REPLAY EN - RACE - 4 Hours of Portimão 2021

[Applause] once again please wisely for the national anthem [Music] responsible motorsports [Applause] [Music] and then celebrate the champagne oh [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] that means in the second position thomas will be our competition our first time winner [Applause] friends now thank you all [Applause] so at one of the most fun circuits to be found in europe the end of the european le mans series is to be decided with round six here at the algarve international circuits we are just a half an hour drive also from the center of portimao and uh closer to an hour to the east of faro and great to be in this part of the world particularly because the weather has turned on in style with temperatures as high on friday 29 degrees celsius it has cooled off a little bit since then but certainly no sign at all of any of the wet stuff and good to see at the start of the race as the grid is being formed some banter between xiaomi lacie who took his second pole position in a row yesterday and richard bradley who'll be starting alongside him on that front row for algarve pro racing so welcome to you indeed welcome back if you were part of our coverage enjoying our coverage of the michelin le man cup but we're settling in for another four hours of aco rules racing to decide this six race campaign for the european le mans series my name is johnny palmer i'm joined again by graham goodwin well the fever is high on the grid uh great to have fans of course back as we did have it at spa frankenstein in the grandstands as well a really good mood around the whole of the paddock there is and it's been that's on a weekend hasn't it uh it's been a cracking season of racing uh the sunshine has come out to celebrate the end of this season and by by every indication it can be another amazing four hours of on track connection with the lmp2 lmp2 pro and lmp3 and gte cars but uh acr president uh with uh frederick nokia to his rights and then sports car legend uh on the grid and he's here um with a bit of a delegation from america and their new senior technical team to introduce themselves to their very many customers here it's the fourth place car on the grid in gte the number 93 proton competition porsche 911 rsr michael fassbender i believe we'll take the start of this race called the matte green coloured car yeah so uh there's been a change in the qualifying order very slightly in gta you were telling me earlier on the number 80 car denied its best lap time well that would have been the fourth place car we were looking at there and that car now starts in the seventh and that is the championship leading car so could be a little further into the pack than perhaps they'd like third though is another championship contenders it's this come on the number 88 af corsica francois parado's chrome uh liveried ferrari magnificently looks in the in the in the sunshine he's i think rightly proud of the way this car looks so 20 points separates iron links number 80 that we just mentioned and that car that's up on its jacks the af corsa 88 machine and then a further four points back to spirit of race who have been a race winner this year managed to do that uh on the the monza round on the lead into the 24 hours of le mans so with the gte championship leader on 101 points there are three teams that could potentially win the title this year uh iron links af courser and spirit of race all ferrari teams of course this is the leading porsche on the grid the number 77 car that is the weathertech racing delivery car with proton competition and uh it's gonna be christian reed the team principal to take the start in that car we believe and then the 95 car the aston martin ross got his second pole position of the season in fact the only car and driver that have actually had two pole positions in this well-formed class the 95 tier sports car 39-209 was a really hefty margin for the very effective aston martin and that one bizarrely leave from the whole of the season the 80 car the only car of the kind of ones that are always towards the sharp end uh salt pole position because virtually uh well five other cars six other cars have all taken a single point by doing that let's hear from the pole man though ahead of the start of the final race of the year i'm joined by charles malesi driver of car number 37 you put the car in pole yesterday it's your second consecutive poll here in elms uh the lmp2 program title decider for your team call racing g drive is nine positions behind you uh on the grid what's the plan for today the plan will be first to be stay staying in front uh keep the first place for the first first tint after that i think we will try to put alex in the car and lose as less time as we can but we know it would be hard to to get the title in program because you know the the g drive is 24 points in front and uh we need to have like a really good luck you know to to win this championship and with the win in the category so but yeah i think first will be to be you know staying in front and do a good race and i think that's the only thing we can do here it's a circuit that's particularly tough to overtake the pole position was you know very important here uh for uh importing mag what can you tell us about the track this track is beautiful i mean i think it's one of my favorite tracks um but yeah i think here is quite tough to overtake uh like i said uh before if i keep the first place in the first corners it will be okay for me but yeah you don't know here because sometimes you can be tricky with the first two corners when when the the brakes are cold and the tires still so we need to see but i think i'm quite confident so yes thank you very much thank you charlotte lacy who really turned on the style yesterday and the third occasion of six races where there's been a pro-am car starting from pole position as well racing team turkey managed to do it earlier on the season when logan sergeant was guesting in that crew yeah sad news though from that crew that number 34 car will not be starting this race car withdrawn after a substantial biff i'm afraid in the final three practice session and uh significant damage done that cannot be be repaired here at the circuit so we've lost one idea it's 40 cars we'll take the start for uh this race um for the 34 car i'm afraid finished its season in free practice two yeah they'll be back and tf sport no tom ferrier with exciting plans multiple cars multiple classes and multiple championships for 2022 and they will start to emerge in the coming days eric trouet will be starting the number eight graph car with sebastian page one of his teammates but we'll have to wait a little while longer for to be able to see those uh drivers in the number eight car that will start from fifth position in lmp3 and the number eight car is also um well in the top five of the championship there are actually only two top two teams close enough to one another to still be in contention for the title cool racing who are on 98 points and the dkr engineering car number four on 93 everybody else is with that is outside of that 25 point window including the mv-2s racing crew for christopher cresp by the way frederick lucca who is now the boss of lmen correct yes thoughts are certainly the elements but lemon endurance management as a whole as well took that to charge of that role at the start of the season as dkr engineering's machine from matcha de barboir who will be starting from third position in on the grids of lmp3s with laurence hall to come later on in the show laurence though qualified this car yesterday in third spot i'm good it's starting a busy three weeks for the lmm aco rules racing family there's john panutet for the 32 car the united ultimates car this sunny weekend here in portomal and then a very large proportion of this racing family heads to various points of exit across europe and will reconvene next week for double-headed races in bahrain for the end of the fi world endurance championship and a fair number of them then head off to united states for the end of the imsa championship this is the new car by the way that uh you recognize the number but not the colours or the lack of colours uh that's the 13 car french europa competition with martin hippert to start of the three photographs displayed a moment or two ago he the largest to tell us that he's the current driver therefore phil hansen is suiting up so it will be he aboard the number 22 car yes to start from sixth position the outside of the third row but half of having been qualified on pole position for the first time yesterday the first time this season by wayne boyd it'll be teammate rob weldon to take the start in united auto sports number two from pole in lmp3 quite amazing to think because of the pedigree that wayne boyd has in the qualifying phase of the weekend that that's actually his first of the season robert kubitsa putting on the helmet and the hands device for championship winners already team wrt they achieved that last time out at spa franco shop so the pressure is off the shackles may well be off as well for the next four hours it's going to be interesting to see how team wrt approached this they will be focusing on only winning the race basically but i'm sure it's helpful to them to not have to have to think about the championship in the background all sorts going on isn't there in this uh this race and this grid in this marketplace and this sports and wrt keem to just keep lighting those headlines as they prepare for what comes next uh clearly they've had success in the wc awc as well they're looking for where the sports car market is going beyond this and one of many to be doing so pan is racing julian canal um three wins at the moment for julian as many as element niche by the way i'm reminded of that later but uh they're on a rich vein of form with ramon win lamont podium a win in the lms and strong form in the second part of the year they too are another squad with all sorts of potential plans that might emerge good year eagles being bolted onto one or two g drive cars so confirm that it will be phil hanson and then to hand over to either tom gamble or jonathan aberdeen at the uh either the first or second stop depending on whether they choose to double stint uh phil but uh the cars will have to stop at roughly the 45 minute marker in lmp2 now that uh the engines have been turned down very slightly and that's more to accommodate the new hypercar class in the world endurance championship but obviously if you slow a car down in one particular part of the aco rule set then it has to be done in ems as well so um yeah we are seeing slower lap times year on year but nevertheless still very very quick times around this place and uh yes it's difficult to overtake but that does rather promote lmp twos and threes to gaggle up around one another and there's always the potential for an incident therefore beginning to clear as we get ready to go for the final race of this season there's a familiar face murray smith mo smith from cool racing he's been a firm favorite this year wherever he's gone and pretty mighty quick as well could have had a part to play by the way in the direction of the championship we've just seen secured by the way of nielsen racing in the michigan cup and moe paying close attention not only because cool racing are on pole position but also in lmp3 his teammate from le mancha matt bell is uh in a very strong position to take this year's lmp3 title along with teammate nicola molini and nicholas crewton yeah and uh here is the number 26 g drive racing garage zero one it will be newly 40 rolled uh we don't believe that either um roman rusinov is far younger than that um the long-standing russian driver another car operated by algar pro and it's it will be richard bradley to start the 24 card second on the grid held the top two places for a long time in that session didn't they johnny yes um yeah that's right and uh actually it was the fernand habsburg driven car that was ahead of nick de freeze which was the unusual scenario however their party was called short sadly in the closing stages for them sadly but very much not for the swiss team cool racing because a 130.812 meant that charlie lacy for the second time in the elms right off the back of a spa franca shop first pole position and he was actually pretty ill that week as well now in rude health once again and yeah sticking a thing on pole at the very closing moments so that is the shape of the grid for this final round of the 2021 european le mans series what for next year well all sorts of changes for next year amongst those teams you'll read about that they hear about that in the coming days and weeks to come but i can tell you an awful lot of it is very very positive [Applause] 77 car be very warm down there on that grid yeah it got warmer this week it was kind of mid-20s uh wednesday thursday when i arrived here and it's just gone north of that sense yeah it and certainly towards the closer to the coast when it's lower down as well because this is quite a high up venue you have to drive into the uh the smallish hills and that generates quite a lot of wind as well it was very blustery indeed here on friday evening um but when the sun is out it is red hot just where as the sun starts to head towards the horizon and that ambient temperature begins to drop then you suddenly realize it's a bit chilly and maybe you need an extra layer but that's not going to be the problem over the next four hours the crosswind if it's if it's blowing from right to left or left to right across the main straight that will have its effect on how the prototypes are behaving of course if it's a headwind then obviously the toe down the start finish straight will be all important rob weldon the highlighted name in to car number two as expected so it'll be rob ahead of martin hipper into europol competition matthew de barboir third in lmp3 ahead of christoph cresp and eric troyer and starting drivers in gte john hartson for tf sport in the 95 aston martin that was qualified on poor position by ross gunn christian reid in the 77 proton competition porsche francois burado for af courser and michael fassbender in the green porsche from proton it's all the bronze drivers to start in gte and the gaggle of prototypes behind them for a variety of reasons and i think actually a variety of reasons for the same reason they didn't actually qualify put in a qualifying time but unusually are listed with the p2 car from graph behind the p3s and the gte now that is unusual they would normally start that at the back of the p2 grid um just looking to see if that car is indeed at the rear of that grid or is the plan for those cars actually to start from the pit lane instead one minute board is now displayed and there will be various points permutations that will unfold throughout the course of the four hours we'll obviously keep you in tune with those but uh remember that the title in lmp2 the main elms title has already been achieved by louis delatraz robert cubitzer yifei yay they've done that with a round to spare and can now start in a more relaxed fashion from fifth position on this grid being cleared finally it will be your first opportunity to see this full circuit with these 40 now cars on the grid making their way around the i'm sure also there's more than once roller coaster this fabulous circuit before we get the run down to lights out and go and the first lap is going to be a hold your breath affair because remembering back to the 2019 running of this event where there was a big crash at turn four causing a red flag and it's always a bit of a pinch point heading into turn one two and particularly turn three and then the run out of turn four which is a fast left-hander down towards the the best overtaking opportunity really on the track down at turn five yes there will be a few harem scarer moments in the early stages as 40 closely bunched cars all try and find room for each other rd prototypes at the rear of that grid so it is as advertised graph team ferrari and centerlock racing by the way in their lmp3 debut at the moment that's a one-off for the very successful gt3 team doing a lot of racing with audi but also ice race and also rallying in centerlock but let's hope that their paying customer enjoys it to the extent that we see them again uh in 2022. so 130.812 puts sharma lazy on pole position he starts alongside richard bradley for algarve pro racing then it's roman rusin off to start the third place g drive racing hours alongside manuel maldonado for the opening stint in 32 robert kubitzer team wrt alongside phil hanson's united order sports orica julian canal and paul lafarg for panic racing and edex sport respectively then front francesco draconi for bhk motorsport alongside american john fowle in the second of the g drive hours duquesne team and memo rojas starts 11th alongside jean-baptiste lahaye for ultimate it's rob weldon in the best of the lnp threes for united order sports with martin hipper for company on that uh seventh row matcha de barboir in the finding nemo dkr engineering livery alongside mv2s racing i reckon that's their best qualifying of the season eric trujillo for graph starts 17th alongside mikey benham a race winner in the michelanimon cup earlier this year mattias kaiser for graf starts at 19th place alongside in 20th andreas lascaranas then it's nicola molini and jim mcguire for cool racing and united auto sports respectively euro international's antoine ducat in a completely chased lineup there for the american squad alongside the nielsen racing car started by tony wells matthias caprich in the into europa competition car is next alongside tom chloe then max cobalt before we see the first of the gtes that's john hartson in the tf sport 95 car christian reed starts the 77 weathertech proton competition porsche from 29th alongside francois parrotto it's michael fassbender and sarah bovee for proton and iron licks claudia scavoni another iron mix ferrari car 60 33rd alongside rene mastronardi from the same team front desert in the 61 a of course a ferrari with duncan cameron of spirit of race for company rodrigo sales is next and then these rather out of position prototypes vents on capillary for graf starts 38th car 39 just in front of alex fontana with no time yesterday for team viraj and likewise antelope racing luca legere in car 42 at the back of the order it's a very late dive to the pit lane for the pace car and we are about to get underway for the final time in 2021 with the four hours of forty now the red lights are on at the moment carnage by the looks of things at the back with a load of tyre smoke everything is just about under control as the four hours of poorly marrow gets underway now [Music] and so far so good through the first sequence of right-handers everyone just about having enough space to do battle and it's been a really good getaway for 20 year old frenchman charming lazy from pole position ahead of richard bradley in the white and green car roman roosting off the best of the hours machines he slipped to fourth position though with manuel maldonado up the inside and rusenov loses another place in fact to robert kubitza picking him off in the team wrt 41 prototype yeah some elbows in the middle order amongst the lmp3s and absolutely in the back between the last two or three gtes and i think it looked like we got a bit messy didn't it going down to the start line johnny but uh you're right neat and tidy at the top of this grid and away they go so through the left hand they're at craig jones turn number nine and up towards portugal the race leaders and uh it's the pro-am entered car so eligible for separate points in the pro-am championship but also the pros as well depending on how far up that car finishes richard bradley is the leader of the all pro lineups with manuel maldonado running in third place it's already getting incredibly busy in amongst the lmp3 leaders that class is led by rob weldon for united order sports from matcha de barboir who's gained a spot for dkr engineering martin hipper going the other way back down to third eric trujillo has gained a spot as well that was almost a drama for the graph rating card coming through the gte order i was getting it wrong and almost collecting the 77 card but all through with no further dramas the 80 car from seventh on the grid that is one heck of a start leads to the class and reno masternode though is being caught by a chasing francois parado who's got a very good toe indeed there's a prototype trying to get through as well which is the recovering 39 car that started behind both of these ferraris pirodo was off the road they're all four wheels over the white line and can he muscle his way to the lead of the class not quite because that is good defensive work from italian driver reno mastronardi great stuff from both these one of the moments way off again from francois brodar he's pushing very very hard pumped up and there's trouble they're ahead car facing the wrong way did everybody get through there well there were about five or six cars that needed try to try and avoid the spinning machine rob weldon was clear of it so that might actually give him a decent lead over a few although matchup was keeping him honest mikey benham starting that i believe and then did he get attacked from the car behind which will have been the euro international machine yes he certainly did a bit more than a tap wasn't it uh that might well be uh penalty coming for the number 11 car anton ducat unfortunately he's not had a good day has he was making contact with one or two in the michigan le mans cup earlier this morning as well the drl car falling way back into the very back of the order graph card by the way in that recovery um from the more or less rear row starts is now up amongst the lmp3s the two lmp3s that start at the back the santa dot car and the team virage car making their way towards the order of the order of the gtes that's unsurprisingly contact is under investigation johnny yeah which saw mikey bennem spun into an incident at uh turn five needing to recover and has done now but lost several places in fact his stone last as a result of that rejoining after all of the gte cars had gone through charlie lacy though starting to really establish himself in a decent lead he said the goal to haley edmunds was to try and stay out front he's doing exactly that at this stage 3.4 seconds to the good over richard bradley who is certainly no slouch in the algarve pro racing orica then in third it's manuel maldonado rob gubitzer comes next for wrt as it's side by side down into torah vip again and that is car 42 from santiago racing gaining a spot on jim maguire i think from united that satellite cars made very good progress indeed lucas leisure on the back of the grid has cleared all the gtes and now picks off the first of the train of lmp3s yes that's cobalt i think here it is on the number six nielsen racing cabins tony wells who's just clinched the michelin cup championship with the other car on the inside goes max couple there was no real room there max it's uh aggressive stuff here from two or three of these cars it's the 11 car up the inside of the racing experience duquesne so antoinette trying to make progress of the order a side by side now between cobalt and the 14 car so ducat getting a place on tom clowe who has had a busy weekend with two leisure european series races yesterday and now back to his kind of more regular uh entrant into entry into the europa le mans series tesla here between the wrt car number 41 right on the rear of the 32 united auto sports car of manuel maldonado behind them another two car battle that is the 26 car roman roosevelt with phil hanson trying to find a way by the russian [Music] so malaysia from bradley maldonado kabitsa rusidov and hanson in p two p three weldon de barbo above what i apologize hippo juliet uh kaiser and molini the gta master nadi perodo bovi christian reed michael fassbender duncan cameron three ferraris two porsches and another ferrari from cap for cameron then in the spirit of race car as the battle pack for fifth and sixth is really livening up g-drive racing versus united auto sports and phil hanson applying the pressure roman has already lost a couple of positions from his grid starting position as now there are three ferraris at the head of the order because sarah bowie's joined the party looking for a way by perot here to make it an iron links one two still waiting for the first iron danes race win in elements or michigan them on cup it looked at one point johnny who might get that earlier today in the michelin monk cup but technical failure on the number nine car robbed them so three ferraris it is with christian reed trying to close the gap to this trio trump lazy though is romping away leaving this race 5.2 seconds ahead now so brussels born sarah bovee bronze rated uh but has been racing in all sorts of different things started initially in belgium in championships like belcar and the brcc but then since then finding international motorsport in 2013 done the dubai 24 hours on at least one occasion and the 24 hours of le mans for the first time in 2021 so very very used to gt material and machinery and heading out of turn four uh they're yeah three ferraris right together look to be very evenly paced they do and it's gonna be interesting to see exactly what the plans are for i linked into 2022 little doubt that uh sarah bowie will be part of that plan ambitious team great looking efforts everywhere they go racing next weekend in bahrain as well different drivers driver lineups [Music] that group of two groups of two is now rapidly becoming a group of four bernardo has fended off the wrt attack being caught now by roman rusinov with hill hanson right there as well this is the point the race where so many faces up and down pit road i'll glued two screens just making sure they know where each of their cars are around the track and uh are they gaining ground are they losing a little bit here and there just calling them through every single sector they will probably be doing that for the rest of this race barely 10 minutes old the final round of the european le mans series season and xiaomi lazy making everyone else look pretty ordinary right now which they are definitely not but six and a half seconds up the road uh he has not yet caught significant traffic but around the next corner at turn 15 there will be a collection of gt cars that he'll need to think about this is the battle for the leader on p3 with that laugh the recovering graph 39 car and that uh like a good start closing in on this pair is rob wilden [Music] with mattia debobrat in his mirrors it's been a weekend of we put this stretched tempers between ducayne and lucia it's a duque it's a legion leading from a ducane at the moment blood is high in the lmp3 family at the moment all sorts of things going on in the background as francois perot makes an error there runs wide and that's allowed sarah bovee up the inside to take second place really good opportunistic driving that not yet confirmed the position because pirota tries to go up the inside of the lmp3 car and will just about be able to fend bovey off but she's not giving this up yet tries to leave the breaking to the last possible moment and will snatch the place away from francois parado pirodo finally bites a bullet and says okay you've got the position sarah i'll just tuck him behind and then up towards turn 13 now that pesky lmp3 car is still in the way that's jim mcguire in the number three car and this is where we're starting to see sort of similar speeds being generated by both the p3 and the gts at certain parts of this lap once the p3 stretches its legs and gets onto the main straight should see that to get by the ferraris once more more dueling this is at the end of the order in lmp3 for the race lead then the class lead around the outside goes matcha to barbed wire but he's going to be forced out of it by rob weldon who gave him absolutely no space on the exit of turn five and within these rights i would say to do that so weldon's still ahead of match at the barbed wire but an intense fight between legion and decay this is tough but fair stuff both drivers very aggressive to bob into the corner weldon out of the corner both trying to stamp their authority on this race and both doing it with real verve and relish fantastic to witness with uh united auto sports uh team mates keeping relatively cool of course duncan taffy is the teammate of jim mcguire rather than being involved with the number two but he would want a good result from the team as a whole as well and of course depending on which way this goes this will set the trajectory for the route of both of these cars for the next four hours we don't want contact this early on but might there be an overtake to put the four car in front and put it into a very good position three drivers due to be driving car two just the two de barboir and lawrence four in the chasing car four [Music] now found this traffic so seven seconds to the good before he found the traffic see how well he deals with it he has been pretty surgical through this season young man in demand there's no doubt whatsoever about that goes up the inside now of the jmw car the 66 car [Music] yeah and uh nicely done it was too so siding his way now through this gt traffic next uh man on his list is michael fassbender side by side again for the lmp3 class lead inside line being held on to by rob rob weldon and matcha de barbois just trying to throw rob off his rhythm as early as possible great stuff yeah it really was side by side between the two of the cars between the through turn six that's a change that's the wrt carving gone through on the 32 and 22 follows through as well so that means that uh that phil hansen has dealt also you can see in the background he has dealt with the challenge of roman rusinov so man on the move now is phil hansen [Music] so it's all changing those four cars so united criss-crossing between themselves wrt had already got ahead and then through when phil hanson on teammate manuel maldonado on the exit of turn one just about getting all three cars stopped in time for turn three yeah rather dominate him to move to the outside didn't he drifted wide and that was all the space that phil hanson needed that is now the battle for third between the 41 and the 22 they have five and a half seconds to find before we get to the algar pro racing car richard bradley who is five and a half seconds behind race leader charm lazy losing a little bit of time in that traffic as you might imagine but then again he's gonna do the same job and do it equally well two porsches together christian reed and michael fassbender fassbender running at the moment in fifth position as big a gap as we've seen between the two lmp3 leaders seven tenths of a second through the last split between rob and mature with 2.1 seconds further back martin hipper so he's not million miles away in the into europol competition legie with matthias kaiser for graf racing a further 0.9 of a second behind the 4 litre flat 6. the engine note you can hear in the background of michael fassbender in car number 93 he's chasing down teammate christian reed but iron links have uh the best position being held in gte a bit of a stranglehold in fact with reno master nadia ahead of sarah bovee down towards toravid goes the panic racing 65 lmp2 that's being driven by julian canal in the opening stint as it so often is the nervous moments here in traffic aren't there you've got the battles not yet clearly resolved at the head of the field but they're then trying to deal with traffic