelo alongside alessio rivera and they had a really good scrap local lamborghini from the inter africa motorsport team having a good run at the best of the local runners was charla rangie's up into seventh place he started in 12th but no sooner he got there than a smoke from the engine bay led him back in to the pit garage in the battle of the audis they were running fourth and fifth it was a case of uh matar judy would have been asked to move out of the way and marcus finkelhot came through but he could do nothing about the ferraris ahead and of course in the first hour of the race there were a couple of runners in the national series and it was they were fighting for honours just for that first hour and victory went to sylvia scribante in the scribncy motorsports for uh lamborghini so no wonder he was so pleased at the time of the first regular pit stops a bit of an early departure there that led to a penalty for the high class of sport audi the ferraris came in from second and third positions but drove straight through the pits and they would serve their first regular pit stop a little later they basically served their maximum first in time and reset the clocks went back around and just saw come redeegar being sideswiped into turn two by lucas lester he wasn't too happy about that and then after the ferraris finally served their first uh tire and fuelling pit stops they swapped positions with a little bit of jousting as they went out of turn two up the hill towards bbq through the sky sweep no love lost in that battle but of course ferrari like audi had split their driver line up so their championship challenges were in both of their cars but one little slip and both the cars going out would have been a you can imagine a massive massive problem for the team but the drivers were equal to the task unfortunately uh track limits became a bit of an issue and both the sun energy won mercedes just going out of shot on the 26th santelot racing audi were pinged early on for exceeding track limits too often but turn number 16 drive through penalties set their challenge back and really the story was the asp mercedes stretching ever further clear brilliant opening stint from rafaeli marcelo then team of bogashli had his stint that's the russian climbing out and uh back into the car went the third of the akka drivers that was juguno antonio fuarco moved into the lead of the race course the ferraris out of sequence with everybody else and was driving a fabulous stint in the number 71 ferrari and the sister car chasing hard as well miguel molina pushing that on but he picked up a drive-through penalty but then suddenly the scenario change because the gt4 audi trickled to near standstill on the approach to the pit lane and eventually did stop blocking pit entrance that meant a full course yellow period the mercedes came through from the lead but didn't bother to take pits and fuel and tires went back through the pit lane as ferrari had done earlier that meant it needed them at the next stop and every time there's a pit stop they dropped down to fourth place but as soon as there's a restart they were in front look at the move behind retired trudy in the audi with a cream color and around the outside yes i do mean around the outside at sunset with body contact but fortunately no puncture for either of those cars that was a brilliant brilliant move for alessandro piergidi the next ferrari in line the other ferrari in the race nicholas nielsen the wheel fourth at the moment but he fancied third his target well that same audi driven by mattia drudy onto the start finish straight they went and uh drewdy holds the inside line but you could see that nielsen had the better entrance to turn two because drudy let his breaking too late ah so would broody's druidy seed yes he did for a second but look up the hill again through the sweep better exit from the audi driver out of bbq onto the short straight down towards sunset and this was his turn to try and do to nielsen what had been done to him or i'm going to pass you around the outside no you're not thought nielsen the danish driver held the corner on the inside moved sweetly across the track and uh blocked the move from judy it was a great attempt but spectacular racing but the ferrari just had that little bit more pace a little bit more balance and was able to just pull clear but nothing like the mercedes that was leading the race now in the hands of joe gooney on stretching the advantage just looking at home in the slow corners the fast corners down the straights wherever you look just that small advantage but it was enough and then suddenly a car with no straight line speed at all nicholas nielsen in that 71 ferrari he got into third place but suddenly no drive at all out of turn two he pulled to the side of the circuit and that unfortunately was that expected that it was um a gearbox problem but for the af courser crew suddenly one of their two challengers was out the other one rejoined right in front of the akka asp mercedes but uh team of bogoslicki already was at full speed managed to around into turn two he got in front and it was expected combat to go but cut him shut him down but in no time at all timor bogashviki showed he was even to that challenge equal to everything the ferrari driver could throw at him and he kept that balance in about three and a half seconds his margin bouncing off curbs occasionally to do so going around that gt4 audi but it's a really really good front run from a driver who could be champion but he was the outside bet he has to win the race it's now in the hands of his teammates over the remaining ferrari crew alessandro piergidi sharing of course with fellow championship challenger come later and the third driver in that car miguel molina pressing on as hard as they can but everything they seem to have to offer is just that little bit more than audi has found in the daylight hours the 32 car from team wrt pushing on as hard as it can always slightly trailing the car from santelok the gray one number 25 and that's been driven very hard notably by kelvin van der linde on home ground desperate to pick up uh a top result on home ground so seldom gets to race in south africa round the gt4 audi he went and then down towards the first turn it was a battle between the santa lot racing out of car number 26 that would hit trouble a little bit later on going past the high-class racing audi the sun energy one sadie the car that would have its own troubles two a little bit later with a radiator problem after a stone flew up and then affected the the power steering so badly they had to replace the radiator to cool it down that is now back in the race which is good news darkness began to fall and it fell very quickly indeed but nothing seemed to be slowing the pace of the akka asp mercedes problems for the 26 audi but the 89 crew leading the way in style [Music] so back live and the margin from first a second 28 seconds now raphael marcelo pulling away little by little fraction by fraction from the ferrari of alessandro piergidi who still got a margin of 20 but it was 25 seconds it's now 28 seconds over kelvin van der linde's margin so first is pulling away from second john and second from third it's happening basically every lap there's a tenth here two or three tenths there a little bit maybe to do with catching some of the back partners but in essence it's to do with the overall pace of the 89 akka asp mercedes it just has got more of it than anybody else in the field alessandro pierre greedy in the number 51 ferrari driving the wheels off the car as we expect them to do and i mean how frustrating is it knowing that you you're dragging every ounce of performance and still your principal competitor is just eeking away the gap is 28 seconds as they came across the line at the end of 224 laps we're looking at probably a race of around about with 2 hours and 22 minutes remaining what can i offer you that might change the complexion of this race can i offer you another warning it's not a penalty yet for car 51 that's the ferrari in second place exceeding track limits i'll give you a guess [Music] spot off well i wonder who's been monitoring that because as you pointed out a little earlier bruce and once you get into night time how are you able to say that somebody is there i don't know if there's monitors on the racetrack [Music] how would you know which car was a foot over or six inches over or just on the limit yeah i'd be interesting to know if race control have a camera that's dedicated a static camera on that corner because they can't rely on just uh waiting for the tv feed to show them every single corner correct turn 16 and challenger through the course of nightfall be super difficult so it's a class it's not a penalty yet for car 51 but alessandro piaget the message will be coming through today and bruce the last snap for the lead car was not eight tenths of a second quicker than second place so the gaps up to 29 almost 29 and a half seconds so rafael marcelo for whatever reasons whether because greedy got held up alexander pig maybe got delayed with a back marker but the gap is again almost not the half minute stage and that's the sort of psychological point you think well what have i got to do i've done all i can do what's happened to the lights coming out well one thing we can tell you just a quick confirmation race control does have a fixed camera on that corner it's the only way you could do it to be fair but you know there is a question it's also it's still how good is the lighting for that camera on that corner and turn 16. and there is the car going around the corner and then ferrari it is the one in question 51 it was on the track it wasn't over the limit so that's absolutely fine on that lap but they've been watching and they'll continue to do so well it's now coming up to seven for 25 to eight in the evening here in kailami and two hours 20 minutes remaining and it ain't going to get any lighter and those remaining 2 hours and 20 minutes that's as dark as it will get and it will remain that until the checkered flag comes out so driver's eyes are now fully adjusted to uh to these difficult conditions so the gap as john said continues to stretch half a second gained by the race leader last time around chavez in fourth place still remains nine eight seconds behind kelvin van der linde in the battle of the audis but whichever way those finish it only affects which of the audi drivers comes out ahead in their battle but the key to either of those cruises whether they can get ahead of the ferrari because as it is it won't be an audi driver as a champion 2 hours and 20 minutes to go or there abouts and it's still advantage ferrari still advantage the two drivers who can do it for ferrari comb nedergarh and alessandro piageti their car is the only remaining ferrari in the race of course the sister card that their erstwhile teammate nicholas nielsen had been driving is out of the race with what we think was some form of gearbox problem certainly no drive at all for nicholas nielsen and he pulled off in that 71 ferrari but as it stands it's still looking like fifty point five points for both pierre gidi and conan agar and if they get that position stick to this position they'll win the championship by five points from the audi racers marcus finkelhock and patrick niederhausen it could still change it's got time aplenty but it's looking for any upswing in pace from the audis that's really going to be key to whether they have even an outside chance but with every further 20 minutes gone without an improvement in form undercover of darkness of course temperatures dropping all the time air and track john it's still not swung their way michael vodron in in his lamborghini that's currently what came in in eighth position but it's got a six-stop advantage over the second place uh in that category that's the national gt3 category from the sister lamborghini number 23. so they may have an issue but they've got a little bit of a comfort break in terms of laps ahead of second in the category yeah and when the cars are together on the track there's certainly the van roy and car has a stronger driving crew they've got years more experience over the all african crew indeed but you know for well that the all africa crew when they come back if they come back they'll be quicker they'll go away they would have learnt so much from this event had time to digest it and you know they've really taken a huge step up but every time you do something like that you go away look at the data and also just calibrate yourself you should be quicker next time you come back you can't buy experience you've got to learn experience by just going out and racing in a category with a very high level of competition and you automatically then start the process of improving and learning what you have got the capacity to do what your team can provide you with the car understanding the pirelli tire for example you know it's tires are round and black but they don't all behave the same different manufacturing tires you've got different characteristics so there's so much that you have to absorb if you want to get yourself to a level where you can be competitive for the best in the world you're here this weekend yeah and it's also that no particularly somewhere like this there is no point at which the track is a static environment it's changing all the time what it offers you what you can take to it so just looking at the the fastest lap from the 23 lamborghini it's a one minute 49.4 and it that's five and a half seconds slower than the 86 lamborghini that is years of experience gained in this level of car for the likes of michael van royen and again experience experience experience but you know that is the the mountain they have to climb yeah well you have chosen that absolutely so you start at one threshold and through experience and using the knowledge of others around you then you begin a process but listen there are some drivers who are inherently naturally gifted and talented and there are some that get there by maybe hard work and application whichever route it takes if you want it then go for it exactly and uh this is when it gets harder they've got more experience with the car and the track but racing it in the dark and in fact having fewer cars than we'd traditionally expect for this event because of covid it makes it a bit easier for them in the night there are a few cars coming up with brighter lights behind them so they're gaining very very useful nighttime driving experience here they've had six hours beforehand in this race where they could see what they were doing in daylight or daylight into dusk but now properly dark and it's about them finding the riven rhythm and getting that sort of muscle memory of where to turn when and picking out their markers in the dark yeah the big thing of course in dark is as remembering i mean sometimes you use your sort of peripheral vision to pick out where your your braking spots are and there's marker cones a marker pores around the circuit giving you 150 meters or yards 100 yards 50 yards and those are your sort of checkpoints and you just take that information and you've worked with it and if you can find you can break beyond the point that you started doing then you explore it but you don't try and go from 100 meters 100 yards to 50 yards that'll be big trouble but you can go 190 maybe 190 down to 80 and so on well of course a track walk really really important for them beforehand to pick out the marker boards now one of the cars we've been looking at in great depth has been the sun energy one car let's go down because amanda's at their garage [Music] well as you take a look at kenny habul right here we came by to tell him that effectively that we think he has won the championship at this point based on the time allotted i asked if he uh wanted to give us a little word from his season he's a bit frustrated from his performance here today feels like he can't get his hands wrapped around this car but kenny had an amazing performance at indy that led to the point situation that we have right now for them to wrap this up here in kailami uh kenny one other thing i want to add here i was talking to him a little bit you guys have been mentioning how dark it is here at kaialami kenny said that it's one of the hardest tracks to drive on based on how dark it is around this track thanks very much amanda of course last weekend he was also racing in the dark the daytona 24 hours but the great patches of light around that circuit but it's a really good point we discussed this quite a lot uh john it's properly dark at carl army when they go away from the pit lane i mean it's it's it's almost ink black but uh you know it's the same for everybody but that's for years of experience and years of nighttime racing i mean i watched daytona but i said there's an enormous amount of ambient light even at night time there were so many of the in infield there were people there their rvs and having lights on enjoying themselves whatever here around the racetrack there's not any additional lighting other than on the pit straight pit lane and once you get down to turn two somebody switch the lights off and you don't see any sort of ambient light until you get back through turn 16. yeah it's super super tricky and uh there's no such thing as a regularity of night racing so the more you have areas of light areas of dark nurburgring of course when you're doing the 24 hours going out on the full nordschleifer it's all about the darkness because uh again you've got the campfires but you're 14 and a half miles with 20 20 plus kilometers most of it is dark but flashes of light but again on a circuit even more twisty than this but uh a lot of people it's the ultimate challenge to go racing through the night very tiring for the rest of us as we talk about it but i love it actually i really love racing in the night i don't know why whether it's because we're in the african continent but night times always were the darkest of nights probably of any continent i've ever visited and having done some night time racing 24 hour races whatever i've always experienced the darkest nights here as kenny bullock said this he finds it the darkest racetrack in nighttime hours of any he's been to well we'll give extra marks to all the camera crews trying to pick out the cars in such dark conditions then but uh the one they need to pick out all the time of course is rafael marcello stretching his way clear he's now nearly 32 seconds to the good the other mercedes in the race the sun energy one car at least it's back on the track arsene conrad driving that at the moment in seventh place overall now we're waiting it's been a while since rafael hold on look what if we got left on the clock two hours and 11 minutes that's two driver stints as near as so we could well they've done their maths working the opposite way up to the ferrari cruise we could expect rafaeli marcelo to come in any time soon to hand over to juggernaut to do a double stick except he can't come and he hasn't set the fastest hasn't beaten that record yet away he isn't going to beat the lap record until until he gets a fresh set of rubber and has a fairly empty fuel tank but he's done amazingly i mean to do that 142.285 in race conditions on a run not doing a sort of a banzai come in and go out and send it for the lap record or for a new fastest lap he's got the fastest down but he hasn't beaten the time set by matt campbell last year in a porsche 911 gt3 uh i think it was a gt3 r not the rs the rs is the mid-engine version of the 911 but there it is in so rafael marcello [Music] he's on the drive through a reset so it's on a reset he wants more he wants to continue so let's let's send amanda straight back to you and tell us what's this all about who's nick your car exactly that's taking your car so rafael marcelo clearly hasn't had enough yet so two hours and ten minutes remain in this race the longest stint you can do oh hold on did he come in a minute early don't know because your maximum stint time is allowed to be 65 minutes two hours and ten minutes wait we haven't got to that point yet except i suppose it times from when you leave the pit lane you know it's when a team or teams opt to do that drive through to do a reset it would be nicer that actually maybe give us a heads up of what they're going to do but they're never going to do that so there it is well was that a mistake under cover of darkness you might get away with it but i reckon they came in there's about half an hour but you can't come in half of that but you know i've been a lap early obviously in fraction the answer is let's find out from the crew and the pit lane well we'll take it that their experience is greater than us and obviously the stint length one presumes starts from when you leave the pit lane i think they have just squeaked in within that time because we'll find out but it's another little factor to put out there so exhaust still glowing in the cover of darkness in proper darkness here at carl army just over two hours remain in this nine hour race the it's great to have it back the kyle army niner it's now called the joburg kyle army nine hour and rafaeli marcelo was sitting on a lead of as close to 30 seconds as one could imagine before that over alessandro pierre gidi came in drove straight through the pit so he's done a reset that means you come through that's ended one of your driver stints but you start another one the clock has stopped but there's obviously enough fuel on board for him to do so and whether they just they they did that simply because they didn't want to get caught short in five minutes or ten minutes of the race remaining where they may have needed to do a splash and dash or something of that nature okay well well thank you to torment tom hornsby always bringing great news or interesting news from the pit lane he said the ferraris reset after 37 laps when they drove through and then did this was the question how much more fuel a further nine laps on the fuel they had left so by marcelo doing this when he comes in he will be giving gunyo less than two hours to drive a double stint and it should it should be a comfortable double stint for juno absolutely so and apparently that stint tom hornsby is now saying the ferrari sting when they did 37 laps was 63 minutes and 30 seconds so not quite enough to your maximum stint time is 65 minutes so they weren't going to do a lapid bombing at 30 so they had to come in at that point yes yes who knew you had to be good at maths for motor racing i think you have to be good at math these days certainly for everything because the complexities of it and understanding the rules and regulations and using them i bet you a penny to a pond when the rules were being drawn up nobody actually thought about would anybody you do that drive through as a consequence of interpreting the rules and there's nothing and the rules to say you cannot do it you're just using the rules and regulations uh to your benefit well every time you get a new set of regulations uh the team chiefs sit down and read them from four and a half but you almost need a left someone who thinks from left field and uh joe gooney are sitting there waiting it is it's been quite a long race john but you know it is about you know motor racing is absolutely about looking at the rule book and working out you don't think across the years how i know suddenly just found