Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the full 2023 race in stunning HD and without cuts. This milestone edition marked the return of legendary manufacturers like Ferrari, Porsche, and Cadillac to the Hypercar class, delivering an unforgettable showdown of technology, endurance, and passion. Witness every dramatic moment, from night battles to rain-soaked strategy calls, in one of the most historic races ever held at Circuit de la Sarthe.
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#LeMans2023
#24hLeMans
#EnduranceRacing
#MotorsportHistory
#HypercarEra
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SportsTranscript
00:00Change in just a moment in the voices you're going to hear, delighted that very shortly
00:07we'll be welcoming back first time in a few years to race coverage here at the Le Mans 24 hours
00:12to a familiar voice to many tv and radio broadcasts in this great race from the past
00:20set point B leads fastest lap of the race now goes to James Gallardo the gap is coming down
00:264.1 seconds, Gallardo in the number 51 Ferrari 499p uh Jim Roller welcome back
00:35we're going to have a listen in in a moment to a car from Tota Kazoo Racing
00:41three laps to go this stint three laps to go fuel limited
00:46so that's fuel limited yeah that is how long the stint should be for these cars Jim you've been
00:53watching this develop we've come through okay and frustrating but an educational period with
00:59the safety car as this time it's proportional so to take us through it yeah he had a great run
01:05around uh tetra rouge and uh i don't know what happened to mike conway on the exit but the move
01:09looks like it's going to be pretty set into that first chicane a nice run that uh 75 had there
01:17has he used up those tires so much that he can't get any power down
01:20and perhaps i think you're right Jim it's the fronts that are going off that's why we heard
01:24from wemmy saying how about mike's fronts what's happening give me some more information and sure
01:30enough tetra rouge a front limited corner by that i mean the fronts are slipping away from you quite
01:35literally as you go through that high-speed corner and mike just couldn't get down on power as much as
01:40the uh as soon as felipe nasa could is there any chance also anthony that maybe the ferrari's dialed back a
01:47little bit for reliability the ferrari uh i i don't know i don't think so i still stand by what
01:54i said in qualifying in the hyper folder the toyota should have been much closer to the ferrari that it
01:59was due to the uh the red flags that we had there so here comes the number five porsche now of michael
02:05christensen on the back of mike conway he ducks to the inside before mulsang kink conway resists who's
02:12going to have this corner when they get to it he backs out of it does the number six carlon van tor
02:18sorry not christensen the three of them still running so close together lead in traffic now that is
02:25helping james collardo to close the gap it's 3.2 seconds now new fastest lap of the race goes to the
02:30chasing simple day and early pit stopper but good grief this is four five six cars contesting
02:37significant positions getting into the second hour of the centenary running of the 24 hours of lebon
02:42this is epic this is proper hypercars this is what we wanted to see i mean we've longed for this time
02:49haven't we when we can see competitive a competitive field of hypercars i mean this this is anyone's right
02:56now and the other thing that i noticed when i was watching in the first hour is the fact that
03:01there is no margin for error no if you make a mistake because this field is so closely bunched
03:07if you make a mistake trying to make a move on the guy in front of you all of a sudden your mirrors are
03:11full of not one but two or three other competitors and here we go again going into borscher now this
03:16is where it gets really fun or not depending on which situation you're in as a driver you're coming
03:21up against the gt cars and you've got to get through them cleanly efficiently but also take
03:27absolute risk when you need to because that gives you lap time and this is where hypercar again throws
03:34in a different dynamic you've not got the additional punch we had in lmp1 days you've got to measure
03:40those passes very carefully indeed and be very sure you're past that car yeah one thing we used to have
03:46in the lmp1 days was the boost of the hybrid was on top of the internal combustion energy so now the problem
03:53is that they have is it's much harder to overtake cars from a similar speed because you can't play
03:58with that additional power it's just there in unison comes in combined with it's just part of your
04:06integrated power and it's not on top of what you have when you get the hybrid boost the icee level the
04:12internal combustion uh power drops so you always remain at the same power level right for old farts like
04:19me that's almost like back in the day with the 935 just dialing in a little more turbo there you go
04:24yeah so they're the maximum uh potential that they have is 520 kilowatts oh trouble for that's the
04:31that's the 16 car that's the 16 16 yep the proton competition so that car starts behind the wheel of
04:37that car the american uh getting back underway yeah so he's got away with that and then when he goes
04:43yellows at marshall's post three just for that car to recover to the track setboard eight still
04:48pushing on and pushing hard he's rejoined the train of hypercars 14th now for the cadillac that has
04:54pitted still making his way up the order by the way i tell you finish to cost up to ninth place overall
04:59now we have seen some pit stops also in the lmp2 category as alpine team help uh charles uh malessi
05:07behind the wheel of the 36 car now leads the class and in gtm it's the project one portion number 56
05:15with mateo caroli behind the lead yeah that's going to be a quiz question isn't it what was the last
05:19time a dinosaur led to the 11 24 hours that's right in 2023 fantastic stuff the 36 car by the way leads
05:26courtesy of it being one of those lmp2 cars that opted to pit under the safety car so they came in
05:32fuel only they've taken effectively the same advantage that uh hertz team jota are going to do in just a
05:38couple of laps time there's the uh tower motorsports car they had the penalty earlier they're in trouble
05:47yeah they're this is going to be a long day for them yeah suspicious feeling
05:54i'm impressed by uh antonio felix de costa in that herc team jota car 38 we know he's carrying more fuel
06:00than the cars in front of him because they're they're the only ones that stopped when he had the safety
06:04car of course they've had uh the ferrari uh number uh 50 uh 50 stop as well since that but they're
06:11behind the number 38 jota and uh you know de costa is he's starting to close in on bamber christensen
06:18van tor conway the cars in private he's passed the first the peugeot and he's caught all the rest of
06:23so it's an epic run here from antonio felix de costa on the screen now is rexie as uh he's uh
06:30wellfully named that's the uh am leader that's the porsche and the rexie comes from uh the
