Experience the unforgettable 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans — a race that delivered one of the most dramatic finishes in endurance racing history. Toyota, Porsche, and Audi fought relentlessly for 24 hours at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, showcasing the peak of hybrid technology, strategy, and human endurance. From high-speed battles to heartbreaking twists in the final moments, Le Mans 2016 stands as a true modern classic. Relive every lap, every duel, and every emotion of this extraordinary race.
#LeMans2016
#24hLeMans
#EnduranceRacing
#MotorsportHistory
#ToyotaVsPorsche
#RacingDrama
#LegendaryRace
#LeMans2016
#24hLeMans
#EnduranceRacing
#MotorsportHistory
#ToyotaVsPorsche
#RacingDrama
#LegendaryRace
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00:00to fix that floor on Sarazan's car.
00:00:02Check the tape, actually, when it comes past.
00:00:04Yeah.
00:00:05Because it was flapping, and they certainly put the entire panel of tape on it,
00:00:08and it's not there anymore.
00:00:09Now, I don't think that's fallen off.
00:00:11I think that's the mechanics going back and having another look at it
00:00:13and suggesting, actually...
00:00:15Oh, I don't know, though.
00:00:16I think what you said was right, Jake.
00:00:18I think the entire tape balloon has come off on the first run down the Mulsanne.
00:00:23I don't believe it. I don't believe it.
00:00:25Yeah.
00:00:25That's the one thing you don't want to be right about.
00:00:27Now they might be getting called in because they've had an attempt at a repair
00:00:31and they've failed.
00:00:33This is the point where if you're sitting there...
00:00:36I don't know. I don't know.
00:00:37There might be tape there looking at that shot from above.
00:00:40Oh, this is bad bulking by the Ferrari.
00:00:42That's the car that's trying to get back into the fight for the victory, of course.
00:00:45He's in a race of his own.
00:00:46He's gone past that first blue flag,
00:00:49but by the time they've gone past the second one, it was okay.
00:00:51So let's see if they can zoom in on the other side of the car.
00:00:54The other side of the car is the side we want.
00:00:56We want to see whether Sarazar has got a broken...
00:01:01Here we go.
00:01:01Can we get it?
00:01:03No, the tape's still attached, I think.
00:01:04It is still attached, yeah.
00:01:05It's still flapping about a bit, though.
00:01:07That's the only problem.
00:01:07Yeah, the floor is no longer flapping, though.
00:01:10So that's the important thing.
00:01:12You know, you don't want that from an aero point of view,
00:01:14just flapping up and down, disturbing the air through the diffuser
00:01:17and causing you issues, which may well have been the reason for the spin.
00:01:22Now, that floor was getting very loose,
00:01:23and if you start putting dirty air through the diffuser,
00:01:27then you start losing rear grip, and that's exactly what happened.
00:01:30The car just turned on him on a sixpence right on the apex
00:01:33as he went over the bump through karting.
00:01:3621 hours down, three hours to go.
00:01:40Toyota sitting pretty at the top of the timesheets.
00:01:44And now, a minute, 0.26, 2.6 seconds,
00:01:48a minute and 2.6 ahead of Jani in the Porsche,
00:01:53who we believe is trying to go all the way to the end here.
00:01:57We think it's a possibility.
00:01:59Sarrazin has got in.
00:02:01That might be for the rest of the race.
00:02:04Davidson, we think there is going to be another driver change.
00:02:07Three hours to go.
00:02:08I'd be surprised if they didn't put a fresh driver in when they do tyres,
00:02:11just because you need the ultimate pace.
00:02:14You need that driver to be as fresh as possible at the end.
00:02:17You know, it's a one-minute gap for Jani.
00:02:20That's the man you'd throw in now to try and close that gap,
00:02:23and, you know, he is doing so.
00:02:25But let's see.
00:02:26Oh, that's the Aston car.
00:02:28That's the Dallalana car, I think.
00:02:30Yeah, it will be.
00:02:32That is the 98 Aston currently with Lauda,
00:02:35Matthias Lauda, the son of Nicky, in the car.
00:02:39And that car has stopped out on circuit on the inside line.
00:02:44Of the run up the Dunlop curves.
00:02:47So...
00:02:47Worst possible place just after the pit lane exit.
00:02:50Yeah, he's trying to get the car refired.
00:02:53You've now got 8.2 miles to drive the car to get it back again.
00:02:57That could be a race-ending position to break down.
00:03:03Because if the car can't go another mile...
00:03:05Well, that's game over.
00:03:07Back on board with the leading car in LNB2, the Signatec Alpine,
00:03:11which has been ticking over for the entirety of the six hours we've been here.
00:03:15Yeah, and Rick Lihelmi feels like he's been in that car forever.
00:03:17Yeah, he does, doesn't he?
00:03:19He'll be coming out at the next stop, that's for sure.
00:03:21And we know that Will Stevens will be coming out.
00:03:23And Roman Reznov going into the G-Drive car.
00:03:27But Viktor Shaitar...
00:03:28He's only recently got in.
00:03:29Yeah, he's done a bloody good job.
00:03:31You know, he's into his second stint now, just into his second stint.
00:03:34Nick Leventis has slipped quite a long way behind those guys now.
00:03:38So it does look to me like the Stracca podium is gone.
00:03:43I think that one, no chance of pulling that one back through now.
00:03:51There's the Pegasus car, number 28.
00:03:53Yeah.
00:03:55So is he going to get that car refried?
00:03:57It looked almost like he was trying to bump start it in reverse
00:04:00as he was rolling back down the hill.
00:04:02Clearly he's got power.
00:04:04The battery master switch is on.
00:04:06He's cycling the ignition because the headlights are flashing.
00:04:10But it did look like he was just trying to coast it backwards down the hill
00:04:13and just, boom, you know, right, got it.
00:04:18I do believe here, Dan Breck just popped his head into the commentary box.
00:04:22He did.
00:04:22Peter's been in to get himself ready.
00:04:25Dan Breckasan.
00:04:27Doing very well.
00:04:28It's been a long time in Japan.
00:04:29You be careful.
00:04:30Oh, yeah.
00:04:31That was a sign of respect.