something in the rules it's not something that's been allowed or disallowed it's it's coming at it from a different angle and just realizing hold on they haven't said i can't do this i tell you what i could make your toes curl with some of the things that went on well we've got two hours decades ago ago so leading the race rafaeli marcelo by just under 16 seconds from alessandro pirgidi alessandro piagety if he stays where he is that will be good for the title this is of course the final round of the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge held over the race was due in november last year i think it's some glasses like that to drive home rather are those reading glasses or are they glasses you might want to wear at night time i don't know enhanced glasses or it could be maybe i mean i've never seen gunyo wear glasses previously so um interesting to see him wearing them there sitting looking at the screen maybe it's just he's got a very long sight and he needs them and he does what he might not want to do is tire his eyes looking at a computer screen these things have to be considered because it's very easy when you're not in the car to spend all your time studying one of the worst things you can do for your eyes is sitting and watching endlessly uh leds or any whatever they are computer screens [Music] indeed so what's happening in the world of audi third place and fourth place as they've been pretty much since nicola well absolutely as they have been since nicholas nielsen withdrew from the second ferrari the 71 car kelvin van der linde his car the 25 car entered by santa look still when in fact he's stretching a bit by bit it was eight seconds now it's nine then it was nine now it's ten going towards eleven seconds so he's definitely got the measure of charvin's they're both doing a double stint they're in the second part of that and then they'll hand over to whoever who'll be following next i would suggest christopher harrison would take over from charles take that to the finish and probably patrick neederhauser because i don't think he's in who's in before winkhawk anyway hawk or needlehouse i think we see more of winkelhawk in the car i think it's neither house or the swiss racer to take it has done his stints probably as well so down into turn two and any makeup so now he's certainly going through turn two couldn't quite see who it was he'd overtaken that is between the leader and second place is now 16.2 seconds last lap was fun 42.8 for the race leader 143.3 for second place ferrari yeah he's able to gain three four tenths per lap so he's got it taped at the front of the field the audi's again as we've just mentioned no change being given to charles vitz at the moment unfortunately he's uh it's going out it was eight seconds nine seconds ten seconds now eleven and a half seconds so charlie it's in the 32 entry from team wrt dropping away a little bit from kelvin van dinder in the 25 car run from the neighboring sans look well let's go down because the pits we can't see much in daylight we can see even less a nightlight amanda what could you tell us well it's pretty bright here in the pits underneath the dark lights in the in the bright lights here but a couple things to catch you guys up on when the mercedes did the drive-through i know there was a lot of excitement from us in the broadcast team while i got up here and there was hardly next to no excitement everyone was under their strategy and going forward of what they have planned for the rest of this race joel goonan will enter into the last part of this race in the next 10 to 15 minutes they are estimating but back to the question on the glasses jules told me that he's wearing those so that simply he's not getting blind out there by the headlights he said that you can't see anything at this track and expects the first two laps when he gets back into the cockpit of this mercedes to be rather tricky for himself thank you very much for clearing up two things we don't know if the team are just spooking you or fooling you on the on the tactics but the anti-glare glasses i think actually john useful at any time but particularly in a circuit where you haven't got many cars and you suddenly get to have headlights from arrival and in fact even when he let's say he's overtaken one of the local lamborghinis or got past the the gt4 audi which he will pass frequently he will suddenly get a huge glare because the rest is so dark maybe that makes them more intrusive than this there was other light to sort of assuage some of that dark sort of glare i mean you're going from a well-lit garage into a dark cockpit of a racing car in a semi-lit pit lane and then you're going into something as dark as the marianas train shot in the the pacific ocean i mean it literally it's as dark as that and your eyes then have to react very very quickly and as quick as racing drivers and young fit men the muscles in their eyes will react to it you want to be sure that you're giving every opportunity to yourself to be able to get on top of that issue sooner than later right so again still a very new experience for the likes of philip kakana who brought in the 23 stradale into africa a lamborghini they're running in ninth place and in fact philipp kukan is handed over so he is sitting in ninth place but they're 35 laps down but the thing is they're in it and they're gaining experience all the time in their lamborghini and uh great to have them as part of the show but up front it's that 89 mercedes metronomically just eeking its advantage out little by little a tenth of a second here and that seems as though the the balance has sort of settled down a bit certainly when marcelo went back out onto the circuit it was a very quick indeed but according to what we were told from amanda it's going to be [Music] on next that we knew but uh she said within 20 minutes yeah so we know that joel gunion is in for the final two hours as such as the clock ticks down to just two hours of this race remaining what we don't know is who will go into the 51 ferrari i suspect it will become ladder guard but i i don't know uh here has pig really done a double stint or is he on a single stint he can't do he's not going to drive to the finish that's i would imagine for sure well let's wait to see the high-class three seeing audi up on its jacks and of course that is leading the pro-am class got ahead of the sun energy one car there's now five laps between them sorry eight laps us very much the swung the direction of the orange and black audi and uh terry vermoulan new to the car this weekend brought in at the last minute but grabbing the opportunity with both hands and certainly he won't have done any night racing before second place the alessandro pier driven ferrari it's done all it can to take the battle to the race leading asp mercedes but quite simply it doesn't need to take the battle to the mercedes at the front of the race all he needs to do is measure the gap back to the better of the audis the better of the audis is the kelvin van der linde one and it's always for the last quite a while now been 25 seconds plus behind in fact it's now better pass of 29 seconds in the rear so this is looking more and more comfortable for the af corsa crew the only issue that ferrari could have to deal with is if there's something unexpected whether it's a a cut tire or an issue in a pit stop which you know there's something in the the system uh doesn't follow the rulebook something that's unexpected so right now with almost 30 second advantage over the leading audi all they need to do whichever driver gets in after alessandro pier greedy hands over is just maintain the gap and i don't think they would have a lot of difficulty in doing that because the positions between the second and third place cars has been fundamentally running around in the mid to high twenties and there's nothing more that audi in terms of night pace have got to challenge what ferrari are being able to present here this afternoon right interesting little bit of analysis just been number crunching a little bit with the help of tom hornsby if they do nine laps in this stint after the drive through that will put them pretty much in sync with the other crews behind them when i say day i'm talking about the race eating uh that will put them on schedule matching up with uh the chasing ferrari the chasing but slightly dwindling ferrari of alessandro piergini and the kelvin van der linde audi and the shall be at saudi so we could potentially have them back in sync for the final pit stop and that last run to the finish well apparently a bit of that yeah well so do i and you know it it's easy to look from the front forwards but audi ferrari very quickly made us think there is going to be an element of looking from the end yes backwards and how it often is absolutely in an endurance racing you you can what we might describe loosely as going off message by doing something which why have they done that but there's a purpose behind doing that and a lot of the reasons not maybe so much here this weekend but certainly in events where you've got maybe 30 or 40 or 50 cars it just makes the whole process of pit stops for example when you can come into a pit stop and you've got nobody else in the pit lane as opposed to having 30 or 40 cars all piling at one time yeah it certainly gives gives more scope for sort of doing things just that little bit differently because in terms of lap pace out on the circuit slower lap actually that time around are they much yellow but really good constant pace melisandre piaget but continues just little by little drop the audis so nine hours to play with at the start of the race seven hours have passed seven hours nearly in five minutes and the ferrari still has the answers we did wonder if the audis would come into their own a little bit more under cover of darkness they've already pocketed the manufacturer's championship which they did when the sister ferrari pulled off the 71 car but uh you know they'd love the driver's titles to go with it as well but it's going to take something really fairly major for them to be able to it will have to be an upset or some description and an unpredictable upset so at the current time there doesn't look to be anything of that nature uh on the horizon or or not the horizon right now what do you want to call this in the darkness of kailami the horizon is out there somewhere just looking to see if we get a better lap again from rafael marcello next time around because he actually went the wrong side of one minute 43 for most people they can't get below one minute 43 but uh since rafaela martial has been able to do that pretty much at will one has to presume there was a an overtaking maneuver that took him a little bit more time a little bit more caution as required this is the view from turn two the camera it turned to looking up towards the pits charles is there we'll take your word for that but there he is you see the light on the side of his 32 team wrt audi up there he goes through through the sweeps at the juke skate over the crest at bbq and along the level straight behind the paddock past the sort of clubs club with the original pits when the circuit was remodeled in 1987. interesting that that last lap for charles vets was considerably slower again whether it was for traffic or other reasons we don't know but he was done at 145.8 and that's probably two seconds off this is consistent maybe maybe even three seconds off this consistent lap times i think what's happening is when they come across the slower cars the difference is the extra time taken to go past is greater in darkness because they're allowing a little bit more space around the others wanting to be sure that the drivers of the gt4 audi or whatever have seen them and seen them properly bruce they can't fail to see them the headlights and these cars would burn paint off the foot of your car 100 pesos but it's also the caution required because i know that indeed they would i mean they are extraordinary but it's simply placing how close it is so the akka asp mercedes is in from the lead of the race and that means uh the ferrari will go in front now with alessandro piageti on board but the fuel is going in i didn't see the driver change because we were late coming to the pit stop yeah but it's gunyon's helmet you can see the orange flashes the pinky orange flashes on the side where all four tires change as well that's another way to save a bit of time we've seen that from ferrari before i remember a couple of years ago maybe slightly more down at paul ricardo right at the end of the race only you know they weren't really in it they were there or thereabouts but a master stroke at the final pit stop not changing all four tyres and uh it was a real challenge for who for alessandro pierre gidi in that final stint and he pulled it out of the bad and made it work [Music] and the question we posed a short while ago was who would take over the number 25 audi that's running current just being promoted to second place from kelvin van der linden we thought it might be patrick need a hazard we've seen a lot of marcus finkelhog and indeed it will be his helmet is on in the pit lane so there's going to be a flurry of runners into the pits and we mentioned about how asp wanted to sort of get pretty much in line with the rivals in terms of their final pit stop time this wasn't the final pit stop would be one to come one to come with around an hour to go where have the last seven hours gone here we go look at this replay there's the pit stop that we caught the tail end off so there we see there's raphael marcelo walks away shuts the door jill gonna sconce now behind the wheel with his eyes adjusting to rip off on the windscreen the cat these cars carry about four rip-offs on the windscreen very thin layers of clear very fine polystyrene so we're back to the live action on our 52 to go well that answered all the question that all four tyres were changed if there's a likelihood if there's a challenger they might risk at the final pit stop just changing two tires you save an awful lot of time in that but all four chains on the akka asp mercedes that pit stop has dropped it back as traditionally seems to be the case to fourth position which suddenly became third because the charles vitz audi has come in that's the one that uh charles has been pushing on in in effective fourth place and that will be handed over we think to christopher harrison who has done that much driving in this race so far he still has a championship hope but it must be said with every lap on the cover of darkness under two hours to go that is twinkling so there is christopher yes christopher house of white with the red stripe up his helmet worn that helmet liberty for a very long time he's being strapped in so charvet's playing his role very much a team man very much the family team it is indeed you know the family eve verts partner in the whole wrt empire motorsport empire and what a success phenomenal success that has been and charles's son came in about three years ago very young one might say slightly gauche because he had speed but not experienced but has matured like a wonderful would you say a wheel of parmalat of the parmesan omelette what's the fourth step of parmesan you're a brabham driver through and through there john [Music] but yeah charles i think the first time we saw him driving in anger was out at the bahrain at the fia at the fa motorsport games yeah and uh you know there he was looking very much a sort of gangly teenager but he got in the car and he thought wow you've been watching listening and learning and he's done great job since then yeah i made your asset to the team so alessandro piergidi continuing the lead of the race but he will owe us a pit stop sometime soon his advantage is well 30 seconds over the number 25 audi it stretched all along almost with every single lap the ferraris just eat a little bit further clear of the 25 audi sport team santa lock entry but van der linde's time is about to come to an end because we know that patrick nederhauser is waiting in the pit lane for his go gunyo's outlap was a 155 he's just on a 144.4 in his first flying lap in these dark conditions remember what he mentioned about adjustment to the the darkness around the racetrack but habib likewise said about how dark it is out here it takes a little bit of time to get adjusted and again of course the car will feel different to the last time was behind the wheel simply because ambient track temperatures have fallen away as well interesting to know how fast they're falling because well we can see the air temperature is 24 degrees of course that's cooling down a little by little not too humid now of course yesterday not only we have heavy rain but in between the humidity was uh fairly monumental as you can imagine it's a track temperature also drops down to 24 as you pointed out bruce ambient 21. so i mean they're still compared to when you were involved in the race last weekend at daytona you would have given a week's wages for it to be tracked temperature 24 and ambient 21. well i really really felt not only for the pit crews but more than that for the camera crews and the track workers or marshals around the circuit they had to have all their layers of clothing on and uh some of the crews actually luckily spent their time working at winter sports so ferrari driver change time and it's uh that's big well molina hopping up and down so maybe he's going to have a run and then come later we'll go into the last year and maybe he will just finish it off because in fact in the 51 ferrari the race was started by coleman agar went to miguel molina then piergidi had his go but well let's see that's certainly molina unless there's been a swapping of race overalls but the spaniard is standing there and he's just thinking now what i must do i've got to just keep pressing on keep staying ahead of the audis and not earn the drive through penalty yeah there's uh a significant difference but 27 seconds difference between second and third place of yes first and second i make about just 30 seconds uh but is 27 seconds behind panda linda in the second place id but they've been abandoned london pier greedy is to see miguel molina limbering up stretching up and uh getting ready for that handover there's a car coming in can red and yellow ferrari it is well that's the only one we have left we had two red and yellow ferraris that start with the uh frankenstein livery on the side or frankie sean motor flashes on the side but alessandro piergidi brings that in from the lead of the race miguel molina will take it over now that was a really good stint from alessandro piergidi consistently giving all you could get out of that car but it was never quite enough to match the mercedes at the front that had the cushion and just gradually extended the cushion by taking the tear off of the windscreen all of a sudden a driver can actually see what's ahead of them you you forget that there's a whole load of an hour's worth or more of roof run that's been banging off the windscreen and your eyes adjust to it and they i mean eyes are amazing part of our anatomy but when you get a clear windscreen it's like getting a brand new set of rubber on the car just transforms your ability to drive quickly but you might it must be said of course the new windscreen has been not for piageti he's out of the car for molina but if it's a driver who's doing a double stint and a lot of them will be through to the finish it'll be that gift given to them at the final pit stop yes before you can't couldn't see very much now you can off you go but i think it's going to be really intriguing to see if any of the crews in a hope at the final pit stop that they could scramble gain another position by saving time in the pits by only putting two fresh sets of two fresh tires on or just one side just ties on one side if they put them for example they'd only replace them on the right hand side of the car remember this is a counterclock by circuit and the predominance of corners are i'm assuming to the left haven't kind of them all up uh don't do a left but yes they must be by den but actually some of the lower speed corners you know look at the final corner that's that's left but in terms of the faster corners on the track actually the right-hander at sunset look double right sunset that's where most of the loading on the lap will go into your tires indeed it is but there's it's only one quick corner on a circle of 16 corners so who's this coming in let's just lose the the vision so just having a message that alessandro piergidi will finish the race we had mikbal molina slotting in so that also means the pit stop is gonna have to sort of be a bit of a longer one for the final change anyhow so it's not gonna be super super fast right in comes kelvin van der linde patrick nederhauser been ready for few laps to replace him so the south african driver hauls his way out he's had a good run that's for sure but just he's made that car the faster of the two out he's ahead of the 32 wrt car now let's see here comes the race the new race leader mercedes should go back into the lead of the race angel gunion does just that so kelvin van der linde out of the car this is where pit stops always seem to take an age they don't they take the same amount of time absolutely with this generous element amount of time you're allowed to have as a pit stop minimum pit stop time but it still seems that way molina's first flying lap interestingly was almost a mirror of the first flying lap for goonyong when he went out so 155 seems to be a bit of a benchmark time for exit of the pit lane and first flying lap so ferrari matching mercedes more or less in that opening flying lap but getting the old audi rolling down [Music] the mechanic with the lollipop was actually behind the graphic whether he already waited a few seconds earlier to get going i'm sure it wasn't a mistake from uh patrick nederhauser now overall time in the pits 89 i know the drivers have to be told on the radio but always the lollipops a visual clue as well right so here we have 89 has had the shortest time in the pit seven minutes 40. with cars leading the race john it's carl number 89 yaka asp mercedes and the af courser ferrari that's giving chase in second place has had eight minutes 25 but uh the number 32 audi eight minutes and one but that is in is uh just served its pit stop but yeah good job from akka asp thus far in the pit stops a good job setting up the car and the driver is a good job driving it consistently so well here remember that the the second base ferrari has had been in the pit lane they call it pit stops ten times to the eight of the leading mercedes so that would account for some of the additional time in the pit lane whereas the third place audi has only had seven stops as the fourth plays out he's only had seven stops right so penultimate round of pit stops it's like a santa look uh driver waiting waiting to take it over so piggy will finish the race that's what we've been told in the 51 ferrari would he be finishing the race in first place we think not at the moment will he be in second place that's a more important one for him because the 18 points for that will give him a five-point championship margin when it counts right at the end of the season over the best of the audi drivers this is the 26 cents look racing audi coming in from fifth place overall running in the silver