in their own battles first time they'll have encountered each other in this race it's just another reset mental reset that you need right we're in traffic now we've got that to think about it's not just about looking ahead up the inside of michael fassbender goes rodriguez turned in and stops efficiently it's gonna be neck and neck coming out off the right-hander but not quite solid absolutely chucking it into the second right-hander at turn 11. duncan cameron not really in this battle at the moment and that's not like duncan is there you know in the mirrors of the jw car but not at the sharp end you'd expect at this point the race has been a race winner earlier in the year when uh matt griffin said he couldn't be there to experience the victory but it was a great run into them the 24 hours of le mans the very next round after monza to go in there i mean just spanish racing about that with a good vein of form having been hit and yes they are still in contention just about for the championship to be a drive-through penalty for the euro international car that car running ninth in lmp3 for that contact that we saw down at turn five with mikey benham i don't think we disagree with that one that's anton ducat [Music] and off the road was that is that sarah bovee 83 so she was running in second behind teammate reno nardi did she do that by herself a spin at term one but we only saw the second bit of that she was in the cars around her oh that was in the rejoin though she was in traffic when the initial spin happened to me what we've not seen is the incident that saw the car off the road was in the recovery francoise got in front of her to retake second place and sarah's got it all to do again well mark of the pace of reno master nardi the charlie's bonds in the furthermore is he's now how far ahead it's eight seconds ahead of france foreign two laps ago nose to tail yeah and then yeah dropped some ground obviously because he was he was battling with sarah bovee so that rather lost the two of them some grand and beaufy was not exactly on the table tale of reno master nadi but there's no doubt that master nadi has uh been opening up the gap and now has been able to get ahead of mikey benham as well now at the start of the race i did mention about the tyre smoke the jmw motorsport car almost as if that got away too soon and then i had to leap on the anchors well no i think the cherry w car docked out it was the car ahead of them on the grid that braked hard they ducked out to the right to avoid that so i'm not quite sure exactly what happened maybe someone touched the brakes again that break in the middle of the pack it's always very delicate about whether you are preempting the starter you're thinking this is the right point to go or whether you are dictating it from the car in front and if you expect the car in front to move and it doesn't that's when the carnage can begin to happen nicely and tidy move for francois pirodo at the start of the race to go around the outside of the aston martin of john hartson then there was the contact between anton du claire and uh the 15 of mikey bennett resulting in a spin to the british driver and the british crew have been a race winner in the michigan mall cup this year rlr duquesne team versus ultimate is the scrap for ninth position and memo row house of mexico fending off jean-baptiste lahaye maggie bennett by the way recovering from that as we've got the international car taking that drive through penalty now has recovered to the rear of the lmp3 train jim mcguire still mired in the middle of the gtes and is struggling here yeah so jim um whether that's a setup issue or just a confidence perhaps confidence problem around this 14-hour circuit but jim mcguire should be normally a lot quicker than this might be a car issue of course as well the number three car not quite at the races for whatever reason duquesne coming from a long way back looking to stick a lap on the feet the recovering number 15 car so duquesne team machine being driven by memo rojas and around the outside will go jean-baptiste lahaye to try and pick off rojas who of course was trying to get ahead of the euro international car at the time and he takes the place excellent stuff yeah much to the celebration of those down at the family run ultimate team so the metallic red and white car now ahead of duquesne's black and green machine great by the way see france by oyo in the paddock uh broke his shoulder collarbone before the man cost him that uh start in the garage 56 car and he's not featured since but it's good to have him back here not driving of course still recovering from that turn three is one of those corners where almost the conventional side of a carpet you're overtaking is to go to the outside line rather than to the inside because hardly anybody expects an attack to come on the outside approach should turn three but it can often work because the next corner is a left-hander at turn four and sean baptist lahaye just proved perfectly dkr engineering's matcha de barboir rattling the curves on the exit of turn four now over the brow and into tour of it which is a tricky corner relatively low speed well very low speed surely the slowest corner on the circuit but therefore a great overtaking opportunity as you approach it from high speed and that short straight from turn four the black with the orange and white stripes of matthew de barbour keeping in touch with rob weldon in this opening stint we've had nearly 20 we've had exactly 21 minutes of it yeah it's the battle of the race so far isn't it the lead battle in lmp3 7.3 seconds by the way is declared that uh massive traffic it's more or less as it actually were in the overall race lead between shaw malaysia richard bradley so malaysia has pulled away bradley pretty much matching his pace now needs to start to think about closing that gap can we get is what four seconds back from richard bradley with phil hansen a second half further back than that a couple of seconds ago the mv2s racing car number five was side by side with jean-baptiste and it was as memoro has tried to slip by in the same maneuver mv2s racing had qualified in fourth position they slipped back to 13th in class now and christoph kress not sure he knew that memo rojas was to his right hand side side to side contact so let's hope both cars get away with that racing away and clear here remember not only is this the race leader it's the pro and car and see what the plans are for cool racing gather alexandre quanyi he's been the bronze driver for this squad for some time we'll be taking a sabbatical next year for business family reasons but expect to be back he'll be doing testing and training great to have him back there is richard bradley on the argo pro car this excellent white and green livery yeah little move on nicolo bolini to put the lmp3 car from cool racing and that down but that won't concern molina at all because he's well in touch as far as his class battle is concerned so rob weldon leading lmp3 by still only 0.4 of a second over mature de barboir then there's a larger gap of nearly seven seconds back to martin hipper point four to matthias kaiser and nicola molini a further five seconds back eight cars warned they must respect track limits at term one including the two leaders the two leading cars the 40 37 sorry and the 24 amongst a list of eight and uh effectively getting i'm guessing next to last also also included in that list is the lmp3 feeder as well so you've got 37 from lmp2 car 2 from lnp3 and yes just warning signs at this stage rather than any penalties that need to be served but they will be clocked and potentially added together to other penalties even when the drivers change as well it's the car that earns the track abuse penalty not the driver so gaps at the front reasonably static just now all four the top four showing very good pace battling away here the 13th into europol to get used to the fact that he's a black car mattias kaiser doing the chasing for graph number nine that's the third position in our mp3 the sister graph car driven by eric which actually started a further ahead i think on the grid um has slipped down to seventh position just noticed luca lescerate popping up into eighth place in lmp3 bear in mind he started 40th yep in car number 42 for santilock racing so up to eight and probably quicker than a good handful of cars ahead of him so he's picked up 19 places thus far in this race in the collision after a disappointing qualifying where he lost his laps to track limits trying to find his way back into there we go off the inside he goes past the number eight into 20th position so he's passed half the grid in this dent so far very impressive indeed from the young swiss and santillat reiki racing breaking to the top seven therefore with eric trier going the other way and max cobalt making a bit of a nuisance of himself as well there's a league change in lmp3 finally matcha de barboir makes it stick running into turn one but uh rob weldon's not going to take that line down so he tries to the outside line richard bradley's tucked in behind these two as well second place overall very busy indeed for three cars exiting turn four and it might be now that matcha de barboir does make that stick because richard bradley will get up alongside one and both of them i thought for a second the p2 car might end up between the two lmp3 leaders this is how it happened so one around the outside very good yeah absolutely he must have got a great run down through the start finish straight did wonder whether or not just the point of the overtake for richard bradley might give rob weldon another opportunity big grin from ferdinand habsburg with sofia flourish in the background as well as the apr garage they are the teammates then of richard bradley in that 24 car remember that the g drive racing irises are also apr run though all at their home track maguire has been off the road in car number three this is the one for me that is struggling a little bit whether that's all down to gym or there's actually a car problem it is difficult to say oh that was all jim unfortunately a spin out of turn 13 for the american [Music] and out onto the grass but he did recover things in a fairly neat and tidy fashion not losing too much time after the initial spin but eight seconds back from the battling pair at the front of lmp3 this is the battle for third there's martin hipper and mathias kaiser okay kaiser of liechtenstein by the way so another international flag to add to the tally that have been slowly accumulating through the elms history um i'm not sure he's been the he's the first look huge massive incident for duquesne and also recorded 18 car i think that was in avoidance of the spinning memo row house machine this has all happened out of turn 15. it was a moment that rohan has lost the wheel the wheel on from the rear left departing and yes in avoidance the one aim vilor the corsa car driven by andreas lascaratos smashes into the tyre bale at the end of the pit lane so that is to protect the pit wall and obviously you either deciding to go into the pit lane or stay on the race track but las garatos purely in avoidance had nowhere else to go and has absolutely destroyed the car but there is movement in the cockpit which is the happiest thing i've been able to say all day cocaine car is pulling away but it's all about andreas lascarato so let's hope the greek driver is okay after that that's a massive massive impact [Music] he yes he's moving in the cockpit but at the moment he's yet to get out watch the green car coming through here the wheel goes there he's then a passenger and then it's the two cars behind the virage car wondering which radio i go goes to the gap makes it and las carratos well unsighted undecided too fast to go down the pit lane and felt it just basically nowhere to go in that situation i think he was looking to follow the farage car and saw the gap closing and try to avoid it because he's so close to the virage car you then lose oral orientation of where the pit uh lane entry road is in the bait and the entire stack and andreas lascaratos is able to get himself out of the car that's the best news i'm sure he's going to be hobbling though to safety because he's going to be winded at best he can actually straddle the armco barrier which is a phenomenal feat by the greek but now he will descend and i'm sure just needs to give himself a moment to take stock of exactly what's happened there the safety car is out that's the bit we didn't mention to you but might have been fairly obvious and what on earth happened on the duquesne car because that's we're nowhere close to a pit stop powerless at this point virage goes to the gap the problem for you're quite right the problem for andres last grant is it's very easy for us to say with the angle we've got he's not got that angle the angle he's got he's looking at a growing ball of smoke he's looking at the rear end of another lmp3 car from a low down position coming over a crest and all of a sudden disaster and the other thing we must remind everybody is how low down you sit in these prototype cars um and andreas lascaratus amazingly is walking away from the scene he does now have medics with him and marshals as well i'm sure they will be taking him the medical center is right there uh so he'll be closer no indeed when you are i mean your derriere is inches from the ground when you sit in one of these race cars so you don't have the benefit of being able to see from any height at all and compared to spectators in the grandstand it's uh it's almost like an ant's view of the situation and at speed you've got to decide do i go right or do i go left the car in front is going to the right so i'll go even further right oh no i hadn't accounted for the the pit lane entry um tire stack which you don't see because there's a car with the two cars in front of you and your attention is fully being taken by that spinning like a top 30 machine and where on earth was that going to end up so that clear-up process is going to take an awful long time by the way three laps now the pit lane is closed behind the safety car so there's no option for anyone to take an immediate pit stop and that 18 car has been absolutely destroyed gives you an idea of the kind of scope of view that they've got from those cars there and remember poor old andreas lascaratos had most of his windscreen filled by the front of what a breaking then accelerating virage car yeah and boy were they looking to get through that gap that was alex fontana in the number 20 car by the way who squeezed through an ever closing gap between a concrete [Applause] who will be thinking things over he does at least have a round of applause from the crowd assembled in the grandstand and responds to that but a big big shock for a very experienced man a former european le mans series champion yeah double the monsters uh european monsters champion that's going to take a while to clear up there's been fluid everywhere as well the best news after that is andres lascaraf just able to walk away under his own steam and mama rojas having lost the wheel so dramatically [Music] i think we'll hear from momo pretty soon [Music] i wonder whether there might have been a bit of a thought process to bring this long line of cars through the pit lane even though it is technically closed of course it's closed for work but sometimes when you do get a start line incident in a race that's the safer thing to do as long as everyone bears left i think they will be clear of the debris um but a bizarre moment because sometimes you might see a wheel come off a car on an out lap that wheel had been attached to the car for 30 minutes let's hear directly from the man involved in a scary incident that's right i'm joined here by memo rojas memo can you just tell us about what happened from your perspective there on turn 15. yeah unfortunately uh you know we're trying to keep up with the pack and we lost the rear wheel in the in the exit of the last corner which is the fastest corner of the track um just lost the wheel and you know after that you become a passenger and not much you can do i was lucky i didn't hit the wall neither inside or outside but you know that's that's the race for us okay thank you very much thank you mama rojas of the duquesne team um yeah puzzling moment indeed and the thing is should you be listening and watching that and thinking well what about uh andres lascaratos he will have been almost completely unaware of what was going on around him and behind him yes you know he probably the first he saw of what had happened was when he stepped up that car onto the pit wall he's too busy dealing with his own incident so rescue team there and the clear-up will begin and the one aim v corsa car which has uh had some decent runs through the course of the year a better result of fourth actually at the start of the season at barcelona and has since on two occasions since then been in the points but a couple of non-finishes along the way meant that their championship was over a good few rounds ago currently ninth in the championship and one or two different drivers cycled through the number 18 car through the course of the year but um a really sorry state of affairs for their season to end like that and it'll mean that we won't see alessandro brassat or indeed demiano furavanti for this particular race and that chassis looks like it's just going to have to be thrown in the bin sadly i mean these cars are designed to fold in certain places they do have crumple zones in a sense the rear right wheel very out of alignment as well because of the ferocity that it found the tyre wall at the end of the pit lane those tyres are there to protect otherwise a bare concrete wall so they have done their job to an extent in attempting to cushion the blow but after a little while it was great to see andreas lascaratus clambering out and let's hope all the best for him in the medical center the 35 year old greek in uh only his fifth season of motor racing started off in the 24 h series actually in p2s there and then two years later his first foray into the european le mans series with 360 racing in 2019 well i think once he's had a very strong cup of greek coffee he'll be explaining what uh how he saw it on the social media very active on social media engages fulsomely with followers of endurance racing and is very popular for doing that but that was beyond scary for andreas lascaratus yeah i've seen a few strange moments uh heading into that or out of that final corner i remember a car getting stranded right in the middle of the pit lane entry a few years ago as well that was in an elms race so they've been some moments here at this venue and that's uh i suppose the result of having such a fast final corner of the lap which normally takes you onto a very wide start finish line but if you get it slightly wrong or there is a mechanical failure in the case of memo rojas then the results can often be rather startling pit lane remains closed it is closed for the first three laps of a safety car period but after that it's going to be very interesting to see if there are any takers for fuel because we're not actually at the end of the fuel window for lmp2 quite yet they can normally do 45 minutes and now with this safety car probably can make 50 minutes but it would make sense with this looking like a long recovery period to at least do a stop yeah it would the one question i had with the long shot there is that car hit the barrier at the end of pit lane and that might require barrow repairs at the end of pit lane which might mean it's not safe to allow cars down bit lane true so there's not a lot of work going on there yet but you'd expect the concentration to be about getting debris off the track and this car off the track and fluid um so let's hope there's not significant damage to that's a horrible sight isn't it significant damage to the um barriers and now of course it doesn't look to be the correct lifting no i think it is but because there's so much missing from the front of the car i.e a wheel the balance is completely out all of a sudden so they found the right mounting points on that lmp3 car but because it's missing pretty much all of the front uh splitter the whole of the nose section and that front right wheel it is sent the balance completely rearward and that therefore in itself is going to be a job and a half to get it uh sufficiently high enough to find the flatbed they have just about done that now look at the damage the other side of that car yeah and it's effectively shaved off everything down to the tub these um lmp3 cars carbon tub steel roll cage but hugely strong and yet again be thankful for the improvements and safety in motorsport in the past decades the the pass around by the way which came into the regulations last year or if not the year before it not really relevant because the cars haven't had that long to get out of position i think the safety car picked up the race leader but if there were any stragglers if there was any uh class traffic trapped between the safety car and the class leader in either lmp3 or gte then they were permitted to pass the safety car and catch back up on that the lap that they were set to lose effectively uh it's kind of american style racing coming to europe the wave buy which is now utilized in the elms but the pit lane is still closed that's confirmed by a message on our timing screen and there is a chance therefore that i think next time around it will be open and with nearly 40 minutes of this race having elapsed this is a prime time to take a bit of fuel on board i'm sure we'll get one or two takers if indeed as grain makes the point it is safe to allow teams to do so awful on a quick drive being laid down yeah precisely from from the 18 car i think the 30 car won't have dropped any fluid at all because of course that was a mechanical failure we're going to have to guess at that no real suggestion from emma rojas as to otherwise don't remember him making any contact oh no he didn't make contact anyway let's hear from the team one name v lauber corsa i'm joined here by alessandro bresen driver of car number 18. now alessandra i just saw you just talking to andreas firstly how is he doing is he is he okay yeah of course he's uh he's uh yeah should we come and get him over here is he is he okay he's okay it's just a little short [Music] is a little shocked you know of course it was it was a huge crash so yeah yeah could you tell us exactly what happened i mean from his perspective on i mean obviously better we might be able to be here from just a second exactly i spoke with him only for a second but but basically you want to join in coming andreas hello [Music] andreas how are you doing are you okay i uh yeah everything hurts but it's just the thing from the chant it looks looks okay dramatic crash there could you just tell us exactly what happened i mean we just spoke to memo he told us he lost the wheel etcetera i imagine you're just trying to avoid that right uh well it's a bit more complicated than that because memo lost the wheel i saw him spinning and now we're coming out of corner 15 at full throttle i was trying to judge where he was going to end up i thought he's going to keep spinning into like a straight line but he started coming into the inside and at that point i think it was fontana into viraj he was also trying to squeeze between him and the wall um and at that point it was either me hitting memo sideways which as we know doesn't usually end up well and i i chose the wall instead um i did check the replay because there was so much looking sorry that's a car okay if we can just see the car just behind us actually um oh man it must be so tough to to see that the final round of the elms to end in this fashion but you know it's obviously testament to how tough these cars are is that you're here and you're in you know you're you're in good health and that's super important yeah absolutely um yeah i said it was a tough judgment to to see whether i could follow alex between him and as i was looking into memo because i really you really don't want to t-bone another car i was looking at memo and then i was so close to the wall i just couldn't avoid the wall to be honest with to be honest with you it just caught me um my surprise by surprise i was looking at memo more than the wall um yeah at that point i just saw i had to make adjustment call either go left or right uh i didn't want to stay on the racing line like i didn't know i chose the right way and that that's that's what happened really um all i would say is big thanks to legia for building those cars so well and a massive story for the team um i i need to check the replay uh i feel it's my fault so i won't take responsibility and say i'm very terribly sorry for this we had a good start and strategy was looking good um so yeah i i don't know really i just want to say i'm very sorry to the team because i feel like i avoided it of course all drivers think they could have done something else yeah so it's a big disappointment lucky in one hand but the big disappointment personally for the result that we were hoping to get and again sorry for the team i think i only checked the replay but initially i would say it's my responsibility so i'm just terribly sorry for it it's understandably tough i'll just let you go and sit down thank you very much for talking to us andreas thank you andreas lascaratos being utterly hard on himself there so so tough he's a big man and he's a big proud man and that's what i want to see excellent he's giving him a big hug as well i'm sorry i disagree with you andreas me too yeah that's you know look could he have afforded it in a different world at different times and maybe before we go any further by the way it is a red flag for this race that happened just as we went to that interview so it's a red flag clearly they've decided there is too much debris fluid and it may well be those barrier repairs as well um and the determination has been made that is not safe to continue at this point so we'll bring you news as soon as race control tell us as far as andres lascaratus is assessment of that he won't really have a chance to see it yet yes um he clearly feels he made the wrong choice in that moment and it was a moment that he had to make it andreas no no we're not having that you know at the end of the day you know was it a mistake you can judge anybody else can judge but at the end of the day it could have gone either way and frankly you could just as easily have ended up piling into that decaying oracle yeah absolutely or any other the other thing by the way we didn't see is whether or not there was room to go the other side of the oracle or were there other cars there as well we had quite a tight view there so it's highly commendable for him to say i had a choice of either t-boning t-boning member rojas or choosing the wall and i chose the wall because he cares so much about all the other drivers in this race but um you know when you've got a split-second decision to make like that the last thing you're expecting is for a car to be spilling at high speed out of one of the fastest corners on this circuit and they say expect the unexpected but that's just beyond the call of duty completely right and this is the point at which we all remember it's a sport okay it's a sport there are huge rivalries professional rivalries individual rivalries out there on track trust me you saw it in that moment after that interview everybody cares about everybody we all know this is dangerous it is on the back of every ticket and you can be reassured that i'm sure there will be a long queue of people um checking out that andreas is okay he's not the biggest star in this race but he's part the family and the fact that he's up there clearly shocked um and clearly being extremely self-critical uh it just goes to show the kind of spirit that's employed in this doesn't it so we wait and see what we get from race control the uh important thing right now is that uh the track is returned to a raceable condition yeah and that's the aim of this red flag the clock continues to tick by by the way so it's not like a qualifying session where they pause the clock we are losing unfortunately some race time because of this but far better the to the track surface is completely cleaned and also the structural integrity of that tyre wall and the armco barrier into pit lane is uh all checked out um so a chance to reflect for roman rusinov who is out at the 26 hours manuel maldonado has stepped out of his mount for a period of time as well uh richard bradley a little chat with charming lazy from memory i think uh richard bradley was driving that duquesne car last year wasn't he uh yes i think that's right yes he has certainly have raced with apologies there for the language being used i always like to kind of ear drop on or um yeah talcum powder is is not a good word no uh to yes to ear wig on some of these conversations but there's always the risk unfortunately of some language so apologies for that what i would love from our tv crew here at stop and go is to try and revisit the incident out of turn three where i think memo row house made contact with alex fontana in the team virage lmp3 car ultimate and duquesne were side by side the ultimate car of jean-baptiste lahaye got in front and i think that was where there was side by side contact which is stressed apart on the rear left corner and then gone on to cause that wheel departing and that that finally explains in my mind after 25 35 30 minutes of racing why that failure may well have happened so if we've got that somewhere in the archives that would be great to see that again please uh phil hansen a very close up on the brit's face as he tries to compose himself and retain conversation yeah right concentration he's going to break a smile yeah we got that eventually would say the skincare regime is working there seems to be completely clear there yeah phil and standing in the shade so he's a wise man because it is a warm afternoon now in uh not quite brutal heat but uh that's that slither of shade available to everyone um immediately in front of the grandstand just spotted one thing i wonder if one part of the problem is i think it might have required a replacement for the pit and the light okay i think there was somebody on that tyre bell uh some kind of issue and the pit lane entry light green or red i think it's actually just a red light there pit lane closed uh was attending to something sorry now chatting with one another as well about what they know regarding the stoppage and perhaps how long they are going to be in conversation with each other for as well to be clear we don't have any further information on that just yet we'll bring that to you as soon as we do so whilst we take this moment to reflect on the situation nearly 50 minutes of the race having elapsed but a chance to go to one of the team wrt drivers to catch up with him that's right i'm joined here by robert kibbutz the driver of car number 421 wrt narrowbook with you your extensive motorsport experience can you just tell us in this situation we're currently under red flag i mean firstly how you're kind of what are you doing right thinking right now are you going are you going over what happened in the race or the strategy or you know what what are you thinking right now well right now you it's a tricky moment to be honest because you need to kind of relax but don't waste your energy but then switch on soon we will restart you know there's no point of thinking what happened in the early laps because in the end is it's done it's a past you have to focus on what's uh next but uh until