00:04:33That wasn't a sign of criticism at all.
00:04:36The 97 Aston is back in, according to Louise.
00:04:41My word, that didn't sound nice.
00:04:43In the eardrums there, is it fired up?
00:04:46Fernando Ruiz in the pits, of course.
00:04:49Next slow at zone 35.
00:04:52Slow zone at one, two, and three.
00:04:54That's for the Aston, of course.
00:04:56So that is going into the Ford chicanes, down the straight,
00:05:00and in through the sweep to the Dunlop curves.
00:05:03But it's looking good.
00:05:04The class leaders in the four classes is the way it is with three laps to go.
00:05:09Davidson in the Toyota leads by...
00:05:10Three hours to go.
00:05:11Three hours to go, sorry.
00:05:12Three hours to go.
00:05:13You're used to this sprint racing.
00:05:14I know, I am.
00:05:15Three hours to go.
00:05:16Not three laps.
00:05:17Three hours to go.
00:05:19Jani.
00:05:20One minute, 9.4 seconds is the gap.
00:05:24Stéphane Sarrazin is a further 54 seconds adrift.
00:05:27And that means that all three cars with three hours to go are still on the lead lap.
00:05:35This could go any way.
00:05:38The Audis are still knocking on the door, fourth and fifth position.
00:05:41So if any one of the top three falters, they will be in there to snatch a podium
00:05:44because you do have to cross the line.
00:05:47Then it is the LMP2 categories.
00:05:50Raquel Meep leading still in the Cigna Tech.
00:05:52Will Stevens in the G-Driver Rekker.
00:05:54And Victor Chaitar in the SFP Racing BR Engineering car
00:05:57with the Stracker Boys in fourth position.
00:05:59The Eurasia Boys in fifth place.
00:06:02And Natanjo Berton in the 41.
00:06:05That is the Greaves car in sixth position.
00:06:08The GTs, it is Joey Hand still leading Tony Vallanda.
00:06:12Ford versus Ferrari with Ferrari losing out after that spin for their man, Tony Vallanda.
00:06:1937 seconds is now the gap as a result of all that.
00:06:21And in third position, Ryan Briscoe with Billy Johnson, the second Ford.
00:06:26Now, third Ford, sorry.
00:06:27Now moving up into fourth position.
00:06:29And then we have the GTE AM cars.
00:06:31Bell, Long and Aguaz is the order.
00:06:33Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari with Scuderia Corsa.
00:06:36The Americans looking very strong.
00:06:38Again, all the way through this six-hour stint, they've been doing that.
00:06:42And Townsend Bell is at the wheel.
00:06:43And it looks as though they could well have the victory in the GTE AM class.
00:06:49And so, folks, for the final hurrah to the finish line,
00:06:52we're going to welcome back Julian Porter and Peter Dunbrek.
00:06:55I'm going to take this opportunity to thank you all for welcoming me to the Le Mans 24 hours coverage.
00:07:01I hope I've passed the audition.
00:07:03Thank you all very much for tweeting me through the course of the night.
00:07:06And hopefully, 12 months' time, we'll do it all over again.
00:07:08For now, though, Julian Porter and Peter Dunbrek will close us out.
00:07:14Thank you, Jake.
00:07:15Thank you, Giles.
00:07:16I've got a funny feeling that you might be hanging around, Jake.
00:07:18I don't know why I've got this feeling.
00:07:20But just something in my water tells me that you might well be hanging around.
00:07:26Two hours, 55 minutes under.
00:07:30And as we get ourselves sorted and get ourselves ready,
00:07:34the desk is looking as messy as when we got it last time.
00:07:39Dear me.
00:07:40There's been a lot of work going on in here.
00:07:43Slow zone currently happening.
00:07:45And, well, I have to say, I went to sleep about half past six this morning.
00:07:51Woke up at half past ten.
00:07:53A four-hour sleep, which was brilliant.
00:07:55I looked at my phone to check the results.
00:07:58And I thought, my phone hasn't reset, it hasn't re-updated.
00:08:01And then I discovered it was a different car in the lead.
00:08:04But the gap was only about three seconds, which was what it was when I left.
00:08:08Quite incredible.
00:08:09Gap is a little bit bigger now as we wait.
00:08:12The 98 car, I think, as the guys reported, has just stopped in zone three.
00:08:19So, we'll get more updated on that.
00:08:24I think Peter has just been briefed on that situation of the 98 Aston parked up.
00:08:31Tell you what, Jake's left quite a lot of stuff.
00:08:33He's left half a Twix.
00:08:34Oh, he's left some, what are them, starbursts.
00:08:38And the Kit Kat that I left.
00:08:40So, we've got a little bit going on.
00:08:42So, but, yeah, we are here for the final two hours, 53 minutes.
00:08:47And then the closing rituals, the celebrations, the, that kind of stuff.
00:08:58Yeah, all that kind of stuff.
00:09:00So, we will organise ourselves.
00:09:04So, yeah, not looking good for the 98 car.
00:09:06Obviously, we know he's stopped there.
00:09:08No spin or anything.
00:09:09Just pulled up, waiting on information.
00:09:12Perhaps we can get some from the pits at some stage in the next sort of ten minutes
00:09:17into the Aston garage to see what's going on there.
00:09:20We have no telemetry.
00:09:22We have no telemetry.
00:09:23Do big liftoffs.
00:09:25Do big liftoffs.
00:09:26And box does last.
00:09:30Okay, so that's the 8 car.
00:09:31No telemetry.
00:09:33So, yeah, he would have approached the corner and had a big liftoff, as he said.
00:09:39I don't know why that works with him, but obviously, that's how it gets reset.
00:09:44And he's in this box and in this lap anyway.
00:09:48So, that 98 car that is stopped.
00:09:50I mean, that's the Aston that basically kind of stopped a bit later in the race,
00:09:5712 months ago as well.
00:10:00So, I think Louise is in the pits.
00:10:03Pedro, you've heard from Mateus.
00:10:04What's he reporting back?
00:10:07I think, yeah, the problem with the gearbox.
00:10:09And he had, like, one gear, six gear, and it was not possible to go up the hill in six gear.
00:10:15He was stuck there.