cup category because it's the younger drivers simon gashe out again full standard pit stop refueling four new pirellis going on board pit stops do just feel so different after nightfall feels like you're back at le mans or any of the full 24 hour races but right now i love the look of cars after darkly in the bright lights over the pits harry benjamin has tag team with john watson harry welcome back on board the race has got a different nature since you were last here darkness yeah knight has uh come in since uh a couple of hours ago when i was last here and just to uh really emphasize what john said earlier you know you get the lights the track pitch black right what we've got to watch on this of course is that this was the car that wouldn't start early on and it was put oh the engine cover is off again they're maybe making just little checks it's still within the standard pit stop time we've got to get that seated properly but this uh was pushed back into the pit garage when it wouldn't uh restart simon gashe had just taken over the car from nicola oh it could be another problem again or not they're fiddling around is it going to be swung back into the garage again the dolly jacks are there don't forget it was swung into the garage they got it fired up or solved the problem brought it out it wouldn't start they had to drag it in again and this is what we call again again again this is the third time it's been dragged back into the pit carriage but they're safe in their position the silver cup class they've got a lap advantage that's all it's come down to now over tyrio vermount and the high class racing audi how quickly can they get this fixed did what they did last time to get it fixed wouldn't work again they've got to remember they've got to think quickly and they've got to hope that heat build up or whatever it is in the engine bay that uh has caused this starting problem we think it was an electrical glitch for the steering wheel well that's like whatever the case is they can't get that back out quickly here because uh simone gashe has been doing an absolutely sterling job for the last few laps did that 20 the 28 year old from france no strange to gt racing of course doing a splunk so hopefully he can get back out as soon as possible but i must i mean i know you've already talked about it with john but my first experience just looking at how dark it is on screen i mean i can't get over that oh the number 26 back out already well we've seen this before and the key is whether it will fire up this time has to get down onto the deck before the engine is fired up it's down on the deck yes that's good is the life from the v10 engine in the back bang the bonnet no plugs it in up it goes back up to the jacks down it goes with a quick lift almost underneath it donna jack almost underneath it clearly fired but actually has to be on the deck when they're firing i think he got back down he's worked out what the problem was how annoying to have this intermittent problem that could just cut in you're probably so close to it working and slocus so close knock but frustration for the santa look crew it won't cost them a lot of track position they've got the pacer on the circuit to overtake the high-class racing audi they're running slightly out of sync as well but that one they might be very close on the track when that audi comes back out so for santelot racing they've had a little bit more work to do in the pit stops than some of their rival teams but importantly for them i suppose in many ways it's not happening to their 25 car the one that's uh the best place of the audis overall in third place i think they've also used opportunities to change out the driver as well because nicola has now gotten in for gasha so the 21 year old belgian is now in the car so that seems like a fairly sensible uh thing to do actually when you have a sort of longer stop like that you may as well switch the driver and perhaps go to the end potentially or double step yeah i think it was bear's turn to get in the car anyhow lucas legere ran the early stage of the race but he was the one who got a little bit in in the way of the because he was running out of sequence remember in the early stages and rather obstructed all of the top four runners they tried to get through and had the clash with uh come later gar so the lion's share of the race since then seems to be with seymour gashe who is the fastest driver in the car with by far the most experienced and uh nicola bear as well right we haven't talked too much about christopher harsa he was split away from his regular season teammates uh patrick nederhauser and marcus finkalok he's moved to the 32 audi run by team wrt his is the car in fourth place overall but he's very close to patrick need a house so just one and a half seconds last time around so 32 crews really closed it right in let's see where we get site them on the track sometimes of course when you have a pit stop it gives a slightly artificial position in fact i think that's what's happened this time because you've got a car that's crossed the start finish line in the pit lane just depends on positioning of your pit garage but so of what there could be no dispute is the fact in fact there is absolutely no dispute there is the graphic on the screen 1.89 seconds so this has really you know team wrt over the years have been famous famous for their pit stops they seem to have handled this penultimate pit stop very well indeed because that margin had gone out to if i remember 11 seconds between those two audis not so long ago before the pit stops but we had the driver change from kelvin vanderlinder to patrick nederhauser and uh christopher harsa took over the 32 wrt audi from charlevitz but the pit stop was clearly a very good one indeed because they've found about 10 seconds under cover of darkness well at the moment i mean these two hours have been stuck together almost from since the very start of the opening lap because we had the the corporate uh overtake earlier on but they seem to have been there or thereabouts with each other's place but actually hassa looking a little bit quicker last time around a couple of tenths faster on um oh actually he's now slower obviously on the last absolutely previews that before he managed to uh get a bit quicker but it's ebbing and flowing yeah but what has to just be reiterated is the fact that the gap between these two cars the 25 audi ahead of 32 out he was 11 seconds before this round of pit stops they pitted within a lap or so of each other and it's 10 seconds has been carved out of that margin so it is race on yes in fact niederhauser is now responding a little bit better than christopher harsa on that lap so it's just over two seconds now but yes we've got a real chase and whichever of those cars finishes ahead if there's a disaster suddenly in the final hour and 36 minutes or so for the ferrari ahead of them and either that moves in front they the drivers in that car will win the driver's title for 2021. well exactly and audi that's good i could absolutely be playing on the line because we've already seen one ferrari a of course that go out of this race with gearbox problems that doesn't mean to say that will be a thing that's going on in the other air of course the garage as well it'll be in the back of their mind and especially on the cover of darkness mistakes can be made a lot easier if anything happens to that a of course ferrari with miguel molina currently at the wheel well it's patrick nederhauser at the moment in a prime position to take the spoils but right now a of course and the girl when they're doing all they can to seal the driver's title of course it won't be molina who takes it but it will be his teammates who do pierre guinea and come let it go interestingly i've always found fascinating homeless guy brilliant racing driver obviously in the last couple years taken to being a team principal as well over in the poor super cup so you know they've got a fair they're not just great on track they've got that sort of wider thinking mentality i suppose within the car at af courser 2. so it's it's a really nice package to have amongst their drivers no it really is and uh you know drivers of combs any of the top gt3 drivers around the world could be racing pretty much every weekend they want the fact he then chooses to go to the porsche super cup with clrt the completed racing team just means they probably send him photographs of his home he doesn't get to go there very often at all but uh you know some drivers are suited to becoming team managers others less so and clearly combs got it very much under control just interesting keep an eye on the lap pace of juguno he did it unless my timing screen has suddenly chosen to have a little bit of a freeze um his last lap was a one minute 45 but i was saying to john that undercover of darkness the discrepancy between the normal lap and the great that appears to be you know in traffic i think you're leaving a lot more out there just no point having a wrist so chrome leather guy nicholas having a chat nothing more they can do as they sit in the pit carriage sun energy one back in for another pit stop hopefully no further problems after that problem with the uh front radiator the special radiator for power steering it broke was hit hit by a stone that had to be fixed and that's dropped them to second in the pro-am running but that should sort of all be enough for kenny harbaugh another car in the pit lane just a bit further behind uh quite close to them in the background with the headlights on carla rank charla ranges has brought in the 86 stradali motorsport a lamborghini as well everybody else out on the track and when we get to the one hour to go mark we've had seven and a half hours pretty much this nine hour race but we expect the next flurry the final flurry to be in the pit lane around that time started the race with 13 cars two dropped out as planned dropped out as planned but yes they were going to be running the first hour of the race in the national gt3 series the driver who won that was silvia scribante by from the other driver who pulled out after one hour from mikhail patamba covered by just three and a half seconds at the end of that it was a good scrap but it was the driver of the uh scuderia scrub antsy lamborghini who had the big smile on his face at the end of that but since then we've lost one car unfortunately it's one of the championship challenging cars when the 71 ferrari pulled off must be so agonizing for nicholas nielsen just seeing him he's still at the circuit he's here of course to lend support to two drivers we started the season sharing with and they will take the title if cars stay as they are in this order if the ferrari finishes in second place the title would go to his as well teammates gomez and alessandro piagetti bittersweet but you know a lot of drivers they move from single single driver events to multi-driver events you have to be part of a team it's a real change of mindset isn't it especially as we see more and more young drivers switching to gts fairly early on in their career because that single-seater formula ladder is becoming so competitive there are lessons opportunities and naturally in that instinct you are self-absorbed you've got to focus on beating your teammates in a rival car or in the same car but you know and you've got to get the best out of it but then you see a lot of them switch to gt racing and endurance racing as well and it's a whole switch up but i think it sees some drivers flourish when automatically they wouldn't actually i mean i was speaking recently with that there's the sofia flush the female racing driver who's been doing uh sports cars and wild endurance and her switch from formula to um endurance but she said it's made me a better racer because i can learn from um the older more experienced guys who are alongside me yeah i mean you famously get some drivers who get in and they go right i've got two teammates i've got to be sure i'm fast to them at all time they don't help develop the car and they're just not the right personalities also there is an element here a lot of people in motorsport particularly when they start getting in this cart at five years old they're not never a team player they're not playing in the school football team but the school swimming team they're not playing with other people they're playing to beat other people and it is quite hard for them to come back some people get it others don't it's not a given but you do see some people literally the penny drops they have that moment they go that is how i can go faster and it is learning off experienced teammates and also let's face it a lot of their career up to this point when they've been in single seat has been very short races no tire changes nothing like that they haven't really had to work out how to keep a car sweet across the range of a stint lot to learn and when you see a driver get in and within a season they've really understood it that's really very rewarding to my eye well i think i think one of the best examples isn't it that we can give in this instance is rafael marcello who obviously had a was all set to sort of make his way up to the road to f1 doing gp2 and testing with sauber and ferrari on the simulator reserve driver but then it all came crumbling down it didn't work out and that wasn't because he's a bad racing driver but it's because he just didn't work out and then took to gt's and suddenly he's flourishing car 51 running in second place miguel molina at the wheel but let's hear from the driver who'll take it to the finish alessandro piageti well this is the guy that's going to take it to the end for the ferrari and alessandra when you look at the last bit of this race what are you going to bring to this effort that will line up that driver's championship for yourself well it's difficult honestly this race with the dark it's very very very dark it's difficult to see and it's very physical also the track that's why we decided don't do the double stint we plan to do the singles thing to be more more ready in case of everything the pace looks strong all the mighty mains did a good job the car is running smooth so far still 1 hour 30 to go i try to eat something drink something to be ready for the last 45 minutes so let's see what's going on do you go in and chase down that mercedes or do you keep the ferrari safe to be honest i think the nexus has a stronger place than us is difficult to chase if there's an opportunity for sure but in my in my mind is more about the championship than about this race and just real quickly as we go back to that overtake on judy earlier in the race incredibly impressive how did you know that was your moment i knew that the audi had a slightly cooler tires and i knew also that i had a better pace but it was difficult to overtake so that was the moment i try i try to overtake immediately and the works then i create the gap i start to pull away and i think it was the moment to take a small risk and start to create a gap around the outside at sunset incredible [Music] well alessandro piergidi he's been impressing for years i looked down his race career history and i've got a lot of stuff in bold that means it's a championship title and the move that was just discussed there around the outside that was on a restart after a full course yellow period of safety car period and it was just breathtaking but around the outside is the place for the bold and we saw that in the driving raid at spa frankenstein last year right at the end of the spa 24 hours and alessandra piergini we know he's quick but he's clearly harry got something about him as well to do that you don't get made a ferrari factory driver for no good reason either and you you have yours highlighted in bold and mine are highlighted in gold and you just look back and it's impossible to even include everything but you go back to even just 2017 weck and a gce pro champion first in 2019 the mod first in 2021 spa 24 hours and them on again you know these are tough races that can really um it's it's not all down to uh to sheer driving talent but it's also how that driving talent in the cockpit again comes back to being a team player reacts to other people around you but also you've got to have a bit of luck on your side but equally i think you've got to make your own luck as well and having someone like pierre gidi in the car you're giving yourself the best possible chance of a good outcome it is it's not just about having a good average getting a pace and staying very very close to it it's about every time you get a major moment you're good enough to seize it but talk about seizing the moment that was something rafael marcelo did when it was light here the start of this race let's go back and take a final look at the highlights he was on the front row he was on the pit wall side and he got alessio rivera behind him even before they got to the first king so pulling clear then the local lamborghini's having great deal of fun particularly charla rangi's but unfortunately smoke from the engine bay led to a visit to the garage it would come out to play now the audis they couldn't do anything about the pace of the ferraris but it was decided that mattia drudy would swap places with marcus wincock but finkel hawk set off after the ferraris but just couldn't catch them at the end of the first hour it was a question of seeing which of the local racers was in front two were just during the first hour and the advantage went to sylvia scribante just from mikhail pitamba and the lamborghini driver very pleased with life indeed and not long after that it was the turn of the regular racers to come and make their pit stops the high-class rainy racing audi trying to get away a little quickly but talk about quickly the two ferraris drove into the pit lane didn't take on any tyres any drivers any fuel they just drove straight through they decided they wanted to reset their pit stop time start all over again and the scary moment there for colm ledegar he was looking a little bit relieved flustered after a side on side contact with lucas lester down into turn two but when they came out having served their first pucker pit stop effectively they did a stint then a quarter stint they came back out and they wanted to swap positions and the in the af course a pit garage they must be who don't hit each other they didn't of course it's a little battle they are racing drivers but uh all they could do was set off after the mercedes but also no they had to keep the audis in behind them charvier's pushing on very hard in the team wrt entry that's car 32 two drivers who pushed a little too hard both on screen here it was the sun energy one racing mercedes and the second of the santa lot racing had his car 26 they exceeded track limits before others did down at turn 16 the final corner of the lap and they would serve drive-through penalties there was also one for the 51 uh ferrari but that was ameliorated and i'll tell you why in just a moment out front though it was a marcholo pushing on very hard indeed timo bogashlavsky took over then he in turn handed over to julio a look at this point that was antonio forco leading the race in the number 71 akka asp ferrari the sister car the 51 wasn't far behind but as i mentioned it had a drive-through penalty to serve that could have been disaster it could have dropped it back behind the two audis but fortune came its way nothing they could do about the pace of the mercedes up front but molina pushing very hard this is what rolled the dice in the favor of the 51 crew the lone gt4 audi in the race trickling slowly slowly towards pitting and then blocking the pit lane when it came to halt so through the pit lane without taking on any fuel or drivers doing what ferrari had done earlier in the race that was the asp mercedes that would drop it down the order a little bit but at the time of the restart it was back at the front this is the restart and in second place is mattar trudy but look this is the move the race so far alessandro piageti around the outside not just at any old corner the double apex right-hander at sunset there was bodily contact between the pair of them they both held on no damage no cut tires for either them thank goodness but in behind nicholas nielsen looking watching learning and thinking i'll have a slice of that action as well closing in on the wrt addie matajo he only brought in at the last minute to replace an unwell dressed fanta been driving beautifully he still hold sway down into turn two but uh deeper line into the corner was the wrong one to have not enough breaking falling behind the ferrari nicholas nielsen has got the move done but you know what trudy is far from finished at this point up through the chuck sky suite they go on to the little infield straight if you will out of bbq now with better exit from bbq down towards sunset it's droody's turn to go to the outside but nielsen has just got about the nose of his ferrari in front and he kept it there he's on the inside of course the shorter line around the corner that he could pull across the nose of the audi and uh the move the moment had passed from matar truly but it was great to watch of course all the time 71 ferrari is 51 ferraris escaping a little but not as much as the race leader the 89 mercedes now in the hands of julio stretching its leg doesn't matter fast corners slow corners that mercedes looks fabulous here at kyle army and then suddenly a problem can it yes it is grief the 71 ferrari going just about nowhere certainly nowhere fast and then nowhere at all nicholas nielsen oh the pain for him he came here as a championship challenger but with what we thought was a gearbox problem he pulled to the side of the circuit and that was that for the 71 ferrari they had two cars two crews both with drivers who could have taken the championship honors and now just the one it was the fifty one and that was uh fleetingly after it's pitched off ahead of tima bogasleyski but the russian driver said no thank you very much i'm gonna take that lead back i've got heat in my tires pulled away he took some risk going around this into africa motorsports uh lamborghini there but held on and then balanced that margin bouncing across the curbs to go past the gt4 audi kept the margin at about three and a half seconds there was nothing come nedergaar could do and this was a great stint from the russian driver over the curbs and that was the corner the drivers were getting pinged at for exceeding track limits but uh it's been a great battle of the fellow drivers in that 89 car having their turns as well but uh afternoon lights began to fade the lights came on the cars the lights were flashed to alert other rivals that they were coming through the 25 and 32 audi's picking their way through the back markers as well nothing they could do about the pace of that ferrari just up ahead of them but their own battle got closer and closer it was eight seconds apart then it came down and down and eventually when we went to darkness they were almost nose to tail with a 32 car closing in very fast indeed but out front of course it was the asp mercedes some risks were being taken there that was kelvin vandalinder still trying to be the lead audi in the race still being the lead audi but bouncing around the gt4 local car was a scary moment at the crocodile corner for him 26 antelope racing audi fighting for position on the track with a high-class