now we will have to wait and see how long it will take for sure the restart will not be easy with cold tires with low pressures so it might be quite tricky restart but uh yeah let's wait and see of course i mean how how would you kind of summarize the race thus far you know for yourself how are you finding it here in portugal to be honest we didn't have best qualifying yesterday but we managed to gain two places in this first half of the scent i think everything was going up to the plan and the car was reacting well uh no big risk uh anyway the the race is long especially with this temperature on this truck the tires are having a hard life and you have to take care of them and yeah only once i have very very close moment with lmp3 i was completely in and the guy just turned in and fortunately it was a moment where i was not taking a lot of risk and and i managed to escape over the kerb nearly into the grass in in the in corner free but yeah until until now everything's smooth and uh let's hope it continues like this as you said kind of under a red flag getting back into the race mode if you like it's always tough um but for yourselves you you know you're lmp2 champions already you've got a bit less pressure on your shoulders am i right in saying that yeah yeah but still we are here to do well and uh to be honest i don't notice any difference on our approach into this weekend or the others uh especially from my side i'm trying to do my best and i will try to finish elms season as best as we can and yeah and enjoy a championship after check thank you very much robert robert kubitz from the number 41 car that is currently in third position then for team wrt the cars have been gridded up in the order that they were running at the time paul lafarg having a chat with jean-baptiste lahaye lafarg from edex sport a wave from jean-baptiste in the from the ultimate car he's going to overtake paula fargo in a minute yeah at the restart yeah paul the farg a recent lms champion of course 2019. absolutely with memma rojas indeed so that just that moment for tv has changed changed so the recovery effort there has been completed 10 minute board will be presented at in just about 30 seconds time so it does look as if it was simply the recovery and repair effort that has caused that unless there's something else going on in the background that we don't know that 10 minutes have been given it's not a short call now this i think was the moment where the 30 car had contact not with virage with the mv-2s racing car did it well i thought there was contact and did that then lead to this moment it's speculative i appreciate and uh i remembered the contact being a little more brutal than it actually turned out to be that was the brutal contact for the one aim vilorba corsica um in avoidance but the wheel going skating off to the left i hope that was contained within the circuit too but it was the yeah the mv2s racing car that was possibly involved with some contact it never came up on the screen that was being investigated because both cars got away with it pretty much i said that at the time but then did that initial contact then um coming to the reckoning much much later on with the wheel departing from memo rojas's car we know the end result but thanks to uh those involved next door in the truck here at stop and go for picking that replay out once again so 10 minutes board is up on the grid now down to nine so we're getting back to this race and with so many drivers available to chat really in the shadow of the grandstand we're going to use this opportunity wisely with just over three hours of the race deal still to go let's go to algolf pro racing i'm joined here by richard bradley driver for algarve pro racing um richard you're talking to charles you know very casual just obviously waiting for the race to start firstly what are we talking about um various things actually i've no charles for a couple of years and we haven't had a catch-up in a while so various things i was saying how i was thinking about sending around the outside of term one but he uh he made my life difficult so thank you um he uh you know i had to back out basically i was saying how i was jealous of him because he got a drink immediately and i had to wait and it's pretty hot in there to be honest um but oh it's it's been a it's been a good start i think that uh we're both conscious that looking after the the front left tire is the hardest thing here um and i think uh we had to take it easy at the start and then we got into a rhythm and thankfully both of us were able to pull the gap and hopefully the same thing happens again when we restart it's going to be a tough restart though you know because you're going from race mode to stopping and then you're going to have to like get back into it the hardest thing we were talking about is we're running um we're running the pressures very very low here so to get the heat in the tires is really really tough so that's my biggest concern and i think it's charles's as well so i think um the safety cars are going to go a bit longer on the restart than normal so i think it will be it will be manageable but uh yeah back to work good luck thanks a lot guys richard bradley having a chat with charlie lacy but uh one of the algarve pro racing crew coming across to bradaz to make sure that he can be in position i'm intrigued by how much racing time this will leave us with and how how the strategy is going to have to be tweaked therefore because drive time will stay the same won't it it does stay the same so we'd have to lose over an hour before drive time uh drive timings would start to change so we are going to be going back racing in what is that about seven minutes time oh rather we're going to go back behind the safety cart in seven minutes time thank you so the five minute board due at a minute to the hour and we are currently two minutes three minutes to the hour so two minutes away from that but close to the fuel stops for the lmp2 cars very close so well i think had the race continued and the pit lane opened after the safety car period or um after the three laps behind the safety car i think we would have had plenty of callers if the safety car period had continued on so yes there are going to be a few other p2 cars that are desperate for fuel in the next few laps luca legere climbing back on board the santelok racing car that was certainly a very busy stint for the tall swiss and he'd worked his way from 40th position net all the way up to 19th spot and seventh in class so had to get by all of the gte cars and a lot of the lmp3s as well so he's overtaken ten cars on his route to seventh position matthias katchich in the into europa competition car is the next car up the road from luca legere even the time to make sure that the windscreens are cleaned all of the mirrors are in pristine condition as well it's all about the detail absolutely so five minutes in about 30 seconds time and we've got a view of the race official ready with that board so happily after all that horrifying it was to watch we've got andres lascaratos uh well enough to talk reasonably coherently to haley albeit taking the blame for something we don't agree should be taking the blame for well no and uh he realizes the level of disappointment in amongst the team but you can be disappointed with that they're being blamed managed to resume the race behind the safety card so they're actually a little ahead of time with about 25 seconds to spare the 5 minute board is shown chance then to remind you of exactly what happened in the first 60 odd minutes we weren't racing for all of it but uh a really nice build-up with plenty of personalities on the grid enjoying the build to this final round of the season for the european le mans series and the four hours of portugal got underway bang on the hour of one o'clock this afternoon it was rather erratic towards the rear as one of the ferraris slowed down that was the 61 i believe getting out of line and 66 jmw ferrari reacting at one point we had five lmp2 cars side by side as they all left the grid at various speeds but it was a good getaway from charleme lacy ahead of richard bradley with robert kubitza for team wrt slotting in ahead of a couple of other cars as well so kubitsu wasted no time at all in gaining two spots from the getaway there was this contact on the opening lap between euro international and the 15 rlr m sport car of mikey benham then the two united order sports cars were mixing it up with phil hansen throwing manuel maldonado the dummy on the run into turn one and then tucking up the inside to take that spot away matcha de barboir had been applying pressure to then race leader rob weldon for much of the opening half an hour as well and the number 80 car that during this red flag period leads the class this was the big moment of the race so far a spin for the duquesne car of memo row has after the rear left wheel departed his machine and as a result the one named v lauber quarter car of andreas lascara has had nowhere to go but the tyre wall at the end of the pit lane and destroyed the 18 machine but thankfully the driver was okay and we've spoken at length haley has spoken at length to andreas lascaratus to make sure that he is a-okay remember rojas also able to step out of his car to the safe side of the concrete wall and that is where we are red flag coming out about 20 minutes ago so just beyond the hour of two o'clock now and three hours still to go about 90 seconds until we get the one minute board so that it means two and a half minutes till we should see the mercedes safety car pull away here johnny after quite some pause for clear up after that incident you've just seen spreadsheets having to be re-tuned significantly now regarding where certain drivers will be getting on board their cars if anything if you've got a two driver lineup that's probably easier than trying to squeeze the remaining amount of drive time necessary for the current drivers and then also to make sure that the two further drivers get sufficient time it's my understanding that the red flag period even though the clock has continued to count down does not count towards drive time because uh you may well have had a bronze driver as indeed all of the gte drivers are for this opening stint and they can't get out of the car saying well i was in the car for the whole of the red flag i don't believe anyway um but we are in that sort of gray area now where in the past we've had drive times adjusted i remember a race meeting at spa a couple of years ago which had to be called uh called short because of wet weather that was also brought more forward into the in the day as well so they started at about 10 o'clock in the morning rather than the scheduled time of 1 o'clock we got halfway through didn't we we got to 50 yeah so 50 half points were awarded and there was a completely different grid uh issued regarding drive time one minute board now being shown to all involved that will be replacing a moment or two with a 30 seconds board but remember we won't be racing in 30 seconds time we will be resuming the race behind the safety car initially i'll have to wait and see how long that safety car stays out on track but some quick work done at the start of the pit lane to make sure that all was intact if graham's right in that like the fact that a light was taken out as well that obviously needed to be replaced and make sure that it is functioning so as we get going on the safety card the order of the race will be in the lead 37 cool racing cars to the hands of sean alessi richard bradley will be second place in the 24 algar pro racing aurica team wrt zorico with robert gabita will beat third the 41 car fourth united auto sports with phil hanson in their 22 car roman rusinov will be running fifth in the hours zero one from two draft racing backs of 26. united alter sports 32 orica manuel maldonado uh behind him in sixth place panas racing with julian canal especially again why is we're restarting after a red flag julian canal will restart that race in seventh eighth will be the edict sports aurica and hanson paula far the second pro and car the leading car is in pro-am is the ultimate orica 29 car 9th position overall for jean-baptiste lahaye john falb and the second of the g-drive racing arrows another paran car 25 completes the top 10 with the bhk motorsports and the graph orica completing the train of olympia two cars lmp3 dkr engineering from united all the sports inter-europa competition with matya kabobwet uh rob wilden the two of them having that fantastic battle at the start of this race and martin hipper they are the top three top three in gte will be iron links is number 80 the af course at number 88 reno master nardi and franz roberto and sarah bovee in the iron links the iron dame's 83 car with the first of the two porsches and they are in line of stern by the way in uh fourth and fifth with christian reed and michael fassbender that is the top five out of the race clearly uh are the two cars that were most heavily involved in that incident that is the 30 duquesne team uh oraca it was member rojas who was unfortunate enough to be at the wheel when it lost that wheel and as everybody's heard and seen andres lascaratos is okay after that huge wreck with the number 18 one aim for because michier we have 38 cars still running johnny two laps behind the safety car i am told by jeff carter the press officer for the european le mans series and therefore heading through the next sequence of corners it turns 13 and 40 earlier on in the lap for the gt cars though they're only at portee mao and heading down the hill now through the left-hander at turn 12. so up the hill in fact earlier on in the latter match just heading through the kink at nine and now arriving at forty mile corners turns ten and eleven now turned twelve away in the distance two drivers left for car number eighty eight onto our parado reno mastronardi leading the class then from pirado for af courser and then a second iron links ferrari is in third position of sarah bovee one more lap before the restart can commence and i wonder how many drivers would elect to come down pit lane and start this next portion of the race because a little more time for the starting drivers to serve behind the wheel of their cars that's in the case of the three driver lineups as 37 is for example 37 uh is a pro and car remember so um alexander's quani will need to spend some time behind the wheel of that car later on in the piece conversations being had behind between uh franco cole pinto and nick dufrese and franco already with the helmet and the hands device on so he can't be too far away from taking over the 26 car from roman rusinov indeed it's going to be i think a very very busy pit lane once this race well once they're allowed down pit road [Music] still almost three hours of action to go uh bear in mind that the cars need to complete the lap on the track before the pit entry opens the cars need to complete the lap on the track before the pit entry opens so you can't commit at the end of this defensively once it turns out the lights the leader can do whatever he wants until then keep the gaps all together so that means next lap is the first opportunity to run legally down pit lane let's hope they all heard that [Music] and this is a two-part safety car it's out that's the confirmation the safety car is coming in at the end of this lap we obviously had a period of safety car before the red flag which has gone towards counting the number of safety car laps two further required to inform the drivers not to overtake before they cross the line no overtaking before the line and of the two further required this is the end of the second one so we're pretty much there and ready to get rolling again for the second time of asking in the four hours of porting out charming lazy still dodging from left to right to generate as much heat in the tires as possible but he's gone now and all of that conversation with richard bradley i'm sure was based in no truth whatsoever in terms of what he was likely to do because he's now scampering off although using the time again on the main straight to continue to build tyre temperature and that's all important as they turn in at turn one yes just about enough grip available to show me lacey who leads richard bradley in second robert kubitsu in third they've all gone away at a similar pace the one that was caught napping and touch is phil hanson and there's a change being further behind and that is the g drive racing car of room and road roman roosevelt getting ahead of uh manuel mandonado so actually trying to fend off the second of the united cars and that is fending off what we think we're seeing is him going by the leaders in olympia three here comes up the inside sarah bovee on francois perot and christian reid looking racy as well so it's shuffle in the order in gte so yes there was a there was a wave by before the end before the red flag came out but that didn't necessarily untangle other cars caught up as 66 rodrigo siles from a long way back will pull a maneuver on michael fassbender and that will be to get him into fifth place in class zola's ahead of fassbender a lot of this is gonna be about the confidence you've got the grip you've got available as these tires are getting back up to temperature they're gonna have lost an awful lot attempt phil hansen back with robert kubitza so he'd lost a bit of ground at the restart but gains that back again now does charlie lacy come into the pits at this point or do they all stay out for a little longer we are at a point where fuel not quite at the premium because remember there were a number of laps done behind the safety car so that will have cut fuel consumption the car behind roman russo is definitely manuel maldonado and i think maldonado was pressurizing the russian into a mistake at the restart but now roman ruiz enough establishing himself a little more up the inside of the number two class leader in lmp3 goes the edex sport car in in lmp2 that's a change isn't it that's the uh united card back ahead yes so i think that happened with that mix-up between roman roosevelt maldonado i think two things happened there let's see what happened here that was manuel mundo after oh there was contact but he was already by him that change had already happened and there was double contact there possibly or did mature mature but dubai will actually just catch the curve certainly the four was rattling around but there may have been further contact at the apex the bhk motorsports lmp2 number 35 by francesco draconi has just come into pit lane so that is the first of the stoppers from the top class the lmp3s will be able to go quite a bit further as will the gtes but we're right on the bubble now in terms of fuel being burnt so down to fumes pretty much for the lmp2s charlie lacy who's quite a bit further ahead of richard bradley just disappearing up the road as he did in the first phase of this race staying out likewise bradley kubitza hanson happy to push on for at least one further lap fast watches on to see just exactly how his man his car [Music] is going to progress looking for that second place gradually you can even get a bit of a cube behind him sean malaysia again stretches out this lead 2 hours and 48 minutes still to race yeah roman rutinoff not very far away from attaching himself to the back of this little battle pack as well so three cards for second place at the moment could be four could be five if manuel maldonado uh ups the ante as well he's just turning left out a tour of it now sixth on the road but fifth in this little gaggle julian canal further down in the panish racing car he's dropped about four seconds compared to maldonado and paul the farg who was deep in conversation with john baptist lahaye they are circulating nose to tail 1.4 seconds away from one another nv2s racing are on pit lane at the moment that's a little early for the olympia 3 car to be a routine stop [Music] so sofia flourish with the helmet on and ready to go to take over the 24 car whenever she needs to so ferdinand habsburg the gold rated ferdinand hatford will be held back a little bit longer mv2s racing which was the other car involved potentially in that contact with the duquesne team car earlier on in the race that's just come in for an unusual stop because it shouldn't be short of fuel at this stage christoph crest but the old one must be an issue there investigation of and a determination of no further action against the contact between cars two and four that was the two leading cars we saw zone five in lmp3 so that is a quick nap get on with it yeah fair enough well i don't think i think that's correct i don't think either we've necessarily lost much time shouldn't been too much damage done either and yeah we like to see overtakes done in a funny cleaner fashion than that but they they did just about get away with it no harm no foul as the old saying goes now the 25 car which is the pro am entered g drive racing machine and john fowle is with company that car running in 10th position and the bhk had just rejoined behind beats the bhk motorsport the first as we say making its uh fuel stop a minute and 33 seconds spent in the pit lane doing that that's fuel tyres and driver change i think did sergio compound to start this race draconian full service stop for the hk delighted to hear by the way that they look like they'll be in for another go a couple of good runs this year the hk big step forward for them from being to be blunt nowhere last year to be at times you know showing real form and in the top ten out of 14 into 15 goes phil hansen his car bucking around almost purposing at times but uh that is just the aero effect across the united auto sports oraca it's also in dirty air of course behind the 41 wrt car driven by robert kupitzer so airflow over the poles car much more as the designer intended than that car following as down towards turn number 14 goes the five cars in lmp3 duking it out for essentially third position because the no that's the other car isn't the 14 car so it'll be for sixth position with matches catching being followed by luca legere max cobalt of alex fontana involved with that as well as anton ducat meanwhile 22 phil hanson in fourth position still not letting this lie as far as robert kubitzer is concerned hanson all crossed up as he skated his way into turn eight there but good car control eventually to gather up that moment lost him a little bit of time but he is still with robert kibitzer and gunning for third position lmp3 battery describing john it's nine cars with only one car with more than a second between them yeah phenomenal stuff at uh well let's say this stage of the race but of course we have had two starts to it one at one o'clock and then the restart a moment or two ago after initially a safety car but then a red g drive racing car from a 10th position i think overall and that goes out with android at the wheel [Music] up and onto the ledge that is absolutely flat as a pancake where the pit lane is because it being a grade one circuit and a modern day one as well the pit lane itself needs to be on the level but everywhere else around the track can be up and down however you want and uh as soon as you leave the pit lane area you drop down into turn number one back up again at turn four here is the race leader though graham charlie lacy first stop and the 24 car in us in sympathy you might say so the 24 car reacting to that there's a change now for the race lead uh therefore because phil hansen gets ahead of robert kubica this was the battle for third it is now the battle for the lead because the two cars ahead of them have both come in and phil hanson wasting no time at all in getting up the inside of robert kubitsa and that is one for the scrap book for phil hanson great stuff and these have been the two battling teams haven't they this season others in the mix at least if you like the two super teams in the european le mans series this year the stella 2020 united alter sports have not repeated their multiple championship winning form that was pretty copybook stuff from phil gave a little bit of room for it robert i'm not not sure he felt that uh that uh hanson was that close out they come and that looks to me door's open the door's open on the 37 car it's been slammed shut now but it won't the catch will not hold and there's a big problem now for the new driver into 37 who is alexander knee i think he's finally got it shot this time thankfully it was on his side of the car the left side but the t that's the team's responsibility to make sure that that is uh secure 100 they already had lost they go there's one two slams to get it shot they'd already lost five seconds of the pits to the alco pro team so i'll go for turning their car around much quicker than cool racing and that five seconds extra clearly wasn't enough to complete the job do you reckon alexander gets that annoying flashing light on the dash and the bing bing when the door's over yeah that's what's allergic to him yeah exactly oh it's the door anyway thankfully we've seen many times before faulty catchers that just do not want to play ball and the one thing you cannot take down in a pit stop is the door because that needs to be on both sides of the car fully workable for you know for obvious reasons if the car is involved in an incident you need to be able to get out in a hurry there are going to be updated drive times for this race i'm told and we're looking for that right now we get getting sent those we'll keep you appraised of that as that emerges as a potential factor later in the race let's not worry about it too much there's too much action going on and uh in formula deja vu it's uh lmp3 it is still these two cars pulling away again after that safe after that red flag period pulling away again from the battling pack behind [Music] phil hansen now on pit lane from the lead of the race as is the chasing 41 car and the 26 g drive which leaves the only one of the the lmp2 cars to stay out and is he going to stay out i think the lead would be graff racing having started 40th on the grid yeah phenomenal run if that is the case vince on capillaire yeah having not made a stop yet just from that you might as well yeah it's a story to tell in 30 years time i started from the very back of that race at portemour and ended up leading it for a lap did you granddad a little bit of smoke coming from the 41 car but that's just uh rather warm breaks nothing that the team are too concerned about the fuel is going in to the championship winning car so this will be phil hanson in for a double i'm sure of that because that was a much quicker stop for united all the sports than wrt have turned around here as now through the pit lane private changes jonathan aberdeen has bought that car so they've turned the car around in a minute and three seconds i think that's fuel and driver change only wrt are still on the jacks only come off the jacks now so that would have been tires as well yeah for the 41. but they've given jonathan aberdeen phil's tires then they didn't change tires on the 22. i cannot believe they've changed tires okay so it's a minute 22 seconds for wrt to install the ife and four new good years we would presume and the wrt car comes out behind the number 24. which is the algarve pro racing car of now sophia fleurs ferdinand habsburg still to come in that machine running in fifth jonathan aberdeen then labeled as the race leader from manuel maldonado he is on an out lap though just want to make sure that that is lead coming into the pitch next time okay well going through the end of the second sector aberdeen reaches it before maldonado surely not a big enough gap to have stopped and stayed out it's 8.6 seconds in the favor of jonathan aberdeen but they didn't do tires remember so that was all about track positions yeah my fault so they're all uh in the top lmp2 category i think everybody's been in now with the exception of obviously duquesne car which is out of the race the graphic didn't stop yeah and uh sadly for graf they didn't get to lead that one lap that we were building up the pizza capillaire will drop back to 11th position robert kubitza is now out of his car slightly from robert okay now i i'm going to assume on the adjusted drive times kubitsa has done all he needs to do now and the times will be condensed accordingly so rather than saying any of that red flag counted towards drive time safe to say it did not and the times that were initially expected in the four-hour race have now been adjusted accordingly there will be some sort of algorithm or ratio that those drive times will be altered by two hours and 37 minutes still to go very wide run out of turn one there for the third place ferrari of francois parado chasing down sarah bovee who's got back in front of this 88 car so it is an iron leaks one two reno master nardi sarah bovee being chased down by francois pirodo in car 88 also a ferrari and christian reed in his 77 proton competition porsche report there sarah pogbi by that oracut that has given francois pro to a bit of a runner here but this pair breaking the toe from christian reed behind in the first of two porsches 77 car [Music] that flag has added some spice post the break hasn't it back here again there's a tale between number two united legion number four dkr duquesne excellent to watch this because uh you think that one car has an advantage and then the next time we catch side of them they've switched around again but a good overtake from rob weldon not quite as clean as he would have liked i'm sure with side to side contact at this corner a few laps ago tore a vip corner but rob weldon now leading by just under a second from matcha dubawa for dkr he was already clear he was already clear that was uh that was the dkr car trying to come back at him he'd taken the place at least two corners before that we didn't i suspect that that that positional change happened with the lmp2 traffic passing them at the restart yeah that he took the opportunity as any p2 car went through uh to get that position rob was already ahead and it was deba looking to try to get that position back having a bit of a dive up the inside into turn five okay well he rob didn't have the inside line crucially going down towards turn five and he was fighting for it but uh that was called you know even stevens between the two of them even though race control looked at it they were happy to leave that as it was so we have now had the official bulletin through for the adjusted drive time we're going to give this to graham because it's a very small print there's a lot of people on this and you can interrogate it well everybody will be listed with all of the times adjusted but you'll probably only find about five or six amounts of time which have now been changed accordingly for instance all of the gt cars started with the bronze rated driver i'd be interested to see if you can find christian reed on that list how much drive time does he need to do in total christian needs to do a minimum of an hour and 21 minutes okay um and that is an hour and 21 minutes of green flag running so he's got a good while to go yet so she does in order to reach that and because he's bronze all the other drivers in gte that are currently at the wheel are also bronze so we know that they've got to do an hour and 21 as well it's fairly well tanned but it doesn't look that healthy yeah but so that therefore it's a kind of blanket mechanism for all of those drivers all of the gte drivers currently so out of turn 15 and up and over the start finish line we'll go the scrap for second position sarah bovee versus francois perot closing piroto