06:37hyatt's daughter wanted to see a t-rex on the car so that's what's really going to get a little
06:42rexie arms on the door and here is our overall leader sebastian bwemir he has driven a phenomenal
06:48first in here really really impressive stuff he's opened the gap to mike conway they're usually nose
06:54to tail those two bwemir this is an absolute master class in how you preserve tires when you're
07:00not on the correct compound for these conditions he's out there in front and you can see the
07:06difference between how he's played this compared to the sister car yeah okay the balance might be
07:11slightly different as well we've seen the two cars during this season have a bit of a difference in
07:16performance as conway is now into the pits he's clearly not happy with those soft tires i wonder what
07:21they're going to do i suspect a set of m's are going to go on that and then get the car completely
07:27out of strategy with that do you do a driver change as well when you go for the tires you probably would
07:32is this just a single stint are they going to commit to staying on these uh these soft tires there's no
07:38sign of a driver change so i'm going to say it's just you how much of a risk is that he's only going
07:43to go i mean he's holding on of course to a position somewhere near the front of the field
07:48but this is going to be a long painful second stint coming up for mike yeah and it's and it's cumulative
07:54that's the thing about decisions now that become cumulative that you have to make up for it and
08:00it's only going to get worse once you stack a whole load of extra fuel all that weight goes in
08:06around another looks like they're waiting with tires yeah they're waiting with tires there they go
08:11they're going to leave him in but change the tires so he'll do a triple stint the tire only did one stint
08:17and then now he's going to go on the double with the mediums there you go that makes sense also
08:22on board here with the number 94 peugeot nicky muller after his first stint nick nielsen cycles round
08:29and now ahead of the number seven toyota they have the earlier pit stop and still this battle goes on
08:36i love this graphic to show you the amount of energy left this is not how much fuel is left this is how much
08:42energy the car has left both with fuel and with the amount of energy the regen will develop
08:50while that fuel is used really interesting then so yeah look felipe nasa using an awful almost double
08:55the amount of total energy compared to his teammates yeah a bit too uh is that oh he's he's been
09:02he's been mashing the throttle pedal a little bit too aggressively he's getting a bit carried away
09:06there he's gonna have a crap he's been mashing that gas top eight in this race still with an hour and
09:1311 minutes elapsed uh still within 14 seconds of the lead uh that is exactly what the plan should be
09:21for hypercar moving for my next off shift i think i'm gonna dig and see how many race cars have
09:25finished on the lead lap in in this race in the past well we could just break that record the uh
09:31lehman got a smile on us so let's just catch up uh well we'll catch up with uh lmb2 when we've had the
09:39the pit stop cycle where uh work its way through the toronto kazoo racing said away me completely correct
09:45by the way uh james collardo closed right back in as they came into the first batch of traffic
09:50the separate way me is executed that beautifully uh that gap back out to 5.6 seconds now
09:56they've uh completed 14 laps of this race 35 minutes of which as we're going to see a problem
10:02oh just a catch there for us at the 31 of the 41. 31 and he's in the league
10:09lmp2 leader at this point
10:13so what can felipe nasa do to save a bit of total energy has he got did he have slightly less fuel
10:20on board because they're going to pit him first i should assume that was their strategy because
10:25you don't want to go holding up with the car three a team with three cars you don't want to
10:30be pitting all together of course you want to try and separate uh particularly if they're out of
10:35sequence in terms of where their pit box is yeah he's down uh three percent now first pit stop on the
10:43way for the last car 24. always risky when you follow your teammate through or another car through
10:50uh a a lapped car you've just got to put a lot of trust in the car they see what come past do they
10:56turn it off as come into the pits yeah eight 75 and 93 plus the two cadillac all on pit lane ferrari lead
11:03lamont for now haven't said that in a long time
11:12and he's going to be due in sue east soon he's down to uh 55 james collato is in that af corsa
11:20ferrari there's the peugeot in the pits now do they leave guemi on those soft tires he's been doing
11:24a great job remember as martin haven just popped in and uh told me when i went off off air for a while
11:31he said they've got to see those soft tires again yes they have a hundred percent they do we'll
11:36we'll get into tire allocations uh rather deeper into this race but they absolutely do and watching
11:40the the gaps here james collato who will be down pit lane shortly 3.6 seconds of the good ahead of
11:47the two battling factory porsche penske motorsport cars but a really impressive stint in this group
11:53it's the car that's now running in fourth we will not have to pit at the same time and that is
11:58antonio fenix da costa under eight seconds off the lead pitted on the safety car none of the other
12:03leading uh hypercars did so and will cycle around and will become our fourth leader of this race
12:12we've got double yellow flags being shown at the circuit at the moment can't see exactly what's
12:16going on at marshall's post 13 which is between so the exit it's just past the exit of the first chicane
12:28we'll keep an eye on that remove someone's had a moment
12:33it's uh all over done with around 15 minutes in just 22 hours and 46 minutes to go
12:40separated just slightly now between those two uh porsche teammates the car six car five they're the
12:48regulars of the world endurance championship car 75 has got the driver lineup uh which competes in the
12:55IMSA championship yeah that's car four whereas van will can't been struggling for pace but it's still
13:01staying ahead of the lmp2 battle a big flame at the rear of that car on startup
13:06it's nice to see that pensky porsche is running further up the field now you know they are part of
13:14this uh they're part of this fight for overall drink i didn't think they would be uh based on the
13:20knowledge of what we've had so far this season what we've seen from the car kevin estra was saying
13:24the car feels so much better to drive around this circuit compared to what we've what we've been used
13:31to uh up to this point so that's really nice to hear and it's nice for us as well to see
13:36well and let's face it as well i think that most of these cars have been designed
13:41first for this place 100 percent it's all yeah of course you come back this is your 75th anniversary
13:47if you're porsche you know what better way than to be super competitive and try and win outright uh this