racing audi running in the color of the sharks rugby team from down on the ocean front at durban and positions changing all the time there were problems as evening came for the sun energy one racing mercedes a stone through the front radiator made the power steering all too hot it failed and that radiator had to be changed that dropped it to second in the pro-am class behind the high-class racing audi and the santelok racing car for the second time in the race had a problem at a pit stop it wouldn't restart had to be put on the dolly jacks rolled back into the garage the problem fixed from out to the pit lane fingers crossed and hoping it would work but now with the exhaust blowing under cover of the darkness the akka asp mercedes just continued doing what it had done before and uh being the class of the race setting fastest lap after past this lap but getting within two-tenths of a second of the lap record here raffaeli marcello is out his race is run the car far from run and it has got joe gunion on board to do the final two stints to the finish of the race we're getting towards the final hour of this joe bird kaianabi nine hour and it's akka asp leading big world millionaire chasing and it could be the 51 crew that takes the title back live at what seems like the middle of the night at carl island full darkness there is the graphic showing the gap between the race leading mercedes or jugunyo and the chasing ferrari of migral molina is 16.587 seconds but importantly for molina his ferrari is the best part of 40 seconds clear of the better of those two hours it's still the 25 audi from santa look just ahead of christopher hustler but when i say just i mean 1.4 seconds so that was a gap that uh hustler closed very quickly maybe needed houses car had a slightly slower pit stop or you could put it the other way around maybe the wrt had a slightly faster pit stop but whatever happened it changed but nothing's changed at the front of the race harry because and the 89 mercedes the class of everything at this meeting still in front still looking comfortable i would say it must be something to do with gunyon's night glasses but to be honest that car has been on it from the very very start julian in the car after marcelo looking absolutely sublime navigating these conditions well maybe a little cheeky run out wide there track limits being watched like a hawk by race control but nothing has uh popped up in the last few uh minutes or they've actually been all good for the last half an hour actually they've been fairly behaving themselves and you think it actually might be harder to avoid the track limits in the night time but the vision is uh massively reduced but jorgun doing a good job at the front of the field right now molina anita has a nearly a a lap back from um from google yes i mean it has just kept on stretching i mean every time you look at the lapping the lap pace it's still with that mercedes at the front of the field you know i've got an hour and what under an hour and 20 to go but you see well they could afford to back off a bit but they have to win this race for their teammate timo bogashlyski he can take the title if they win but not of course if the ferrari finishes in second place but at the moment the ferrari's looking very comfortable in second place miguel molina he will change over because we've heard alessandro piokidi will have the honor of taking that 51 ferrari to the finish of the race and potentially another entry in my rather analogue records in bold type which would mean a championship title and in fact when you were going through pierre titles there's so many to mention you know european le mans series gte champion that was 2019 i'm sure you missed a couple of the others but at the top level of the gt world challenge endurance series he took that title in 2020 for good measure 2021 as well i i couldn't fit all of his uh things on yeah but of course you know we've seen the overtake here as well it's not just titles it is as i said great overall pace but it's about when you have a moment to to seize greatness it's the ability to seize it and he didn't blink around the outside of no less fearsome corner blossom in the full wet and at that moment he could have thrown everything away right at the end of the spa 24 hours and you know sometimes you look at championships over the years but the moments the visual moments of when something has achieved and uh along with af courser who are always very very clever on the tactics you know he has had a phenomenal career particularly the last five or so years it highlights just how high the standard is of driver in general in this series as well because he is one of the best but let's look across to the other side as well you've got such a a variety of high-end drivers spearheading these teams unfortunately for the other air of course the car they now are out but yeah because nielsen couldn't quite pull off the move around sunset so quickly but you know as you say he's he's pulled up the ranks of ferrari challenge but uh showing to ferrari why they would pick him as a factory driver it's just an immense class throughout the field right a couple of darkness we wondered if the audis would start to find pace relative to they're very close to each other relative to the ferrari the answer is yes they're lapping slightly faster but it's very close sometimes last time around race leader julio one minute 43.4 seconds big one millionaire one minute 43.8 so a bit of an advantage third of a second faster but then the the audi's behind one bit 43.5 one minute 43.4 so christopher haas are catching christopher crashing patrick nederhauser patrick need a hauser slightly catching but still 38 seconds down uh catching the ferrari and julgunya were just doing what that that car has done throughout but again tricky conditions in the darkness they are now far enough into their first in in the night the drivers are on board at the moment but just a third of a second all the top four and actually i think we'll watch it next time around just expect a better lap from monitor i would think because that was one of his slower laps since taking over in second place but it is phenomenal and that just shows the level of the top drivers in the championship we're talking really really small margins and that is why the likes of pierre gd able to seize any moment whereas even tiny bit of an advantage he does seize he does seize those moments and that is why he's just a little bit ahead of quite a lot of his rivals and you know the standard gets closer and closer with every year that's it and particularly with the young guns coming in some get it some don't but some get onto the pace and it just means we've got more drivers in that top bracket which is fabulous well with an hour and 15 to go still in this jober kyle army nine hour i don't know about you get the sense that this is sort of almost make potentially status quo a little bit amongst them in terms of the times but perhaps this is the time where there could be a bit of calm before the storm action you know that feels like something's on the cusp of happening it's getting towards the proper darkness now tiredness is going to creep in and the gaps are they are large yes but this is endurance raising all it takes someone to have a little off all it takes is one to have a little electrical or mechanical issue and we're nearly right back to square one nine hours ago okay can i put you on your toes no migor molina one minute 43.8 one minutes 43.9 his pace is dropping away whereas the audis we wondered if they would find their form seem in darkness in the cooler track temperatures they're able to lap a third of a second a lap faster than the molina but he's sitting on a huge cushion he's sitting on a margin of 38 seconds or so doesn't have to worry about the mercedes ahead of him but it's just a sort of get the feelers out there is there something comfortable with the ferrari i'm not trying to build drama into a race where it's not there but i'm just keeping an eye on his time all it takes is another drive-through penalty doesn't it and suddenly it's uh it's crunch time for ferrari so look at the top two runners and uh for one lap 22 thousands per second were gained by uh julio uh sorry by molina on gun on but since then it's uh eight tenths of a second to split across two laps have gone the way of the race leader so bolina's pace has fallen away and keep an eye on his next time around ah he's suddenly going oh sorry i'm not being slow he's just done a woman at 43.2 in fact he's taken a bit of time out of the race leader but uh well keeps us on our toes looking for things hard to pick them out in the in the night time to see any problems with the cars i don't think there are any problems with the cars at all but uh again you just always have to look and check look for any signals that we can i'm going to take a little break now so john watson will be uh leading the way with harry benjamin who's having such a good run with us taking over my corner so bruce just before you go quickly just bring me up to speed still mercedes leading from ferrari from the two audis and the caps the gaps are hanging around just over 16 and a half seconds first or second yeah they are but the interesting thing is the the audi's are just over a second apart and that has really been the big change they were before the pit stops when he went away there was an 11 second marching 25 ahead of 32 but uh in fact christopher has just moved ahead he has moved up a position on the last lap under cover of darkness into dum dum dum third place yes and that's ultimately the way i suspect that audrey will audie will smiley will see uh their two representatives finish the race so one hour and 12 minutes remaining everybody lead cars the top four cars are on their 265th lap and lap times still hovering around the middle to high one minute 43s a very good last lap actually from christopher house of 143.3 that's an impressive time that's the time that actually helped him swim or sailed by patrick nisa houser whose last lap was about nearly two seconds down so let's look and see what the replay is going to give us and what's going on there where why is the car and what's that what's a bit weird isn't it no there we are there we go car spinning is that one of the audis is that what has allowed uh hassa to get through on nida no no i think that i mean if that was where all the time is lost by neither there was a spin that turned 16. so well done that camera man he was all the way down that turn the old long range then so that was an unexpected moment and that's where the pass has come so we've seen christopher haaser drop down to fourth and then neither house is in the third place for that that last up for christopher hasser was a 153.5 including an unprovoked spin we don't know what caused it but certainly one assumes it was an unprovoked spin unless he was compromised with another car but anyway we don't know well this is what we've just been talking about and we have been done for the last couple of hours you know it's in these final hour and ten minutes that all it takes is to dip a wheel slightly on perhaps a wet wet grass or a wet curb that hasn't quite dried out yet we don't know how he's spun but it's these little things that one spin a spin for miguel molina that sends him into the gravel perhaps and that suddenly puts patrick nederhauser in the hot seat to take the title indeed and there's a mission and open event for that to be the case from the ferrari perspective uh anyway i'm sorry from the audi perspective with patrick nederhauser you know really all the racing and i say that as racing all the racing is pretty much over it's just going through the final hour and 10 minutes but an incident like that with christopher harsa totally unexpected came out of the blue we wouldn't have known about it until we got that replay from our very very on the ball cameraman picking it up and then offering it up as a replay so that explains where the time that christopher hassell lost and the last nine seconds in effect with that spin he'll be kicking himself all the way around the remaining arrow whatever well that's my question how is that gonna affect him in these in these clothing closing stages is that gonna sort of you know is he gonna suddenly be a bit more sharp on it or is he gonna think oh god you know i've got to catch up here i i don't know what will happen it may be conditional on what happens to the second base ferrari if something happens to the second page ferrari i can guarantee you that there will be a quick swap around the positions between the 32 and the 25 audis but if the second place ferrari remains in position until the end then i think the positions between the 25 and 32 will remain unchanged there we are look at the points score as we look at them these are how yes if it finished like this alessandra pierre gideon combated 55 points would take the title ahead of marcus finkelhock and patrick niederhauser in second christopher hasser now with that spin would be down in third ahead of timor gomski who was the outside choice to take the title uh joint third actually that would be 47 points so that is how if it ends like this it would be the drivers point standings getting word in as well from amanda music down there saying santalot doesn't know what happened they didn't hear why hassa spun just assuming uh it was from the pushing too hard and the darkness as well which is exactly what these conditions instigate yeah it's a strange place to spin uh we don't see or we haven't seen certainly over the period we've been running in calamia anybody spin and turn 16. there are other more challenging quarters but of course you maybe just come into the corner a little bit quicker you're just balancing the car on the brakes before you get back on the throttle and on the steering and once you get that sort of that pendulum effect the back end of the car starts to drift away depending on the tyre condition the level of grip track temperature track temperature right now 23.1 ambient 20.4 so it's not desperately cool i don't believe that tire temperature has fallen off a cliff and that would be the reason why christopher hauser had that little spin and uh i think the team i don't think they'll be able to make up the ground lost there to uh need a hauser now so i think that's probably the way it will finish they'll not make it up on track the only way they'll make it up is if word goes out to neither harsher to let house get past that would only happen as i said i think if molina and the the ferrari the 488 ferrari from af corsa had a problem so then you would want to automatically maximize on the best chances that you would have for the 32 audio well it's just over an hour remaining here for the joburg kyle army nine hour the season finale of the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge julion leading the way ahead of miguel molina and patrick nederhauser christopher haas has dropped down to fourth because of a spin that occurred earlier on we've got another angle of it here so can we get a better look at this he's lost the rear as he tried to save it and then spun round so the back part of the car is now it looks to me as if he was just too far he maybe got on the curb there is grass on the far side of the curb so maybe just cut too much on the curb um and although the curves were wet early in the day but now there should be sufficiently dry but the grass might still be pretty slippery i mean the grass is slippery at the best of times but with all the moisture it still could be retaining some of it it looks to me as a totally unforced driver uh responsible uh error and you know a driver of the class of christopher harsa the knowledge and experience he don't make whatever you'd call well i can't say schoolboy i'll say school person errors in case anybody was offended well uh certainly hass will uh be kicking himself on that one i think for that spin but uh he stays in fourth and has stabilized there now just looking at the last laptop for the top three you know they are split the top two split by sixteen point of 16 and a half seconds but gunyon 143 388 molina are 143 237 and niederhauser 143 616. so actually molina going fairly well but it's looking unlikely isn't it that he's going to be able to claw anything back there and it feels a little bit like status quo in those top three uh stations at the moment but neither house is doing everything he can to keep himself in the fight absolutely he's driving the wheels off the ferrari but it's all nickel and dime stuff you know you're talking about a tenth here a couple of tenths there give or take i mean one of the reasons for it is because somebody was maybe a gun had slightly compromised on a lap because of traffic or maybe he made us in a slight area himself you're going to get that kind of give or take around a second that the gap in fact between first and second is down to 15.8 seconds so clearly that lasts that six tenths of a second lost by gunyo against molina so there's where the time has gone from 16.4 down to 15.8 but it'll ebb and flow around about a second give or take another happened the the championship is going to be won right now as it looks by the af course of 51 ferrari they might like to win the race but actually what they want to do is win the championship the race would be the icing on the cake so while they will push for victory they're not going to put themselves into jeopardy to try and secure that victory if it might lead to an enforced error and maybe losing the drivers championship and it really highlights what a smart decision it was before the weekend to split up the championship contenders to have over the two af course entries just to give them more of a chance and of course that's exactly what it's done because if they haven't done that they complete they might well be completely out of the running well that's why they entered two cars and then you can by doing that then you can mix and match your drivers across those two cars to give yourself your team the best options if one has a fun stumbles as we saw the 71 do then the 51 is a place to pick it up and because they split the drivers the unfortunate driver of course on the af course or lineup was nicholas nielsen who was in the 71 ferrari he was a contender to be a world champion well as we watched the af corset come out of the at the final corner coming to the pits a little further down the order is one of the uh the into africa cars from the uh the national gt3 championship coming into the pits let lacquer bring in the uh stradali into africa lamborghini in and uh that's a driver change supercar has now taken over on that car so they're still going strong impressive stuff for them you know it's their first race uh with the uh international uh boys and with the professionals as well who are used to this kind of racing not just endurance racing but also racing in the dark so it's impressive that they've been able to you know to keep all four wheels moving going you know throughout the duration of this race dealing with the different conditions that are coming out them yeah i mean they will have grown exponentially by the time they get out of this race i bet you the smiles on their faces will be just ear to ear you know to to finish a nine our endurance event a tough endurance event is going to be uh something a massive massive achievement in their step forward in their motor racing careers well as we uh get to uh near the hour mark we uh we do think that it will be sort of final stints really for these drivers we're within that time as that jorgun leads the way ahead of miguel molina and patrick nederhauser the top three as it stands julgunyon would take the win for the akka asp but they wouldn't win the title that would go the driver's title at least would go to the uh the number 51 ferrari but it wouldn't be miguel molina who takes it who's in the car right now would be his teammates who get it alessandra pierre guili and combe ledegar who take it and of course audi sealed the manufacturer's title earlier on in this race and we were led to believe from an earlier fit then comment that actually it will be alessandra pierre greedy that will get into the 51 ferrari for that final stint it was either going to be here my colleague so it's going to be alessandra pierre guidi so one might say uh they've put the the driver who's going to win the championship back into the car that's going to win the championship so it's all a nice tidy story uh to finish the 2021 season all day we were in 2022 but of course the race was postponed all the way back in 2021 because of they're looking in the garage we'll look at the smiles and come let the girls face a much more cheery looking in his civvies well there you know he's not going to be driving later this afternoon this evening he's already out of his overalls and looking as fresh as a daisy as you would expect all these professional athletes to do i'm upset we won't get to break the lap record we came oh so close unless we did it oh so close it's closer than you thought closer than i thought a 142.285 is a a very impressive uh lap time by the mercedes by uh rafael marcelo but you can't beat a 60 year old design when it comes to going fast that's what the 911 is and every any incarnation it is it is the the best example in the world of development over design to make that design concept work and win races is unbelievable believe me it is unbelievable and we're seeing the difference as well in design cars with this mercedes going around of course front engine and then ferrari chasing mid-engine as well seeing how it tackles the same circuits you know you spoke about it a little earlier on but just remind us again you know the differences between these actual cars and how they react to the the circuit that we're at well you've got extremely complex technical machines and then you've got extremely complex and maybe in some cases technical but otherwise emotional human beings and it's one of the few sports where you mix technology with humanity and how you get them all to sort of come out within fractions of seconds of each other which i've never fully understood but it's just what happens just what happens as we continue to see uh quite beautiful shots don't actually see a lot of it because it is just so dark but it is uh quite nice just seeing the the the headlights or the rear lights i should say of the af course are coming through and the audi as well following suit coming out of the uh the final corner ingway turns 16 that slow left-hander which brings you out onto the start finish straight and then quickly you're into the full throttle right hand kink before 100 meter breaking board perhaps maybe a little bit more tentative in these nighttime conditions brings you into turn two and then the excise sweep and then approaching barbecues around the lap yeah up through and then into barbecue so patrick nederhauser on his way to a third place finish he's got christopher hasanah just 7.3 seconds behind so right now christopher has so fractionally quicker on that last lap and patrick nederhauser trying to make up for his own forced error in turn 16 which took away that almost solid place that third place so well i i don't think audi is going to orchestrate a change in third and fourth positions but look there's just under an hour they can if they feel that that is the appropriate thing for the the brand to do well