to the outside we have seen a couple of cars do this maneuver around the outside at turn one but bogey is wise to it gives francois absolutely no real estate to play with great scrap this really good scrap oh and over rotated there the 88 car have to keep looking twice at that graph guard just to the nose where it looks like a glicker mouse it's the wrong race isn't it but yeah no you're right yeah yeah of course we've seen uh one house run run here at portimao wasn't it yes it's making their debut at the world endurance championship round held here in portugal earlier on in the season the bhk motorsport car will be the next to get by these two gte ferraris sergio campana having taken over from francesco draconi running 12th in lmp2 there goes the bhk motorsport car around the outside of francois parado matcha de barboir 0.6 of a second away from the united order sports rob weldon in car number two now it's united 1-2 after all that is said and done jonathan aberdeen from manuel maldonado punished racing third frankie paulo pinto in the g-drive 26 runs fourth to five flourish now fifth in the 24 algar pro racing car if a yay in the team wrt remember all of that shaken up by differences in the way in which they're going to approach this race on the ties they've got available whether or not they do a driver change all of that to be built into the account here and of that group of lmp2 cars first down to 12th quickest pit stop time was a one minute and one second that came from g drive racing's 25 trouble for the 60. claudius giovoni still at the wheel of the 60 and he loses it on the run through turn 13. the 61 in its weight looked to be able to sideways as well i think he saw i think he was kind of drawn into that a bit of a squirrely moment from desert uh almost sort of a half spin really for the 61 but nothing compared to scavoni who's lost ground and slips to the back of the class in gte so the spread just to complete the point on the pit stop something like 22 seconds but remember the longer pit stops most of those would have changed tires the other ones will not have done 60 cars back under underway as the battling lmp3 cars come by [Music] new fastest lap by the way in class for matching the barbed wire who's just done a 138.819 the best so far of any of the lmp3 cars and into pit lane comes the number six nielsen racing car now we're getting into that kind of bracket now uh for the we've already seen a couple of the lmp3s in and some of the mid pack cars are coming team farage off their 20 car in the 11th of your international car is in already in and out again the 14 into europa car previous issues for the number five mg2s racing car we didn't hear what had gone on with that but that one pitted out of sequence earlier on and jim maguire they're still struggling with that number three united car [Music] so three takers from lmp3 uh nielsen virage euro international as the wider line is favored again by francois perotto at turn one but sarah bovee can hold him back he was a lot way off the track that time around and get some warning flag this time around for abusing track limits okay so that's it for you francois that's your fun done this isn't fun i know it's great fun to watch and i'm sure to be involved with as well but uh yeah the the extra speed that he can maintain through turn one could of course give him the opportunity then around the outside in turn three but he would have overtaken or at least taken a advantage by being off the track so you can understand the reasons why white line treated as the track limit and eduardo freitas choosing for the curves not to be part of the track so even if a section of the circuit is lined by the red and white kerbin you cannot say well i was on the track by touching the curve still got to have at least one tire the correct side of that solid white line 37 here leading this train eighth for the previous race leader in santo that's right alexandra pawnee head of roy andrade if they go by the sides of that uh nielsen car and patrick pelay that's uh already the order shuffle pele making up one position homing in now on kwaney and part of this cool racing effort since the beginning of the lmp2 adventure and uh i believe with thanks for the information to my french press room colleagues montreal's info alexander will be taking a racing sabbatical as income second and third in fact all three in the top three in the 80 cars on pit road as well proton car stays out into the lead of the gte race with jmw also going through and in second place and those two cars by the way separated by seven cents per second so alexander will be taking time away from racing um but we'll be doing some extensive testing okay uh during the year i think he feels it just needs a bit of a reset a straight race on pit road here between two hard enemies i think it's fair to say iron links versus a f corsa and the 88 ferrari then being turned around with a driver change taking place there and presumably new tyres as well 66 mean time hasn't yet had the opportunity to make a stop i'm right saying that but we will have at least 26 has not stopped has not stopped too but uh it will have to be in either at the end of this lap or the next one because they were all beyond a similar amount of fuel burn christian reed in the 77 proton competition porsche leads the class then from sales and michael fassbender still yet to make his stop as well 88 beats the 83 out of the pits and that is the new addition here this weekend the 61 car may of course of that is a squad we expect to see his full season here next year and i was hearing from the team earlier walking in from the car park with another team looking to add a gt3 car gt3 gd car in 2022 so gta for the moment in its waning years and there you go switching lmp3 as well for the two on pit road so it's all about how quickly you can get a car in and out now these cars are dictated by a minimum pit stop reference time for two of their three stops so let's just have a look i think they were both quick ones they were 104 106 two seconds apart so they chose to go as quick as they could for those uh first stops for matcha de barboir and for rob weldon in an effort to get them back out and give them track position and matcha de barboir is in front again of rob weldon this is a fantastic fight very very even and uh it's almost been different phases of their stints that has favored one car or the other but rob staying on board for another go at it that's a competition of uh how much of an apple can you squeeze into your mouth at any one time yeah pretty much the whole thing impressive stuff as down towards turn nine goes the 22. it's a great battles by the way underway up and down this field if you're watching just the live stream of streaming particularly from watching with the live timings available online from the european mod series particularly taken with the inter algar pro battle is underway for fourth position that is renko color pinto the 26 car uh the arrow zero one just two seconds ahead of sapphire flush and at the moment sapphire is matching or bettering the argentinian times great to see a talented driver coming out of that all-female crew we've got now in the wec and being transplanted into effectively a regular uh crew here in the european le mans series that i think is going to be the evolution of those programs and that's exactly as it should be it's great to see the program's offering the opportunity for more shot window for successful female drivers in motorsport but better still when we can actually match head to head in the same teams in this racing edict sport up the inside there with the cool racing car so alexander raquani continues to drop back a little trouble for your international eleven come on johnny yeah that's uh from fifth position anton ducat has already been in the wars after some contact on the opening lap and this had sort of caught my attention the lineup for car 11 this weekend matthew drude also involved finn garcia's to come as well so two stars from the michelangelo cup as sarah bovee goes up the inside is it still sarah driving the 83 is the next question yes and that car has made a stop but battling away with frank desoto who has to stay at the wheel as well remember all of the bronze rated drivers on their adjusted drive time have to do a minimum of an hour and 21 minutes and 31 seconds to be exact which is tricky because it's not neatly aligned with a stint so they're gonna have to make some tough choices here do you add an extra uh pit stop to get a quicker driver in or do you keep the bronze driver in and lose time on track yeah and the minimum times by the way for the silver and the golds in gte both at 40 minutes in fact it's 40 minutes and 45 seconds so they will be the the base figures that the teams are having to think about the minimum drive time for the bronze which is always the greatest of the three and then the the two other drivers whether they be gold platinum or silver all have to do a minimum of 41 minutes down the hill towards term one a good move from duncan cameron but or it was if he'd made the corner though from a long long way back trying to get underneath rodrigo sales thankfully there is a bit of runoff there so he just uh headed out onto that and recovered the moment in car 55. uh we're getting to that position where just got last few cars still to pit just a couple of cars out there and the first of those we've got two gte cars it's tf sports uh aston martin running 21st and amongst the uh lmp3s of the hands of john hartshorn leading gte by dint of having not pitted yet is the 93 proton competition car of michael fassbender he runs 17th overall at the moment yeah um and it's good going very well and possibly some extended time behind the cockpit as well wouldn't have expected to have been at the wheel for as long as this but of course we've had a significant chunk of the race affected by red flag so adjustments needing to be made up and down the pit lane that red flag was a total of 22 minutes and 35 seconds incidentally and there were yellow flags running into it with a safety car of over 13 minutes and a couple of safety car laps at the end of the red flag period as well so we haven't had a great deal of full green flag racing just yet 25 28 minutes at the start and we're now into a 30 minute period of racing as well so barely an hour's worth of green flag running to this point and we're already an hour and nearly 40 minutes in so jonathan aberdeen is leads by what nine seconds over manuel maldonado i think both of them are likely on old rubber in fact we know that jonathan aberdeen is yes lmp3 the blah blah pulling away a little from rob weldon this is the 25 car closing in now for android on [Music] alexander county income comes michael fassbender so he pitting from uh you said 17th overall yeah you say up to the lead of the class john hartson was second but both of those cars in now for their first stops of the race stays aboard the car of course he's got a complete uh at least another partial stint in comes john hartshorn that is the final runner still running to make a first routine pit stop comes michael fassbender [Music] a steep learning curve for the man better known the moment for his acting cars not an easy thing to get your head around as many have found at the in their first shots in these cars and quite often at the first turn in the wreck i'm smiling graham because i was thinking you were talking about john harts on there and i thought is he an actor i totally missed that bit of his career because we were looking at the aston martin in the 95 at the time but you were of course talking to the uh talking about the irish german i'm sure he's done some role play this time michael fassbender the hollywood superstar based i believe still in portugal as well really yeah so they he and his wife i think live in lisbon so good that he again can end the campaign very close to home as down towards turn five the g drive racing car picking off the former leader in lmp3 uh rob weldon he slipped to second place manchester barbour in the lead of that class though for dkr engineering i think that that traffic as well will have given the barbed wire just a little bit more of an edge [Music] united or the sports man needing to move out of the way for that traffic did so i think lost time in doing so 1.7 seconds it was last time through 2.3 as they clear the next timing half a second lost as they have traffic negotiate them we'll put it that way 65 a race winner this year panic racing's orica took a long long time to score that first win but they are in a rich vein of form right now having achieved a podium at the 24 hours of le mans in august two and julian canal lamar resident heading across the line he has been the only driver at the wheel of car 65 from the off he's only a second and a half away from manuel maldonado in car 32 as well [Music] absolutely gaps beginning to come down a couple of these battles franco calapento's beginning and his head down is catching julian canal so at the moment got the measure of survival beginning to pull away there as if yay is closing in on the 24 from elgar pro it's been a good strong run from that car though incredibly busy turn 15. two lmp2s two lmp threes all battling with each other and the mv-2s racing car the half orange half grey car choosing to take the toe from the 25 briefly as that 25 car gets in front so that's ruby andrade and the 37 of alexander knee switching positions so android it is moves ahead into ninth position and into second in the pro-am class the ultimate car now leads that with the [Music] bronze induced tumble down the order that's no slower on alexander that's what we would expect in the overall order as he gets aboard the car proam at the moment running seventh overall the ultimate car with jumped at baptista hey still at the reel the g drive racing number 25 with miri andrade and taking over from john falb alexander poiney taking the car over from sharma lazy runs third and tenth overall and then the graph racing car that started from the very back of the grid is now running in 12th position can't be there still with an interesting story because saborn i think born in luanda in angola sometimes rums with a portuguese flag though so can claim that this is his home meeting and well i can tell you i've bumped into a angolan tv crew here yesterday evening they were struggling to take their kit back to their hotel that god knows one hour so that's the pop in the back of the car the way we went we're having a difficult conversation with three different languages being used and if one of which are understood which is the one i was speaking yes but uh very charming guys and pretty clearly they're here doing some work with rurik that's uh great to see international attention being paid very much so and they're pro am car for g drive rating another one run by the home team algarve pro racing but g drive have two cars and two hourses in this event and the first of them being the 26 car the all pro lineup running in fourth the pro am car for rouie andrade is in ninth place and having that uh cut and thrust fight with alexander kwaney as to the outside of a gt cargo sofia flourish to try and pick that off and she's running in fifth position it's the car of michael fassbender indeed car 93 so 24 safely through yifa yay doing the chasing in the wrt car there's plenty more traffic for them to work their way through in a moment or two as well good stuff at the moment from jonathan aberdeen for that matter from manuel martinardo if he's indeed on older rubber headless race so down towards term one will go sofia flourish with the 77 christian read driven porsche now leading the gte class incidentally with the 80 car reno master nadi right on his tail so this is a true battle for the gte honours in the it's going to say early stages but we have had an hour and 45 minutes of this race technically speaking albeit with a 40-odd minute time of either safety car or red flag and uh therefore 15 minutes away from the half distance point and for gte teams two more drivers to cycle through their cars are they going to be giving them just simply an hour each therefore it's a minimum drive time remember of 40 minutes for both the silver and the gold rated or indeed platinum rated drivers in gte and that would fit better in the fuel side of things the windows to think about because these gt cars generally can make 60 minutes that we're back timing it and wanting to avoid the splash and dash i want to be pitting on the hour but can that work from a drive time perspective indeed [Music] still hammering away in this fantastic gt battle you can read from rita mastronardi now it was a very rapid pit stop from christian reed just fuel only 49 seconds on pit road so they've taken prep position here yep it's been extremely effective [Music] they're back on the main straight and about to be left by the ultimate lmp2 car indicates to me by the way that they don't plan to do a false uh full stint that's not a full fuel stint okay so that is then they will fulfill just christian's required drive time and then pit the car they've taken track position by short flew in the car yes understood well at the moment that's working but reno master nardi is just trying to shake christian reid's concentration almost generated an opportunity to get by mcniel yeah a wave to the camera for cooper who is again making the trip to europe from the united states to continue this run in the elms it's been great to have him that's the reason why the car is backed by weathertech this year and uh able to confirm yesterday that uh we'll be heading off back to the united states to prepare for particular with another proton prepared car with this livery for the imsa finale and there will indeed be two of those cars for the petites them on into finale being all pro cart the other one with cooper taking part in what will be the final appearance in north american competition time appearance in north america the final appearance of north american competition of the gtlm cars which is what they say as you mentioned that there's the change of lead and those down at iron league's very happy with that indeed just at the point where cooper mcneil is putting the helmet on readying himself to take over and whoever they're going to put into the number 80 car will probably then start to uh to square up to cooper mcneil the choices i'm not sure they will so you think they're on a completely different strategy they'll stay out looking at the pit stop times both of the proton cars definitely short filled the car michael fassbender was only in pit range 44 seconds rina mastronardi was on pit lane for a minute and 17. so i think they're going to stick with broadly speaking where they were adjusted for the red flag period yes and i think he'll complete a stint all right as best he can as long as that falls within the realms of allowing the other drivers to do their minimum driving times that's the issue is how far can you let it go it is a warning flag to safire flourish for abusing track minutes she's not the first she most certainly will not be the last matteo crossoni and miguel moliner are the other drivers uh allocated to the number 80 ferrari which has just taken the class lead we've already spoken about cooper mcneil jimmy bruni still to come in that number 77 porsche as well it looks to beat broody to finish the race that could make things interesting couldn't it just a little as through the portimao sequence of corners and turns 10 11 will go the second place car in lmp3 of robert weldon with martin hipper oh there's contact for the race leader in lmp3 though with sarah bovee's 83 ferrari so that was the number four car trying to get up the inside matcha de barboir at turn one and that was a warning flag for that one so there's not gonna be any further action than a warning and the warning two car four correct inside line for sarah bovee i tend to agree with that uh interesting point right now to talk about the lmp3 title battle because at the moment we have two delayed lmp3s and amongst the gt's but the train of cars is 14 cars long it starts with the number four card running in 13th and it ends with 26th position the number 19 the other title contender the bookend field at the moment so at the moment as things stand this is going deep engineering's way in lmp2 jonathan aberdeen on those old tyres has now gone through 49 laps completed this time by in fact he's in the final sector so this time across the line it'll be 50 in the book which he completes as i say that sentence and manuel maldonado running in second position 12 seconds further down the road then it's franco colipinto who is right with manuel maldonado and julian canal in the number 65 car still running in fourth spot yeah color pinto now pulling over another under pressure flush beginning to get onto turner's julian canal and well keeping you fei at a reasonable distance but it's a mistake away from a problem [Music] pressure now being brought to bear up and down this field and what was initially a fairly static train after those pit stops all of a sudden as the formula of who's got what tyr underneath them begins to bite [Music] so the two south americans are battling royally here we've got uh maple maldonado from venezuela franco colopinto of argentina closing well one closing in on the other the hours getting larger and larger in the rearview mirrors for manuel as they head out of turn 11 through 12 the left hand kick down in the dip there back up to turn 13 which is tricky on the approach yes you approach it uphill so that helps in slowing the car but if he's slightly off camber as well and so important to get good drive out of there on that short sharp straight between 13 and 14. it is an awkward set of really three corners to close the lap porsches together in the gte division second and third currently christian reed and michael fassbender which is by far the best romney's team for michael fassbender this year and now paris saint the team principal by the way i think we've got a penalty coming from franco colopinto has been reported to the students for abusing track limits he's earned his warnings that's going to be a drive-through well that will take the pressure off manuel maldonado regardless of whether franco can get by or not before the penalty is served there's also going to be a warning flag for the santelok racing lmp3 car now being driven by fabian michelle taking over from luca legere [Music] and around the outside of michael fassbender we'll go the lmp3 car there's the bhk car and i think it's a virage car isn't it following through mv2s i reckon similar paid schemes but mv2s feeling no in effect from what we think was contact with the duquesne car much much earlier on in the piece and mv2s racing are running in fifth position fabian levier you're right from the side they look very very similar that's the first time this year i've been right fantastic mv 2s racing's on the main street further back that's where i was making the error so 66 and 88 now with the 83 involved two so three [Music] gt ferraris and that's a hit again that's a hit between the 83 and the 88 yeah that was sarah bovee getting wedged between the sausage curb and the side of francois porodo's car but i think they might have just got away with that that's delayed france by perot so bovie back up to fifth pirodo drops to sixth and they were pursuing at the time rodrigo sales in the black yellow and white jmw motorsport ferrari yeah it was the contact with the curb which then forced sarah into the side of the car hit that car in what can be quite a vulnerable position which is pretty square on the right rip through the yes the right rear wheel just hope that was bodywork and not wheel yeah well it uh was enough to kind of put pirodo off course but it was a relatively light love tap and the thing was parodo was giving sarah some room to potentially go alongside knowing that then he would have the inside line for turn four confirming drive-through penalty is coming the way of franco colopinto for abusing track limits as we said that was the inevitability is once you've been reported to the students for that there ain't no going back and third place car then and looking racy enough to be in second if he could get by manuel maldonado well probably not going to get the opportunity to pull off that overtake at least during this particular stint so that will give him some breathing room that will mean that it will be julian canal back up into third position so fire flourish will run forth staying out for the time being so color pinto not going to serve that penalty just yet they've both managed to get by the second place car in lmp3 which is rob weldon martin hipper running in third position a spin now for rodriguez also at turn three so this was the car not involved in the ferrari on ferrari action a lap ago but whatever has happened down at turn three on this lap the 66 car completely sideways and losing places hand over fist it was all on his own afraid so before the apex wasn't it that's the graft car having to go off an avoidance so too sarah bowsey but thankfully for her pirodo wasn't close enough to capitalize this is that short stint that should take christian reed out of that car having served his drive time i would guess that the same is going to be true next time around for michael fassbend although he went deeper didn't he into that stint so he may well have another lap and so to go faster slap of their race by the way dastard goes to the 25 car android in the 25 g drive racing car second in the parant last phk motorsport back on pit lane [Music] so color pinto stretching the envelope to keep the pressure up but is going to have to come down pit lane it's this group of p2 cars johnny very closely matched canal flourish separated by under two seconds yeah really narrow margins indeed just trying to go back through the strategy order for the gte fight so uh reno master nadi reaching the end of a uh 14 lapsed in he's of course staying out but michael fassbender is now in and nine laps completed after the latest pit stop everything slightly out jumbled up of course because of the red flag but the fuel is going in and michael fassbender now stepping out so proton reckon that is the one hour and 21 minutes required from the bronze their bronze driver and everybody else in gte machinery at the moment therefore should have reached the end of their drive times too and we are about to see with about an hour to go for two hours to go rather so an hour for each driver the initial driver changes in the gt class yep so this is going to be the end for most of the bronze drivers at this point including france corporato it's been a very engaging gt battle up and down with the order with they've got to be said most the field involved at the sharp end is france more struggling just to fire this car [Music] 93 car emerges rickard leaks at the wheel of the 93 will either be rivera or it'll be manu collard but there's possibly a slight delay there when the car exits the pit lane we'll be able to see monica's time was lost uh a minute and 16 it took them compare that to the 93 porsche so i think they have uh avoided any huge delays there reno masternode has not been in yet still leading the class probably in this time and at the very most next time around sarah bovee as well being trusted to go longer here that's michael fassbender he's very pleased with that i think that is the best we've seen of of him and that's the way this is supposed to be it's a development program for michael fassbender and that was error-free well done sir yeah very very good stint indeed and uh kept christian reid honest in the latter portions as well and interrupted by a red flag that's not an easy thing to readjust from it's very warm out there uh well done yeah well wife alicia vikander was in support of him last year uh to say making the relatively short trip down from lisbon i'm not sure she's here this weekend but again massive hollywood star that those that couple really are and um fantastic that you know underneath the radar i'm not sure whether many of his fans know that he comes racing every trouble big trouble for the 19 car which is the official leadership winner uh yeah so nico molini with smoke from the rear of the 19 car now is that a tyre issue front left no it's still it it looks to be a little bit low that front left if it's a tyre it can be easily reached it is the tyre yeah it just looked like there was a bit of smoke coming from the front of the car and that speed that gets channeled underneath in the ground effect of these lmp3s and it starts to issue from the back and you think is that engine or is that tire but there is a bit of the dive plane dangling as well which is attempting to be taped up by the looks of things yeah there's there's no air in that tire and therefore it's locking up on the pressure so let's keep our fingers crossed that cool racing can change all four wheels and work this into their strategy there is going to be a drive-through penalty for the inter-europa competition car number 14 after contact with a 15 rlr car at turn three a few laps ago but we're making such a big deal about the number 19 cool racing car because they are the championship leaders coming into this round and it is hugely important that they at least get a race finish and ideally ahead of their rivals well rival lawrence four in the number four car [Music] so [Music] yeah five points is the gap between cool racing on 98 dkr engineering on 93 everybody else not close enough to be involved in the championship battle this is a disaster for girl racing no doubt about it whatsoever remember amongst other things here uh for these two teams a place on the grid at while i'm on 24 hours is at play it would be the first time for dkr engineering it wouldn't be the first time we've caught racing there's something else up for grabs here for dkr engineering which i'll talk about if we get there the issue at cool was that of course they weren't expecting this pit stop so the tyres weren't in place they had to wait a little longer for the front left to be found in the garage and now it's not going to get away either so big time being lost i was just thinking well get a driver change done didn't molini start that car because you could then get across to either nicholas crewton or matt bell but they would need to be suited and booted and ready to go and that's the issue maybe they were not otherwise i mean it is a suitable time to have a puncture because you're pitting with two hours to go you could easily work it into the strategy but everything needs to be ready the 19 car that was not too bad one minute 53 on pit road because creighton uh is at the wheel of the car so it's not a million miles out of kilter there but they're a long way back now eight uh what is it 16th place in class and i think two laps down on the lead it may have been up in two hours time uh the 25 pro am to g-drive racing hours is in to the pits frank coco pinto in the system has just left pit lane so they're choosing to pick these cars a lap apart ruby andrade's just brought that in just asking yes for safety and efficiency related there remember the change has to be done separately from the fueling as well so the field nozzle has to be released before the tire mechanics can burst into life and they come mammal maldonado is on pit lane so fire flourish is on pit lane rio andrade was already seen on pit lane franklin pinto in and out but that was the drive through um so the p2 middle order really at this point is beginning to come through the next pit stop cycle because the entire technician takes a look bald eagles on