00:10:16I don't know what's going to happen now.
00:10:19Okay, thank you.
00:10:20Thanks for that, Louise.
00:10:23So, first and sixth gear.
00:10:25I mean, I don't know.
00:10:27You don't really want to be going up the hill in first gear either, because you would be a bit of a mobile chicane as well.
00:10:32Okay, so here comes the Audi 8.
00:10:37Now, we did hear on Team Radio that he had to do a, well, a big lift-off to kind of do a reset on that car.
00:10:44Yeah.
00:10:44So, he's been in an hour and 54 as well, and a changing tyre, so he may well be getting out for the last time, Oliver Jarvis.
00:10:52Any driver waiting there?
00:10:58So, no, it looks like he might just stay in, actually.
00:11:01I don't think there's a driver handy.
00:11:02He won't do the rest of the race, though, will he?
00:11:05No, no.
00:11:06Well, he's been in an hour and 54, it said, so certainly not.
00:11:09Oh, yeah, I didn't notice that.
00:11:10I was looking at the result, the main leaderboard.
00:11:14Louise saying that, obviously, between our stint, this car's had some repair work on the front end of it.
00:11:20I think there's quite a few cars now just reading a tweet just as we were finishing lunch.
00:11:26It was a bit of a dash to lunch, but we got some lunch there, and I discovered that the 44 Manor stopped out.
00:11:41Looked like it, I can't quite get, as daft as it sounds, I can't quite get the full report on it,
00:11:45but the more tweeting that it's crashed, but Manor just saying that that was it, it's been emotional,
00:11:56they'd enjoyed it, they'd let it, and they were now out.
00:11:59Yeah, considering they've, you know, they've come from the, pretty much done everything now Manor have,
00:12:05all through the junior single-seater formula, and now into P2, obviously P1, F1 as well,
00:12:13so John Booth there and his wife I saw earlier on yesterday, and looked in high spirits,
00:12:19and I think the car was going very well at the time, but, you know, this place can be very brutal,
00:12:24we know that, and there's a lot of cars fall by the wayside, and when they fall by the wayside
00:12:28with 2 hours and 49 to go, it's that much harder, if you go out, and have to,
00:12:33Right, so that's, I'll let you explain that one away.
00:12:44Obviously, again, that's in the past now, but there was a slow zone, and Anthony is used to having a,
00:12:52you're coming to a slow zone, get ready, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and break, sort of thing,
00:12:57and that must be their way of doing it, and they must have missed it that time,
00:13:01it's getting late in the day, everyone's tired, and he's trying to say to them,
00:13:04come on boys, this could make, this could make the difference,
00:13:08if I get this wrong, and we have a penalty, and it's because of that, then he'll be very unhappy.
00:13:15Now, the shot, not much earlier, that we saw, was Toyota engineers on the pit wall,
00:13:22talking to a Michelin guy, were they just generally distracted,
00:13:25because they're obviously talking about some tyres, maybe to go to the end of the race on,
00:13:28and that's maybe why they just missed that little bit of detail,
00:13:33that car's looking a bit scruffy now, isn't it?
00:13:35Yeah, so we know, how long ago was that?
00:13:38That's a long time ago now.
00:13:39So in the middle of the night, Kobayashi had contact with a slower GT car.
00:13:44It's in the garage, it's in the garage.
00:13:46Yeah, it's been off as we know, he's spun through the gravel, he's got it out again,
00:13:51but yeah, that has gradually got worse and worse, and it's affecting handling more and more,
00:13:56so when they push it to the limit, it just can't hold on anymore sometimes,
00:14:00so they've got to drop their pace, and at the same time, Anthony Davidson is pulling a blind,
00:14:05he's absolutely smashing it out there, so...
00:14:07Um, Davidton is driving for the victory.
00:14:17I didn't really know what that was.
00:14:19I thought they said, we'd bleed the clutch, but I don't think it would be that.
00:14:22So, yeah, I'm not sure myself.
00:14:27Front-end guys, they have plenty of time behind them, so they can do this and they can make sure that it's right.
00:14:36They were starting to, uh, drop away from, uh, what's the big...
00:14:43So, this is a Kobayashi spin, you know, there, generally speaking,
00:14:47I think he probably touched the curb on the inside as well, which might have sent the rear,
00:14:51but that's, that's generally, uh...
00:14:54Oh, he's, that's good, he comes to use a bit of four-wheel-drive action to get the car out.
00:15:00Not many cars get out of there.
00:15:01But that's, that's traditionally an understeer corner, because it's off camber,
00:15:04but obviously with this aero imbalance, it's just sent the rear end round on him,
00:15:08I mean, he just didn't expect it, and it's cost more time, it's made more damage on the car,
00:15:13and, uh, that's playing into the hands of the number two and the number five.
00:15:17Do you think, I mean, that's gone into the garage there.
00:15:19Do you think, potentially, it's, get, they're gonna change.
00:15:22They're underneath it, they've got it in the air,
00:15:24that they might be putting a floor on that now,
00:15:26because it's just seemed to have been getting more difficult to drive.
00:15:29They've got lots of, uh, laps behind them, they don't have to worry about that.
00:15:34Let's just make this a bit more stable for, for the last two hours, 45 minutes or so,
00:15:39just so that they don't make a mistake now.
00:15:41We've got a bit of time at hand.
00:15:43I'm not saying that's what they are doing, but there's potential for that.
00:15:47Yeah, yeah, I mean, we don't know how bad it is.
00:15:50If it's bad enough to bring the car in like that, then, yeah, um, they have got a bit of time,
00:15:55but, you know, I'm sure that crew are still fighting.
00:15:59They're still hoping that something might happen to the five and the two ahead.
00:16:03Well, yeah, that's it.
00:16:04I mean, but, obviously, if it's getting a bit tricky to drive,
00:16:07it's, Sefans Aradhan's still sat in the car,
00:16:09so they're obviously not doing a major job, uh, where it's gonna take a long time,
00:16:13because you said that you're kind of expected to sit in there for 20 minutes or so.
00:16:18Uh, if it's anything more than 20 minutes, you might be allowed to get out of the car,
00:16:22but 20 minutes or so, you said you would stay in.