that will be something that will be um discussed between the various two teams involved center lock racing and of course wrt well we think casa lost about nine seconds in that spin he's about 7.3 seconds now behind needed houses so he managed to call back a little bit of time but whether that uh that move ends up being something i really have to think about we shall wait and see 58 minutes to go remaining here at the jober kyle army at nine hour for the final the intercontinental gt challenge was rescheduled from 2021 which is why we're seeing a slightly uh less packed grid of course if this is at the usual time we've seen more cars on the grid so that's a little bit of a shape but still being able to provide uh some good racing some good moves particularly i think we'll be talking about that move uh pierre geary on around the outside and sunset in his af course up for a little while yet i mean listen as disappointed as i was that this race didn't take place in 2021 i am delighted to be able to sit and commentate on and i knows kailami in the early part of lot of motorsport 2022 on in the northern hemisphere at that at this time of year it's still in europe almost impossible to conceive but in the southern hemisphere this is the late summer coming into early autumn a beautiful time of year on the high valt in johannesburg and i mean i know people will use this particular event your people who are present here they'll go off for a few days and piggyback a day or two in the safari and go and see elephants and whatever else i'm going to see tigers there in india but whatever the wildlife would be in some of the big game parks and just enjoy the fact that they're here get a few days you know down time and then return back to europe now well speak of wildlife here in carl armour we've seen we've seen a few birds sort of scatter across the the trap but what is that you know didn't you mention something to do with snakes as well earlier that are quite local to the track oh absolutely you don't go walk about unless you're very familiar with where you're going to place your feet and uh you know this is africa and there are many many reptiles that you will find in the countryside you might find a few in the pit lane as well but they'll certainly be in the in the countryside around the racetrack [Music] well make sure to steer clear of any snakes that's the last thing you want to see in a car race uh in terms of what we're expecting to uh see for the last uh within this last hour we already thought that we would get um greedy into the 51 af courser so for miguel molina we think he will be coming in and it will be alessandra pierre gidi to finish that stint but patrick nederhauser we think will remain in that car along with joel goonon to finish the stint so expecting miguel molina to come in for a driver change but not shill goon on and patrick neither house we think they will stay and finish the race um in these last remaining 55 minutes of the job kyle army nine hours so still a few more changes to come yes and just watching timing and scoring and looking at grunion's last lap versus molina's last stop so the gap actually is coming down again small numbers it's down to about 14 seconds 14.1 seconds actually is the precise figure so whether gunyo's backing off or whether molina is picking up the pace don't know whether it's to do with traffic or what other factors there are but certainly we're seeing the ferrari just taking another few tenths there it is the last three laps half a second third of a second half a second so one point three seconds over three laps that's quite a lot of time to take out of the the lead car and i've been one lap i can understand but three laps gilgunio that's not what i would have imagined and had a good run by miguel molina to do so well is it is it jorgun just being a bit more cautious in this last hour because you know we've seen drivers being a little bit more cautious in this darkness he doesn't want to make any stupid risks by taking completely life out of his tires and life out of the car well i mean if you ask me the character of julio would you say cautious i would say he is a racer absolutely 100 racer so maybe the team are saying just do not do anything that would make our victory here vulnerable to a human error but let's look and see what he's going to complete at the end of lap 275 to see whether he's done a reset so the last up he that was 143.4 against the 142.9 from elena so the gap is at the minute 14.1 seconds now the mercedes has come across start finish like we're waiting for the ferrari to follow through hold your breath for 14 seconds if you can hold it that long or maybe it'll be 13 seconds or might be up to 15 seconds i suspect it's probably climbed it's down to 13.8 seconds well there's a surprise again four consecutive laps now that molina has eaten into the advantage of jule goon you're leading in the mercedes wow that looks like a pit lane interview somebody why are ferrari going quick and mercedes losing time lap on lap for four laps well we're hearing from uh tom hornsby on the ground there that we think molina is going to come in four laps after julion uh who is going to be coming in we think in about two laps so that's when we can see the changes so perhaps molina just putting in a final stint to gain as much time as he can before he hands the card yeah i'm handing the card over to here alessandra pierre greedy so you you've got arguably the the quickest of the ferrari drivers going back in for the final hour and jule goon you know over the series of four or five laps has consistently been slower than the the charging second place ferrari so maybe there's still a story to unwind before the checkerflies unfold unwind unfold a lot of bonds and all that i think i'll get away with both well 52 minutes remaining we're into darkness or well and truly into darkness here in this uh final hour of the joke kyle army nine hour for the intercontinental gt series 2021 finale julion currently leading the way in the akka asp mercedes amg let me see his last laptop he's just coming across start well one to 43.364 a thousandth or so of a second gap was down to 13 seconds high 13's the previous lap for molina coming through so is he going to be a middle 13 14 or so he's lost molina actually it was slower on that last lap by 0.4 of a [Music] well this is actually a carbon trait of what we've seen from not just a of course but from the girl molina in that car as well but he is fast he could just about be as fast if not faster but he cannot keep up on a consistent basis and that seems to be where the ferrari lacks the outright pace compared to that mercedes who is able to stay consistently first and within those times whereas that a of course could put in a blistering time for a couple of laps but then it has to ease off it can't keep that up but the the final play has yet to be rolled out we're waiting for the mercedes we think that's going to be the first of the lead group of cars in fact the lead car to come in and make a not make a driver change just do a reset refuel send it back out again in one would assume what will be still the lead and then alessandro pio greedy in the charging ferrari it'll be interesting to see whether they can get this 14 second uh disadvantage to the lead car down to anything into single figures if that were to happen then you know there is a mercedes coming in now here's your gun on coming in then so we think this is the stop that we don't think he's going to be getting out of that car he will be staying in to finish the race so uh so here he comes oh oh that's a bit more necessary rear left comes on [Music] liquid i don't know what it is precisely so both sides one side's been changing you only got two mechanics to do the actual car change so there they are pull the air so get the car rolling come on jewel wait until you get the indication from the radio connection to you before you start rolling down the pit lane here we go final wheel spin trying to get some modicum of temperature of that rear center tire so he will rejoin probably he'll rejoin maybe in third place i was going to say he has come out to third base just ahead of christopher hauser but behind patrick niederhauser in the third what was the third place i denied the second place i did and then we've got two more pit stoppers to see where this race will end up and the it's who's that overtaken that's not hazard is it is that christopher house has gone past so hausa in the fourth place audi has now become asset in the third person absolutely well joe gooney on there coming out in third after his uh service they're staying in the car to finish off uh these nine hours for the akka asp team we think uh we've got so goonan actually come out behind hasta in the end there so uh and we now think as expected that molina will come in four laps in four laps time the leading af courser now takes over the lead and patrick neither has it in a second two as well and the hassa getting up to third ahead of julian who has come out in fourth after those pit stops what sort of a big old mouthful to get all this out and sort of summarize in a few words as possible what the permutations are likely to be but the most likely permutation will be this car the 89 mercedes is going to go and take checkered flag and it's most likely that the 51 ferrari that is currently in the lead with miguel molina behind the wheelers on an outstanding job in his stint his final stint of the evening will end up in second place what happens with the two hearties which of the two will finish in third place well one might think that the situation there will be the twenty-five idea of patrick nederhauser will take their place [Music] oh that could have been a little that was interesting yes so who's coming in there we think we were heard of hearing that uh christopher haspel's gonna be coming in i think that is him and he's behind the 26 both there i think just ahead yeah so uh the two audi are rates in uh [Music] already gone past him for third so he's reclaimed that staying in the car nice set of sticker tires going on to the audi and that will give christoph house of the maximum grip level that is possible so the right side's down the left sides being so the right front and the right rear that's that frontal raspberry already on the car so just waiting for the signal from the pit wall or from those in the garage to say go go go there it spins the is wheels and so he will rejoin [Music] ultimately i suspected fourth position it looks that way so now we are waiting for miguel molina and patrick nederhauser to make their moves as well they are currently leading this race but are now out of sync of course expecting nida hazard to come in but stay in the car molina expects to come in i think within about two laps now and to hand over to uh pier greedy to take that af course home but look set to retake the lead when those moves are made it's a 44.7 seconds between melina and niederhauser at the moment well this is the time for molina shine he's been making up ground in the last few laps can he eke out now he's at the front and try and give them a little bit of an edge when he comes in to make his final stop well that's the the role of the dice we can't predict so if i said i think a few minutes ago if ferrari can get the lead gap from the 89 mercedes down to this car the 51 ferrari under 10 seconds into single figures you have to think look there we see alexander appear greedy all ready with the seat insert uh okay it would be very difficult to take nine seconds out in the space of what will be what maybe forty two or three minutes but it's not going to mean that alessandro pier greedy ain't gonna give everything he's got the thing he needs to be aware of is can't throw it into the wall in the pursuit of winning the race but he doesn't actually need to win the race what he needs to do is bring that car home and score the maximum points that he can for his team and for himself to take victory in the drivers championship well i'll tell you what i am very much looking forward to watching these last 44 minutes of the job kyle army nine hour i'm gonna let bruce jones come back here but it's been an absolute pleasure to do my uh first endurance race alongside so we're just trying to catch up with what's on track we've still got waiting or still waiting for the 51 ferrari to make its final pit stop likewise waiting for the 25 audi patrick neiser needed to make its final pit stop the 89 mercedes and the 32 rd they have done so so they are there's alessandra pierre greenlee standing still waiting always important for a driver who's going to get into a car to be prepared before the anticipated time that the car is doing in case in case the car that is coming in comes in the lap early which has happened for whatever reasons there is the 51 ferrari miguel molina and just looking down his last lap was a very good last up one 42.87 against neither height is one forty three point two so cunha back out and his lap looks like his opening lap was a 43 so pretty impressive opening lap for the frenchman in the car the car that is currently third but bruce ultimately will be the lead car after the final two rounds of pit stops are the leading group of cars well indeed so the ferrari into the pit lane well it's certainly tightened up in my little uh half hour break but what i noticed last time unions out that the previous time was a woman hit 45 the first real flyer one minute 43.1 he's accustomed to the darkness and the challenge is being laid down ferrari are really in the mix and that hasn't really been something we thought it was always the akka asp rory clear but here the final pit stop out climbs miguel molina from the remaining ferrari don't forget they started with two they split their driver line up but alessandro piagety and come let it go look and so they're going to be the lucky pair second place will be enough to give them the toast but let's go down to amanda to describe it on the spot that's amanda who has discussed this will be the final pit stop for the ferrari it's a minimum 68 second pit stop here at kaialami in that time as we just saw four new pirelli six wins on the car they topped off the car with gas and the most importantly the ferrari factory driver their star driver alesso piergetti is behind the wheel of the branching horse will they be the driver champion in the first year they've competed in the intercontinental gt challenge powered by pirelli it is in alessandro's hands [Music] so thank you very much amanda real tension down in the pit lane they're fabulous here at kyle army for the job carl army nine hour niederhauser is now leading the race for the 25 santerloch racing audi so uh undercover doctor yesterday we can look at the timing screens as well john looking to see the pace of juggernaut in his next lap one minute 42.9 he is showing far more pace on this final stint the second the second of his two stints under cover of darkness at carlimi ought to pop him back into the lead of the race but the big question of course is how close will that ferrari be there but we'll not know until we see alessandro pio really completing not just only his outlet but his first flying lap his outlap was or is that the last lap of that car was a two for that i'd latch her back if it was 242 so he's now on his first flying lap and no doubt he will be flying because alessandro pio greedy is an absolute star behind the wheel of a ferrari in fact anything he's ever had his hands on whether he will be able to do anything about the pace of gunyo right now looks like the gap is 3.7 seconds which is slightly concerning about that so patrick nederhauser fleetingly led the race but his time in the lead is coming to an end because he's driving into the pit lane for his pit stop so that'll cycle cycling back to third place overall possibly even back to four so heading towards amanda and she's going to watch it through any fumbles down to amanda the 25 has made it to the pit box same thing's going to happen here guys four new pirelli slicks are going to go on that car patrick niederhauser is staying in this 25 audi to curious thing to the end but back to the drivers championship only two points separate the audi drivers from ferrari as we know 40 minutes left in this race a lot can still happen it's kyle it's unpredictable and this is where it gets super fun guys thank you very much it really adds to the immediacy having a bit reported down there right on the scene as everything happens of course that car can't go yes it's all ready to go but it has to wait until the end of its mandatory time in the pit lane yeah one minute 43.0 second lap a car driving past any period is that doing a drive through the goodbye i'm trying to work out who else is in the pit they need a house in the pit lane and nobody else's distance being in there no it's brother where did that come from i i wasn't sure if that was i think it was an id anyway okay we think it was actually the 86 lamborghini going through but the important thing there was the the slight consequence of uh positioning pit lane that's why we gave pig edie as being only 3.7 seconds down he's actually 42.7 it's always that element where one car is still in the picture and uh just waited and his out his first flying lap a one-minute 54 that's there or there about since the pace of the next lap but look what's the clock say at the top of the screen with under 39 minutes remaining so jugunyon leads the way by around 15 seconds from alessandro piageti that is a comfortable cushion but importantly it's also gunos laying down consecutive really quick laps in that 89 mercedes the the exhaust pipe still glowing in the cover of darkness the next car we will see or find at somewhere in the darkness ought to be alessandro piergini who is heading towards the championship title he'll share it with conadegar if he can stay in that second place overall and keep those audis behind him but if either the need a house a car or the house car can get through sec take that second place they will take the championship but it is second place for pierre gidi at the moment yes and that gap has actually increased it's now up to 15. seconds so google did a very good lap on his last lap pig wedi was about half a second slower on his first full flying lap so looking to find the next car we need to find after the ferrari ought to be the need a house at audi but as you can see it is so so dark at kyle army we've got 10 cars circulating the track so you get moments of light and moments of darkness here comes niederhauser and not far behind him very very close indeed but looks he says christopher harsa let's just wait for confirmations that they go to the start finish line or what's on the other audience yeah certainly 4.6 seconds bruce so he's closing in on nederhauser in uh third position again whether there'll be an orchestrated overtake or not to give us a the third position in the event that something unforeseen should happen particularly to the ferrari yeah he's gonna have to show exceptional pace christopher haaser to catch and uh have enough an advantage over need a house as we consider the fact he's he's heading off after a lobby about neither house it'll be if if there's an issue with the ferrari then they will automatically want to put house ahead of needed housing to maximize the points that hassa would score it's only if there's an issue with the ferrari that that's probably going to come into play so the final pit stop stands a lot racing look so lucas legere is about he started the race he's about to put his seat in that's a big seat but he's a poor guy surprised he needs a seat at all but anyhow in he goes and uh certainly i wouldn't need a seat either but uh up on the jacks it goes but this is the car that's had so many problems restarting after pit stops after driver changes nicolas bear had a problem for him to see more but hopefully they've understood what it is and they're wary and capable of it not happening all over again i think they've rectified whatever the issue is ordinarily these cars these audi's but you might describe them as bulletproof it's really when a driver maybe has abused a car that maybe for a reliability might become a factor but the engineering of these rdr8 lms [Music] that involved two further visits the garage now they think just by dropping it as a form of punishment for the driver i feel in so many ways but uh oh so cruel they are holding down fifth place this is an opportunity and it may well mean that high-class racing who are on the same lap will go on past on his gt3 debut is at the wheel of the orange and black car not easy to pick out under cover of darkness i mean talk about the commentator's curse and talking about how crude engineering is on the artist well that's an electronic and intermittent electro electronic issue and can you imagine the second time in this race it's manifested itself just after a pit stop yeah so each of the three each the three drives in that car is faced up to that problem after a pit stop so it's been shared very easily right what's happening at the front of the field still zhu gunyoung leading the way santalot racing still a lot of scratching of heads as to why they cannot get it right but you know in endurance racing when you have a problem you often just have the choice either fix it or work your way around it and if you can possibly work your way around it by process procedure whatever that's what you've got to do now we're looking at the battle on track for third place overall it's the dub wrt car chasing christopher hasser on board but it's patrick nederhauser with 25 santa luck car who's still in that third position they're very close on the track 3.6 seconds and also in that group we've got uh terry vermoulan he's uh should have just moved up ahead he should have now moved ahead of the santa lot racing 26 if it hasn't happened yet it's about to happen soon here's the 32 audi coming around he's giving chase christopher harsa he was a four and a half seconds down on patrick he's four seconds down so well that's a tidy margin gained him on that point yes it is absolutely so hassel's on the charge neither heiser well he's going to try and consolidate as best possible decide i keep referring to what may or may not decided amongst the audi family as to whether as we look at class leader theory vermoulin in the pro-am category high-class racing and a good job by the young uh dutchman isn't he yeah belgium his father is the manager of uh max verstappen so he's had quite a year in 2021 now of course with just over half an hour to go all of eyes at the front of the field but there are other classes to celebrate and it looks as though the number 75 crew heading to second place in class but that that will be enough for them to take the title in the pro-am category the the second behind the high-class racing audi but that should be enough for kenny harbaugh and his gang they've had their problems with that radiator overheating at the front of the car there's the power steering yeah so certainly it's a very physical run to the end of the race and nicole grenier having a go at that take it through he started the race he was so impressed with challenging the ferraris in that opening hour or so of the race i think that's definitely extent from perennial it was one of the impressive drives of a number of pressure drives in the first hour most certainly was the audi drivers the two work saudis