those of course not quite yet uh but if you're double stimting or indeed triple slinting tyres they may get that way teams have only double stinted to this point and poor old jonathan aberdeen at united order sports were was made to do one stint with phil hansen's old tyres that's a rare thing to do normally you change your driver you give them a new set of tyres but in order to gain track position united order sports choosing that route and it's working for them he's been mighty hasn't he and he's not far away from uh him uh coming in for his pit stop and 14 seconds to good over julian canal at the moment in comes the cool racing goals another example of quantity 65 with a clutch of cars ahead of it being the panas racing car with behind actually hard pressure now from team wrt's yifei yay so julian canal and ife will come into the pits together at the end of lap 59 jonathan aberdeen giving a moment's rest therefore in fact he wouldn't really know it because these cars were a full 15 seconds behind before both were called in by their teams and it's racing based a lot earlier on the pit road than team wr2 i think are all the way at the far end yes they are i'm going to say thank you to michael sorensen who's reminded me that dkr have been to lamont 24 hours they got a late entry with a low le coupe back in the day um when another car drops out so my apologies you're completely correct i've totally forgotten that a team that's been with us for a long time hopefully i can give you some exciting news about uh dkr engineering if and when we get to the stage where we can talk about that being a typhoon was that a number of years ago well before their exploits in the mission and the one cup there that was 2013. yes it was then so because the first year of le mans cup was 2016 and lmp3s only became a regular part of the championship the following year well thinking i've been involved for some time with gt1 corvettes amongst other things uh bumped into uh kenny looks after dkr in the company of holly gavin and they were exchanging notes about uh ollie having driven for the team back in the day that comes the panic's racing car 65 so jonathan aberdeen on pit lane franklin color pinto currently second position if yay emerges at the moment timeless third position i think that's correct well just ahead of severe flourish because they arrived at torah corner absolutely together meanwhile the 22 car of jonathan aberdeen is in pit lane 32 has since rejoined with kyoto at the wheel so we're doing a driver change weren't they so tom gamer getting in some gamble getting in the car he's 20 assistants here [Music] agreed so franco colopinto leading in the g drive hours number 26. he's working his way through turn four now but he hasn't had a stop has he well there there was a stop uh right after the red flag there's also been a drive-through for 28 seconds hasn't yet been done no so heroes as a stop yeah and the drive-through penalty was four [Music] yes okay he did say that at the time so welcome united 22 and the notter gliggen house graph so ko lopinto having served that drive-through penalty has since done a further three laps 60 on the clock now and up the inside of the euro international lmp3 car will go yifei yay this is all shaken up again hasn't it so euphoria our net leader you would think once uh franco colopinto finally uh comes in for that second stop well columbine is 34.5 seconds on ifa yay and it's pit stop however much fuel they're gonna put in it will take longer than that indeed so that will confirm things in the way of the championship winners already and yifa yay silver rated a mighty silver graded driver here comes franco colopinto there for the scheduled pit stop pit stop number two for g drive racing and algarve pro [Music] so order as always is in this form of ground racing starts to get shaken up as you get the cycle and it's a different cycle depending on the team of the pro-am driver line-ups some of the quicker men and women aboard the cars at the moment pinto and pit lane to fire first tom gamble yacht for luther james allen patrick pelay and p2 the bob what rob weldon fabio laverne matas kaiser michelle mp3 mateo krasoni ricardo leetz cooper mcneil michelle gatting now bought the 83 including well manu killard and jody fannin in gte fast laps beginning to come again the united all the sports cars work their way up to third and fourth taking advantage of the stopping franco colopinto car which will rejoin in seventh position yes patrick pillay's just gone through to ensure it's not sixth but lopinto is far enough ahead of jean lucas giuradi who's guesting this weekend with ultimate by the way to join the lahay brothers so getting giving cooper mcneil something to think about here white porsche means pink and black ferrari top seven by the way in lmp2 and for the overall separated by 30 seconds [Music] from a long way back the lmp2 from cool racing number 37 now driven by nicola lapierre will pick off one of those gt cars waiting it's time to now dart at the inside at turn three to lack cooper mcneil in car 77 and michelle gatting almost spotting the chance to follow the 37 cool racing car through got a good run here yeah looking for the gap good looking for the inside is gonna make it stick i think here two wheels on the grass pretty much from uh from michelle gatting but gets the work done and a brave maneuver that on cooper mcneil but up to third position she will go ricard leets who took charge of the 93 proton competition porsche from michael fassbender last time he oh there's a touch that was a touch between the p2 car the number three who's the ball number three now sandra bentley taking over from jim maguire so bentley on the outside of turn three then becomes the insider turn one he touched it it was the rear of the wrt car race leader remember yf yay so that was significant and amazingly if yay kept control of the team wrt oraca kept things on the straight narrow but that will he would have been holding his breath for a moment or two during that incident next question how is that going to be viewed by race control yes well for me i think the wrt car was ahead going through turn four yeah and on the wider line too we didn't see the line that either car took out of that turn whether or not andrew bentley lost the front end of the three or whether or not epa pulled in too sharp yeah he was on the outside of turn three which then became the inside line for turf four we'll wait and see whether that's looked at again [Music] two hours of action we've had already today then we're uh already significantly away through the third hour in fact but uh heavily affected by red flag for 20 odd minutes there was a 15 minute safety car period before that as well because of a very frightening moment for andreas laskar at last toss los garatos coming out of turn 15 where he tagged the tyre barrier at the end of the pit lane in avoidance of a spinning duquesne from emma rojas be able to talk you through that in a moment or two but the start of the race got underway at one o'clock this afternoon and a really busy run into turn one as it was always going to be prototypes left right and center gt traffic shuffling around as well and yes the switching of positions began very early on in gt this was the moment though on the opening lap for everyone to be giving each other sufficient space that wasn't the case unfortunately for anton ducat catching the tale of mikey benham's car and pitching the britch into a spin zigzagging their way down the main straight with united auto sports and phil hanson throwing manuel maldonado off his rhythm off his stride he was the moment for the duquesne then spinning like a top after the rear left wheel parted company and andreas lascaratos in avoidance smashing into the tyre bale at the end of the pit lane round and round and round memo row house went and the team virage car just about managed to escape the situation with alex fontana at the wheel but the same could not be said for this man andreas lascaratos who hayley edmunds spoke to at length after the incident very good of him to spend some time in front of the microphone when clearly he was shocked and winded initially and very apologetic to the team amazing enough and labeling it firmly as his fault which i thought was a little unfair side by side ferraris as we got back underway sarah bovee battling with francois perodo also a really good dies between matcha de barbour and rob weldon that bit of contact into torah vip was claimed as was the result of no further action in the end after much deliberation by race control the 22 car of phil hanson at the inside of yifa yeah that was jonathan aberdeen actually by that point to get a move done on the team wrt car no it wasn't hansen on kubitsa which was a moment i'm sure that will live long in the memory of phil hansen a round of applause there for iron links taking the gte lead then a scary moment for cool racing tyre going down on the front left corner and they from a good position in the championship now are really up against it so this is the order after just over two hours gone 2 hours and 15 minutes to be exact 64 laps for team wrt who lead by 3.2 seconds from the algarve pro racing aurica number 24 then the two united order sports cars of tom gamble and jack van outer and james allen for panic's racing completes the five dkr engineering leading lmp three with matcha debar while still at the wheel and lawrence core still to come mattias kaiser the liechtensteiner for graf racing is second in the class santilock racing their first ever michelin lamont cup event elements uh event is what i meant to say fabio and michelle up to third position in car 42 and in gte it is iron links matteo crossoni who took charge of the 80 car at that stop so reno mastronardi out chrysoni in to now lead from rickard leads and michelle gatting a couple of bits of drama as well for a couple of significant entrants in lmp3 that uh we saw that penalty being assessed for the inter europa or come off of contact with the 15 or our car that car came back to the garage and is still there and also in the garage is the number seven nielsen racing team started their day with a championship win in the michigan cup looks like they may finish their day um well certainly it's in the garage at the moment lots of power for colin noble being reported so bad news a couple of the uk based teams uh in lmp3 um in a title race that doesn't like a race anymore it looks like can car finish this race yeah uh and they're in the into the pits now for their next scheduled stop us we're now going to turn our attention back to the gte category because iron links are leading it with their number 80 car but it has been an eventful race for car 83 let's head down to wine leagues i'm joined here by sarah bovee driver of car number 83 for iron link um well some fantastic battles out there in the gt category um you're really kind of fighting with pirado notably taking start of the wreath taking advantage of the restart to get the second position just tell us take us through it yeah it was kind of crazy on track i have the feeling that i'm just getting out of a two-hour sprint uh sprint race not endurance race but uh it was still very nice and very fair like we had in spa so i really enjoyed it um it's it's great to be able you know to to fight in such a beautiful championship with the prototype and everything um it's very positive and i'm happy that we were able to show that we are competitive in terms of pace and uh now we keep doing it with mishi uh uh trying to fight her way up uh i think she's p3 catching up on p2 so it's really cool to to be able to have a good place today thank you very much sarah bovee referring to michi i.e michelle gatting who's taking the 83 car over from her but a really good stint that and um evenly matched with uh with those around her which is uh so impressive completely correct michelle gatting too coming on a million miles this year and i think a lot of that has been um the program that the ireland team have put her through in the ferrari challenge where she's been extremely successful yeah seems to have helped her confidence seems well to racecraft seems to have helped her speed her next challenge is trying to close down on porsche factory driver rickard leaps in second the gap at the moment 7.2 seconds let's keep it on that number so over the line we'll go matteo crossoni in the black and principally white car remember iron links running with similar paint schemes but the flashes down the side are of different colours and that gives us an easy way of identifying which car is which yellow flashes for the 60 which is at the moment in eighth place pink flashes for the 83 iron dame's car running third and then this car with the white detailing running as the race leader in gte matteo crossoni from the 93 emerald green porsche of ricard leaks another really good stint from another bronze rated driver michael fassbender we spoke about that at the time and some news filtering through about more drive through penalties this time two cars from mp3 it's the number 12 car racing experience they're down in 30th position 13th in the order and the number three i think that was wasn't it united sports andrew bentley he's currently running ninth inside the top ten so both those cars dealt a drive-through penalty antelope racing lead lmp3 well i if that's not a shot in the arm to come back for more maybe in the new year i don't know what it is well that's uh that's all about them going long on the fuel i know so but still it's a nice but that's what get a screen grab quick quick uh but uh deco engineering uh in and out and introduced into proceedings launcher for the first time this afternoon the i think it's fair to say dominant form of volunteer in pace terms this season and he now now needs to be well fast yes but safe uh there's an hour and 40 minutes between them and a title where things stand right now oliver jarvis is here i've just adjusted and in the united auto sports garage as presumably a guest of theirs noticed with his multimatic mascot yes as you would expect from someone who drives with the mazda team in the united states and yeah some uh perhaps conversations being had for next year or indeed beyond that into um as we get more and more hyper cars introduced to the world endurance championship there's a significant amount of change and movement within the market of prototype drivers in forthcoming years without a doubt so battling continues in lmp2 there goes the 24 apr car but we'll go to proton competition next for a much anticipated interview i'm joined here by michael fassbend the driver of car number 93 for proton competition all i can say with regards to that stint was wow michael that was absolutely fantastic you know at one point you're up in the lead and then you're fighting to fight from the second with the sister car just take us through her thank you so much yeah it's um i was disappointed here last year because it's my home track so this year i really tried to prepare mentally for it and i just thought you know keep the leading pack in sight and just you know keep up with them that was the target and just try not to get too tired it's pretty physical this this track um so yeah i'm really happy it's definitely my best race so far but you weren't keeping up with the pack you were fighting at the top yeah yeah yeah i know yeah i mean i i wasn't really going for any moves i just thought you know i'll just i'll just stick with them if i can and if an opportunity comes take it but i was just happy to hang on to the back you know it's great to have chris here in the sister car he's is a great sort of measuring stick for me and learning a love from him so i just thought if i can keep him in sight and stay as close to his bumper as possible that would be good so how was the restart i mean it can't be easy to kind of restart a race to get back into kind of competition mode how was that for you going out there on cold tires that's really something i have to work on for sure um having the confidence to to push the car early it took me about three or four laps to to really find confidence in the tires again so that's definitely something i have to work on um rodrigo salas took me pretty easily going into the hairpin i saw him there and then i thought well it was too late really to close the door i kind of half closed the door so it's pointless but again i thought just stay calm keep them inside and yeah you know let it go but it's something i definitely have to work on the restart it's getting the confidence in the tires early like that is something i have to work out it just seemed that everything kind of aligned and was working for you i mean just give us a brief overview of how this season has gone for you uh yeah i think you know started off pretty good in barcelona the pace was good then i had an incident um the car had some damage so you know i think we realistically there we were looking at p4 which would be pretty good start then uh second race austria i thought uh you know with the rain it was incredibly exciting and scary um but very happy with the performance there la castellais really i should have done better that race was really you know there for the taking and so a little bit sort of disappointed with that and then uh monza i wasn't happy at all with my pace i was just too slow and spa again you know off the pace but you know managed to finish the stint and a half so nice to finish with this race now this is this is a nice feeling yes you're finishing on a high and where you know majority of us are of course following road to le mans we all want to know what's next michael well uh stay tuned we're releasing it episode by episode but uh we'll be back next year fantastic thank you very much michael fassbender uh undoubtedly um welcomed into the the motorsport the racing driver fall he was a couple of years ago really but he's starting to think completely like a racing truck he's not just down to his ability which he undoubtedly has but he's also then when he gets out of the car tearing it apart you know unpicking it to work out where he can next improve and the word that came through there several times was confidence and confidence is it it you talking about their confidence of being able to use the tyres after losing the temp under the red flag you could see where the confidence was yeah at this time and that is only going to build and you know because he is a hollywood superstar that's what he is which we wouldn't might be using those words of course isn't more scrutiny than other drivers are you know you see some typically boneheaded stuff posted on social media when a mistake is made he's sort of here to make those mistakes to learn from those mistakes and yeah they'd like to have made fewer of them but what a joy to see when it all starts to come together first saw him by the way in a race car here on the monday test after the elms what was it two years ago um and uh trying out the rsr the very first time with uh with proton and then again last year with the new car and as as we've seen with a lot of people who have public profile in other areas once they realize that people in the paddock want to talk to them about their racing then you see the kind of shoulders get back there and then relax a little bit and feel a bit more part of this you know we use the word family in a kind of throwaway fashion but you saw didn't you the reactions of that incident with andreas lascaratos a little earlier just people's reaction to it people do come together people want them to succeed people want this to be a positive story and positive reason for people to look at this racing and look beyond just what michael's doing but to what everybody else in this 40 car field is doing and you know what that's what he wants as well because put aside the fact the hollywood put aside the fact the porsche factory link whatever is behind that and the you know the reality tv aspect to this he's a racer and he's an enthusiast he's doing what we'd all like to do if we had the opportunity to do it and i refuse to be part of anything that's anything other than supporters the other great thing is he's identified this as actually a weak track and it being his home event although yes i know strong ties to ireland and to germany but bases himself in portugal these days and he was determined to get it right this time around and as graeme and i have identified and hayley too that's just about his best drive to date oh yeah i'd love to see the figures on it in terms of average lap time and how many times he was able to get as close to the delta as possible having a little sing-along with the headphones anybody who was uh was able to lip read i'll pay money for what he was listening to let it go let it go i think he'll have to let it go now because that's probably going to go viral of him singing to himself eyes closed fully in the zone so true i wonder if he does that around the track as well hopefully he keeps his eyes open there it is again folks he is away isn't he completely in a different zone but very red-faced indeed god bless you son go away now go away this is my this is me time about ferdinand habsburg maybe he was singing to richard bradley maybe that was what it was i'd be surprised if richard was staying there stroking his head now anyway we'll move away as they have a little moment and of course are enjoying sophia fleurs who is seeing the uh 24 car running second place and churning out some cracking life lap times 133.9 last time around catching the leader at the moment yeah on the last lap time certainly and also tom gamble putting her under pressure at the moment too so it is was that gamble throw into second i think it might have been it might have been tom gamble through where they came through turn five there he was certainly close enough to challenge for that waiting for them to work their way through the next split as a race leader from team wrt ifeiye swooping through the left-hander at turn 12 turn nine rather getting nine and twelve mixed up because they're downhill left-handers this is 12 and up the inside of the ultimate car will go the race leader and tom gamble i reckon is still behind sofia flourish but pressurizing her to be a long wait before you get a mistake though out of the young german performed by the way by haley evans he's listening to dream world i don't know what that is sounds like a theme park but uh that's apparently what fernie is listening to well done he was wearing dream labs never mind the dream world and 30 still to get on board the 24 car tom gamble is through that confirmed at the end of lap 74. so it does pick off sophia flourish in the algarve pro racing car and united order sports 22 up to second position only five seconds or six seconds away from the team wrt car santinot racing still leading lmp3 but they owe us a stop laurent horse 13 seconds away in the number four machine that's olivier harness looking very john leading those glasses but uh olivier actually was he down to silver rank this this year i think with the uh question i think he did so he must have hit a significant birthday yeah okay so is that for next year's rankings or this year's next year's record next year if anybody's going to be calling him out of retirement unless he's unless he's going to appeal he's not actually whatever your age might be i think it's unlikely yeah very interesting and of course those driver rankings for 2022 are being interrogated by all it's just the first edition of them if you like palace racing and uh having a little bit of scram there's the 22 car and tom gamble now six seconds back from the leader if yay [Music] so for going back to the subject of panics that would have been a double drop then because he would have been platinum being a former f1 star then moved down to gold and now perhaps to silver with another birthday having good job jj later has gone down to bronze would you believe wow okay i tell you that yes a lot of the teams are scoping out teenagers and those in their early 20s what about revisiting the le mans stars of yesteryear because they'll still be quick what is that santa rock racing car running on because it doesn't appear to be fuel seemingly not no there won't be very much left in that tank it's only made one stop remember that uh this has been a safety car full course yellow affected race so not quite at the same level of fuel burn of a regular elms race but fabian michelle posting a 141.4 last time around well this this is about the experience for javier michel yeah and there is no commitment to the moment from santiago beyond this race [Music] this isn't going to hurt is it certainly be wetting the appetite of fabia and the car was started by luca legere 34 laps on the stint i make it for fabian and an average lap time of 141.7 through that last time around he did a 41.4 and laurence hall is taking time away from it no doubt about it it's almost within 10 seconds now so that should leave the dkr engineering car out front well comfortably will do before else stays even with adam atteki doing the chasing in third at the moment soon to be second into europol competition and also going to be getting less pressure from behind from the united all the sports because carpet has been reported to the students for abusing track minutes that will inevitably be the drive through so if you don't know a great deal about fabian michelle then he is the 43 year old frenchman who's been a champion at gt4 level in a number of places including in homeland france but more recently in the gt4 european championship this year already a champion so looking to explore other areas we've seen motorsports championship winning they won was it a class for a lamb this year yeah so let's just say yes and sharing that car with gregory gilbert okay so they had some decent results along the way to that championship uh but to the championship in question didn't visit here at portimao so i wonder whether this may be fabian's first time at the algon international circuit if this so that's impressive [Music] yes uh running regularly with santilock in the ffsa gt4 france championship at their pro-am level and then more recently in the gt4 european championship with six podiums and a pole position of route two their championship win being corrected by the way by gary quarterback believes that i'm wrong and that wouldn't be the first time even in the last half an hour that uh jj later went gold to silver so okay yeah not quite if i i didn't have my browser open to check that i actually wrote myself and uh just three days ago so that's uh writing a lot this week in fairness yeah some of it's going to drop out of the memory bank there's a lot more to come and car 60 by the way the iron lynx car is another one that will be getting the drive through penalty confirmed by the way for number two that uh the united auto sports car will be clattered [Music] so dkr was up against the number two cart for much of the early stints but unfortunately yep the edward cohen paycard is going to drop away now after really hard work from rob weldon for the opening couple of phases santa lovecar on pit lane for only the second time the monster goes to the top of the tomica scoring screens for the lmp three glass adamante 2.3 seconds behind on performance this is looking very much like d car engineering title and i just thought that out loud didn't i you know what this place can do because we have seen so many times a race developing into a predictable pattern and then all of a sudden something can happen similar to what uh befell affected the andreas carr earlier on the piece and then all of a sudden it could be a safety car a full course yellow and that will throw the narrative off topic completely but at the moment things are going very sweetly indeed for dkr engineering this is the first year that they did not win the michelin le monde cup can they back that up though or rectify matters as far as the elms is concerned by taking the title in the main championship latest on pit lane comes in from fourth position now makes it united 2-3 tom gamble is 5.2 seconds back from the leader for yay 5.4 seconds back from campbell is the dutchman for dutch 41 22 32 punish racing with james allen aboard pops up into fourth patrick pigley fifth and francophone now up into sixth position and right with pigley edek versus cola pinto out of turn four pilate ahead of g drive racing sophia snapped across the nose and indeed the bows of is there a driver change there probably too early for that so maybe flourish stays on board for another stint we've had richard bradley flourishes the silver part of the combination though and it's fernie habsburg in fact so hapsburg taking charge of the algarve pro racing car and returning to the track flush out of the car fuddy habsburg unplugs himself from his ipod plugs himself into the oraca significantly more advanced device of course [Music] he goes [Music] around turn 13 goes patrick pelay running in fifth position ahead of franco colopinto and nicola lapierre lapierre for cool racing leading the pro am part of the lmp2 lineup alexander kwaney has he driven the cool racing car yet yes he has one full stint and quani needing to do only a minimum of 36 minutes in the refresh times i think i agree with you so lapierre needed to do a minimum as well of 36 minutes in fact they're all having to do that amount to note by the way the nielsen racing car albeit heavily delayed has reached on the race the 15 carvo after that clash with the 14 i think it was the 14 and the two into europol cars is still in the garage it was 21 minutes for wilson racing in the pits [Music] tom gamble yacht van outer the current top three some smoke emerging at uh toravic corner just ahead of the 95 aston martin which is this is a battle actually it's just right position but it's ollie hancock under pressure from com leader 61 crew additional car for this weekend from af courser and as we settled earlier in the program johnny uh a group that we expect uh to be a full season entry here next be aware of year least one other team set to bring a4 to be working hard to bring a ferrari gt effort to the ms next year that is not in the european answers this year this is eighth place in gte hancock just ahead of lady gaga with now the 37 pole sitting uh cool racing car sandwiched briefly between them that's running as i say as the pro am class leader a more significant drive-through by the way in gta comes to the 88 car manu collard is i think taking that now unless these in the middle of a more significant stop but drive through penalty being taken by the 88 that will drop that car further down not good news for the title run looks to be going the way of the 80 at the moment doesn't it the 80 iron links ferrari for matteo crossoni miguel molina reno mastronardi reno having been taken out of the equivalent michelin lemon cup car from iron links and they're number eight the she with lancieri cappielli lanciary replacing here the focus i think really all year for reno master nadi was trying to win the european le mans series and at the moment they are on course to do so will have done so without managing to win a pole position all campaign but they have taken race wins through the course of the year 93 proto competition car crashed by the lmp3 car behind and that is the number nine car with the two and the 32 lmp two car so it's kraft united united in that little train behind the 93 car number nine car and then a two car battling for third in lmp3 it's repenting aboard the nine car that's the trick of the car there the two-car now in the hands of edward having taken that drive-through penalty the 32 car threading