00:16:24A lot of the time, the crew are so busy that they forget about you,
00:16:28and, you know, they're, you're not their concern, and, um, it's not your,
00:16:34you've just got to sit there quietly and wait,
00:16:37and if you're requested to get out of the car, you get out of the car,
00:16:40but, otherwise, you just wait there.
00:16:43Well, there is the Toyota.
00:16:45That's a new front end, because the front end that came off it was very dirty.
00:16:49You'll see the difference in the colour, uh, from the,
00:16:53that new front end to the, the rest of the bodywork, which is very, very dirty.
00:16:56So, that off, that off might have caused just a little bit more damage to the,
00:17:00and it was making the imbalance even more,
00:17:02so they might have tried to change the balance a bit,
00:17:05and get it a bit more, uh, solid on the rear.
00:17:07So, the second-place P2 car, Will Stevens in it, he'd just come into the pits.
00:17:14Um, so, yeah, he's still circling round.
00:17:17Uh, I know that, uh, Jake and Giles will have given away,
00:17:21and, uh, all the results, but, uh, it is a Ford-leading GTE Pro.
00:17:26He's got 38 seconds over Tony Villander,
00:17:27so that's not over by any stretch of the imagination.
00:17:29Yeah, man, we did hear that, uh, Villander had had enough.
00:17:33Um, probably the people watching know more than we do at the moment,
00:17:35but, uh, yeah, that's the, the reason why the Ford is now in the lead.
00:17:39Joey Hahn, you know, has put in some strong stints.
00:17:43But, uh, that's the lone Ferrari fighting everyone now, uh, Villander,
00:17:48and then you've got four, sorry, three Fords backing him up,
00:17:53and then you've got, uh, the 95 Aston sitting there in, uh, fifth position now.
00:17:59So they've, they've dropped one position since we, we came off here six hours ago.
00:18:05So, new front end on that.
00:18:08Here is our number five Toyota.
00:18:11This is in the lead.
00:18:14Tension is rising.
00:18:15Two hours, 44 minutes ago.
00:18:16It's still a long way, in theory, of a normal world endurance race.
00:18:21We're just over halfway in the six hours they normally do.
00:18:24We're just over halfway.
00:18:26So, uh, it's still a lot of program to run through for these drivers.
00:18:30Or we're over three and, three and a half time.
00:18:35Yeah, but if you were doing a six hour WEC race,
00:18:38with two hours, 43 minutes to go,
00:18:40you'd be, you'd be just over halfway of your regular race.
00:18:44So, yeah, it's true.
00:18:45But the cars have done a lot of, uh, they've had a lot happen to them.
00:18:48The drivers are tired.
00:18:49Everyone, everyone is tired.
00:18:51And that's why, you know, that's, that's part of the challenge of this race is
00:18:54you have to get it straight in your head.
00:18:56I mean, talking about that, you know, we came off air at 6 a.m.
00:18:59and we went back to have a bit of a sleep in our little caravans.
00:19:04And, uh, I, I felt guilty.
00:19:07I felt guilty lying there with no pressure at all,
00:19:10knowing that some of my mates are out there, um,
00:19:14stomachs tied up in the fight for victory.
00:19:16And, uh, I've got no stress on me at all.
00:19:20The next thing I need to do is come.
00:19:22What's the problem with casting?
00:19:23HV cooling.
00:19:25It's HV cooling.
00:19:29Right, so he's cooling the HC.
00:19:31Uh, so hybrid.
00:19:36Control something.
00:19:37Hybrid.
00:19:39He's cooling something.
00:19:41Anthony obviously knows that the sixth car is in the pits.
00:19:44And he's worried about the same thing happened to him.
00:19:46Yeah.
00:19:47Yeah.
00:19:47Oh, do you mean.
00:19:48So, you know, all these thoughts are going through his head.
00:19:51He's, um, he's, he's pushing hard.
00:19:55Um, he knows there's not so long to go now.
00:19:58And in normal times, as you say, he's just passed halfway.
00:20:01But what, yeah, why wouldn't they finish the six hour race?
00:20:04But this is three and a half times that already.
00:20:05So, um, zone 16, there's a yellow flag.
00:20:09That's the second chicane, which is where Anthony Davison's heading down toward.
00:20:12It's gone now.
00:20:13It's gone.
00:20:13It was a quick go on.
00:20:15Yeah, that's it.
00:20:15You can just, I don't know Anthony Davison, but you can just kind of feel there that there's a,
00:20:23just as you said, a little bit of stress.
00:20:27Just questioning what's going on, guys.
00:20:29We need to know what's going on.
00:20:30He's a very, um, experienced driver.
00:20:35He's been through this situation before.
00:20:37He's been right up there on the podium, never won it yet.
00:20:40And he really wants to win it.
00:20:42And he, you know, if he, if he looks back and doesn't cover every base,
00:20:46if he looks back in a couple of days time and say, oh, why didn't I do that?
00:20:49And why, why didn't I push the team into this and that?
00:20:52And in a sense, he's got to lead the team because he's a man on track.
00:21:00It's always wise to find out what's going on.
00:21:02Because obviously he might be able to adjust his driving style as well if there is something.
00:21:06Yeah.
00:21:07Yeah, he's, he's got to be quick.
00:21:08But at the same time, you know, just not take those extra risks, not barrel the car in.
00:21:14So that's, that's, um, in a sense for him, that's good news because it's not a car failure as such.
00:21:34It's a, it's a failure because of the, the office the cars had and the contact with the other cars.
00:21:39So, so far, as far as we know, number five hasn't touched any cars.
00:21:43So there's no reason they should have the same problem.
00:21:46Yeah, but what I didn't understand was you just continue as you are.
00:21:50All is okay.
00:21:52Uh, then you went on about the six car, his body.
00:21:54Again, I'm, I'm sure we missed another communication that said, okay, the number six car has got this issue.
00:22:00But you've now figured out that it was due to the contact.
00:22:04Okay.
00:22:05Anthony is in the pits.
00:22:08Yeah, I'm in the pits, uh, in the Ford garage because the challenge is really high this year for, for Ford.
00:22:14And it's like back in the 60s because it's Ferrari, Ferrari, sorry, this is Ford.