couldn't keep up with them at all but the race leader now it's pretty much as it has been since marcelo pulled away from pole position dropped the ferraris he's been reeled back in from time to time but really the akka asp mercedes car number 89 juguno taking it to the finish he's lapping very comfortably sitting on a lead of best part of 14 seconds to look the clock at the screen we've only got 32 minutes left it would appear that the 89 mercedes has always had that little bit of additional pace in reserve if they were required to access it they've never really been seriously challenged from the minute the check of the lights went out and we saw rafael marcello bit by bit just eased himself away from the pursuing ferraris and now they've had an over 10 second lead for most of over half this race 13.8 it is right now between the first and second place so they've had a little bit of comfort zone whereas the opposition have had to push pretty much to the capacity of their equipment as we look at the class two chops from some gun yeah they've had a decent run bear in mind that yesterday very early in practice the track was very wet and it went off into the barriers up at clubhouse almost point into the tyre wall that absorbed a lot of the impact but that was their running for the day and that was a crew all african crew need all the running they could possibly get i tell you what that that when you call it alex bruce the weeper it's still weeping as bad after eight and a half hours as it was at the beginning of the race i mean i should have taken a fishing rod and gone and cast a few flies you never know what you're gonna catch that thing is it's gotta have a a trout stream somewhere in the middle of it well you wonder where it's flowing to where it goes next but certainly we thought that would ease up i thought at one point it was after about four or five hours it wasn't it was simply the light had changed wasn't hitting it from the same angle but talking of the weather we had a few little drops of rain but we got away with it my due yesterday we had about a month's worth of rates so i guess it all balances out in the end but uh we expected a flurry of rain at several points in this race but it hasn't really happened hasn't thrown the curveball into the mix that all the teams must have been coiled waiting expecting it yeah in my experience of coming to calamity this time of year you don't get the kind of weather that you'd get normally in the back end of november so you can almost set your watch by the time it's going to come in over johannesburg you can see it just rolling in and then it just dumps on the racetrack so what we had on friday i think was exceptional what we've had today and there's the 75 in so that car isn't for its final stop 30 minutes to go drivers staying on board so michael grenier stays there it's going to be a short stop i suspect are they changing tyres rears are going on without the right hand side the ones they tend to change first questions if they do the others as well they've now fallen back or they're in that second place in class and i think there's not much they can do about catching the high-class racing audi unless they too owe us a pit stop i don't think they're out there so it looks as though they would have won that battle which would be a matter of enormous pride to uh mark patterson in particular just pointed this out again most of his racing career has been in the states where he's now naturalized but he's proud of being born in south africa at the age of 70 it's his first ever car race in his home country so when he gets on the podium for winning the prime orders he smiles anyhow it will be a massive i mean to be in the podium at 70 years of age is a remarkable achievement but doing it in your country of your birth no doubt will give them additional pride just out of information say the gap between first and second is extending your has now got a 15.5 second advantage over to has the ferrari conceded that they're not likely to win the race outright but they will win the championship and they're going to be content with that because further behind well patrick nederhauser third place is some 43 seconds behind that second place ferrari well i think it's time we found out some news from the pits and amanda busy very busy indeed and she's caught out with the driver shortly out of the number 25 audi that's kelvin vanlinda another south african at home and the south african only lives five minutes from this track and as you reflect back on your stints here today how fun is it to race here at kyalami that was great especially you know i had three months off after the dtm season so it's amazing to be back then you really appreciate the job that we do here um so a lot of fun especially the sunset set to um stand which i got seeing all the local fans with the barbecues with the brides like we call them in south africa and yeah it was a proud moment as african probably south african today i was talking to marcus yesterday your teammate and he was saying right here at kaialami his father raced with your grandfather his uncle raced with your father now you two are racing together how special is that it's special to see how the the family traditions obviously vancolk is a really famous name in germany my family is obviously well known here in south africa so you know put those two together me and marcus we won our first endurance race together in nurburgring a couple years ago and yeah somehow every time me and him drive together we're on the podium even today looking good for a p3 so it's been great memories with him and obviously just a cool story you're going to podium here today most likely that it seems like the audience been a little off pace from the ferrari to the mercedes was there anything else that your team could have done to make this a little closer battle to be honest we we were really hoping for a bit of rain to spice things up we got some of the best engineers here in the business and they know how to to strategize on that side but uh we seem to be struggling here at altitude once again this year so uh yeah at the end of the day i'll take a podium any day of the week and uh yeah let's see how we go i think yesterday took all your rain yeah exactly i was actually i was hoping they would save it but for today but it wasn't the case it was cool for the fans because they're not wet at least they can go home nice and dry um so yeah well pride of the home team guys thank you very much amanda boussik down with uh a smiling and very cool t-shirt yeah nine hours of hustle i was gonna say that nine hours of hustle i mean that's something you expect kevin vander into to wear something a little bit you jokey um it's his home country home race home circuit and a podium very much on the cards well third place is still in the hands of the car he's got out off the 25 center lock audi but the 32 wrt out he's still under four seconds in the rears but actually matching lap times pretty much with patrick needed house and christopher husser giving his all but of course uh would have been different story if he had the spun bruce well indeed put you in control of the box and he goes through a rotation what can i say what you can say is that alessandra pierre greedy is now 16 and a half seconds behind race leader so clearly in my view the order has gone out from air of course and drive to the finish forget about trying to win this race we want to win the championship and do not put anything in jeopardy take no additional risks just bring the car home second place is good enough to consid to actually secure the championship yeah well he's sitting on that that 40-odd second advantage over the better of those two audi's niederhauser at the wheel of that and uh yes you can see how he dropped away from goony on 0.6 of a second point nine of a second and then uh well almost matching his time but the margin is going out he was never going to challenge it he might have made it by interesting interesting by getting closer but the mercedes was never his target overall victory great but championship victory better that's where he's heading second place should be enough yeah and that's why i mentioned just somewhat earlier that i've i really believe that the pace of the 89 mercedes the pace that we were seeing was the pace that they wanted us to see that they may well have had that little five percent reserve if they had to access it they didn't and they didn't therefore do it what we're saying now from your is he is running still at his fundamental regular pace it's just that the is backed off fractionally and that's giving the the gap in first and second was 16 seconds at the end of lap 292 16.9 seconds so it's going up half a second or so of that yeah and we look as though we're heading towards the number you suggested would be the amount of laps 300 laps looks pretty much on the cards we've got 292 and a half on the board uh and the gap back from piergidi in that second place ferrari to patrick nederhauser in the third place alley that's car number 25 just around 40 seconds at the moment so that's more than comfortable with uh enough time for about eight further laps now what am i talking about like doing a lap in one minute 100 seconds 103 seconds a bit more than that actually the other thing will be i think maybe a record certainly in the current configuration where we're running a gt3 regulation race is that this will be the greatest number of laps completed in a nine hour event in the last three years because the previous two have been heavily affected by heavy rain in the last couple of hours yeah and and periods where the cars were not running at full race speed many more incidents more cars you put on this track the more likelihood you're going to have incidents and the leading circle horse yellows and so on this has been a remarkably clear clean race and in fact if you think the moment that the full course yellows it was for things like the gt4 audi stopping it pit in and blocking the road it wasn't for someone having an incident going off the scene i'll tell you what it doesn't give a team an awful lot to work with because what these teams are looking for are these opportunities they want a safety car or a full course they want rain to interfere they want things that they can juggle and mix and match with to give them an edge but they didn't get that yeah definitely the uh inference there that i only have a pretty good crew uh ready for rainy weather mikhail patamba still going around the circuit he's in that gt4 audi of course he started the race in a gt3 audi just running in for that opening hour then he joined maumeer and the team owner marius jackson mjr motorsport gt4 they're running on the pace for a gt4 but that is clearly an awful lot slower than gt3 so they've had a really tricky race constantly looking and i reckon it got harder and harder looking in the rear view mirror for the faster cars coming through when we moved into darkness the glare of the headlights be really tiring for the drivers but mikhail patambra at the wheel at the moment 85 laps in arrears but their pace in the gt forecast class car overtaken lapt every seven laps they've had a busy old race but they've kept it on the island so well done yes um they didn't quite make it into the pit lane at one point that threw a real spanner into the works because nobody could get access to the car so it did eventually get almost manhandled back into the pit lane but it got reset back out on the track and uh they are on lap [Music] 208 uh 85 laps down on the the lead car that is respectfully a massive massive amount of laps done but then the performance of the cars you say 20 seconds a lap or so down on that the lead car five laps just gonna take you to over 100 seconds lap time is in that zone on and on it goes right so look glad to see the santa luc racing number 26 audi the one that's running in the silver cup class all the problems after the pit stops getting that car restarted it's been back out since that final pit stop they won't want a further pit stop they don't want any further problems but uh lucas legere who started the race at the wheel of that nicholas bear stepping up to gt3 and sima gashe who's been there seen it done it got the t-shirt he they would have learned an awful lot from seymour absolutely well similar is a class act and an id for sure i mean they were the only uh silver cup car in this race so all they could do is beat themselves or beat themselves up they had issues uh they got them resolved and there we see uh vermoulin and that is in the 33 car which is currently in the pro-am category but it's in sixth position yeah and it's it's leading the prime category the problems the sun energy one cars put that in front for terry vermount didn't expect to be here didn't expect to be racing here but with anders field back uh being found to be covered positive he couldn't come and play and teary has stepped up and really impressed he'll have learned a huge amount a bit like nicola bear and a bit like lucas lester and the silver cup santa lot racing audi this has been a great chance it's the final race of 2021 but this gives them a springboard into their 2022 cafe i mean this is all about standing up to the plate and delivering them on behalf of your team the team entrusts you to do a professional job and i mean doesn't matter whether you're 17 or 70 that's your responsibility you're only there because people felt you were capable of doing that particular job so great job by the mullan he will have learned a great deal he doesn't need to go and tell max the man who's over how to drive a racing car but certainly he could stand and say well i didn't know naja kailami a lot of it was a beard and real darkness and it was fantastic and you know what an awful lot of drivers particularly drivers like max they think of 24 races an awful lot they will come and play in those later in their careers for sure because the thrill of racing at night is another challenge and obviously a 401 driver you just don't get a chance to have a crack at that well i i wonder if max was a bit like some formula one drivers and not name one in particular who always maintains 24 hours or 22 hours too long that was huge that wasn't me did i say that really well that's not like me to make a controversial comment no sorry i've got my wires crossed but it's always always a challenge some embrace it some go in the opposite direction it's it's there no it doesn't believe me the one of the biggest thrills i ever had i was finishing i finished two 24 hour races in my life one was in daytona where i finished third the other was after seven attempts i finished le mans and i was outside the top ten but there was still there is something special about finishing a 24-hour insurance race finishing i know endurance race is still a mighty big challenge but there is a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that you don't get in sprint racing no absolutely the emotional release because actually everyone is just so completely bushwhacked at the end of it you know your emotions always come to the top so win or lose it's an emotional time at the end of a race but at the end of a championship it looks though this year well for the we have a pit visitor one of the audi's diving fits just having a quick look it looks it's the number 33 33 so it did owe us another pit stop will this give a chance for the grenier car are there too many no they've lost too many laps of course with the last latter pit stops but for a while it's the changing of position but um stay on board through the end crew just waiting to pounce for a final pit stop just one tire being brought out so what's that a puncture you have to presume it was because that's the same thing but certainly a deflating tire they've got sensors on board where they can monitor where the tire type pressures are beginning to to change but if that can happen to a car halfway down the field that can happen to a car in the leading race it can happen to anybody chip leading car could be anybody so still a factor we have been immersed mercifully mercilessly mercifully light on punctures in this race and that is a good thing so it's not deflated but it will hold on it may be losing pressure it's not gone flat so the team have been monitoring the pressures they've seen us at a loss of pressure and they've said look come in we're going to change that target as we go back to chop sapika in the 23 lamborghini so he's making his way around the back of the racetrack just under 17 minutes of this race to go and we're on lap 297 right now with julio 17 and a half seconds ahead of alessandro pier greedy i can't stress how impressed i am by the stradali into africa crew the all black crew with lee ledaka chops chapuka and philipp kakana they're not used to racing after dark but this is where it's easy to make a mistake they got through the six hours or so of light without making a mistake they've gradually expanded their pace but it's also been a workout for the crew because they've had to handle all the pit stops so learning all the way and i'm sure they will be we've seen when they've been interviewed at any point in the race big smiles on their faces i think this is a real achievement for the local the number 23 lamborghini up front though the 89 mercedes akka asp about stock yet another lap 297 laps on the board another super comfortable lap in the mid one minute 43's for sure goonyo he's sitting on that margin what's it going to be about 17 seconds or so over alessandro pierkini we've got just over a quarter of an hour left in this race we've nearly done eight and three quarter hours of the joe bird karl army niner it's been it's been a really enthralling race at the front we'd have loved to had more cars if it hadn't been for covid we would have had a lot more cars and certainly had the race even been in november november cars 18.7 seconds is the differential first or second so again we're saying the gap front second place extend um no need for second base ferrari to try and run down the lead mercedes they've got a significant advantage over the third place patrick there's they're looking at azure google so top three manufacturers in the race today mercedes ferrari and audi and they would have shared one win a piece in the international so intercontinental gt challenge this year of course ferrari took the spa 24 hours victory went to audi in the indie eight hours and now it looks so almost there for mercedes here and actually will be the mercedes first win in its continental gt challenge to suzuka in 2018. so many times they've been within touching distance and it's dropped away from they should have won but for a variety of reasons they didn't they were always on the pace but for reasons to check the old record books and find out precisely what those were they didn't achieve what they ought to have achieved but they are now on course just under 15 minutes remaining and on lap 298 so they're going to exceed the predicted 300 lap race distance now i know that in previous events in kailami more than 300 laps have been recorded but those were on the original kailami layout which was a different circuit entirely to the circuit that was totally dominated by that massively long front straight and then a lot of very quick corners all the way down through yuksuke and barbecue and crow thorne and then all the way down into sunset s's and then up the hill up to near corp itself which was of course a double right-hand corner that led on to the start finish straight you really need to be at the circuit at the highest point at the aircon to appreciate just how one track used to sit well one was built beneath the other using a shared section of the circuit but the hillside is certainly on my first visit here i was just amazed at how steep the hillside was did you ever make it here to the original circle no i didn't i wasn't even here when they built it so circuit opened for action long ago in 1961 just a year before i was born international traveler that you are bruce i've been to south africa many times before i actually came to the circuit for a race event my first event here was a1 gp i think 2008 and uh my next event was uh 2019 when the intercontinental gt challenge came down here for the first time and wowed the locals and i'm very happy to go every year because uh northern hemisphere winter we've had enough of that and we'll come and get some heat down in south africa and always to build on a safari at the end it really adds something to a trip yep it's always a joy to visit and actually what i would recommend is do there's a i think it's called the garden route which essentially is from cape town all the way around the bottom of the the continent and ends up either in east london or a little bit further up the coast in kazulu natal state which is the the state in which durban uh is the capital city yes i'm fortunate enough to travel quite a bit within south africa and uh epic scenery brilliant culture and uh food and wide right at the top end of the scale so uh what is not to like that's for sure and joel gunion well hila burnt uh an extended stay here if he should so should please because uh he's going to put in a winning performance you have to feel sure with a dozen minutes left on the clock sitting on a margin of oh whisker under 20 seconds it's almost in the bag where did he finish in daytona in his class and remember now seems such a long time ago just over a week ago it's less than a week ago since that race finished i left the country booth bleary-eyed and i'm just trying to think through i can't give you an instant answer on that one also the class win that wasn't an overall when i know that no a 46 year old was in that winning overall winning car in daytona [Music] but uh jewel could do this almost with his eyes shut but maybe not quite but uh it's so so super dark it's really unusual to see a night shot any racing circuit in the world and have moments when the only lights you can see are the lights of the car around the circuit no extraneous light beyond you go looking for it and again these low shots they're really really very moving but the shots i will remember from the joe bird car like me nine hours for 2022 off the 2021 championship with the shots from yesterday the cars going as if powerboats around the circuit was dark with just so much spray coming off them no wonder qualified was cancelled pushed it back to super bowl that never happened and the grid was defined from the pace in the final practice session beforehand no wonder it's called pre-qualifying because that counted for the qualifying positions that's why rafaeli marcelo started from coal and that car is still in front now with 10 minutes a few seconds remaining but one might say arguably had there been all three qualifying sessions and a super pool super pool should i would anything actually be any different no in fact all that would have happened was a uh particularly the 86 stradali motorsports uh lamborghini would have started a few rows further forward as sort of the best of the national class challengers as it was it started down in 12th made short order of that was up to eight in a couple of laps and um so that aside everyone else was pretty much as you'd expect because every session before that which car was quickest the akka asp mercedes which car is still at the front well fill in your own answer to that it's the akka asb mercedes ten minutes