13:54year uh we're talking about pit stop strategy and execution in the pit lane as well uh there's been a
13:59variety of things happening here with driver changes and with with tar changes one thing that absolutely has
14:04happened as the number 50 ferrari has jumped both toyotas so nick millison currently running in fifth
14:13position and is the first of the pit stoppers behind that first team jota car that will be the last to
14:20stop income the remaining two you know they don't go ahead and the jota and the jota now why has that
14:27happened the jota has got 46 percent is that no no he's down to three percent according to the graph
14:38did they short fuel the car they may have
14:40don't understand that that's bizarre unless they're going through energy you know using a bit more uh
14:47electrical energy who knows but uh here are the two portions that's what i was talking about
14:50you've got separate pit boxes in the world endurance championship unlike uh formula one you have to
14:56share the same one another series around the world as well so you have to be in sequence when you come
15:01into the pits otherwise it gets all a bit awkward you have to be like this yeah
15:05yeah well i mean this this was right car number six in front of the car number five and they followed
15:10each other in in that order um what gets very good for you don't want to that's why they pitted 75
15:16earlier as well oh is that mike conway getting down the inside of the peugeot into the uh second corner
15:24of course using those michelins of course graham they were always going to get jumped to the pits by
15:29this car we see on screen because they did the tire change on the toyota and they would have kept
15:33the mediums on the ferrari so this is our new race leader nick nielsen leads them on from sebastian
15:38bordet the other car that pitted earlier remember the number three cadillac so now is that why we now
15:45see what was the uh the cadillac strategy seeing of course the ferrari 50 was uh it was a bit of a
15:52benefit to stop earlier because then you can it's not just the undercut well it is an extreme undercut
15:58because you're not out there lapping slower gt cars as well so it's not about it's not about the traffic
16:03it's not about a tire undercut coming in because they kept the entire on right it's the traffic undercut
16:09oh this is going to be good confusing yes but this is part of it it's it's it's it's always been a little
16:16bit of cerebral sports hasn't it here's sad but bourdain by the way he's not far back from uh it's two and
16:22a half seconds that all of a sudden the lead battle is not toyota and ferrari it's not uh ferrari and
16:29porsche it's ferrari and cadillac and that explains because yeah bourdain stopped before the ferrari 50
16:36so proves the point i was trying to make and he had even longer to be out there with a free track with
16:41no traffic good luck winning an internet battle about cynicism about this uh about this formula
16:46well if you are then you're just not watching now look at this you've got the two Porsches the
16:53toyota and a peugeot all coming out three four five six seven eight nine all right there in the same
17:00shot unbelievable in three seconds amazing stuff we're going to need more of these energy graphics
17:07yeah we watch this race because they are they're all out of sequel most of them are out of sequence
17:13here comes the jota having a look down the inside how cheeky is that the plucky jota team with antonio
17:19felix to costa at the wheel trying it on with the uh with the big boys of the the main team yeah they're
17:24taking names out there aren't they and this is great stuff and something else we're going to need
17:28there's a lot more coffee because absolutely the nobody off shift is going to want to leave this booth
17:33here comes conway he goes to the outside of the 38 jota can he make this one stick it's going to be a
17:39brave move if he can he does carrying a lot of speed under braking didn't he oh the last of the
17:45lake great great lake breakers mike conway takes the uh position on the exit of mulsanne and it's
17:52exactly what you said earlier on jib it's all because of what happened in the previous corner with antonio
17:57trying it on but he got himself a little bit out of line and you know when you're looking forward
18:03suddenly you're going backwards and conway's at it again he's not done yet on the run down to
18:08indianapolis mike conway takes another position that is going to move him up to eighth i think
18:14new tires so don't forget guys that's true he's got that huge advantage huge advantage yeah that's
18:21why he could break later as well into mulsanne great point better traction you know he's just got
18:26that the new tire effect right now it is clean as a whistle as well we've had a little bit of brush
18:32here and there but fantastic wheel to wheel action between cars from multiple teams with multiple
18:38makes it is trains of two three four five six cars throughout okay gonna replay here oh hello that
18:49shouldn't be happening got a little uh bump behind there that was the glickenhouse getting tagged by the
18:54number 60 ferrari 708 car by the way that started a lap down is now beginning to make its way up
19:01through the gtm field so it is coming up the order so we've got 14 undelayed um hyper cars still the 311
19:11i'm afraid he's in the garage after that incident for jack aiken
19:19so did they keep those the same tires on when the i'm guessing they did because he's so far ahead
19:27of conway still i reckon he was doing such a good job in those soft tires that they've kept him on them
19:34the pit stop seems to indicate he changed tires minute and 26 58 seconds as a fuel stop i think
19:40he's changed all four probably did that that's what i'm taking from that unless there was some other
19:46complexity in that pit stop that's about a full uh full four tire stop for sepawemi around that time
19:54something like 10 10 seconds quicker for two here we go this is the lead cadillac are going to the lead
20:00at the le mans 24 hours well no it's car 50 in the lead apologies it's another cadillac ferrari fight
20:09this time around they get oh so closed as bam but it's the battle for fourth fifth six the two horses
20:21i'm looking but the the drive holds sway through the first chicane the driver that's coming up on them
20:27thick and fast is on those brand new tires come weight is flying here isn't he he's gonna he wants
20:35to be part of this here's a move side by each around the aston martin the gtm car oh there's a touch
20:45yeah that was first uh that was a bit of a biff yep that's a perfect perfect description there
20:54collado hangs on to it for now but uh that uh the cadillac of bambers looking pretty quick especially
21:00the straight line speed comrade ducks out to the left hand side is he going to make a repeat move
21:05that he did on felix the costa a lap ago looks a bit easier this time oh yeah i was just gonna say only
21:11this time he's made it look a lot easier
21:16folks happy because the uh i think the two car got around the six
21:21slower lap by the way as we're watching this group slower lap for the leader
21:24and said bordet is now 1.1 seconds off the lead