00:22:21So Raj, uh, how do you rate this great duel, uh, back in the 60s that just great to be here in Le Mans and fight for the victory?
00:22:30Well, it's, it's been a good battle.
00:22:32There's still, you know, more than two and a half hours left, but it's been back and forth between Ferrari and ourselves.
00:22:37So we really enjoyed that competition.
00:22:40But, uh, we're glad we're in front right now.
00:22:41We're running one, three, four cars are running reliably.
00:22:44We've got good speed.
00:22:45So we're just pacing ourselves towards the end.
00:22:48Do you have some memories for, uh, from the, the years before?
00:22:52I mean, you were not born maybe, but is it something you, you'd like, uh, to see Ford versus Ferrari?
00:22:58Well, certainly this being the 50th anniversary of our win in 1966 with the GT40.
00:23:04With that epic battle with Ferrari then, it seems that history is repeating itself relative to the battle.
00:23:10So we're enjoying seeing that.
00:23:11But we've got a lot of racing to do and we're focused on that right now.
00:23:14What's the strategy for the end of the race?
00:23:16Well, you know, you can't slow down here.
00:23:19So even though we've got a bit of an advantage, we're going to keep our, uh, pedal to the metal, as we say in the U.S.
00:23:25We're going to go flat out from here through the rest of the race.
00:23:28And, uh, but the cars are showing good pace.
00:23:30And as I said, they're running reliably.
00:23:32So, uh, we'll just try to keep doing what we've been doing for the last, uh, 22 hours.
00:23:36Thank you very much.
00:23:37Have fun.
00:23:38Thank you for that, Anthony.
00:23:41Just, uh, just looking through some tweets.
00:23:44We can see it's all we ever seem to do at the moment is looking through tweets.
00:23:47But, uh, um, David Smith is wondering why the Porsche, Jake and Giles said the Porsches could do a 318.
00:23:55But we're fuel saving doing 324.
00:23:57It doesn't make sense losing seven seconds a lap.
00:23:59I think what it is, is they're not going to catch the Davis and Toyota on pure speed.
00:24:05So they're thinking, well, let's just stay safe.
00:24:07Let's stay within a minute or so of where we are and pick up any pieces that potentially fall off.
00:24:14I'm not quite so sure about that.
00:24:16You know, the fact that Kobayashi has done the fastest lap, and that was a long time ago.
00:24:20In lap 81, he did a 321.4.
00:24:23And we think the Porsche can do a 319, do we?
00:24:26No.
00:24:27No.
00:24:27If they could do that, they would be doing that.
00:24:29Yeah, I don't believe that.
00:24:31I think perhaps it can go a little bit quicker than they're doing.
00:24:34But, no, I think Yanni is driving flat out.
00:24:37He's trying to catch the Davidson Toyota.
00:24:40Okay, well, this is the sixth Toyota.
00:24:42That's just some slow-mo action replays.
00:24:44There's six Toyota there before it came in and had a new nose put on it.
00:24:48Sam Tinknell just tweeted in.
00:24:51He's been on a long weekend of running to get back to the hotel and discover that we're covering Le Mans.
00:24:56He says, excellent when two great things come together.
00:24:58Well, thanks very much, Sam.
00:24:59That's it.
00:25:00That's it, yeah.
00:25:01It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
00:25:03Yeah, it is.
00:25:03So, we're going to do a few more, I think.
00:25:06You know what I mean?
00:25:07It would be quite cool to do a few more.
00:25:09But let's see.
00:25:09Charles, 37 minutes to go.
00:25:11Stefan Sarazan.
00:25:12Yeah, good to have him back out.
00:25:14Still in third place.
00:25:15Yeah, unless there's any major hiccups ahead.
00:25:19Yeah, he's only four laps behind and a lot of things can happen in two hours, 37 minutes.
00:25:25Yeah, it's quite scary what can happen in that kind of time.
00:25:29I'm just sorting out my desk to make sure that I've not got stuff that I don't need in front of me.
00:25:36So, no extra sweets and chocolates and stuff?
00:25:39No extra sweets.
00:25:39Okay, get rid of them.
00:25:41Jake's left the building.
00:25:42He obviously doesn't like the red ones.
00:25:45He obviously doesn't like the red and pink ones.
00:25:47Well, I'll have that.
00:25:48I like the red ones.
00:25:48Okay, well, you can have the red ones.
00:25:49I'll take them home with me.
00:25:50That's it.
00:25:50Starburst on the...
00:25:52He obviously was desperate because he has left some red.
00:25:55But that's a whole bag.
00:25:56They're not just...
00:25:58Oh, hang on.
00:25:58I think they are old.
00:25:59Oh, yeah.
00:26:00So, no, he just hasn't quite finished them yet.
00:26:02No, he just hasn't finished them.
00:26:04He'll realise that he's left them behind.
00:26:06He'll be gutted.
00:26:07He'll be on the way up on the train up to Paris.
00:26:09I don't know him, Jake.
00:26:10He'll be listening on the app.
00:26:12And he'll be back in for them in a couple of minutes when he discovers before his lift goes.
00:26:17So, yeah.
00:26:18So, 57 seconds is the gap between first and second, which in Le Mans turns is not very much.
00:26:26It's not the closest battle that we've ever had.
00:26:29But it's going to be interesting.
00:26:33And Vellanda, let's just keep a look at that.
00:26:3639 seconds behind now.
00:26:38The forward of Joey Hand, which we are on board with currently.
00:26:42That was as if the director knew what I was going to talk about.
00:26:52It still sounds...
00:26:54Audi going past 21 hours, 24 minutes in.
00:26:58And it still sounds as nice as it did all those hours ago.
00:27:04Yeah, I mean, again, I don't want to tempt fainter.
00:27:07But I kind of thought that there might be more issues with the Fords.
00:27:11I think the speed was never in question.
00:27:15I think they always were going to be the strongest car here.
00:27:18But I thought reliability might be an issue.
00:27:23And so far, knock on wood for them, it seems to be going well.
00:27:27You know, they've had the little issues with the car 67.
00:27:31But Andy Priot is in the car.