its way around the three of them dealing with the traffic well [Music] next up is matteo crossoni and rickard leetz is very close to the leader here just 1.6 seconds back [Music] and lapping more quickly so pentane from finland in his early 40s now and running as the bronze rated driver under pressure from edward bay who is uh silver rated oh with a big squirm there from the frenchman who is in the finn's wake he caught a bit of the curve a bit too much curb for co-pay which has cost him some time exiting turn 13 they work their way out of sangresh corner and into gaul where it really drops down you have to kind of walk that part of the circuit to know how much it descends and then climbs back up again as you whip by the pit lane entry road which was heavily hit earlier on by andreas lascaratos so they're also jumbled up with the 93 porsche of ricard leads what happened at torah vip a second ago the 26 car on the inside of patrick pillay but then very scrabbly on the outside of that to run so places reversed yes they were for patrick pele getting back in front of franco calipinto who gained the spot for a matter of maybe 10 meters 22 next piece of traffic to deal with is the 35 bhp motorsports efforts on an outlap in the hands of marcus bumber oh that was a big hit there and the spin for the bhk motorsport car damage on the 22 as well let's just have a look so 35 heading out of the corner trying to locate them on the tracker that happened at turn seven watch this again up the inside yeah and dive plane being whipped out of the 32 car not sure whether you finance it was quite in the ideal position to make that pass and remember the slower turn eight was the next right-hander where he might have been better placed to have pulled off that maneuver or just wait till the end of the lap but uh you try and hold kyoto back it's an impossible task and that i'm sure will be under investigation very shortly all warning flags to r7 colin noble and also the 20 car for rob hodge which is the team virage entry for track limits rob hodes is a better place to two sixth in the order at the moment and ahead of the center lock car that's the motion pit lane seventh place not funny has pitted that car i think that's gonna be a full nose change yeah there's not much left of the dive planes on the front left corner the seat insert will be obtained so at least they can use this as a standard pit stop taking a look at what work needs to be done they can't think about or they can't they can't think about they can't actually do their nose change until the fuel has gone in but yeah at the turning point it's a big hit it was because it forced the 32 car up over the sausage curb and therefore yachts car left the ground briefly but at the turning point i don't think vanita was quite a long side as as he needed to be but it's a tough angle that we were viewing it from i think if you're speaking job afterwards he'd say he thought for the from where palmer had positioned the bhk card that he'd let him go he was giving him room i think that's what he probably would tell you but um yeah marcus palmer's turning was very late indeed i was out that remember as well yeah okay so yes tyres would not have been as as warm as those on hyphen outer car but i'd like to be able to see that and describe it to you from a slightly different angle if at all possible an hour and 15 minutes still to go in the final round of the season let's head to apr for a bit more news i'm joined here by sophia flash driver of car number 24 algar pro racing seemed very frustrated there coming in earlier than expected could you tell us what the issue was uh yeah well we had a we had a tire failure on the front left um on breaking four two and five um yeah a little bit frustrating but this the race is still long so it's really in the car now we'll see where we end up overall you're impressed with your pace you happy with that how are you in oh well quite good i think i mean it's it's fun um to be here to be honest um to do one season five and actually follow up and it was really cool enjoyed the weekend a lot and yeah we'll we'll still try to finish the shop as good as possible so in terms of strategy what does this mean for you guys today well i mean i mean fairies in the car now um for two students um we'll see you know with focus yellow safety car maybe there will might come something again i don't know if i have to check back in the car but yeah i mean we just had five more laps to go with my stint so um obviously it's not that cool but um yeah that's racing sometimes and the fact that you're integrating the algal pro racing team this weekend i mean how's it going for you really good i'm i'm really happy to be here this weekend you know um i mean i did lf2 the past two years um but always for we should be racing and now to do one round here was fun the team is great i know parodies is a long it a lot so time going to try yeah see maybe yeah race you next year well it's great to have you back see you back in the universe thanks a lot sophia flash happy with her afternoon's work and uh handing the car over to long-term friend uh fernando um federer and habsburg rather and the austrian driver presumably will take that car to the finish side by side in gte and this is for the race lead the 80 car of matteo croissani and rickard leetz are nose to tail that leads the gold rated or platinum rated driver trying to get by silva rated driver chris sony in the number 80 ferrari for iron links and no porsche win this year so far in the european on one series this looks like a solid challenge though doesn't it thought so far flourish by the way did a very very able job this afternoon [Applause] so this is the battle from the position of someone sitting on rickard lietz's right shoulder [Music] it's just looking for a way by at the moment is set to be the championship winning car even has time to adjust the air conditioning tube there to give him a little bit of cool air into the cockpit does ricardo leaked he was over the white line i noticed coming out of turn four and again on the exit at turn five michael fassbender wide-eyed appearing at the screens and looking at his teammate corson for the class lead wide entry into turn eight that might mean could but no didn't quite work out graham no 32 card by the way and he had to duck out of that one didn't he with the arrows coming up the inside 32 card by the way back on track but in 12th position overall with nico shaman at the wheel for the first time so leitz is trying all sorts of tricks in the book and indeed not even in the book let's face it with uh a root on the inside of turn 13 where he can get an overlap and just put sow the seed of doubt in matteo crossoni's mind to the outside of sagresh corner which should enable him to cut back tighter on the exit but the speed of that ferrari off turn 14 is very impressive fantastic traction life is about to get easier for the 80 car whatever happens here because it looks to me like it's going to be another penalty for track limits from the 88 car already has dropped back down into ninth position in this order and it's going to drop it to the back of the field manu collard is about to be pinged with another drive-through and they were well the nearest rival in the championship to the 80 crew of croissoni molina mastronardi so yeah all things looking good even if they do concede the class lead at this point of the race to the 93 porsche a proton competition not necessarily a huge drama because of those latest reports that the 88 car has been abusing the track limits so iron links up against proton competition fainting to the inside line now at the kink at turn six and switching back again riccard leads towards turn seven as from except it was for the lead of the race comes in for team wrt car 41 yeah part of a gaggle of p2 cars to the lead goes tom gamble for the time being 22 cars united alter sports the lead also on pit lane the edex sport car the hands of patrick pulley and lapierre in the 37 kill racing car in the pro am 25 hours from g5 racing fuel going in initially you can do the driver change at the same time as well but if they're wanting to do tires and there are good gear eagles waiting there they will have to wait until the fuel has all been put into the tank and this is what um an hour and 10 minutes out if they're doing 45 minutes stops there will be the need for a short stint at the end of this and we kind of always knew that uh with the red flag that the standard stint length of 40 45 minutes for the lmp2 it's also going to fit neatly into the time we had remaining sean malaysia by the way back into the cool racing car started this race presumably means we've got to see like i know you said like summer connie had to do 36 minutes i would have mentioned er easily done 36 minutes final warning for rickard lee's abusing track limits so critical moments for the potential for this to be a proton porsche race win again that's the traffic through tries to get back on the terms with this number 80 car but it's looking better and better for iron links at the moment in comes tom gamble from the lead of the race which he'd just taken because the wrt car had pitted on the previous lap a couple of seconds ago it was busy at turn eight and there was a bit of contact as well between the 29 ultimate p2 car and the eight machine from graf that sir david drew driving the lmp3 yep that's the 10th place come on lmp3 ultimate currently running in 10th place overall and third in pro am again regardless gets a partial overlap but not enough stop and go by the way is confirmed for the 88 so start with course my apologies they've had one before so it goes for a drive through to a stop and go right gets worse as it goes on yes yes it's always somewhat progressive and accumulative because of that so you get one penalty uh well a warning first of all there so an idea that you're being watched and the first penalty is a drive-through which the 88a of course are ferrari served a little earlier on and now they're going to have to come to the team stop albeit briefly and then get going again definition of a stop-and-go penalty and manu collard driving that 88 car which is already tumbled tonight it could get even bleaker than that with a gap of only 54 seconds back to giorgio cerna giotto in his iron league's ferrari car 60. down through the gears goes ricard leads at the moment matteo crosoni is able to respond to an extent to the austrians pace not necessarily increasing the speed but just his car placement is preventing leets from making a move just does seem almost as every time he gets a kind of lap to have a crack at this past comes a p2 a p3 car and gets between the two again the frustrating freak on it won't be the first or the 100 first time that has happened it's a very different line through there trying something different that ferrari is super quick isn't it i suppose he relaxes in the knowledge that if he's got to allow the lmp2 car through then so has matteo very shortly too and far better to not fight that just sit off the racing line allow the p2 car through as quickly as possible and then gather momentum once more and he's lost i mean from a neck point of view he's lost no time at all tomato crosoni in doing that they're both going to be lapped by the wrt car and sensibly leets picks up a bit of a toe this time from new man into the wrt car uh louis delatraz who took over from yifa yay at that uh penultimate stop for the wrt crew squeeze the outside but there's a bit of a wiggle over the kerbs there will vacuum just an opportunity lost a bit of momentum up the inside becomes the outside he's got it done he's got it done beautiful move beautiful move from rickard leads that was crossoni as you said getting unstable on the curves it meant that he lost just briefly a small amount of traction and leaks read it first of all then put the car in the right place and you would expect nothing less from a very experienced austrian racer i'm sure michael fassbender enjoyed that immensely out of the view of our cameras and he'll be grinning from here to here behind his coronavirus mask as all drivers must still wear of course as part of the stringent protocol in the garages in the confined spaces of the working area of the paddock but uh try taking the smile away from the hollywood actor become racing driver we could probably reverse those roles now actually he's a racing driver who does the occasional bit of acting yeah i mean rich carl leakes has also got hollywood good looks it's fair to say yeah that's right i understand uh you know there's maybe a few extras opportunities in the in the office i'm sure we'll be seeing a few porsche factory drivers in the background the next next big budget movie why not 90 laps done for franco colopinto now at the wheel of the 26th g drive racing hours tom campbell 21 seconds further down the road remember tom has just pitted for united louis delatraz has just taken charge of that car from yifei yay as well but again united have been quicker in the pits so united have leapfrogged past the wrt ten seconds different again tom gamble ahead of louis delatraz colopinto we know owes is a pit stop he was out of sequence before and it's gonna be interesting to see how that one pans out at the end of this race at the moment it's color pinto with a pit stop still to come 20 seconds ahead tom gamble eight seconds ahead of louis de la traz for the habsburg further 13 seconds back with will stevens over 30 seconds back from that so gaps are significant but we've got some racy guys in there five seconds are added to the next pit stop of car 32 for that contact with car 35 so your producer is being called for that but only as the pit stop and the repair uh cost them dear that was four minutes by the way pit road for the 32 but also they will suffer a further five seconds the next time that car comes in uh yifa yay pitted on lap 59 and then he pitted on lap 87 to hand his car over to louis delatraz the 77 car by the way is in the pit lane as he's the 66 i think that's a puncher on the rear left yeah yeah i'd like to see that again to be sure but uh jmw motorsports car possibly forced into a pit stop i don't think that tire is meant to have the good year grand rolled underneath it and it just something was very odd there certainly not if goodyear had anything to do with it no they they want that um as prominent as possible but uh cola pinto is about to say due in in fact he's coming in now because you know he pitted two laps later than you feiya did the previous time and won that later than tom gamble so he's got a little further he might have been able to squeeze two laps out of that stint beyond where tom gamble was able to get to and now the argentinian is in and i'm sure for a driver change to nick dufresne to give him ample time in this race two minutes from the start of the very final hour of this season and it is united alter sports 22 orica that leads as the three united league gets caught up behind the racing experience car isn't at the number 12 duquesne tom gamble in that 22 orica with seven and a half seconds worth of gap over team wrt's 41 orrick in the hands of louis de la tras judy habsburg in the 24 alcohol pro racing oreca great run this afternoon from that team for a further 12 seconds in arrears that's the top three in that class in lmp3 dkr engineering look well on the way to a title here that's her the number four duquesne ahead of adam itake in the inter-europol competition 13 can't run second eight and a half seconds back with rory penton and the number nine graph racing uh duquesne so it's alicia apologies alicia in that car um is 40 seconds back so that's an effective two-car race for the win um but realistically for the championship is a matter of whether or not the duquesne that needs the race can we can actually finish the race they do the title is going to be theirs because the only other title contender is just too far back louis delatraz a tour of it corner heading up the hill now towards turn six and seven the left and right hand kinks respectively then leaping on the brakes to get the car slowed for turn eight having just dispatched a couple of lmp3 cars and put them a further lap down so louis is running in second nine seconds behind tom gamble in the 22 united order sports car that currently leads ferdinand habsburg is third for algarve pro racing and then it's will stevens for palace and nick dufrese for g drive racing nick having just taken charge of the 26 car from franco lopinto into that final hour [Music] lots to play for and with 35 minutes away johnny from that point the last 25 minutes and we know about the last 25 minutes of endurance racing something will happen oh yes and anything can happen that old chestnut um yeah no i know what you mean and also this is not an ideal scenario for any of the lmp2 teams because a lot of them have pitted on the hour completely you know you can only get 45 minutes out of a tank of one of these uh gibson engine lmp2s so they're all going to have to make it longer than a splash it's going to have to be a third of a tank to get them to the finish any kind of drama that introduces a caution at the moment is going to throw a spanner in it for half the field it's going to offer an opportunity for the other half but it's going to throw a spanner in it for half the field they've got getting to the stage now where they're reasonably comfortable with where their strategy is for this final hour that you've always gonna take into a take into account as best you can contingency planning really that's right for what might occur here's that 61 crore this is the guesting car uh here come leader guy brings the ferrari in from fifth in gte now i don't remember pierre rag doing any driving in the 61. i just think he's about to get in that so that would make sense to do a driver change in this final stop for car 61. i can't remember the last time i saw pierre rag in a gt car very good question from deserto started in 61 and comladedgar took charge of it then after the red flag but yes rag in a gt car i'm sure somebody will know the answer there they're having to push the car backwards briefly that's to give it a sufficient turning around another pit stopping car presumably also from af corset so a little bit complicated that pit stop very close to contact indeed the 77 porsche and the 60 a uh iron links ferrari there and that was the scrap between jimmy bruni for proton and giorgio cernagioto for iron league 77 getting the position on the 60 car then fellow italians going door handle to door handle and chambering italian though he is driving for porsche and has done for a number of years now including at world endurance championship level last time i didn't find pierre bragg having been in a gt car of any kind of significance at all was the 2016 fi world endurance championship when he drove the lava corvette to sixth championship with four podium finishers it's highly unusual for him to race in a gt car i certainly remember those days of uh the mighty corvette from la brea and pierre rag has had a strong connection with lara competition through the years but uh five years or so we think out of a gt car and to confirm it is pierre rag who took charge of the 61af course of ferrari at what should be that car's final stop and likewise for the iron dames and the 83 car that is coming from second position on the road seven point three seconds down from crossoni who's also pitting so both of the iron links ferrari as well two of the three iron links ferraris are in for their final stops uh further back by the way in his career before that it was 2003 in a chrysler viper in the figure championship with paul bermondo racing he's done very little in gts obviously like preferring the front engine gt car so he's had to make the adjustment to a mid-engine ferrari for this weekend therefore then comes the 55 car still a title contender mathematically matt griffin brings that car it'll be david perrell to complete the race for the 55 team it's been another solid year for them but uh looks like that title is not gonna be theirs yeah the one win that they took at monza they also had two second places round two and round three so austria and in france and a podium finished to start their season as well but the non-finish last time out at spa frankfurt has rather cost them dearly and came here for the final race of the season on 77 points and as you say mathematically speaking they were close enough to iron links but it would have taken a peculiar set of results although we've said that before and of course last year was the season where the top two in the gte category finished on exactly the same amount of points and i think with the same amount of podium results as well it was something ludicrous like three or four count back points wasn't it before we could actually declare a championship winner it was down to the number of fourth places each car had had and changed to the outside recard i'm sorry philly yet fernandez larsa taking charge of the 93 car this is an out lap no not quite it's uh this is out for the 80 car okay so tyre temperature might have dipped very slightly but uh presumably therefore felipe laza is saying this is my time to pounce because this is the best opportunity of taking the race lead miguel molina is the new driver into the 80 car he's coping well he's not going to use to pass his bigger molina and i think visually on the balance of performance that ferrari is down the straight so much better than the porsche the porsche is good through the corners and that's where elites was closing in on the 80 ferrari and as you can see in the background just four and a half seconds back rahel fry and that's this is going to become a three-car battle very rapidly [Music] well molina driving deliberately defensively just wonder if he can make the break on the porsche and then focus on the road in front he should be able to inch away but this is the part of the circuit now where for me that favors the porsche and felipe fernandez laza trying around the outside of the black and white ferrari of miguel molina ty attempts on the fuji regal still coming in for the ferrari whereas the porsche has had a couple of laps to already do that and elites having got by previous driver in the 80 matteo crossoni now the new drivers in both of these cars are going to have to replicate that and let's hope that felipe fernandez larson was watching exactly what teammate ricardo leetz did at turns three and four to finally crack the stranglehold of car 80. guessing by the way second place cars just had a problem in traffic louie de la trust the 41 team wrt car 137 dropped three seconds the leader and to the third place car last time around so he's beginning to see ferdinand habsburg lip syncing in his um rear view mirror dream world what is that i don't really want to think about it well let's hope that the headphones have been left in the garage and he will be now singing to the to the uh glorious um sounds of the gibson engine powering his orica zero seven for ferdi hatzburg running in the third position behind louis de la tras four and a half seconds away and tom gamble who leads the race by 11.4 seconds turns three and four are where the gt leaders are now and 15 or 20 or so minutes ago there was that lead change when record leaks got ahead of matteo crossover lars are trying to pressurize miguel molina into a mistake he's getting very close too close there was contact there between the front and the porsche and the rear of the ferrari at tour of it and a little bit of the rear diffuser on the ferrari chipped away [Music] it's been a cracking battle in gt hasn't it these two cars have been front and center for the it we've got real battles in the last 51 minutes of this race for the win in gte and for the win overall let me tell the trust by the way back up to speed and there you go and there was indeed a bump and a bit of body work that might have been porsche colored actually breaking away from the nose of the 911 rsr19 so a moment for miguel molyneux to recover from but the power was still there from the ferrari and i think deliberately lars are getting out of the throttle this is an interesting moment for michael fassbender because this is another part of the picture this is a team that's coming together it's a team that's beginning to perform and all of a sudden he's got the anxiety of seeing a real result emerge in front of him and well that will make i'm sure for some spectacular scenes for the roto-lemon documentary that's following the progress of this effort with michael fassbender proton competition in porsche new fastest lap in class uh in the gte squabble and that is ross gunn who's just done a 141.461 in the number 95 aston martin that's the car he qualified on pole position yesterday for the second time this season as now the bhk motorsport lmp2 car finds itself in between the 80 iron links gt leader and the 93 porsche from proton competition albeit briefly there are quite a few prototypes actually that need to work their way by so this is separating the two gte leaders for a small period of time they'll find each other again be assured of that because as the 93 car is making way for the faster cars to get through 80 will have to do likewise and they will close up again the other side of this but smart driving from philippe lazar keeping the concentration as the car up ahead which is the 80 ferrari was very nearly clumped there by an lmp2 eager to get by and onshore is to go whether to whether to go right or left thankfully disaster was avoided and uh again those gt cars have found one another molina versus laza will carry on fifteen come on happily is back out to play as well for a long time in the pits and it's mildly jacobson getting in some laps here so the only two cars that started this race that are not going to finish this race on the two cars involved in that dramatic incident pitting duquesne number 30 decaying team number for 30 aurica remember rojas losing the rear wheel coming through the final turn and spinning wildly barely avoided by the team virage league and unsighted by what was coming up a fret ahead of it so added something the pit wall indeed it was out of turn four the gt battle will continue on a chance to remind you of the first three hours of action though and there's been plenty of it and unfortunately as graham's just mentioned the red flag took 20 25 minutes of competition away from us but far far better that way to make sure that the drivers involved were okay and then that the surf the circuit infrastructure could be repaired suitably to go racing again it was an untidy start to the race particularly at the rear the 61 and the 66 ferraris getting a little tangled up with one another but thankfully contact was avoided as then down into the first corner a natural pinch point and amazingly we managed to get lmp two cars two and three at rest safely through there just shows you can be side by side uh when respect is given between drivers having said that antoinette caught the rear of mikey benham at turn five and pitched the 15 rlr car into a spin there was then this cracking fight in amongst the united order spores ranks as phil hanson picked off manuel maldonado this was the horrible incident involving memo rojas and then andreas lascaratos piling into the tyre barrier the front right wheel of his 1a v lorva quarter car going skyrocketing up into the air by several feet and that was all in avoidance incredible that alex fontana was able to squeeze through in the team virage number 20 car and after catching his breath andreas lascaratos was able to inch himself out of that cockpit of the very broken race car and to the medical center and hayley edmund subsequently caught up with him for a lengthy interview which was great to see matcha de barboir and rob weldon in the early stages were neck and neck debarboir getting the jump after that latest round of pit stops also a really good dice in gte the number 19 cara nicola molini suffering a puncture on the front left corner and that's really taken the 19 car out of the championship equation in favor of the number four uh the number four dkr engineering car so it's united that lead in lmp2 and lead by increasing amount 12 seconds now to the good for the habsburg just four seconds back from ruidella trousers a key part of what's happening uh right now as we get into the last 45 minutes basically that's a full fuel stint remaining in this race final race of the season it's been a very engaging one indeed we've taken our trotting tour around europe once again with european le mans series again doling out some of the best endurance racing entertainment in the world right now lmp3 dko engineering lead this race with laws her uh more or less cruising now to the race win 43 seconds to the good ahead of rory pence in the graph number nine uh legit the dkr duquesne and then we're continuing with this really engaging gte battle iron links the number 80 car and miguel molina look like they're on the way to the title it's uh the mirror is full of the number 93 proton competition porsche felipe laza taking over the wheel after a great stint from rickard leads and a very good stint indeed as well from michael fassbender putting the 93 car into contention for the win in comes the race leader in olympia 3 for what will be the final routine stop of the season for dkr engineering these cars can easily do an hour we've got 45 minutes left on the clock so this will comfortably make the finish now as the fuel is going in in fact they don't want to fill the tank they're carefully watching the numbers on the the fuel filler itself to make sure they don't go beyond the time necessary driver change not necessarily either because even though they're going to give lauren score new tires two drivers allocated to car number four and matcha de barbois did a significant chunk of time and even on the adjusted drive times lawrence thor can do a maximum of two hours and two minutes so he should be well short of that rory pennsylvan takes the lead for the moment it is in third and a wee way back in the mv-2s car so great run from them this afternoon the number five car first-timers for the european le mans series this year they're hoping to return again next year this is one of the longer stops by the way if you're wondering why the lollipop has not been lifted yet with all the duties in the pit stop having been completed well a minimum pit stop reference time for two of the three stops is required in the lmp3s which cannot be breached in michelangelo cup this weekend it was 130 seconds so probably about the same sort of figure let's just check that as uh the car trundles its way to pit lane exit and emerges into the sunshine car four has spent 150 uh what a minute and 51 seconds in the in the pit lane that's that's 110 there we go so uh and in fact they even gave it an extra second to be sure that is the number 19 car this is the other type of contender they've just had today have they punctured for that car and uh problems earlier in the race for the 19 currently running in tenth position with matt bell with the wheel and he's working the gap at the moment to the team ahead just so that's the uh the number eight between the two which is a different lap to matt bell that's the major that's the difference this afternoon that fortune has dealt what's been the long time championship leader it's a bitter one four kill racer to take the lmp3 carter briefly hold the class lead rory penton is now in car number nine from the graph team an mv2s racing could therefore have a moment in the sunshine as the class leader they're about 50 seconds behind mv2s racing's adrian schiller at the wheel of