21:30so ahead of this group there is further epic action in this hypercar class
21:36yeah this racing isn't good enough for you folks hang on a sec
21:40really good stuff bambers under attack here from the uh the number six of uh loran van tor
21:44four soon to be looking in his mirrors because mike conway is coming up
21:50yeah this hour brought to you by our partners well and oh my god absolutely fantastic action they come
21:57past the 37 lmp2 car car that may nearly stop to switch to the bronze driver when you're getting
22:03past like that when it's one or two cars it's one thing what when it's a whole train what is that like
22:09you beat me to it jim absolutely beat me to it because you know lmp2 drives and gt drivers are
22:13more than used to dealing with the odd hyper car coming past you uh but not a whole freight train of
22:20cars so uh this is a new experience for them definitely imagine the poor spotter it's still there
22:25there's another one oh wait one more yep yeah imagine that yeah still one more so you've got seven
22:31cars coming up on you through the portico give me a break astonishing stuff what an hour of action
22:40we've had since that safety car there's that touch there was that touch and you spotted yeah
22:45and i just think we've got 22 and a half hours more of this outstanding
22:54because what you're seeing on screen there folks is second is fourth fifth sixth seventh
22:59eight i'm gonna have to get my head around the the differences the subtle differences of the
23:06porsche's liveries because uh i can't tell their numbers on this screen we've got in front well
23:12they've got the shape buttons yeah i always use the uh the windscreen the windscreen with uh one
23:19yeah the black one is five and six is red or 75 no five is red 75 is red 75 and and six is white
23:29as easy as that there you go there you see six is white then there's a two and then 75 is red
23:36and the black five windscreen is the five just do what cadillac do that's the exception
23:42i know that's the number two the blue one i was doing talking our great friend randy blackmore who uh
23:49showed a few ideas of what this could have looked like if you'd chosen three liveries maybe the fan's
23:54going to pick those iconic liveries but it doesn't take away from the action because he's absolutely
23:59astonishing this is huge news huge news the number 33 corvette going back into the garage area
24:06that's uh i think ben keating started the race he's still in the in the car catsberg graham uh uh just
24:12checking that because i was just putting something else on timing and scoring bad news for gm as that car
24:17comes in good news for gm as the 311 rejoins the race ah fantastic great work by the by the action
24:24express guys to get that car back out onto the racing car that brought out our first caution nikki
24:29katsberg brought that car in and the action express car rejoins with jack aker back at the wheel now
24:38it's going to be also very interesting to see as these guys work traffic how quickly they can
24:44close back up on each other when traffic does separate them because it will occasionally in
24:49certain spots there's going to be places on this racetrack where the slower cars just can't get out of
24:53the way yeah absolutely it will always ever flow and uh you know you do have winners and loses through
25:00traffic it's it's not a it's not a benign thing watch this moment before i just update you on what's
25:06going on oh and that was a hefty hit for the 13 on the rear of the 39 that's a 13 car already in trouble
25:14here 39 car graph racing with uh guido vandegaarden behind the wheel of that car 13th position in the lmp2
25:22category yeah the 13 car in the hands of ricky taylor he'll be in trouble for that i think so
25:27he'll be in trouble for that yeah he's damaged the car in front and ricky knows better than that
25:32right front problems for the corvette suspected damper issue for the corvettes that's not the work
25:40so aboard the number five now chasing now a team formation choose what you will
25:46number 75 car michael christensen following felipe nasa to come into the porsche curves
25:52awesome awesome part of this racetrack traffic ahead
25:59see this is what happens when you don't have uh huge wings on cars you can actually follow each
26:05other around high ski corners now who would have thought of that past harry take note in the gtm
26:11number 88 car he's had a fine start to his race where me absolute master class in that number eight
26:18it's i'm so impressed at the moment with the job he's doing and uh yeah cool head right from the start
26:25he he's played this very well and i gotta i gotta tell you he's not a guy that's that's necessarily
26:32renowned for having a cool head and he has really demonstrated a maturity here in the beginning of
26:37this race oh that is a huge uh shot for the 14 car that is sorry guys the front of the car that just
26:46happened when the cadillac was overtaking and we were riding on board with it at the time and i
26:50thought it was overtaking the jota well it is yeah well it's a gold star yeah it's not the jota i thought
26:55it was to jose 38 but it was it was something happened there with the cadillac going around the
27:00outside it's turn one not clean did it rodrigo salas here we go aboard the car what happened
27:05here there's rodrigo in the gold car oh he lost it myself i think he was looking too hard at the
27:11car coming i think he possibly other got just got the dirty stuff on the right hand side
27:17missed his trying to get out of the way and no good deed goes unpunished wow i was hoping we weren't
27:23going to see any contact there but it just i saw the cadillac on board and of course you don't see
27:27what's happening in the rear but so rare just to lose it there in the dry conditions 90 minutes in
27:34the 2022 asia lebon series champion where do you go sales i think you're right graham i reckon he just
27:41got a bit spooked by the faster car coming look at that get going again three wheels if he gets that
27:47car back and they get the car on the race that's heroic and he's gonna try p-roll of them very
27:52it's gonna try that car looks i think it's gonna do it because you know rear wheel drive right and
27:58he's still got the left steering work the problem the bigger problem here is look at the state of
28:02that side pod it's the radiator there's fluid coming out the bottom of that car i think that
28:07car is done right graham i think yeah losing too many fluids to do a whole lap like this if that was
28:13if that was at the end of the porsche curves half a modicum of a chance but with fluid coming up that car
28:18and the reduced there's no airflow either uh through that side of the car that car i'm afraid
28:23he's done poorer rodriguez alice it's a small mistake and a massive massive consequence
28:29that's an eight mile that's an eight mile trouble and that's not gonna happen on three wheels yeah
28:36so it is only a slow zone though we have not seen a seat this is the league safety car yet and we have
28:42a battle for the league local boy sebastian borde never won this race in the in the top class