00:27:33That was right at the start, wasn't it?
00:27:35That 67 problem.
00:27:36And so they're running down in ninth.
00:27:39The other two cars, Milner and the 51 Ferrari, are both out.
00:27:44And so the last GT Ford 67 is running effectively last place in pro.
00:27:52But they're still running.
00:27:54And it's, you know, it sounds a bit corny,
00:27:56but it's an achievement to get to the finish at all.
00:28:01They have got a very, very strong driver line up in that car.
00:28:04Yeah, as you say, there's so many hazards
00:28:07and so many things that can trip you up at the more over the race,
00:28:11the course of the race.
00:28:12And it's, to have those experienced drivers in there, yeah,
00:28:17just makes that difference in tricky conditions
00:28:19like where the race started in
00:28:21just to get themselves all sorted there.
00:28:27You can see the paddles behind the steering wheel.
00:28:31You can see him just flicking it up.
00:28:32He looks fairly relaxed.
00:28:41I was just thinking, yeah.
00:28:42Maybe slightly tired, but I'm not actually sure how long he's been in the car,
00:28:47certainly since we got into the commentary box.
00:28:49There's a second place we land a car.
00:28:53The number one Porsche just going past it there.
00:28:57Mark Webber on board.
00:28:5817th place overall now.
00:29:01He was down in 42nd or something at one point,
00:29:03which was due to all those problems that they had in the night.
00:29:08under the cover of darkness.
00:29:12So it's still going, and, yeah,
00:29:15I'm not really sure what else they can really do from there,
00:29:17apart from just show the world that they are
00:29:20the fastest car on the racetrack.
00:29:23Philander been in for 86 minutes.
00:29:2821 pit stops in total.
00:29:30So it looks like since we left six hours ago,
00:29:40that's a status score with the 36 car LMP2.
00:29:46They're still leading the category in Alpine,
00:29:50and Rushenov in the 26 car next.
00:29:55I think the 37 cars come up the order a bit since we last saw,
00:30:00and also the Leventus Stracca car now in fourth place in P2.
00:30:05So those long stints from Danny Watts and Johnny Cain
00:30:08in the night bringing that car up.
00:30:10Leventus on board now.
00:30:16It's the 36 car, which has done very, very well.
00:30:21Rushenov, remember that car, the 26 car,
00:30:23was on pole position.
00:30:25It did drop down in the tricky conditions
00:30:27in the first hour or two.
00:30:28It was kind of not out the back door
00:30:31because there's so many P2 cars,
00:30:33but it wasn't where you'd expect it to.
00:30:34But gradually, the speed and experience
00:30:36of that car and team
00:30:38are making their way back up.
00:30:40Been in second place for quite a long time now.
00:30:42Pointing out of the obvious, it just looks like a Sunday price.
00:30:57No, he's working the wheel still, but he's a smooth driver.
00:31:00Yeah.
00:31:00He's got a good style, nice and smooth,
00:31:03which is great around here.
00:31:04And once you get into a rhythm
00:31:07and it's all about just,
00:31:11even if it's a pushing, pushing rhythm,
00:31:13it is all about staying in that rhythm.
00:31:15This is the leader of P2.
00:31:31Gives you an indication,
00:31:33there's not that much difference in pace
00:31:36between a P2 car and a good GT car.
00:31:39Well, we did see that in the dark,
00:31:43didn't we, sometimes at the P2s?
00:31:44We're just struggling to get back.
00:31:46It can be difficult.
00:31:48If you've got one of the bronze drivers in a P2
00:31:51and a platinum driver in a fast GT car,
00:31:55quite often they're battling each other
00:31:56and effectively the P2 car's getting in the way
00:32:00because he might be slower in the corners
00:32:01but faster down the straights,
00:32:03but only just.
00:32:03So quite often we've seen that in the past
00:32:05where the GT drivers are calling
00:32:09for the P2 cars to just get out of the way
00:32:11or even for them to get some kind of a faster engine
00:32:15so that they can actually make the difference
00:32:17and so it's easier for them to go
00:32:19a little bit faster than the GT cars.
00:32:25So nice and easy through that one.
00:32:26He's not right up to the barriers.
00:32:29Late in the day, he's not taking any big risks
00:32:31but he's running where.
00:32:33He's down in fourth place, Olivier Pla.
00:32:40But Ford can't have it covered at the moment.
00:32:42You know, it could become a V-lander party
00:32:45if Joey Hand has a problem
00:32:46and a Ferrari party.
00:32:48But yeah, looking down the order,
00:32:50Ferrari's still in the lead in Pro-Am class.
00:32:52Townsend Bell again when we left, he was there.
00:32:55Pat Long was second when we left six hours ago.
00:32:57He's there again now.
00:32:58So not much changing down there.
00:33:01There's three Ferraris in the top four
00:33:03and a Porsche in second place.
00:33:07Nice to see Adam Carroll up there
00:33:09in fifth place as well overall in the GT arm.
00:33:12And we know quite a few cars have had issues
00:33:18and now stopped.
00:33:21The last one we saw wasn't...
00:33:23I was going to say Nicky Lauda then.
00:33:24Matthias Lauda stopped in the 98 Aston for...
00:33:31What did Pedro Lamy say the problem was?
00:33:32Only first and six gears.
00:33:34Yeah, he'd lost his gears
00:33:35and he just effectively couldn't drive around the track.
00:33:38So that car is out, I would have thought.
00:33:42It's somewhere up at Dunlop, isn't it?
00:33:44It's parked in and around amongst that area.
00:33:50So the gap at the front could be traffic,
00:33:54but it's just come down by three or so seconds.
00:33:57Yeah, Gianni's lapping consistently in the 3.22s.
00:34:04Davidson last time around 3.25.
00:34:08Maybe a bit of traffic
00:34:10or maybe just being told to ease off slightly
00:34:14and make sure the car makes it home.
00:34:15Here comes the sixth car, third place.
00:34:27As you'll know, they've just been into the pits.
00:34:30Kobayashi took a trip across the gravel
00:34:32when Stefan Sarazen got in the car.
00:34:35Teen Radio.
00:34:35Yes.
00:34:40Very good.
00:34:51We need to survive.