car 5. they stay out i think that will happen should we get to nielsen lucia it's the number six car up the inside of the number 93 race for the number six car at the hands of austin mccusker that's a prototype challenge champion and uh complies trade here in europe this year at a variety of options i'm sure for next season on both sides of the pond but been delightful to see him here down through the gears again for philippe lazar he is losing touch with miguel molina because of all this traffic remember they were nose to tail in the early stages but uh has to be aware of p2 and p3 traffic wanting to get by of course all of these cars will need to then overtake spaniard miguel molina who leads gte so that might level the playing field a little bit 140 104 laps i should say completed now for tom gamble 12.6 seconds still the leading margin over louis de la tras then ferdinand habsburg for algarve pro racing will stevens for palace nick dufrese for g drive racing all of those cars will have to stop one more time indeed rahel fry pushing hard and maybe a little too hard being warned for track limits third-placed driver in the iron links 83 4.6 seconds back from felipe larse position once again for the iron games dpr by the way cycle back through into the lead after that quick flurry of pit stops because the mv-2s cart did indeed stop on that lap it's now dkr from center lock into europa competitions number 13 on the number two united all the sports cars they are your one two three four as taking plenty of curb there on the exit of turn four is ferdinand hatzberg in the algarve pro racing car he has ahead of him louis de la tras 2.2 seconds further up the road the prower pro and part of lmp2 is being led by cool racing still charlie lacy who's one of the star drivers of this weekend having taken back-to-back pole positions running as the lead pro am category santa lot racing in for perhaps its final stop of the race as we head back to haley edmunds in the pits i'm joined here pronounced uh driver of car number four for dkr engineering um what a very strong first stint that you had there just take us through it and the fact that you managed to take the lead from united auto sports yeah i'm quite happy about my stance uh i mean the pace was really good and uh we have a little fight with the number two united that was pretty cool and pretty intense a big gap of course um with yourselves at the moment and it's the next car is what if i'm not gonna have a look at that around 40 seconds behind you so i mean how's lauren's approaching this final part of the race is he a bit you know cool no pressure or is he still pushing um no i think he's still pushing his space is really really good so i think if we don't make any mistakes we can take the win that's just your first year on elms and you are could potentially if everything kind of goes to plan uh come away with the championship i mean just take us through how it's gone for you this year for my first year i'm really happy about this i mean i'll try to have the team to finish first but for me it will be a third place if we finish at this place so i hope that we'll finish first and like that i can be a third of the championship thank you very much interesting comments from matthew de barbour there he said uh at this pace we will finish third interestingly now uh hugo de vilde doing the chasing and wayne boyd in the number two car for united all the sports in the third position but noah's four uh certainly capable of staying in front of those guys just wondering whether he's looking at a slightly different predictor from me in terms of how the points are going i think ar engineering was up against i mean you said about the 19 car which has not had any luck at all [Music] but of course the blah blah on a different amount of points from laurent's current that is what he's referring to because yes him directly cannot be drivers title winners uh but might well be third on this uh current as it stands table but it'll be laurence hall who's the driver title but there's no taking away from dkr engineering as a collective they will be title winners in p3 final stop for the third place car that is the 24 algopro racing car for ferdi habsburg pits now for 37 minutes to go for what will be the final routine stop and you'll be good to the finish from there pitted just a handful of seconds back from louie delatraz who is losing time to tom gamble at the moment [Music] so out of 15 turn 15 and across the main straight we'll go the car that is running in fourth position make that now third for will stevens because ferdinand habsburg has indeed come in for his stop and this will be the final stop of the race if all the rest of it goes to plan because with 36 minutes to go you can comfortably make that sort of distance in an lmp2 car speaking of which one of those cars xiaomi lacy it was just about the fastest car on track has made an uncharacteristic error big lock up there from possibly the front right and the smoke was then pouring underneath the car and issuing from the rear well he's under a little bit of pressure for the pro-am win uh charlema lacy it's uh who is next up it's gustavo menezes in the g drive car so the argo pro 24 comes up between those two and seventh so sean malaysia will wait for another timing uh sector but it's around 18 seconds before that they've lost so my guess is he's lost two or three at least yeah so i mean doesn't need to drive drive the thing on its door handles because although gustavo menezes is doing the chasing keep it on the straight narrow they will take the pro-am win in this race in isolation as far as the championship is concerned from a pro and perspective john fall when ruby andrade came here on the most amount of points 104 now are quani and lapierre doing in terms of that g-drive racing crew that is all about the championship i reckon yeah um having said that it's a gap of 24 points so no falben android will probably have to have a non finish to bring that uh into the reckoning for cool racing 25 points remember on offer for this race alone there was no pole position point in pro-am for charming lazy yesterday although they will have got a point for the the kind of overall lmp2 points uh proceedings but that doesn't help them out when they're trying to win the pro am title even so even if the cool racing car slipped to second they would still be five we're looking for where the battles are going to be as we get towards the final 30 minutes 15 seconds is the lead battle louis deleterious is slipping back a little further stevens still 37 seconds back from that that does not look doable on pace nick devries though um is just 4.9 seconds in the 26th car back to the palace racing car so that has got some potential in the pro am class i'm just saying 15 seconds it is between the top two but with ferdi habsburg between them uh that's the core racing 37 car hands of charm lazy habsburg racing and the g drive 25 hours those three cars in sixth to eighth overall and sixth and eighth places are the leading two farang guns d car engineering brands her and uh he has a 14 second gap to the inter europe of 13 and further 30 seconds back is wayne boyd in the number two united auto sports car so it's the four dkr ducane from the 13 into europol and two united auto sports leagues with rory penton still very much in touch in the graph leigh number nine in gte as we've been watching for much in the afternoon actually no one links number 80 car is beginning to get a bit of a gap now two and a half seconds ahead of philippe lazar miguel molina in the 80 ireland ferrari proton competition number 93 with felipe lars on the porsche 911 rsr19 rahel fry is dropping back from that battle seven seconds back now in the island links in danes the 83 black and pink ferrari in third position and is she under pressure the answer is not at the moment uh another 40 seconds back but uh jimmy bruni is having a bit of a battle at the moment with david perrell for fourth position in that class and why is that because jimmy bruni has just done a 147 that's not a great lap from him that is either traffic or he's had a bit of a moment that's giving david perell a chance to get on the back end of heat number 77. more warning flags for track limits and these concern the 29 car of ultimate and mature hay and also mattia drew d at the wheel of the number 11 euro international lmp3 car just warning flags at this point and speaking of the 11 year international car that's being caught by the graph machine now this is number eight david drew four position that involves matt bell drew d on the inside of bell and there's contact and that will send matt bell skating off at turn 11 briefly he actually gathered the moment up very neatly indeed lost two places david drew going through yes and uh droody likewise but droody was the aggressor for me there so that will be looked back upon i'm sure matt bell the man from newcastle in the uk [Music] yeah tough to call that because the door wasn't closed but nor was uh the 11 car fully alongside nothing like it no actually the the contact happened because the euro international car hit the kerbs and just snapped slightly left and then impacted the cool racing car but that's dropped matt bell from seventh to ninth yes so further points being lost as far as the number 19 car is concerned big lockup this time for david drew in the eighth graph car so this is still the same battle within lmp3 and drew trying to pressurize mattia drudy likewise the team wrt cars now trying to get through from a different class lmp2 but the lights are flashing for ferdinand habsburg not habsburg 41 is being driven by louisiana i should say and hapsburg a little bit further down the order now running in seventh car 24. that belt does not appear to a lot of pace in that car yeah at the moment and looking at the pit stop time from that it was a minute and eight seconds did not fuel only that car have they well it's a possibility yeah are they trying to take as much track position as they possibly can and hope for the best it's possible that matt bell is on very old rubber indeed yeah and that is starting to prove costly now compared to matty droody who got through albeit with some contact and david drew the innocent party was not going to be asked twice in that situation those down at united auto sports enjoying watching on with dkr engineering leading that class the best of the united order sports in lmp3 though is wayne boyd in car number two and of course united lead the race overall courtesy of tom gamble at the wheel of his 22 united auto sports oracle it's been another very good race from tom gamble it was you know it it takes a little bit of a while to get up to speed in p2 but once he's found that pace he's kept it there's the other switch 11 goes to the middle part of that group the eight to the front where is matt bell there he is being dropped off the back of it here and i i do wonder whether that was the strategy trying to give him track position and hold on for the best it doesn't appear to have worked here yeah it's not gone their way in case of flipping a coin i suppose which which will result in our strongest position well matt is still in touch with these two david drew and mattia droody because they're squabbling amongst themselves but the unfortunate thing for matt bell is that even if he got past both of them it would only be returning him to sixth position and the class is being led by dkr engineering typically from a call racing perspective the one car that they did not want to be winning today indeed looks like nicole german has been the latest man to have a cruise down pit lane car 32 is reported to the stewards for abusing trackman it's car four must repair the rear left light on the next pit stop they don't have a next split stop it's very unlikely they will let's just check to see when laurel's no no he's definitely definitely doesn't leave he's only just been in yes now what's the rule about that because you obey the rule you you obey what you're talking about and it says next pit stop they're not gonna have an expert stop well they can ignore that message therefore look at this car because this is an interesting thing we talked about the fact that the championship is going to be slipping away from the 55 car stepping away it's not killed their way they would have needed pretty extraordinary mathematics however um because the 8 cars had to be blunt such a poor race 55 car is on track at the moment to finish second and give an automatic entry to them so the way the points are currently working it looks and with thanks to jeff carter in the elms media office looks as if duncan cameron david perrell and matt griffin will have done enough if it stays like this to squeeze second place in the championship and that automatic invitation to explain that point um there are five automatic invitations up for grabs here in the european le mans series it's the winners in each class and beca and it is the second place cars as well in both gte and in lmp2 and to further explain that because people were saying you get one for winning lmp3 but you can't run lmp3 in the 24 hours of le mans but they get the chance to step up to p2 instead they do indeed so you can have a p2 car in that and that has gone the way previously of a number of teams making their first appearances and has added greatly to the fun and games of the le mans 24 hours encouraged teams and drivers galore to just keep pushing up that pyramid so united alter sports at the moment holding that 16 second gap the 22 car racing's 37 car show malaysia is on pit road and that should give it's because this is a minute 23 back it's not going to be enough is it to hand them back that position already rolling charm lazy so we'll see where the car emerges castle ministers has not crossed the line yet to complete the lap molina over the brow and heading through turn nine corner known as craig jones and then into portimao the two right-handers at the top of the hill which overlook the paddock you then thunder down towards very close to where our commentary position is at turn nine i turn 12 rather and into 13 at the top of the rise once again and into sagresh corner for miguel molina leading the gte part of the race and now by not exactly a comfortable 1.7 seconds but a lot better than it was at the early phase of this stint for the two gt cars at the sharp end the black and white iron links ferrari and the all green philippe lazar driven porsche from proton competition there's still lots that can emerge here into the last 25 minutes this is the magic time now isn't it right magic pixies and everything i think they're all involved it's the dream world thing that uh ferdi habsburg was talking about on about earlier infinity outfit by the way is back up into fifth position and wait and see just exactly who is going to need a splash in this last 25 minutes because that's the other factor here we've had so many changes as a result of that uh red flag period people of teams making taking the opportunities that caution period offered and the only caution period by the way of this race yes would all be a very dramatic one yes we had um the best part of 30 minutes of green flag running then the incident that involved andreas lascaratos so that straightaway meant a safety car for 13 minutes the race was red then red flagged for 22 and a half minutes into two safety car laps to get us restarted and then since then apart from one or two local yellows we have been green throughout totaling very nearly three hours now of green flag running so uh it just shows that um when this track is not affected by a major incident and that that uh problem that created the red flag can't be blamed on anybody you know it was a wheel that came loose from memo rojas car and caused the melee afterwards but otherwise this track uh provides quite a bit of runoff so if you make the odd mistake normally you can recover the situation although i do think back to two years ago when we had a monster crash on the opening lap so sometimes the scene of um far more action than we would wish but so far things have been fairly neat and tidy well the other thing that could happen is we've got the 41 car on pit lane so that is louis delatraz from second place that's the first one to cough in this last 25 minutes with a splash of fuel i'm sure being required wlt based output out there's another p2 car on pit lane as well where's that p3 might be the mp2s or is at the rlr car actually is 38th position they've got an interesting position in gte we just said about this 55 spirit race car but they've been caught and they're being caught by jimmy bruny and by ross gunn at the moment great seashore here at gmw racing jw motorsport car apologies uh that car too going reasonably quickly but not enough to catch david perrell but jimmy bruni can't and i think ross gunn can as well because he's going quickly also could that throw a spanner in the works at the end for their hopes of finishing second that's the 32 cars drive-through penalty confirmed for abusing track limits here comes the 22 from the lead tom gamble 48 seconds 49 seconds to the good over panas racing as he rolls down pit lane for the final well basically half a tank of fuel that he'll need to complete this race that has been a very fine stint indeed from tom a double in fact each of them at 28 laps which is obviously as much as you can get out of an lmp2 tank of fuel around portugal at full raised speed so yes an exemplary drive to this point and he will only need a third of attack maybe a little bit more than that actually through the 20 minutes that remain so where is wrt on track they are in the final sector as the united car is down pit lane but i think united are going to come out comfortably ahead here there we go they got the united car is out on track now where is the 41 the answer is it's not on the start finish straight also in comes the palace racing car the car from second position nick devries moves up a position and i think we'll we'll lead yes close enough probably to tom gamble in order to very close well 0.6 of a second through the last split now i think that's possibly their track position with gamble just about in front of the dutchman we'll get that confirmed through the second sector which they are reaching in the next couple of moments but on the on our tracker 22 is still scored as the race leader just about over car 28. what have we got going on here 83 and 13. and that was a wholesale misunderstanding about who was going to go where so the number 13 car on the inside was hugo de vilde running second in the lmp3 division for inter-europa competition and the third place the gt3 car so if that goes in the way of a bit of an inquiry that could have a dramatic effect on follow proceedings so with cars clearing timing sectors tom gamble did indeed uh come out ahead of nick devries do we expect i think devries probably needs to pit though nick dufrese has completed 26 laps and yeah hasn't stopped yet so he's good for another three i reckon so devries needs a splash delatraz is 16 seconds back from that battle ferdi habsburg is a further 13 seconds will stevens 12 seconds so tom gamble needs not to get drawn into this battle that involves him and nick dufrese if he allows the dutchman to go that's not a huge issue because nick will have to then pit in the next two laps but it's the best place just to stay out front if at all he can without wanting to risk any contact though at the same time the edex sport number 28 car is further up the road with paulu shout out at the wheel charming lacy running in sixth position and still as the pro-am race leader nico shamar car 32 has taken or is taking a penalty for track limit abuse but also that car will need to make a standard stop a separate standard stop for fuel nick defrees to the inside of turn 10 and 11 but tom gamble quickly across the road to defend that the as it stands points being displayed by the way team wrt we knew had already won the title but 22 if they retain this race lead will finish second in the championship absolutely that would be an automatic entry for them on to united auto sports again not the tally they had last year but one would be gratefully received through does he goes to 26 car and probably straight into the pits now he's going to stay out for at least one more that but that will put 28 laps now on the tally for nick dufrese and uh interestingly tom gamble only made 29 so it'd be one more i reckon for g drive indeed first of those crew members as we saw sam cox part the husband and wife team that runs our goal pro racing and just 20 minutes down the road from here and they are out on pit lane with the 26th lollipop ready to welcome the iris in so tom gamble corrects not to defend that yeah concentrate on his race and his race at the moment is with louie delatraz at the moment he's winning it by about 15 seconds we need to start talking about tom gamble as being one of the men to watch in this class it's uh he's put in a couple of three really stellar stints in the latter part this year with time in the driving seats of an lmp2 car [Music] it's the pace is coming still only 19 the nottinghamshire man and uh yeah it feels like i've been watching him race for far longer than that in his first season of geneta juniors with hhc motorsport that was five years ago and he went on to be champion in genetic juniors in the uk the following season he's since been an lmp3 champion last year in elms and uh looking like that car and his team may well finish second in the following year so i quite agree with your comments as up the inside of the edex sport car now we'll go tom gamble he comes to 26 and tom gamble will cross the the line again as the leader yeah with the threes cruising down pit lane so gamble now 16 seconds still ahead of louis delatraz 15 minutes to go where is davrice going to emerge here is there a possibility of a podium 4 26 car i think that is the honest answer wrt come through to take second place the hk was gaining ground by the way just behind that but uh yes wrt up to second benefiting from the late stop for g drive ferdinand hadford goes through and takes third position it's gonna be panas racing close by here with g drive the two cars run by they've gone through will stephen's already passed as well so pan is up to fourth position now to get ahead of nick dufrese so from the lead of the race he tumbles down to fifth spot and let's see what he can do in the remaining 15 minutes will stevens well he might be able to get him in sight but uh i would imagine the lap times from will and from nick are going to be very similar indeed so what engaging race this has been is we've seen what three four five cars in the lead of this race and leading well planets racing in the hands of will stevens held up a little bit here by the 55 car 55 car just croc clawing away to try to get to the finish how is it going for david perrell four and a half seconds still clear of jimmy bruni he's managing to fend off that attack and ross gunn again he's just clawing back by tenths on jimmy rooney so it's 10 seconds between those three bit under that sam cox team manager of algar pro racing wife and she wouldn't mind me saying long-suffering wife of the stewie cox who you know gets a very bad press from his first appearance on tv which is part of the chris hoy documentary yes and he he is a unique character i have to tell you i love him dearly uh i think he he doesn't care about what people think of him and all i can tell you is our god pro racing have an awful lot of very happy customers they're uh they're a fantastic unit one of my favorite quotes from stuart costas a few years ago at le mans when they were going to say it and they were going for it three three practice sessions and he was asked a question now is everything going to plan you know are you on top of things and he said yeah all we're doing really is dotting the t's and crossing the eyes excellent well done i thought yeah we know what you mean stewie stewie you know we love you dearly and you know if you think we're taking the mickey we're doing it in oh yeah the best possible taste he is you know he's he's part of this family and good grief with ms smith and weren't here [Music] i'm happy to tell you they will be and um there's some exciting stuff to come from our girl pro rating and i'm sure they're chuffed as well to know that there'll be a home race on the calendar for next year again back to portugal for the finale in 2022 but with uh returns to tracks such as imola and the hungaro ring for the new season so there has been some adjustment that announced last time out at spa franco's shop there'll still be a uh the 80 car heading through i'm just about to say barcelona round but actually having said that i just want to say uh is there a home race for miguel molina let's just check there is we are still going to pass aren't we yes but it's later on the year that's the change to the 28th of august which will be a warm one rather than april as it was this year most surprising thing i've read on a message today comes from jeff carter in the lms media office and it's only because you tend to get focused on one race 22 car champions last year last one in the monster last year wow yeah okay that's amazing thanks for that one jeff swooping through turn nine goes the 80 car about to be lapped by 13 13 which is running second in lmp3 it's i think available trying to put lawrenceville under pressure but uh that's not working at the moment eighty car appears to be in control this race felipe larsa and uh the 83 car has been dealt a drive-through penalty for contact with the 13. now i don't think that's going to be enough for david perel to get the third place but it's going to make it mighty close yeah well that was hugo de vilde and rahel fry tangling was it turned three or was it turning 11 at the top of the hill but i remember so i certainly remember the incident between the gt car which is carrying a bit of damage now on the front on the right hand side and on the rear as well so scars from the inside take it immediately that it involved hugo de vilde and in comes rajel fry this is sensible actually take it immediately you've got to take it drive through penalties well by the way for the 20 car that's the team virage guard 10th in lmp3 it also gives the team a quick chance to look at that damage and see whether or not there's anything of further concern so through she comes where is david perrell the answer is [Music] coming through the final turn right now so as rahel fry leaves the pits david perrell was just towards the pit in blend line goes through raphael frye goes through the next split and i think he's still ahead yeah three seconds ahead but the pressure from perel will come now in the remaining 10 minutes so fry versus perel surely gonna get closer to one another and that brings the swiss driver within touching distance of the south african chasing for spirit of race so not under immediate pressure from jimmy brown he'd have it burrell but bruni by the way is under immediate pressure from ross gone he's closed that gap for two and a half seconds so the aston martin once again in the hands of ross gunn is just showing what's a very good car it can be tom gamble 18.8 seconds now to the good that gap is going out 30 habsburg six seconds back further nine to will stevenson for the six to nick dufrese who's pushing very hard indeed in pro-am cool racing charles malesi in the 37 car sixth overall and has pulled out a significant gap on gustavo menezes looks like that is going the way of cool racing for the win today g drive 25 for the title the ultimate car uh looking like that is going to complete the podium the 29 orica lmp3 no matter what he does who've got a ville that cannot bring that that gap down much 15 14 13 seconds for a while now dkr look like they're on the way to that title wayne boyd pops up now in third place ahead of rory penton in the graph car julian jaby is in for team farage to serve that penalty car 20 from 10th position and uh they were struggling a little bit anyway nick lapino the man from chile for inter-europa competition just a bit further up the road and oh dear i'm a 95 now reported to the students track limits and that is the aston martin that is running um a little further down the order that's the one that's catching that's catching jimmy bruni so that is going to be a drive-through okay yes that's going to be the end of that battle yeah so running in sixth ross gunn jamaria bruni in fifth but unfortunately we're going to be denied the fact of whether the bros gun would have been able to get ahead of the italian in the closing stages it's a drive-through penalty now confirmed for number 95 i want to turn that one around quickly before the end of this race that's a shame but it loses rules behind this little group here the ultimate car pushing through and could get through to the end of this race safely and uh matthias is that will bring it to the finish that is friends of operon big smile he's funny indeed and uh perhaps the future of the parado rating family in coming years 116 laps completed now for miguel molina leading by six seconds in the gte category from felipe lazar's proton competition porsche and rahel fry in the iron links car number 83 [Music] so 3.3 seconds is the gap now between rahel and david pereira's confirmation arrives about the drive-through penalty for ross guns 95 aston martin yeah perel is pushing very hard it's going to be very tight here if he could carry on on this progress they're going to be together on the last lap aren't they six minutes to go and change tom gamble leading on this 127th lap by nearly 19 seconds as the euro international car gets the overlap on yeah rag and his af course at 61 at the wheel of euro international's legies mattia drudy and drew d to david drew the car ahead of him 1.6 seconds is the gap that's come down again actually 1.3 now between the sixth and seventh place cars in p3 matt bell pushing on here he's 3.7 seconds behind rudy there's potentially a place maybe two [Music] if he can keep up the pace the last two or three laps we've seen these last minute runs from matt before but it's not going to be enough for the title and that is going to be a tough one to take for cool racing there's all sorts of politics and shenanigans in this lmp3 panic over the last couple of days and there is bad blood between the two manufacturers wrt running in second place louis de la trance turning right at turns seven and eight then hurtles downhill through craig jones and up to portugal and that 41 car 20 seconds down from tom gamble but on course for 18 points and that will obviously we know that they'd already won the title it'll take them to 118 total and the 22 car that is ahead of them on the road currently will squeeze into second place in the championship and therefore depose g drive racing panic racing and leapfrog both of those cars up to second and uh catching and catching pretty quickly at the moment the second place wrt car is ferdi habsburg that gap is coming down it's three and a half seconds 3.3 now [Music] still a couple of racing laps to go at least remember the checkered flag will wait for the lmp2 class leader the overall leader as soon as that clock hits zero the next lap completed will be the time for the end of the race actually watching on his teammate laurence hall and the barboir won't finish as a driver's title because he missed a round but should squeeze into third position in the driver rankings iron links on course then for victory in the gte championship they'll move to 126 points with 55 confirmed in second place if the positions don't change further and 