28:50putting pressure on the lead ferrari of nick nilson great to see i didn't think that cadillac were going
28:57to have the speed against ferrari here but it's uh they're certainly and seb certainly proving me wrong
29:03and i'm glad they are this is great stuff great stuff by all of these teams at this point all of that pace
29:09all of them the the minnows baby cadillac sorry the uh the clicking house and the the floyd van
29:16team off the pace but now in comes this battling pair now who does what what do you go for here
29:22stick with the plan take track position what do you do brilliantly done there by borde he is
29:28absolutely nailed that pit entry and look at the distance he's gained on the ferrari in front just
29:32from that one move well i'll tell you i mean we're looking at some pictures from 22 years ago a
29:38picture of sebastian borde in the in a gallery there enough a quick listen in to what's going on with
29:44ferrari service full service maximum push maximum push full service fuel driver change and tires
29:52so caddy double stint here so this is a double stint driver change tire change fuel
30:00nielsen getting out
30:07keep an eye on the cadillac what are they going to choose to do sebastian borde remember had that earlier
30:12stop borde which looks like he's staying in the car unless they've already done the driver change
30:17these were the two teams that uh stopped out of sequence yeah seb's still in there i can see the
30:21helmet design yep there are the tires ready for the cadillac there are certainly for the
30:26what's going on there trying to see the logos no tires for the cadillac cadillac go ahead here so a
30:34third stint now for borde and the cadillac interesting so of course he's going to get
30:42eaten up yeah eaten up by the frari that's on new tires when we go green again but uh he's got that uh
30:4930 or 40 second uh gap left over right by the tire change but that will quickly come down you know
30:55as americans we love that strategic there's a that's another stop for jota there's another stop for
31:01jota at the same time so that's a third pit stop for they must have they've got to have an issue
31:09are they not getting uh fuel pickup
31:12they're back to the lead full fuel load yeah so on the mediums they just saw the graphic pop up
31:18with uh sebastian buemi it'll be glad that he's on those tires now and uh it's got rid of the uh
31:25softs as the car gets uh yeah framed away that that tubs
31:31disaster
31:34what is this this is the 98 aston martin alex riberius oh good heavens
31:40what's that that's coming out of the uh first chicane up over the hump that's uh covering down
31:47in 20th in tonics outlap
31:54pushing too hard on fresh fresh tires is the impact damage or something just failed on that hood
32:02that's a good point it's not a part that they need to get into usually in a regular pit stop or something
32:08what's the difference that's being shared there yeah the what the the screw clamp looks like it's
32:13just come apart meanwhile as they head into monson it's the uh the two the six and the seven
32:23still at it this is the battle for third fourth and fifth that's earl bamber now lawrence uh van tour
32:29and still mike conway who is on his first set his second stint on his first set of medium tires he
32:39started on the softs and he's trying to work his way back from really having trouble with those
32:44soft tires with a slow zone in operation at the end of this lap and this means we can still go
32:50racing for much of it that's right that's how great moves always when you stick it down the
32:55inside you hover around the outside of the right-hander to end up on the inside you put a
33:00lot of trust in the in the driver that you're overtaking there but uh he's cleanly through
33:04nevertheless so the slow zones if you're not familiar with this form of racing is i think
33:11it's a wonderful way to keep from always having to bring out the full course caution because the
33:17drivers have areas that they know that they must slow in they have to slow down to safety car speed
33:24and then they go right back to racing and on an eight mile racetrack it is it really helps the
33:30racing yeah it just helps the the people that have the incident and the people there to clear
33:35up the incident it's safe for them and it helps the racing stay exciting all the cars have got a
33:42full course yellow button they call it just one switch where they press that button it limits the
33:46car to the 80 kilometers an hour and then another one for the pit lane speed limit for those of you
33:51wondering that slows you down further 20 kph trundle down the pit lane at 60 kph so you've got to be
33:57good so now they're in the slow zone as you pointed out there jim you see the the four-way flashes
34:02flashing away and the car is now limited to 80 kilometers an hour you've got to be very on it as a
34:08driver to know exactly where to brake slow it down hit the full course yellow button get the car held at
34:13that speed you just trundle along now until you come out of this uh this section that they're in
34:19will take you through where the incident is through turn one turn two three the dunlop chicane and on the
34:25exit of that chicane you're going to go up and over that brow of the hill and that's where you get
34:29released to get into the green cross the line hit the full course yellow button again and away you go
34:35well here we see a gaggle of gtem cars coming into mulsanne normally we'd say that that 33 car is in
34:42the middle of the fight but he's not he's uh trying to rebound from a damper problem but those three
34:48Porsches you see right there oh another big crash oh my heavens that's the number 13 car the tower racing
34:56car with ricky taylor behind the wheel of that car we saw him have a little bit of an incident earlier
35:02and uh now i think we may we may have enough carnage around the racetrack at this point that we might
35:08see our second full course caution of the day anthony and graham have uh have taken a break and joining me
35:15now in the booth are uh our two dear friends and i'm just thrilled to be working this centenary edition
35:22of the 24 hours of le mans with past winner of this event guy smith and uh the man who uh made
35:30the wright brothers look like pikers here at le mans many many years ago and that is peter
35:35dumbrek welcome gentlemen what are your uh as we see uh ricky taylor get loose there and kind of
35:41cartwheel sideways towards the wall again i think we need a closer on board nope yeah that's that's
35:48already happened i mean it's very unusual very experienced driver yeah um so but we know that car
35:54had a bit of uh contact earlier on yep could it be as a consequence of that was there something that
35:59was on the way to getting broken and that's it just failed yeah it's really been an awful uh an awful
36:05week for the 13 car obviously had the crash earlier on in the week in in practice um which required a
36:11new i believe a new chassis and uh it hasn't been uh hasn't been plain sailing so far in the race for
36:16them uh to this point so yeah just an awful race and uh it was a little like a strange accident so we