remaining and now we're into the single figures of the final hour down the clubhouse ferrari swings through little i never you don't get to see those little blue sort of shoots of flame as the car changes give that a little bit of waste fuel uh and those sort of sequential paddle gear changes uh you see the red glowing exhaust but just it was just interesting to see that little puff of very faint bit of uh spent fuel that was uh in the system now it's always used for having a third person in the commentary box and uh harry was just lent forward and pointed out i was thinking this was the case gunnon didn't finish at daytona piergee did he came second overall in the gtd pro class right in fact promoted on the final lap with that sort out do you remember with lawrence phantom oh i do yes and this is fabulous with matthias jeffrey two drivers the two drivers came into the into the la more chicane crash bang wallop and uh lawrenceville came off the worst yeah and going up and elevated [Music] kenny harbaugh's car that was uh parked up pretty early on so uh no finish there but uh it's good to see sports car racing and gt racing just getting stronger and stronger on a global basis and when we can settle into regular calendars not constricted moved around interrupted by covert fingers crossed on that front uh we can then get the regular championships and actually give the teams more chance to handle the logistics that are required as motorsport is so truly global for this class well one of the inexplicable um not in the respect of one of the undeniable features of gt3 racing is the cars are sexy looking cars they've got individuality written all over them you're never going to mistake a mercedes for a porsche from a ferrari from an audio or whatever they are individual looking cars and that's what makes it i feel very attractive in a world where you get a lot of one make serious single-seater racing no uh you you can stand on that soapbox you're quite right to do so it's when you walk do the grid walk and go down and you see the fans and the people who paid to be on the grid or whatever and they're just loving that variety and then in the paddock they've got access to the cars everyone has their favorite the balance performance is there for a reason and that means every one of the manufacturers if performance balance is right they get into the mix and what's better than having eight different types of cars tilting for victories fundamentally throughout the season if there's eight manufacturers or how many in in a season both across sprint and endurance not talking about the intercontinental challenge particularly but they all will have their day on the podium so i mean the balance of performance is a moving uh technical one might say strategy so if one brand suddenly is utterly dominant and dominating then there may be a minute maybe more than a man use adjustment to the bop to ensure that we don't get like one brad winning everything which then becomes like a one-make formula no entirely and also even if the performance balance performance performances so their lap time is equal their performance around the course of a lap is different according to the type of car which adds to the mix and adds to all the battles i might get past you here you might get past me further around the lap but right now the car to have is a is a mercedes a mercedes amg particularly it's painted blue and white and it's being driven by it's been the class car all weekend team of bogusleiski knew his teammates had to take help him to victory they have or have very nearly done that it won't give him the title but his only hope was to take victory and uh not have the ferraris finishing in second place or the audi drivers that much uh scoring more points than him as well gave it a good shot there's no more they could have done no i mean that that's they had one objective in mind that was to win the race to give muguslovsky the best possibility of taking the the drivers championship but they came up against such strong opposition and they were up so far back i mean you're really going to need external assistance almost not just what you yourself were capable of doing but something that you couldn't factor in traditionally here in kylami over the last two seasons we've had rain affecting the outcome of a race we didn't have the race affected by theirs boguslavsky and uh well look he's delighted with and looking around here well you know a win is still a win with only a three race championship any glitch in your scoring knocks you back that was their problem they didn't get results going their way in the first couple of races but in the final race they've been the class of the field so they can hold their heads high but actually the 2022 championship will be starting soon this was the race held over the third and final round of last year's curtailed series it's out of the way it hasn't given the championship from team of borgesleiski but he got in here today and he did a very good job particularly when being chased by cobra edgar and anybody who could equal the pace of that driver in a ferrari is doing very well i mean his second stint was the notable stint where i think he did a very good job indeed he elevated himself to a level where he performed he delivered he did it consistently and put in lap times which are virtually the same as the challenging ferrari yeah he he you know the first in his being quite cautious second stint really felt at home and that was really impressive to see and certainly being chased down by either of those ferrari crews was going to be a real challenge but he held on to that and he what he did that he hasn't always done in the past this is a team of pogoschleiski is when there was a car up ahead that needed to be overtaken he would do that and uh we saw him once bouncing off the curbs when he got near the gt4 audi but uh he didn't hang back he knew he didn't have seconds to give away and now here we are look at his car best part of 20 seconds clear with under five minutes on the clock so we are pretty much there and for half the the ferrari crews life is happy and for the other half including nicholas nielsen nearer the camera he's well he did what he could but he was moved into another car that car broke that was his championship challenge over and out but uh for the driver beyond becoming a guard well no wonder he's smiling already because uh alessandro piageti running in second place is so nearly there and second place would be more than enough to take the champions going on now to what i believe will be the penultimate lap of the nine hours of calamity so there'll be this lap and then one more and then he will take the chequered flag and will win with teammates affiliate marcelo and team team koslowski and there will be delight when you see children after he's won a race he is genuinely genuinely joyous some drivers you know they're so they just say oh did we win again excuse me did i yawn as well but a young man like junior he loves it he is a mirror of his father jean-marc union who was one might say extrovert would you say that certainly good company that's for sure and certainly full of enthusiasm team of bogoslicki well the most points he can score today victory will take him up to 47 points but with the ferrari coming home in the second place that'll take 18 points and move that to 55. so there we are that's harry kennedy yes and also mike mccaldranier came in to say their congratulations to the winning driver lineup so that's a nice little touch from the 75 mercedes team so now it will be the last lap oh will it or not two to go sorry this is true to go i think goodyear did a very quick last lap but he did a 144.444 so in fact it will be this slap is the penultimate lap i was being a little bit uh ambitious so junior could have slowed down a bit he's got an 18-second lead yeah but he'd had to back off by about 20 seconds in that case he's not going to do it so kobe led a guy now sitting forward on his chair with the af courser crew but of course you can feel down the garage one car pulled off and uh luckily the problem with that we think the gearbox problem hasn't affected the 51 car that's running around in second place and this lap and one more to the end of the season and 2021 is done the race was held over from the end of november last year because omicron struck just as the field was about to head off down to the southern hemisphere to come here to play some of the cars were already here and they've been kept here ever since yes they've been sitting in a sort of isolation that's the appropriate word to say or to use uh some of the cars you have maybe been they were transported to other venues around the world and then returned here to south africa so gt3 cars they're sort of a moving feast between intercontinental events events in europe events in the middle east events you know events out in the far east but did we have gt racing in mackay this year or not no not this year but then next weekend is the first round of the asian le mans series etc etc so we're really springing in you know to be logistics manager of a racing team you almost feel you're primed to fail rather than succeed but on to the final lap goes our race leader and joe gunier looking very comfortable indeed and so he should be that car's been supreme all weekend brilliant in the dry pretty handy in the wet not very good at the very wet no one was that's why the qualifying sessions were flagged off very early on but joule can almost do this in his sleep now raphael marcelo will give us a half smile but i think the biggest smile will actually come from tebow bogashlavsky in the background yes the mask is on for covid prevention reasons but through bbq for the final time at racing speed on towards the double right hander at sunset all is under control for akka asp third manufacturer heading to the third win victory in the the first of the three rounds in 2024 went to ferrari on the final lap usurping audi outing and nailed it indianapolis on the speedway in the eight hours and now it's mercedes turn it looks as though all is settled behind the gap between the two audis is still nearly five seconds it will be the nederhauser car for santa lot racing number 25 that holds off the 32 wrt example silver cup will go to the santa lock crew from um in car number 26 pro among us will go to the high-class racing audi terry vermoulin will be achieving a result he didn't even expect to score in a race he didn't expect to be in so they won the battle with mechanical failure rather holding back uh sun energy one mercedes but for kenny harbaugh and the guys that second place should be enough to give the pro an honest across the season down the hill towards almost the edge of the pit lane for the final time through turns 14 the kink at 15 and into ingway now leopard the final corner not running out wide no risk of a track limits offense the chequered flag will be there nine hours are complete the joburg kyle army nine hours complete and it's victory to juguno the rafaeli marcelo and the driver who hoped he might land the title overall there he is the left of the screen with the curly hair team of bogashleiski he'll have to settle for third i think in the championship but with lights flashing combination knows he's a champion he's in the pit lane alessandro piageti takes the flag what was the margin between them 15 seconds at the end but ferrari and af corsa and notably alessandra piagini what a year he had in terms of titles and he's added another one this one held over from the end of last year third place will go to that 25 audi it'll cross the line i don't know about 40 seconds down on that ferrari it doesn't matter it will take the third place and fourth place will go behind the niederhauser car to christopher harrison will be about five seconds down at the end so the race belonged to mercedes and akka asp the championship belongs to ferrari on the driver's front to audi on the manufacturer's front and kenny harbaugh's car in the hands of mikhail grenier will take the proam honours as he crosses the line in seventh place overall slight delay but still heading for silverware arsene conrad also happy just walking out in front of kenny harbaugh there but really applause up and down the pit lanes and mention two john watson to michael van royen there eighth place overall for the 86 stradali motorsport lamborghini the best of the local cars really good job yes michael van rohan did i think an excellent job indeed when he was behind the wheel of the the lamborghini number 86 he made the car look like it was a racing car was being driven we saw one squirrelly moment for him sort of just over halfway through the race coming through barbecue bend all of a sudden a very rapid snap oversteer they gathered it all back up and continued on as if it never happened you know sometimes we have the same little whoopsies in the comedy booth we don't reflect we just move on indeed fast moving business and for the nephes group banaca asp they got this one in the bag and the cars coming through and when those final cars come in we know headlights going around the track apart from some clearing up machinery uh just bringing the marshals in and others and it will be full full darkness over kyle army but we got through today without anything more than a few drops of rain let's take the final results of the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge a victory by 15 seconds for the akka asp mercedes alessandro pigdy finished in the ferrari and second place was enough for the championship overall for him and come let a guard and the last for the driver who shared a lot of the season with them his car nicholas nielsen's car retired the audi audience finished in the order 25 and 32 they couldn't live with the pace of the ferraris or the mercedes and for their drivers who hoped they had a shot at the title it went away from them today and it was ferrari and it's two drivers who'll be having a hand on either side of the trophy one fields it was a great result for col nedergar and the driver who finished it john alessandro pierre ghibi yes and there's lots of joy look there's celebration from ferrari team members coming up and giving uh burger can't even say his name now timo so he's first to the car so congratulations i beg your pardon as long as rafaeli marcello gets in there first to congratulate you junior great job done but they're all three drivers and um you know burgoslavsky the opportunity to win the drivers championship was there but it was always going to be the long shot but they did what they needed to do they won the race they couldn't have done any more they couldn't control what went on behind so jiu junior going up and thanking all those asp team members for all the hard what yards they have done and uh look you can see i'm sure there's tons of emotion right now in the thoughts of gilgano he is maybe of the three drivers in that car the one that's their most emotional oh i think i think without a shadow of a doubt it was nice to see that chris ranker from audi in the background saying job well done kenny harbaugh as well you know he's a businessman who enjoys his racing but over the years he's getting better and better he'll take the pro-am title for the 21 series but uh comrade again waiting and uh likewise as andrew pegidi at the wheel but the 51 ferrari was the one that lasted the distance and really had a such a super strong run miguel molina played his part as well unfortunately for him trying through penalty picked up for exceeding track limits didn't cost them but at this level in the sport 20 seconds 25 seconds shed could have made all the difference indeed what we've seen in the past how often one error such as track limits succeeding then that drive through penalty can lose you a championship or certainly lose your podium or lose your race overall well we know that a run through the pitch takes 22 seconds because that's what it took the ferraris when they reset at the start and their margin at the end yes they might have backed off it was only 26 seconds the room for that ferrari we'll be feeding a little second hand let's hope they don't ping the windscreen but you've got to get the shot it's it's it is it is the money shot for sure but you know the body work on these cars is way for thin so make sure you stand on the section which is just behind the windscreen which is there's a rule hoop behind there which is part of the safety cell that these drivers work within so they're on that secure part but look at the faces the delight of all three sorry of two of the three who have won the drivers championship and all that work and support that went behind to make it a ferrari success in the drivers championship well happiness all round for the crews that won the championship but let's hear from the drivers who won the race overall it's the asp crew they're down there with a man jules you drove the mercedes to the first win in the series since 2018 at suzuka you saw the checkered flag first talk about that last cent how challenging it is here in kyle women under the dark well first yeah it's really dark so you have to be uh really focused because it's really easy to put a wheel wrong and yeah it feels amazing to win with mercedes in igtc after audi in 17 and bend lane in batters but i have to say aka did a fantastic job what to say about my teammate hello i think we don't have to introduce himself but also timo did a fantastic job this weekend so i think we should all be proud mercedes aka everybody did deliver a fantastic job it's a good start of 22 even if it's a 21 race but we are really happy rafaeli with your performance here today including the fastest lap you're going to get a watch courtesy of topwatch for your performance why was the mercedes so dominant here yeah i think after daytona when i lost the rolex now it's good yeah no i mean accept a joke i mean we we worked hard we have always been quick i mean in india we finished in the podium spa i mean we were in the lead or fighting for the win we always been quick we had a lot of bad luck so i mean it's nice to finish or start the season like this so i think yeah we we have to work and but i mean it's nice to win after suzuka when we won few years ago now i think it's time to to try to win spa and yeah that is a long time we don't win it so i mean it's nice to be here now but now we have to focus in spot at this day yeah it's the main one well it's emery you close out your season with a win here at kaialami how will you reflect on this year so i can say i'm quite happy really also i'm really happy for my teammates because this team is like one of the best i think in gt cars so and it was so much unlucky like in the previous season this stuff so but now finally also we find a really good setup many thanks for our engineer nico and also for our boss jerome for a really good cry yeah for sure we are really happy and as my teammates say we are really happy to start the season from the win so congratulations gentlemen well thank you amanda very much indeed and so they're the winning trio and uh smiles around and i could certainly see jugunon nodding his head when rafaeli marcelo was saying of course now our target for 2022 is to win a race that's eluded them so many times to spa 24 hours that is the number one target that is the big one of the championship for them and you can be sure asp will carry confidence from this and confidence in motor racing is something that does help it really just we know the car's got the speed it's had mishaps before but let's go down to to the ferraris with the ferrari drivers there's a second overall but the champions alessandro piergidi and conadega with amanda well i think they are just continuing to take in the moment down here i think we can see those smiles through the face mask but come later when you look back over this season your very first season racing in the intercontinental gt challenge powered by pirelli how will you top this in going forward no i to be honest i'm i'm super happy and we shared quite some good moments with ale but at the moment it's a mixed feeling because uh i wanted also to have nick with us because it's part of the game we know we gave all to to win but uh i'm missing him at the moment because i discovered a super a super person so uh yeah we're happy but uh i'm missing him at the moment well miguel you were in the last and prior to alessandro steppen very difficult one underneath the dark how important was that setting up alessandro for the end well um yeah today was was quite difficult uh this track is quite dark so you could you could you need to to get used to the to the darkness but uh today car was really good and i'm really happy to to help these guys to to to win the championship i'll did an amazing joke as usual and come also so i'm i'm i'm proud to to of my job here so i'm really happy to to to help them sandra i'm pretty sure that overtake of drudy is going to be on every highlight reel from this race but this all started for you guys back at spa getting that win at the 24 hour in the ferrari you cap off your season with the drivers championship how about that it's amazing season honestly i i think it will be difficult to repeat a season like this even if it's 2022 is part of the last season and we won i think us and ferrari won everything with of course and we did an amazing job and with these two guys i'm just sorry for nicholas that is was part of the the game till now but at the end it was a fair decision and make sense to do it but at the end we knew that john only one could win and i'm sorry for him i did he deserved like us and i'm very thankful to miguel and com that did an amazing job especially this race finally had the last stint quite calm and i was just managing the gap till the end so yes as you said everything came became in spa and i started spa and yes at the end we're too good to overtake uh we we won this championship well done gentlemen congratulations so great to hear and very lovely from alessandra piergetti to point out uh his sympathy for his er teammates who got separated from them and that was nicholas nielsen so instead of sharing the title with alessandro piergidi and konnedegar with the mechanical failure today nielsen drops down the order having shared the card with them in the previous two race victory by five points at the end marcus finkelhork and patrick nederhauser likewise split away from christopher harza and they they finished uh three points behind and uh equal with team of bogusky victory today what was what he hoped for to take him to the championship but he needed those ahead in the championship points to fail but right at the start of the race it was a pole position rafaeli marcelo leading away from alessio river and he kept on working his way through the ferraris gave chase and carl the best of the south african races in the 86 tridari motorsport lamborghini wielded the pits it came back out the aunties were running fourth and fifth behind the ferrari he's not able to live with them and it was a chance for winkelhack to be waved by by mattia trudy to see what he could do he couldn't catch them then it was the turn of sun energy one racing pushed on very hard by mikhail grenier at the end of the opening hour two of the local runners withdrew they were only doing the first hour and that was silvio scribante just beca beating uh mikhail pitamba and then at the first round of pit stops it was