55 spirit of race will get an automatic entry to the 24 hours of le mans next year by virtue of the fact that they jump ahead of the af corsa 88 crew of francois parado and manu collard together with teammate um aletia rivera of course wrt warning for track limits of term one it's three minutes to go the gap is three and a half seconds delatraz to habsburg don't think that's gonna be done but it just takes one slip yeah so race leader heading across the line to clock whether there is over a lap time left on the clock next time tom gamble squeezes through because we will have this lack one more and possibly an additional one on top of that as well so it'll take us to 131 laps potentially 2.4 seconds the gap rahel fry in third in gte david perrell [Applause] again doable if there's a slip somewhere we've got a catch and pass remember [Music] hapsburg 3.3 seconds away from delatraz to the outside of the 77 porsche goes the race leader tom gamble then sweeping by maria bruni running in fifth position with the jmw motorsport ferrari of champ just behind in car 66 final knife in the hopes of kill racing car 19 reported to the students for abusing track limits that is going to lose that is going to be another penalty yeah that is going to lose them places and matt bell had just taken matthia trudy yes taking another place there wasn't a great deal of real estate between david drew and mattia drudy but somehow matt bell has plugged that gap there's also a warning flag to our alarms driver alex caparia for abusing track limits that's just a warning whereas we're expecting the 19 car to be converted to a drive through penalties and that's exactly what happens he'll either take that or it will be 30 seconds one way or the other and that will drop matt bell down to ninth place ninth place fingers crossed up and down the pit lane but certainly down at united auto sports this is confirmed as the final lap of the season now for the 2021 european le mans series confirmation of the drive-through penalty that will need to be taken by car 19 cool racing we've told you about all of the potential champion teams and the second place runners as well if places stay the same it's really hotting up between the second and third place cars in p2 though as louis delatraz is under firm pressure from ferdinand habsburg a three and a bit second gap has closed to 1.5 seconds in the last two laps now graham on the final lap and it has halved that gap it's talking about that middle sector isn't it but tom gamble on his way to a great win with the 22 crew jonathan aberdeen did fine job as did phil hansen in a while since this crew has been able to celebrate in the european le mans series it's been a tough old season it's coming through johnny to complete that win so here we go the 22 united order sports car will be the final winner of the season and they will move ahead of two teams in the championship to confirm their automatic invitation to next year's 24 hours of le mans congratulations to tom gamble who put in two and a half phenomenal stints there really impressive stuff from the brit together with his teammate jonathan aberdeen and phil hansen who started things off and phil pulling off a great overtake on robert kupitzer at turn five early on in the piece here to confirm the championship for dkr engineering and three titles in a row once you factor in their mission and lemon cut awards as well um it is actually longer than that five five that was the bit i was getting confused about but car four does the business for dkr engineering to win by 12.9 seconds and more crucially take the lmp3 title and for the overall point nine of a second it was between louis de la tras who did bring home the 41 wrt car home second here though comes the winning car in both this race and the championship it's the 80 iron linked ferrari they take the win here at portee mao and win the championship and despite so much pressure from several cars throughout the piece including from felipe laza at the start of miguel molina's stint he soaked all of that up and they have managed to outscore both spirit of race and the af courser crew number 88 of names already mentioned but congratulations nevertheless because 55 is home and hosed so they can confirm their invitation to next year's 24 hours of le mans uh duncan cameron matt griffin and david perrell the award goes to the car of course but i wouldn't be surprised if it's a very similar lineup that heads to le mans next june for spirit of race so on multiple things wrap up here pro am in uh uh b2 goes to cool racing sharma lazy brings that car home but it will be the championship there ghost g-dive racing the 25 car because telephone minister's joining that crew later in the season of course but it'd be android and uh john falb that take that title the news i can give you now with that title confirmed in lmp3 is that does mean that dkr will confirm that they will move to lmp2 next season um they would only do it with the basically the prize fund that comes with that yeah they will move up to lmp2 and in fact lawrence a number of dkr race engineering's drivers will be here next week to test uh an lmp2 car so that's excellent news one of a number of teams that will step up uh into lmp2 from lmp3 and elsewhere next season watch this space for the news on all of that lots uh to confirm as well rajo fry did manage to come home uh for the podium finish in third under pressure from david perrell but perel that was enough as johnny palmer just told you to confirm that the 55 spirit race crew will gain a uh automatic invitation to delamon 24 hours great run from folding habsburg couldn't quite do it under a second at the line uh but united order sports from team wrt and alcar pro racing that is your one two three what a season it really has been and uh yeah big story regarding dkr engineering that you just brought to us i wonder how many luxembourgish teams we've had in lmp2 in the past then just then that's it i think yet then as i was corrected correctly so um they they came on before they had the the only lower i can remember with the bmw badge on the front uh and opened up lemon and ran a couple of um i think le mans series races or elements races with that car well was that a p1 car all right but um they i i can't remember another one the team's champions in gte confirmed as iron lynx and miguel molyneux bringing the car home under stern pressure but as was at matteo crossoni and setting the foundations in the opening hour and a bit was reno mastronardi so there will be driver ranking changes potentially there as well regarding chrysoni certainly he'll move to gold being told there is a car in the pit entry okay there's a ferrari stalling pit entry so therefore all of the cars having to head into the paddock the wrong way down pit road they've been taken slightly further along to gain access to the pits via the pit lane exit route jmw motorsport ferrari parked up in a peculiar location as well yeah i wonder if that was a problem right at the end there for sean tong um he crossed the line just ahead of ross gone so the jmw motorsport car that's coming through to finish sixth get the orders you see the celebrations for the 22 crew big smiles there 22 united auto sports car can become to win from the team wrt 41 i'll go pros 24 it's your podium punish racing another fine result for them fourth from the 65 car two drives hours 01 the 26 comes home fifth and then you get the first the param cars the 37th racing car in lmp3 d-car engineering that number four duquesne wins the race and the title from the inter-europol competition cart number 13 united auto sports number two both of those leagues of course and then the number nine graph the 42 center lock car in the top five and what at the moment is a one-off race for that team yeah and then ein links winning race and title in their number 18 ferrari the proton competition number 93 porsche couldn't quite do it so it's been an all ferrari winning season this season the 83 iron links on dave's effort comes home with yet another podium and the 55 spirit of race ferrari 77 proton competition porsche the jmw motorsport 66 uh ferrari and the tf sport and the 95 aston martin that is the top seven in gte the camera shutters firing as out of the car gets tom gamble from the 22 race winning machine to join his teammates jonathan aberdeen and phil hanson for the group shots which is the crucial one to obtain lauren's thought matcha de barboir deep in conversation as well i'm sure very very happy with that lauren score with his third aco rules title in a row and confirming five titles in a row for dkr engineering that's the four that they got in the michelin lemon cup 2017 18 19 and 20 and now the one year they don't win michelin lemon cup they go and win the elms at lmp3 level and get themselves an invitation to lemon next year here's the 37 car which started from pole position and will win the pro am category charlie millacy coming home at the wheel of that car but we must get some reaction from today's winners car 22. i'm joined here by tom gamble driver of car number 22 of united auto sports now it was a collective effort each one of you did a fantastic job it was a combination of of course great driving but also strategy um just tell us about your fantastic two and a half sensor tom [Music] on track but that was a mega job obviously phil had a a great start on you know putting all the hard work together and jonathan maintained it extended the gap um and then yeah you know it was just a case of me getting in there and trying to finish the job obviously there's a couple of different strategies of people on tires so uh yeah in the end it panned out perfectly and yeah full credit to the team as always they did a fantastic job um yeah it's great to finally get that win at the last one and just a quick word with you going out there on phil's tires for like have more than like 50 laps how was that only one laps yeah they'd only done 31. um yeah gentle owner one gentleman no it wasn't too bad i think with the red flag the strategy went all over the place a lot of cars were had way more aggressive tire strategies than we had um but the pace the car has been strong all week um it just goes to show if things went our way this year what could have been to be honest well well done guys thank you yeah i'm sure uh you know if you won this run this season ten times let's say united probably would have won it four or five times but uh they just didn't have the luck and that's part and parcel of having a good motorsport season but they nevertheless end the year with a victory and elsewhere through the year well first win of the season two second places and a third place at the start at barcelona so confirmation of today's result miguel molina by the way ecstatic with that victory and of course championship win as well 130 laps completed four united order sports and the three drivers we've just witnessed louis delatraz for team wrt finishing second as the championship winners ferdinand habsburg for algarve pro racing sharing the car with sophia floersch and richard bradley finished third ahead of will stevens and panic's racing 65 the pro-am win going the way of cool racing for charlie me lacey for alexander kwaney and teammate nicola lapierre and they win from the 25 g drive racing hours although it is g drive that win the pro am title in dk up for dkr engineering they win the lmp3 category laurence hall and matthew de baba will get some reaction from at least one of those drivers in just a tick they win the title from hugo de vildes into europol competition car and gt won by iron links in the race and the championship under sunny and blue skies the final round of the season got underway at one o'clock with all of the big wigs from the aco and from the lmem witnessing things frederick lucca theon who's the president of the automobile club de luest witnessing the final rounds of various championships here at portugal this weekend but crucially the european le mans series that got underway with an electric start it was like a bomb burst of lmp2 and lmp3 cars heading down into the first corner amazingly very little contact at least initially but then at turn five on the opening lap there was a couple of lmp3 cars getting together more on that in a second but funneling their way through turns one two and three the p2 field did okay but this was the incident i referred to involving antoine lucas and the anton de cat and the rlr m sport car of mikey penham side by side united order sports cars as phil hanson gained the place on teammate manuel maldonado and then a horrible spin to witness for me get for uh memo rojas and then the incident behind him for andreas lascaratos trying to avoid his spinning 30 duquesne car and the 18-18 v-lorba corsa car piling into the tyres at the end of the pit wall and destroying that poor lmp3 car but andreas lascaratus thankfully was able to work his way out of that car and quickly to the medics and was able also to chat to hayley edmonds in the pit saying that he was okay although a little shocked and rather annoyed that he'd made that mistake which was a strange comment but we appreciated where he was coming from side by side gt action the first of all sorts of craziness from gte with the 80 car getting ahead of the 77 at that point of the occasion the 19 uh molina driven cool racing car suffering an early puncture that would put matcha de barboir and rob weldon out front for a period of time but eventually once lawrence whoever took that car over he would establish himself as the lmp3 leader and eventual champions and the 22 car out of turn 15 taking their first win of the season well done again to phil hanson to tom gamble and to jonathan aberdeen which vaults them up to second in the championship but only behind team wrt both the belgian and the british squads will be at lemon next june and congratulations once again to wrt for their title winning season in their debut in the elms so we will be working our way on picking this for a few days yet but congratulations to all of those championships that have been settled for dkr engineering underneath the podium for the 22 car which will seal the invitation to next year's le mans and there's confirmation of the top two finishing lmp2 teams winning the trophy team wrt but second best united auto sports ahead of now panic racing on 74 and a half points g-dive racing 74. duquesne team a retirement today but they'll finish as fifth place team ahead of g drive's 25 car so the other hour is from pro even though it's a pro elementary it also has been scoring full pro points as well and the sixth place finish is highly commendable for the pro-am title winners louis de la trance robert kubitsa yifei yay are the 2021 drivers trophy champions in the elms jonathan aberdeen phil hanson tom gamble benefiting from today's win then julian canal will stevens who and they have been driving together all year their third driver has been altering so they're on 74 and a half points ahead of franco lopinto and roman rusinov fourth in the drivers we'll have a look elsewhere in the titles in a moment in fact there's more now because the pro-am teams trophy has been won as mentioned by rui andrad and by john foul they race for g drive racing in the number 25 hours 122 points seals it from the cool racing 37 crew who won today xiaomi lacy and alexander kwaney with nicola lapierre as well the 29 crew from ultimate finish in third in the championship so john falben ruiz andrade are the first ever lmp2 pro am driver title winners from quani lapierre and then jean-baptiste and matthew lejay in the 29 car and charlie eastwood sally yolich sadly neither took part in today's event because of a crash in free practice too it's john fall becomes a champion in the lms in both lmp three and lmp2 pro am so a double title winner now sir dweller freitas he's race control just comes in a chat with the drivers as they gather for the final podium ceremony of the year a happy scene it's behind dames [Music] could have been winners this year but didn't quite make it they just have to come back and do it again well yeah and and why not dkr engineering continue this phenomenal run of titles then five now in a row for the luxembourgish team 118 points means that they seal the lmp3 team's trophy from cool racing who finished second on 102 points then the number two united order sports car that led for a significant chunk of today's race 72 and a half points gives them third position ahead of inter-europa competitions number 13 car and the eight machine from graf there's a big gap then from 60 down to 44 and the first of those graph cars lauren's core the single drivers champion matcha de barboir did not do all of the rounds from matt bell nicole molini nicholas crewton all from the number 19 car then it's dubabwa as he predicted third place in the drivers title uh rankings from eduardo co-pay rob weldon and wayne boyd all from the number two car third step of the podium for algarve pro racing car number 24 richard bradley sophia fleurs and ferdinand habsburg all three of them with very good drives indeed to put the 24 car on the podium and i think probably the best result of the year for car 24 yes easily first time to the first visit to the podium in fact for that particular crew i suspect safar flourish is the first female driver to be an overall yeah that's a good shout as well team wrt's 41 crew who have already sealed the title to the second step of the podium that's louis delatraz yifei yay and robert kubitsa for the first win of the year for phil hanson jonathan aberdeen and tom gamble let's hear them [Music] phil hanson jonathan aberdeen tom gamble taking the number 22 cars first victory of the season and much anticipated it was to give some second place in the championship and well worth the fight absolutely trevor foster it is the team manager of the lmp2f at the united order sports uh joins them on the top step it's gonna be champagne [Music] trout scott trev has all all of the technical skills absolutely none of the champagne avoidance skills sadly well he hasn't picked up his bottle of champagne obviously keeping that back for the whole of the team well yeah unless yeah i suppose he could surprise you you know revenge is a dish to best serve cold so uh strike when they're least expecting it but i think he's just gonna keep that bottle of champagne and take it back to the team and drink it sensibly not like these racing drivers that's tread free good stuff this could either go very well or badly and it goes well with the lighting of course it did now hang on a minute yeah once all right as well dropping the champagne bottles from a great height but both were caught it's the wrt guys they're used to this now let's uh but there is vonson voss in the trademark flat cap great season for them absolutely fantastic season for them and is this going to work yes it does so they could all be in a baseball team the uh wrt mechanics because three bottles of champagne expertly caught and can be slurped now over the next hour or so 130 laps is confirmed then in the lmp2 classification for united order sports from wrt and algarve pro racing panis finished fourth and g drive fifth ahead of cool racing edex sport g-drive racing in eighth bhk motorsport ninth and in tenth position united auto sports with their 32 car just looking up their best result of the season which was a third place finish in round three at circuit paul ricard so definitely the 22 has had the better of the results only the one podium visit for car 32 from united whereas 22 has had two second places a third place at the start of the year and of course now a victory so we should get some reaction next regarding the pro-am winners today in lmp2 so let's get straight back to haley for that charles put the work in this weekend you got paul and you bought your team dare i say well we've got elective effort come in come in alexander's here um great effort you win uh here in pr in portugal in the pro-am category i mean it's such a great result for you guys yeah for sure i mean i think we pretty much maximize what we could do today uh for sure we wanted to be on the podium in general but we knew that it was going to be quite hard we had an issue with with the door with the car when alex went into the car so we lost a couple of times but i think we can be happy with with the weekend we did well done thank you xiaomi lazy from cool racing number 37 and although they miss out on the pro-am title that goes instead to ruby andrad and john faub and to g drive racing gustavo menezes back in that car this weekend by the way but he hasn't done as many rounds as his two teammates but 37 cool do finished second of the pro-am teams and now a podium for the pro-am division so first of all to the third step it's ultimate car 29 with the two lahey brothers matcha and jean-baptiste joined by jean luca she rowdy this weekend normally seen at the wheel of a proton competition porsche but moving across to prototype racing this weekend and maybe that's a taster of things to come second position for the championship winners or two-thirds of them so gustavo menezes joining drivers title winners john falben rui andrade but winning this race in isolation is cool racing's 37 crew charming lacy we've just heard from nicola lapierre and alexander what an extraordinary year sean malaysia's had absolutely extraordinary [Music] and a cool racing team representative of course on the top step as well let's hear the switch cool racing win this event and g drive racing with the 25 hours win the title in the pro am teams division within lmp2 a new thing for 2021 and uh john fall and rouey andrade can say that they won the inaugural season for pro-am competition the competing geese appears this is about bronze drivers it's about the the evolution of the lmp2 class rapid evolution of it and uh i've not had a bad word said amongst the lmp2 grid about the addition of this subclass this year i think it's a mighty fine thing and also it's fascinating to me uh to monitor the overlap between a pro-am team which can still go very quickly in a qualifying session for instance yesterday i mean of the six qualifying sessions we have had three of them have been topped by pro-am cars and it just shows the level of talent that uh is available to those looking to form a pro-am team also 25 g-drive racing crew that took that title 122 points eventually from racing close the gap that couldn't get there 106 points courtesy of that win today ultimate third position with 82 points having missed one race as a pro-am squad with the absence of france borrowing from falmouth android they are the drivers champions alexander juani uh and nicola lapierre uh finished second and the uh lahay brothers third so ron broadley top three all just the two drivers yes yeah good point and uh that's again testament to i suppose the makeup of the pro-am uh drivers in that uh not all are available for every single round some more reaction now from haley i'm joined here by the winner the overall winners in the pro-am category for g-drive racing john what a fantastic result what a way to end a very tough year but you pulled it out the bag your pro am champions how do you feel oh i couldn't be i couldn't be happier yeah it was a lot of work great competition fantastic championship we had a great time and uh yeah everybody made us work hard for it it was a lot of fun talking about working hard you weren't doing mitchell in a hmong cup earlier on today so you've actually done two big races today how are you feeling not the entire time i'm a little bit tired i must say uh quarter mile is a tough track for sure very physical and uh when i got out of the car i was a little sweaty this time but yeah a lot of fun guys and enjoy it thank you john fowler andrade and of course gustavo menezes along for the ride he did a lot of the uh heavy lifting towards the end of that event to ensure they got their podium result they needed it's really important for the business of racing that people like john falbe and others in mp2 finish this season with a smile and something something they feel they've achieved with this and pro-am has been a definitely a big plus on that front let's turn our attention to the gte competition straight back to hayley edmonds for reality guys you did the double you are elms gt champions but also champions here in portimao i mean it it wasn't an easy race you know each of each of you put on a fantastic performance fighting up front just take us through it for you miguel how was it yeah it was we know that it's not easy it's not easy this championship wherever you go around the world when you when you race it's always difficult so from the beginning we we were focused to to do our race by race trying to maximize the our performance i think we had a very very good lineup this year also the team they put everything from scratch this year so they did a fantastic job i think we all match very very well and today the race we we knew that uh the key of the race was to manage the tires so at the beginning of the stint i was fighting with the with the porsche trying to to to keep him behind but saving my tires to not stress them too much and then push at the end so that's that that what happened and i think we all deserve this result and yeah we are champions well done thank you very much gentlemen yeah all with the black uh iron links t-shirts on now with the hashtag race to inspire and here they come with the freshly printed t-shirts probably with all various titles that iron links have won through the year so third position going the way to iron links as well the iron dames it's the 93 porsche that finishes second but here's the national anthem for winning crew iron links car 80 with the win and the title [Music] training [Music] so [Music] back-to-back podiums then for the iron dames rahel frye in the 83 car with sarah bovee and michelle gatting backing up their third place finish at spa last month for the 93 porsche that is a best result of the season having flirted with the podium but not actually quite getting there previously proton competition so not even a third place to this point but they are finishing second today for michael fassbender felipe laza and ricard leets but a win and a title for the 80 crew of matteo crossoni reno mastronardi and miguel molina who we heard from a few seconds ago graham absolutely joyous scenes there as well and uh i think uh judging by the cameraman on the left-hand side there you'll be seeing that an episode of road to le mans at some point very soon but uh great to see the iron james back great to see the porsche crew on that podium and happy champions with i'm sure the ink on those t-shirts is wet they didn't bring them here like this just in case but we have had occasions where uh during clear up after a race meeting boxes have discarded an unneeded champion t-shirts have been found now i'm sure sure that's the case you bring them along and hope for the best but they can be used and freshly ironed and applied to molina mastronardi and crossoni so congratulations to all of those three so iron links confirmed as the uh championship winners on 126 points from spirit of race and 55 who will get an invitation to lemon next year just missing out on that the 88 af courser combination who didn't feature on the podium either francois parado manu collard and alessia rivera then the two proton competition porsches and 93 courtesy of the second place points squeezing ahead of the sister car and into fourth in the championship crossoni molina mastronardi are your drivers title winners in the 2021 elms in gte from david perel and duncan cameron matt griffin missed the monza round and unfortunately for him missed the race win that they had this year alessia rivera manu collard francois parado finishes third ahead of matt griffin alone on a certain amount of points in fourth position there and then the 93 crew that have finished in second place today [Music] one more podium to go that will be for lmp3 and whilst the podium itself is redressed with new champagne bottles and new trophies let's hear from the winners so can i go okay i'm joined here by the winners in lmp3 not only the winners here and portimao but also the elms championship firstly lawrence how does it feel was a little bit uh funny because on the radio i was not expecting to finish the line already so they told me yeah you're on your last lap like just in the last corner i was like okay i was hoping for a little more full feelings fulfilled last lap but i'm very delighted because it was a hard weekend for us being five points behind and it just feels so good to have done it move over here where we go first time on the lms at third over the draw in the overall driver's championship but first uh for dki engineering you must be proud yeah super proud i mean it's my first year here um i don't need to be i only did three race but i mean this ascension is amazing um and lawrence and dk are an european championship champion sorry fantastic thank you very much and well done yet another title for dkr engineering spotlight firmly on luxembourg the drivers are in position on the podium matcha de barboir and laurel's four in the middle of the shot let's hear the national anthem of luxembourg then [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a third place finish for wayne boyd rob weldon and edward co-pay second position to the 13 car for into europol competition of martin hippa hugo de vilde and adam itecki but it is a win today and a win in this year's title for dkr engineering and for driver laurence hall with of course helping him to achieve that but finishing third in the driver rankings matcha de barboir with a representative of dkr engineering on the top step of the podium as well many drivers slamming their bottles of champagne right on the deck of the podium and that seems to do the job so champagne will spray there's a spare bottle for dkr engineering to take back to the team there as well and confirmation that they will top the team's trophy table on 118 points from cool racing and uh the crew of matt bell nicola molini and nicholas crewton on 102. then the united auto sports team that finished third today ahead of the 13 into europol combination competition trio in on 60 points in fourth then graph in fifth place and the driver's title winner is laurence hall on his own there on 118 points from matt bell molini and crewton yeah sadly for cool racing their consistency through this season uh deserted them today and that's cost them deer unfortunately but lawrence herr take care of engineering are worthy champions of the performance we've seen this season there will be other days for cool matcha de barboir confirmed as the third place to driver well it's been a phenomenal season graham and so many stories and many more to come next year as well has been decided this weekend absolutely i want to say thank you to everybody who's watched it or looked in on this uh season everybody that's contributed with ascii lms everybody that's been talking to us on social media they've been the paddock and the pits that have made this an easy championship to make look good remember souvenir still available from the elms shop as well with free shipping until the 26th of october had to get that one in thank you for your company all year long my thanks to graham goodwin of course as always i've been johnny palmer we'll see you next year for another exciting season of the 2022 european le mans series talk to you soon bye for now you

Channel: European Le Mans Series Official

Views: 109,055

Keywords:

Id: BmlhbsjoVm0

Length: 306min 35sec (18395 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 24 2021