36:22need to see what uh exactly what happened there's the uh 98 car that was in that we saw going down the
36:33back straightaway with its foot up come in for repairs racing still going uh in the non-slow zone areas
36:44they looked like they had extended the slow zone on the front straightaway the cadillacs have really
36:50sort of turned i was going to say how is that how have the cadillacs impressed you anthony's been very
36:54impressed uh you gentlemen equally equally impressed yeah they just seem to i mean they've sort of
37:01been quiet all week really i mean i think in in hyperpole uh baudet showed that they had some real
37:06pace unfortunately had that fire and uh had to uh you know they lost their lap but they kind of just uh
37:13yeah quietly came up when they went about the work and um they're really showing their uh their pace
37:18now and uh certainly a match for the porsche i mean i think you'd have to say that the ferrari and the
37:23and the toyota's probably slightly got the edge but these guys are certainly pushing them hard
37:29and you know it's just shaping up to be an absolute epic battle and uh i've got these manufacturers in
37:36the fight is great yeah so um well unusual to see so many manufacturers so close together
37:43you know where we talked about it in the last few days how the whole category is on its way up the
37:49whole race in fact you know it's there's so many cars so many manufacturers involved as we see the
37:55damage from the 13 car i mean potentially that's going to be the first uh failure here we go oh there
38:01he made contact with the like the the delage it looked like he uh ran up the back of the delage there
38:09so that'll be twice that he's come into the back of a car in front of him yeah was it the other way
38:16around last day no no no the other way around he hit yeah because i said he should know better i see
38:22i mean there's just been so much going on in this race you don't know where to look because um
38:28there's just stuff going everywhere sebastian bohemi coming into the pits completing his
38:33second stint here comes uh mike conway in
38:38interesting to see here comes the sixth car
38:43of course and this is almost a free pit stop as well because the slow zone is on the front straight
38:47away so might as well make a pit stop as opposed to going through the slow zone yeah because these
38:52cars are losing that much time they were in just a couple of laps ago weren't they before this happened
38:58so probably 10 15 minutes ago these cars were all in yeah because you can see the uh the the energy
39:05for most of these cars is still in the 50 range so this is a short stop
39:12yeah it's almost like whatever obviously when there's a safety car or a slow zone they're all taking
39:16the opportunity to to make the stops and uh get in the pits while uh they don't lose too much time
39:24there's where the slow zone for the 14 car incident ends at the top of the hill as they go
39:30under the dunlap bridge down through the dunlap s's used to be called the forest s's back many many
39:37years ago and then here it goes right back to a slow zone for the ricky taylor incident coming out of
39:43tatrouge all the way down through the first chicane and then partway through to the second chicane probably
39:51the slow zone will end right after right as they get to the second chicane so yeah as you enter the um
39:59you you the slow zone basically the the marshal post before that there's a board which says next
40:04slow and a waved yellow flag and basically that's to warn you or pre-warn you that the slow zone is coming
40:10up so by the time you reach the next um marsh post that's where it's wave yellows and at that point
40:16you have to be 80 kilometers an hour and it's so easy or as a driver to just push that little bit
40:22harder and um you know if you over speed into the into that slow zone then um you know with the gps
40:29they know and they'll ping you for speeding so likewise if you release the button too early on
40:33exiting the slow zone um they'll ping you from that as well so it's quite easy to make a mistake and
40:38when you've got multiple slow zones you've really got to be on it you know because you can gain or
40:42lose quite a bit of time um but the worst thing you're going to do is get a penalty the uh the other
40:47thing that i i need to correct something i said that this happened after the first chicane that was
40:52actually the exit of tatrouge is where that happened so it's before the first chicane so the
40:57slow zone will end at the end of the first chicane and then they'll be able to carry on
41:02carry on racing so my apologies for that in fact there you see the the first chicane and there's
41:07no incident there interesting what you were saying about how um the warning is coming up for
41:16the slow zones etc that's now coming across to formula one formula two formula three so that
41:22all the fia championships are all getting that same system i think it's a great system and here we go
41:28back at full race speed that is your race leader the number 51 af course of ferrari the factory effort
41:39the 499 with james colado behind the wheel it's been a long time gentlemen since we've been able
41:44to say ferrari leads leman it's kind of kind of fun to say oh it's great it's absolutely fantastic to see
41:50i have to say i think it's such a beautiful car uh it really is a pretty race car so far it's been
41:56super super fast has he got the reliability that's that's the question yeah now he had his hands full
42:02a little while ago of the number three cadillac sebastian bordet but bordet has pitted
42:11so now he has dropped back to eighth position so now he's got another cadillac it's the uh the old
42:18bamba car um rinse and repeat it rinse and repeat it's just a blue one now instead of the yellow caddy
42:23chasing him he's now got a blue caddy chasing him so um again is that caddy put keeping the pressure
42:29on um they've got some pace haven't they so let's see let's see now they're now they're up and running
42:34can he can he catch uh the ferrari the 3.7 seconds the last uh interval for the distance between the
42:43ferrari and the cadillac portion number five is a further five seconds back that's michael christensen
42:51behind the wheel of the number five portion then it comes to the 75 portion with felipe nasser he too
43:00is uh has been in since the start of the race so the our front runners the only team to pay the driver
43:11change i think was the number six portion is that correct loren ventor we've also had a driver change
43:19in car 50 uh that's right that's i knew i saw one thank you so why are they so far back in 11th now from
43:28having led the race what what actually i missed the procedure that took them back to 11th when
43:35everyone else ahead of them also stopped i think i think what i did was i think um a lot of the other
43:40teams just did fuel and and they did fuel and drivers so they obviously had that long tires yeah
43:48yeah it was full service which is what we're seeing is full service was about a minute and 26 seconds
43:54and just fuel is like a minute by and you can see what happens when they get into the slow zone from
44:01the onboard as the leader james colado does come into the pits