the ferraris driving all the way through the pit lane not stopping for anything at all and they would do their first pit stop a little later it was a tactic other teams would use reset your clock you can't do more than 65 minutes in a stint so you come through start another stint then unfortunately as they were trying to press on lucas legere pulled across there on come edigar afterwards come not too happy at all but fortunately no punctures and then when the pit stops were served those first proper pit stops for the ferraris 51 was just in front of 71 even though their teammates they were fighting for position and of course ferrari had split its drivers following the example of audi putting the championship challengers in both of their cars and on this occasion it was a 71 car sweeping around the outside turned to such a difficult corner and some cars are picking up time penalties from running over the outside lines of the circuit down there but it was mainly turned 16 where the drivers were getting punished and these two cars the santiago racing audi and the sun energy one mercedes up in front would serve drive-through penalties for being very soon to exceed the number of times they could drive out beyond the corner of the circuit at turn 16. now of course the ferraris were out of sync with the race leading akka asp mercedes and at various points they had their chance at the lead of the field with antenna fuaco impressing but then it was a problem the the only gt4 car class class car in the race uh pulled a halt right at pit entry that meant pit lane was closed then as soon as it was opened under full course yellow the mercedes drove the whole way through and did exactly as the ferraris had done and did a reset then at the restart off it went powering down towards sunset with rafael marcello at the wheel but behind him droody retired rudy brought in in place of dress fanta who was ill this weekend was side by side with alessandro pigdy but the ferrari driver wasn't taking no for an answer they shoulder to shoulder they clashed on they went and third place became second for the ferrari driver and the reverse direction for matar truly who immediately had to look into his mirrors for what another ferrari right behind this was nicholas nielsen and he had a look one way and another and forced a late breaking maneuver too late breaking there for retired rudy so he dropped behind but he wasn't prepared to stay there for long tucked in behind the ferrari comes up to the top of the hill at bbq and then sprinted clear and then the 71 ferrari just suddenly came to a halt race over and out for nicholas nielsen so so sad that meant ferrari had just one car left but it was running in second place overall against and they're actually moving just in front as it came out from its pit stop of tima bogashleiski to mercedes but bogusleiski had more speed took the lead back into turn what two and then pulled away and built up a bit of an advantage not many seconds but he had some risks in overtaking that's going to pass the stradali into africa lamborghini and they're bouncing over the curbs to go past the gt4 audi pressing on keeping comredegar behind lights flashing from the french driver to make sure the audi driver in front had seen but a really really good second stint in particular from teamer bogos the battle of the audi's really intense third place after the 71 ferrari had withdrawn but the and 32 cars were seldom more than about five seconds apart fighting hard nothing they could do about the ferrari in second place and the race-leading akka asp mercedes kelvin van der linde not prepared to lose a single fraction of a second in his battle to stay in front of the audi battle and then unfortunately sun energy won as darkness started to fall their mercedes in the pits needed a new radiator that dropped it down to second place in the pro-am battle but all along the akka asp mercedes stretching its leg in the front the 26 silver cup entered a car from santelok had lots of problems at pit stops the car came in fine but then wouldn't restart constantly having to be pushed back into the garage he would end up fifth place overall but among the top four it was all about the 89 mercedes julio really powering on very well indeed just looking to see if the ferrari would catch him up a little bit but the 51 car always about 15 seconds or so behind but that 51 car with pierre gidi doing the final stint didn't need to win that second place would be absolutely enough as long as the audi's behind and they still were that was enough for the title race victory here going for the first time in the 2021 series to this crew timo bogalski rafaeli marcelo and juguno who took it to the finish but lights are flashing away from alessandro piageti second place absolutely enough to win the title and for come nedergar happiness for nicholas nielsen what could have been he shared the first two races with them but this year it's all about af course and ferrari and we're already looking forward to 22 in the intercontinental gt challenge so the highlights now over and now waiting for the podium ceremony here at kyle army properly dark and a lot of smiles under those masks edward drove very hard we escaped the weather today we did it yesterday but look at the mutual respect in the paddock down there it's just great to see whether you're audi ferrari john or mercedes driver respect is there well they're all competitors but when the chequered flag falls and everybody's out of the car all of a sudden they're mates and they're not just you know explaining what happened to their particular driver lineup their team would be in a good race with a bad race what happened to you where did you finish well so we're going to see the podium very shortly indeed and uh will be enjoying split joy one between the ferrari the far-right drivers who have won the drivers championship and the aka asp mercedes-benz team that has won the race so enjoy all right maybe the biggest disappointment would be for audi who came here hoping for more uh maybe relying a little bit on factors which were out of control such as maybe a weather input but it didn't happen it certainly didn't but already all eyes are really on what lies ahead the 2022 intercontinental gt challenge will have more rounds than the 2021 series so hopefully all in the right calendar year but the momentum is up and the gt world challenge endurance series will be starting in a few blinks of an eye not many days away a month or so away but uh you know gt racing comes thick and fast it's growing year in year out and it's a great place to be well i think it generates really interesting exciting and most importantly entertaining motor racing and ultimately it is about entertainment because while it is an industry no it's not even a business it's an industry the scale of manufacturers and their turn three gt3 cars is a massive massive business for those manufacturers very important [Music] third place marco finkel kelvin van der linden home ground and patrick neder has a second place though two of this crew are the champions of the 2021 series cole mellengar and alessandro piergidi this weekend they had miguel molina alongside who really played his part in this as well second place is never where drivers want to finish but if you get a championship title you can accept being beaten and they were beaten by the akka asp crew the mercedes trio asp that looks like jewel polycon the owner of the team going up followed by the driver who could have been champion but he'll have to be the victor today in that team of bogusly ski with his teammates rafaeli marcelo and uh bringing up the rear the driver who brought it to the finish took the checkered flag so he'll be celebrating on the top step of the podium three manufacturers in the top three positions great to see great looking race trophies here for the joe bird carl army nine hours it's always a point of variety around the world and in fact as winners you get a medal as well a gong to set off the alarm before you get on the plane at the airport but uh and champagne as well there'll be a lot of that sprayed around tonight and of course well it's late in the night at kyle army but uh certainly i think the evening is only just beginning [Music] so there we have the confirmation of the top three finishers top step to mercedes second step to ferrari and two of those drivers share the championship for 2021 and now the national [Music] is but this won't be the only podium celebrations we have because of course we've got the other classes as well pirelli caps on all around and they're waiting for the queue the signal to unleash uh joel gooney's decided to raise his trophy is that a dangerous thing to be doing when others are reaching for their champagne bottles but it's trophies first gentlemen you know that is the order of the day and uh ferrari take the title and also fastest to release the champagne marcus finkelhop using the improved method of slamming your bottle onto the ground to get the fizz to come out doesn't always work can lead to disasters but it's still always an entertaining moment yes i wonder is that a south african uh sparkling wine or have they brought something in from another nation well whatever it is to take a look it's done the purpose of being sprayed in driver's eyes not an awful lot of us being drunk in the podium and i'm sure there will be a little bit more or there we are just all of a sudden the ferrari team have realized that this actually is quite a pleasant little drink [Music] well well that trophy we saw being raised we were waiting for confirmation before sticking our necks out that was the original trophy for the nine hours [Music] so a really lovely touch when a historic race has a historic trophy that is presented it means so much more well it certainly i mean when the trophy was presented i thought that's an unusual truth i didn't recognize it as being uh what they describe it here as is the original daily mail trophy so a lot of history involved in that particular award so well i hope everybody appreciates it the daily mail nine hours trophy which goes back i suspect back to the instigation of the event held here in the early 60s yes and looking at the history of the event it's changed its nature many times but the intrinsic value of a long distance sports car race at kyle army is clear to be seen it's in the hands of gt cars at the moment it's been the hands of world sports car championship in years gone by but right now i think it's in a very very sweet spot and uh when we come here at the end of the year to conclude the 2022 season look forward to a cracking massive field of cars as we had in 2019 it's certainly a place the teams want to come and the podium being reset because there are many classes of car accident the trophy is being carried away not trusted the trophy is not going to be taken over by the team it's it's a very important trophy it's got a great historical interest so it if you want to have a replica made i'm sure there's somebody in downtown johannesburg could knock one up really quickly for you yeah i think those special trophies are very very special oh yes there's silverstone perpetual trophies things like the tourist trophy they're lovely to have but sometimes drivers don't have enough hands but now we're waiting for the next podium ceremony they're going to come out us thick and fast and we're waiting for the drivers in the silver cup class to come up and that will be the drivers for the fifth place crew just then maybe the only silver cup clue crew carnival 26 nicola bear simon gashe and lucas legere you can see lucas he's about a head and shoulder taller than his teammates so he's waiting to go up but fifth place overall they'd have gained a lot of experience seaman gashay didn't want for experience but for nikola bear who's standing in the middle of the group and the tall swiss driver lucas legere they would have certainly come to south africa knowing a certain amount could go home knowing a whole lot more so at the end of nine hours of racing sometimes it's a bit like herding fish getting put drivers up onto a podium it's an international sport for those charged with it but they have the trophy they have the the medal as well and also could see a team representative of santa lock racing and he at least knows the protocol celebrate with your trophies but uh job very well done and uh as we said john experienced driver seymond gashey lined up alongside two young pups he was a young pup once and he's imparted the experience and over nine hours plenty of chance for them to learn yes i mean simon garcia we've already mentioned his qualities and skills behind the wheel of an audi and uh carried that through in his team in this particular class and certainly also seemingly pretty good with shaking the uh sparkling wine or champagne podium it's already starting a little bit slippery for those who are following their way up great big medals as they go off just waiting to see who's going to be coming up next and we're we're we have obviously podiums it could be pro pro am we could be having also the national teams as well it looks like it's going to be pro-am next the high-class racing crew or maybe that's because mark patterson is just so keen to get on the podium in his the country of his birth but uh two crews were fighting it out to the prime honours and with the problems for the sun energy one crew with their mercedes out they come in second place kenny harbaugh followed by martin conrad and the third driver in that crew mikhail grenier and they're going to the second place slots are therefore we are waiting for the pro-am winners here at kyle army there'll be a driver who didn't expect to be here terry vermoulan for high-class racing who will be joining those who had a little more warning michael marcussen and mark patterson heading up to the podium in kyle army but right now it's the silver medals for the crew that came second in the pro-am class and second place in the prime class was enough for the title for kenny harbaugh so there will be a smile under the mask there and the trophies for winning the prime class for the high-class racing audi crew on the top step and it's the driver who's about to step onto the right-hand side of the podium is probably the proudest of all that's mark patterson born in south africa made his uh career in the states started his career in the states and finally has had his first race in south africa and he's ended on the top step of the podium so well done to mark patterson to michael markerson and young dutch racer terry for moulin who's stepped up to gt3 and taken to it with considerable applause awesome job so high-class racing had been playing the chasing game the problems of sun energy one with their mercedes handed the victory to them but they still had to not make mistakes and they really got things uh the job done very well indeed can they fire the fizz as well most certainly they can up on the top step of the podium but you have to feel for the team representative who's not wearing a clothing that keeps the liquid out nothing keeps fizz out of your eyes we all know that and terry vermoulan failed to get the cork out of his bottle for some considerable amount of time so he was uh entering a battle without the tools required but mark patterson enjoying the moment on the top step of the podium back on home ground so well done to mark and the gang from high class racing [Music] actually mark could always already be drawn that was michael markerson up on the top step at the end you see the drivers from the 33 car making their way clear but uh for those who've already had their trophies they're just very happy to still be around and now it looks as though the championship trophy will be coming out because we've got alessandro piagety and come later go back of course they share the championship title for 2021 held over to the start of 2022 because the kyle army race was delayed by two and a half months but they're the 2021 overall drivers championships champions combat agar and on the right of the picture alessandro piagety another title for him in what has been a prodigious 2021 campaign when he took up the titles and the races he's won it's been the best year of his racing career so our champions [Music] of course we had the manufacturer championship to be considered as well i can see chris ranker of audi there so that looks like as though that is the next podium and uh they didn't land the drivers title they split their crews to see if they could do it it didn't work for them today but to manufacturers champions very important to manufacturers small surprise john no absolutely because they are in this to win they're not in here just to come along and have a nice time at weekends done in or anywhere else around the world it is an exceptionally competitive championship and each of the manufacturers is absolutely dead set on standing on the podium just as chris frank has done for the audi id yeah and the audi brand i'm sure will continue to go from strength to strength and of course audi will be moving into hyper car as well in the near future in the world endurance championship now it's going to be the pro-am challenge champions and that by my reckoning should be sun energy one racing kenny harbaugh will be coming back out one feels with martin conrad and mikiel grenier who really took the battle with that car forget the fact he was in pro am he was the pro in that car and he took the battle to the ferrari drivers in the opening to the race which was great to see for the sun energy one crew i'll tell you what i love their suits that those the flames coming up from the bottom of the leggings i mean that is real showbiz coming into gt3 world very much the sort of american angle of it very much kenny based in the states they were racing in the dotana 20 i was going to say 500 they were the 24 hours last weekend there's there's no shrinking violet about that outfit that's for sure great i mean that's what makes business that's what it's all about well it is look that you know it doesn't make them any quicker makes them look brilliant up on the podium we're talking we're talking about it bruce you know we're not talking about a pair of overalls and everybody else is right we're talking about the overalls that kenny haber's team is wearing so that was the the overall champions the manufacturer champions and the pro-am champions across the 2021 intercontinental gt challenge season the season is now over and we're really looking forward to the 2022 version but you can be sure for all the crews down here in south africa they'll get back to their hotels maybe have a little bit of a party but tomorrow they'll have a relaxing day by the pool maybe head out there is that added bonus for all all the teams coming from around the world to south africa the country has so much to offer and it's a brilliant time of year yeah i mean to enjoy the hospitality that's at your very doorstep you're here on the high valve which is say five thousand plus feet above sea level or you can go down to the coast down to durban east london all the way around the garden route down to cape town take the up the atlantic coast with so many options it's a massive country and phenomenal phenomenal things you know just just to enjoy what you've got here absolutely so and now we have the leading national crew coming out uh led by michael van royen it's the 86 sridali motorsport crew charla rangers who had such a good opening stint arnold neveling and michael van royen up on the podium there [Applause] applause all around great you know it's great to see that so many of the drivers here get a chance to go on the podium but uh massive applause for the crew that just was so impressive for us the all black driver crew and uh the number 23 stradali into africa this history in the making in many ways they saw racing they came racing and they didn't put a wheel wrong through nine hours in extreme conditions yesterday so the chops you know what a great job they did here unquestionably they should be very proud indeed of their achievements here it's a a very very tough event gt3 racing around the world is phenomenally competitive they've come here they've looked they've learned and they'll move on and they will improve their own driving skills and abilities as a consequence of what they've experienced here this weekend just correct what i said the the third crew out was uh michael van roy led crew from stradale motorsport the gt4 audi crew of the crew on the right hand side of the podium who you know had to be on there on their metal throughout the race driving a considerably slower car and they will have learned a huge amount so up on the top step is where we find arnold and evelyn charles and the michael van royen and the gt4 crew from mgr motorsport marius jackson michael pitamba and mo mia they're on the right-hand side in that third place well not third place they're in a different race but they would have they've all got trophies they'll all be back for more you can be sure of that and they very much enjoyed being part of the full international mix at kyle army but i think perhaps most of all the crew from that 23 lamborghini that like trophies aloft what a weekend they've had here on home ground and what shining examples they are well i think the old bride will be burning furiously tomorrow as a celebration as everybody can enjoy relax and enjoy the fruits of the success and again bottles of fizz all around and wait for this sample the spray for sure of champagne or sparkly might never know which it is outside of the the regional champagne but there we see them go it's what it's all about you know they aimed high they came they played they took part they learned and uh and waiting for more cars to come and play again next year at the end of 2020 and you know everybody who's been in the podium spring they're a wine let's put it that way has got to thank dan gurney for what he did at le mans he was the first driver on the podium to take a bottle of champagne which in those days was i think was champagne and to nothing sort of drink it he took it and shook it and sprayed it and that's become the tradition basically ever since about 1966 67 whenever gurney won a lemon well absolutely no signs of it going away but great to see that so many people had the turn up on the podium at the end of the joe bird carl army niner there was plenty to be talking about through the event but in many ways we sort of wanted the arrival of rain to give us a bit of a mix but right now we have come to the end of the joe bird carl i mean nine hours that's the end of the 2021 season intercontinental gt world challenge series all set for 2022 and we will be back here at the end of this year all things being equal at kyle army so really that is it from the new guy on the team harry benjamin great job from john watson from me bruce jones looking forward to doing it all all over again hope you enjoyed the action and look forward to the rest of the racing this year [Music] [Music] you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 299,426

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack, GT racing, LIVE, Full Race, Joburg Kyalami, 9 Hour 2021, World-class GT racing, Audi, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Intercontinental GT Challenge, Pirelli

Id: EcvKyz4lGmA

Length: 607min 25sec (36445 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 05 2022