00:34:55We need to survive.
00:34:57We have three laps without the leader
00:34:58and seven laps without Jari.
00:35:02Yes, yes.
00:35:03So, yeah, confirmation from Sarrazan there that the car is very difficult to drive
00:35:12with its various problems through the night and little bit.
00:35:15I mean, this is what makes a difference in Le Mans.
00:35:18If you keep it clean and tidy and you don't have any offs, you don't damage your car,
00:35:23it's easier to drive towards the end of the race, and that's what Davidson's having right now.
00:35:27And with Sarrazan, he's really on the limit with the car, and he can't push it too hard
00:35:31because he risks going off and losing everything.
00:35:34So, it's better to have a podium than nothing.
00:35:37Of course, he wants to win, but unless, as I said before, unless there's trouble ahead,
00:35:44it's unlikely to happen.
00:35:46It's interesting that he says there's not a lot of grip in the front end.
00:35:49That's a new nose as well on there, so they will be kind of all identical three-wide.
00:35:56It must be bumpy down there on that kind of...
00:36:01Yeah, but I mean, I think over the course of the 24 hours, there's been cars all over these areas,
00:36:07and they've gradually sort of cleaned up a bit.
00:36:09The more you drive on them, the more they clean up, you see how the aero just flicks everything,
00:36:17the dust, the dirt and everything up, and kind of off and out of the way.
00:36:21So, we've got a 63 Corvette into the pits now, Garcia at the wheel.
00:36:28We haven't really seen the challenge develop for these guys.
00:36:31We know one of the cars is out, the 64 car's out.
00:36:35The 63 car down in seventh place.
00:36:38Unfortunate that Corvette couldn't really bring the fight.
00:36:41We had the big issues with the BOP before the race began.
00:36:47In fact, it got changed just before the race began.
00:36:50So, the Ford and the Ferrari got pegged back slightly.
00:36:54The Corvette and the Aston got a little bit extra so they could be quicker,
00:36:58and the Porsche remained the same.
00:37:00So, both Porsches, in fact, there was three Porsches in...
00:37:04There are three Porsches in the Pro class.
00:37:07One of them is still running, but down in eighth place.
00:37:09And, as I said, the Corvette just couldn't quite match the pace of the others.
00:37:14Aston had a go.
00:37:16They're kind of up there in fifth place, but...
00:37:19You know, just unable to clearly lap at the same pace as the Ford and the Ferrari.
00:37:25And over the course of the last 22 hours or so,
00:37:28that makes a big difference.
00:37:30And unless they get a lot of luck,
00:37:32then they're not going to make the podium today.
00:37:39So, we're on board with the seven outing currently.
00:37:43Ben is in the car fifth place overall at the moment.
00:37:48So, yeah, I'm going back to fastest lap from Kobayashi.
00:37:51We saw that lap.
00:37:52It was lap 81 of the race.
00:37:55They're on 343 now.
00:37:57Oh, I believe we have an interview.
00:38:00Let's cross over to Anthony in the pits.
00:38:05We are in the pits with Giuseppe Rizzi,
00:38:07the owner of the Rizzi competition car.
00:38:11Giuseppe, how is the race so far?
00:38:14The duel between Ford and Ferrari is just great.
00:38:17Yes, it's certainly has been a long race.
00:38:27We have been very competitive.
00:38:30We've lost one or two little points,
00:38:33but it's wonderful to be here.
00:38:36Le Mans is such a special place,
00:38:39and especially with a Ferrari.
00:38:42Is it reminiscent to what happened in the 60s?
00:38:47Are you proud to fuel this history again here in Le Mans?
00:38:53Yes, it's very special.
00:38:57When I first came here in 69 as a spectator,
00:39:01but then Ferrari was not as strong,
00:39:05but I came later on and before.
00:39:07Ferrari has always been...
00:39:11This is a wonderful track for Ferrari.
00:39:14And, you know, Ford are very strong.
00:39:17They've got a very good organization.
00:39:19They have a very good car.
00:39:21And you have a strong organization as well,
00:39:23because Rizzi competition is doing great things
00:39:26this year and for the last past years.
00:39:29So what is your magic?
00:39:31What is your secret for that?
00:39:32Having very good people.
00:39:36That is very important.
00:39:39The people are what makes everything.
00:39:41And then also we have a very good product in Ferrari.
00:39:44So you combine those two,
00:39:45then you have a wonderful cocktail.
00:39:47Let's speak about drivers as well.
00:39:49Giancarlo was very good.
00:39:51Tony as well.
00:39:52And really, that's a great team.
00:39:54Team effort.
00:39:54I'm sorry I didn't mention that,
00:40:00but the drivers are very important.
00:40:03And we've got a very good balance between Tony
00:40:06and Giancarlo and Matteo.
00:40:11And they've all done a tremendous job.
00:40:13They've taken care of the car
00:40:17and I couldn't ask for more.
00:40:19They've been very good.
00:40:21Grazie.
00:40:21Thank you very much.
00:40:22That's great, really, to feel the history,
00:40:26to be just here in Le Mans.
00:40:28And being part of that is just great, guys.
00:40:31I don't know if you agree, but that's great.
00:40:34Well, it's all great, isn't it?
00:40:35And there's so much passion.
00:40:37I mean, this is like the car that's Ferrari
00:40:43that are running in GTE categories.
00:40:45But the same passion, fortunately,
00:40:48just runs through every single team.
00:40:50And that's what is so special.
00:40:52Yeah, I mean, if you think about it,
00:40:54we're just a couple of hours away
00:40:56from the end of the 24-hour race.
00:40:58That's the boss of the car.
00:41:01And I'm sure he's not had much sleep.
00:41:04You know, he'll be feeling it.
00:41:06The emotions are running high.
00:41:08He's got the chance to potentially win.
00:41:09And, you know, make no bones about this.
00:41:13We've got Anthony Davidson up there in P1 leading
00:41:15and the P1 cars.
00:41:17But there's four fights going on,
00:41:20and they're all as important as each other.
00:41:22Okay, the overall victory is a big one,
00:41:25but you're never going to win overall in a GT car.
00:41:28So the best you can do is win your class.