44:08let's see if we get looks like this is going to be fuel only there's no tires out the michelin
44:13engineer comes out to visually inspect the tires
44:22clean the mirrors you you would expect those mediums to be able to go three stints wouldn't you
44:27yes and then that's what the michelin engineers told us is that they would easily go three stints
44:32in the night maybe four yet the 50 car we believe has has changed tires so yes they would have only done
44:39the two stints yeah yeah the 50 car changed tires the other the other one that changed tires was uh
44:46the two toyotas because they started on the softs and switched to switch to the mediums
44:54so now also we've also seen with the slow zones as well in in some of the other races support races
44:59it's quite um difficult is when you've got a chain of cars and they then break for a slow zone
45:06um a bit like you get in traffic on the road when you have this sort of concertina effect we've seen
45:10it in the past where particularly if it's a new new slow zone um that the cars at the back sometimes
45:17have been caught out and then wrapped into the a car in front so that's again something that the
45:21drivers have to really uh pay attention to they have to be aware of there's chip canassi the man behind
45:28the cadillac operations for cars two and three full season operations in the wec the 331 of course is
45:38the x express car here's the 21 car has now had a problem
45:46yet another slow zone will be coming out for this
45:50and cadillac leads and cadillac leads because uh of the 51 pit stop so cadillac leads them on that
46:00is under the dunlop bridge so that's in the area where the number 14 car was was it not just cleaned
46:08up they must have just released the slow zone and there's been contact between two cars there yeah
46:14because there's uh gonna be contact between a lot of cars so that's the cadillac
46:30got hit from behind as it went into the slow zone
46:34by what it looks like um an aston martin wow so it looks like it looks like the either the ferrari
46:45or the aston martin ran into the back of the cadillac and on this lap remember earlier we were talking
46:53about the slow zone well prior to this lap that was where the slow zone ended so everybody was getting
47:00on the gas there so that was not a slow zone where that happened now it is but but at the time it
47:08wasn't so more bad luck continuing for the for sebastian bordet and the three car they survived the fire
47:16they they battled for the to the lead of the race and now they've been uh they've been uh hitting the
47:22back and there's obviously some damage there as they go into the uh a slow zone down at the end of
47:28the first chicane we need to get a view of the back of that car and just try and i'm sure the team
47:35themselves would like a view of the back of that car green flag waves at the end of the first chicane
47:45so now they will be back under racing yeah i wouldn't uh i wouldn't sleep dream somebody that's got
47:50damaged but straight away yeah yeah he is definitely going to be fixed up here certainly
48:01the rear of the car is going to have to it's got the real user peter yeah it looks oh it's pretty bad
48:08that's a shame
48:12going so well as well yeah that's what i say they rebounded from the fire magnificently and they've
48:19actually battled kind of lead in the race of course their sister car with earl bamber behind the wheel
48:24is now leading by four seconds over the michael christianson portion number five and the felipe
48:31nasser car the imsa porsche which is uh five another second and a half back behind
48:40it's sister car the number five
48:48yeah the ferraris have kind of slipped down a little bit down the order um it'll be interesting to see
48:52how it all shakes out but they've kind of sloped you know sort of dropped down now sort of 30 33 36
48:58seconds behind the leading cadillac well i also think it's interesting because
49:04i'm dying to see some stint data to see what they're getting because we were really surprised
49:12that the 50 car came in as early as it did the first time around we weren't really surprised that
49:18mike conway came in because he had just absolutely scratched those tires and so he had to come in
49:24or he was just losing too much space too much time yeah unless unless they're carrying a problem or
49:30they found that they spotted an issue that they needed to to check or they needed to do some kind
49:34of reset in the pits but um yeah it does seem like a strange call a little preventive maintenance kind
49:40of thing absolutely
49:45right now both of those cars look like they're on rails in the lmp2 category it's team wrt with
49:51robert kubitz behind the wheel the number 41 car and uh yes it's a slow zone but still got to
50:00trying to think uh see if that is i think that's the 55 car that is also involved
50:06i mean that's the thing about le mans you know you can see already the attrition rate is some
50:10some seriously damaged cars now now that's probably now four cars out of the race yeah
50:18yeah and that's and this is actually kind of early for that many to be absolutely you might get one
50:23really shunt or something that leaves someone out here comes the uh sebastian bordet in the cadillac this
50:31will probably be a driver change and fuel and tires and then they'll wheel the car back in yeah uh
50:40they're going to do the driver change back in the garage area
50:45there's multiple indycar champions scott dixon ready to get in the car hopefully it'll uh just
50:53be a case of the rear wing assembly comes off uh rear bodywork and uh no suspension or anything damage
51:00to the new diffuser yeah just kind of the whole back module of the car they're putting the trolleys
51:06under the car i suppose it depends on whether the actual rear corner wheel and the connectors all
51:12right took any kind of damage at all whether they're bent or because he he wasn't you know coming
51:18back quick was he no he was he was taking it well relatively but just being safe yeah he was being
51:24smart when when these cars are designed i mean obviously designed for speed and performance but
51:29in this type of racing the design to fix quickly so that they're as simple as possible to to make
51:36quick repairs to because obviously for this very reason that if you can't make a quick change or a
51:40quick fix it doesn't ruin your race so let's hope that they can make that change get the car back on
51:46track and hopefully not lose um you know setting through the lap especially with the amount of slow
51:50zones out there hopefully they can keep them uh on the lead lap right now we've got about a quarter
51:55of the racetrack under slow zone the slow zone goes from right before the ford chicane all the way
52:01through the end of the first chicane so through up underneath the dunlop bridge down through tetrouge
52:09and the first run to the first chicane which is basically from the dunlop s to the first chicane is
52:17the fastest part of the racetrack so that right now is under a slow zone they clear the first chicane
52:24the green flags you see will be waving some blue flags there to let the drivers know that faster
52:29cars are coming up behind them as now earl bamber trying to get a little heat back in the tires there
52:42three-second advantage over the number five penske michael christensen then felipe nasser sebastian
52:48blemi after his full service stop to get off the soft tires has now climbed back up to fourth position
53:01team joda who we all thought would uh was off sequence has gotten back on sequence with everyone
53:08else with kind of extra pit stop but they have climbed up to sixth from uh starting at the back so
53:14that's a pretty good drive in his first stints by uh antonio felix to costa yeah they're very much in
53:21the fight aren't they the um jerky team they're doing a really good job but in your very mind that they
53:26only got their car at the last round at spurt spa and really like the weakest like the weakest part
53:32like literally had a rollout i think in uh porsche's test track of isaac and then turned up at the race
53:37and did a fantastic job um and they're still learning and you know in terms of the performance
53:43here they are pushing the factory pesky team which is great because it shows that you know a private
53:48tier team can take a car hype the car and take on the factory teams and that's the spirit of lemong
53:53you know people like we see people like yo's do that and uh that's what makes it you know really
53:58excited to see uh that happen and it's always been porsche's ethos to have customers and to support
54:04the customers as now the customer puts it on the manufacturer yeah which i was thinking that
54:11it's something that we've we've missed lately you know with toyota being sort of all dominant and
54:16seeming to have everything in their pocket but all of a sudden now we've got a proper race on our hands
54:21with several cars several manufacturers and as you say jota right up there they had their issues
54:28earlier this week as well but they seem now they're in race spec it seems to be going well
54:35five we have at least one representative of five of the six manufacturers in the top ten
54:44that's that's parity that's pretty good period
54:51i'd love to see a replay of that uh contact with the back of the um bodies cadillac
54:56i think they're trying to figure out what happened i think we've seen all they had
55:06so now they're uh they've come through the uh portion curves
55:09under the front straight away there's mike comway and this should be uh almost to the slow zone
55:22well actually i guarantee to you in this year's room they're looking at all kinds of different angles
55:27the ones we are not going to see well we might not have access but yeah exactly it's really hard as a
55:32driver as well with all these slow zones because it really it really affects your flow you know when
55:37you're doing a lap you kind of get you know you're looking at lap times you're looking at your splits
55:41and you get into the rhythm and then suddenly it's stopped and you know you have to coast along 80
55:45kilometers an hour then you go again and then it stops again and it's really quite difficult to to
55:49get your flow and your your rhythm i actually changed that one scoring page to that little map
55:54because it was kind of knocking me out of my flow and they had changed so much through three different
56:01incidents that it was like okay now where just exactly where is the slow zone now there you see the
56:06one of the lift tractors trying to extract the number still trying to move the number 13 car that
56:14has taken a while i suspect there may have been some barrier damage there so what you have now is
56:21you have the engineers basically on the radio talking to the driver and telling him you know the slow
56:25zone is still there so they play uh keeping an eye on it and obviously when they think that the slow
56:31zone is going to be removed they're just trying to keep the driver informed at all times um so it's uh
56:37it's a really good time as if it is kind of get the information from your team while it's kind of
56:41you know you're not under stress or pressure and the engine note is low so you're able to
56:48contact and understand each other really well of course on the trucks in the pits they've got very
56:55high antennas where they can um with a modern technology with radios you're able to speak to
57:01the driver all the way around the track i think it's um for me one of my biggest fears as driver is
57:06losing the radio there's nothing worse than feeling like you're out there on your own and you've got no
57:10idea what's what's going on i mean i've been very fortunate i don't think i've ever had it happen to
57:15me but it's one of my biggest fears that that happens and then of course the pit board becomes
57:20the all-important thing but you're seeing it one lap later so you've got to kind of keep your eyes peeled
57:24for it especially with these slow zones you know the situation as well if you have got radio you're not
57:29aware of it so you're kind of just doing it purely by sight and uh you can lose a lot of time
57:34um you know by by by not having the the information
57:41so just checking in on gtm there you see the third place car the number 85 the iron danes
57:48rachel fray behind the wheel of that car she's being chased by the proton competition number 911
57:55rickard leitz behind the wheel of that car dr rickard leitz one of the uh just most of these
58:02guys that came up through that porsche jr program went on to be engineers and doctors of engineering
58:10what a luxury to have a driver who's also one of the engineers on the car it's just absolutely
58:15fantastic matteo corolli still leads the class in uh rexie the number 56 porsche and then the gr racing
58:24number 86 with ben barker behind the wheel has taken over the second position so even though the
58:33porsches were were quiet in in qualifying they are now first second third and fourth just looking at
58:41the uh garage 56 the uh hendrick motorsports uh nascar it's just slightly dropped now behind the the
58:47first uh four um gtm cars um i don't know that's through pit stops or or speed but um really looking
58:56forward to seeing them do a pit stop nascar yes i'm excited to see that i think their lap times have
59:02been have been representative i think they've had uh probably and i think they may have made an extra pit
59:09stop i'm not sure i think they're actually they only made one one yeah so the cars are wrong on that
59:16the cars are random i've made two again like with everything else with that program they may be
59:23starting out conservative because for them there really isn't a class to win so for them it's just
59:32going to be let's finish and let's make sure we finish here's that porsche battle we were looking at
59:38moments ago there's a driver now this is awful this is when you just you you want to look be looking
59:45ahead and seeing a clear racetrack and when you look over and you see you see all those cars it's like
59:49you know it's hard work but you know sometimes it can work for you sometimes you can get through
59:53the traffic cleanly and you can build a gap from the car behind uh likewise it can go against you
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