00:41:31And the competition is very stiff.
00:41:33And if you do that,
00:41:34then you can be very, very proud.
00:41:36It is all about winning.
00:41:38I mean, a lot of these priorities,
00:41:41running, like, in the AM category,
00:41:43it's about taking part,
00:41:44but it's about winning as well.
00:41:46And there's some people who are very proud.
00:41:49There's seven Audi just on pit road.
00:41:51A lot of drivers, your amateur drivers,
00:41:54who just like, I want to do Le Mans,
00:41:56but I'm going to get the best drives I can
00:41:59to come along with me.
00:42:00Just a number two car on board there with it.
00:42:03I saw Porsche in the pit road,
00:42:06looking like they were ready to receive
00:42:09Neil Yanni in the next couple of laps.
00:42:13My kind of, one of my moments of passion,
00:42:19just bizarrely come in.
00:42:21I just had a text message from Harry Teuvenen,
00:42:23who just did this event five times.
00:42:26So he's listening,
00:42:29and a famous name in the world of motorsport,
00:42:31Neil Yanni in.
00:42:33But, yeah, Harry would like to come back.
00:42:35A little while ago since he was last here,
00:42:37but would like to come back.
00:42:38Race had never really did him a lot of favours,
00:42:40finishing once out of his five starts.
00:42:42Yanni in to the pits.
00:42:4457 seconds is the gap between first and second.
00:42:48Anthony Davison still out front.
00:42:53So, again, it's just a check over
00:42:55and having a look at it.
00:42:59Photographer taking pictures.
00:43:00I'm not sure whether he's a general photographer
00:43:03or a Porsche photographer.
00:43:05And the reason why I say that is
00:43:06because you're getting very close
00:43:08and very intimate, so to speak,
00:43:10with that car.
00:43:10I'm looking at stuff that normally teams
00:43:12wouldn't want people to look at.
00:43:13So I suspect if he takes a load of pictures underneath,
00:43:17they can download them,
00:43:18they can study it,
00:43:19and just to make sure that everything is underneath.
00:43:21I might be completely wrong on that,
00:43:22but we do see teams kind of employing photographers
00:43:26to do stuff and check stuff.
00:43:29But Neil Yanni on his way back out.
00:43:31Yeah, we're seeing a penalty for Christina Nielsen
00:43:35in the Ferrari, number 60, P6 in the AM class.
00:43:41So that's going to cost her a little bit.
00:43:43She's got a drive-through penalty
00:43:44for refuelling with the engine running.
00:43:47She got four laps on the car behind,
00:43:50so she should be okay in theory in position.
00:43:53Kazuki Nakajima, what was I believe?
00:43:56I only quickly glanced the driver.
00:44:01I'm sure it was Nakajima.
00:44:01Yeah, I was talking for a while
00:44:03about the fastest lap
00:44:06and how Kobayashi set that lap a long time ago.
00:44:10And of course, we left at sort of happy hour
00:44:12when we expected the times to tumble,
00:44:16and yet fastest lap has remained,
00:44:18so no one's gone any quicker.
00:44:20And that includes the cars
00:44:22that really don't have much to lose,
00:44:23like the Weber car.
00:44:25It's now running well,
00:44:27and if they could have done,
00:44:30they would have done the fastest lap
00:44:31because that's the only thing
00:44:35they can gain from this race now.
00:44:36They can't finish on the podium,
00:44:38or it's very, very unlikely.
00:44:40And, you know, if you're going to leave this race,
00:44:43you kind of want to leave with something,
00:44:44and if you leave with the fastest lap,
00:44:45then that's quite an accolade.
00:44:47But obviously, they couldn't do either.
00:44:49The trolleyway car, same situation.
00:44:51They're quite a few laps down.
00:44:54They couldn't do it.
00:44:55So Kobayashi still has that fastest lap from lap 81.
00:44:58So I'm a bit surprised.
00:45:00Davison on pit road.
00:45:02We saw Nakajima getting ready
00:45:04while standing there waiting.
00:45:06Will it be a driver change?
00:45:07We have seen drivers in these cars
00:45:10being prepared and ready,
00:45:11but sometimes not getting in.
00:45:12But two hours, 17 minutes to go.
00:45:16Yeah.
00:45:17It is going to be...
00:45:18And Kazuki probably take it to the end,
00:45:19won't he, from here?
00:45:21I would have thought so, yeah.
00:45:24Well, you know, from...
00:45:27That might not be any kind of surprise because...
00:45:31Yeah, I didn't want to say that.
00:45:32Yeah, I mean, it could just be luck.
00:45:34It could be just, oh, that's the way it's turned out.
00:45:36But, yeah, I would have thought it's kind of planned
00:45:39that the Japanese driver,
00:45:41if they had any chance of winning,
00:45:42that the Japanese driver in the Japanese car
00:45:44would cross the line.
00:45:45Yeah, that's...
00:45:47It's a lot of pressure on his shoulders now,
00:45:49and, you know, Davison's done a tremendous job.
00:45:52He can...
00:45:53Well, he can't completely put his feet up
00:45:55because he's going to be nervous
00:45:57because it's now out of his hands
00:45:59and he can do nothing to control it.
00:46:02But, you know, you've got all these little superstitions
00:46:05that you might be thinking,
00:46:06like, I won't do that and I won't do that
00:46:07and I won't do this and I won't go there
00:46:09and I won't, you know, I won't talk to anyone.
00:46:11I'm just going to focus for the next two hours
00:46:14and 16 minutes on the rest of the race
00:46:15and after that, if we went,
00:46:17then I'll talk to whoever and I don't mind.
00:46:19That's it, yeah.
00:46:20I mean, do you kind of lock yourself in the driver's room
00:46:23and just be kind of unaware of what's going on
00:46:25or do you basically base yourself so deep
00:46:27into the garage with so many people around you
00:46:29that no media or journalist can get you?
00:46:32Because, yes, the mechanics know not to talk to you,
00:46:35but also if you're kind of hidden by all your mechanics,
00:46:37no one's going to come in.
00:46:38Let's see if Anthony can get there or Louise.
00:46:41Yeah, that would be...
00:46:43Yeah, to speak to Anthony, to, you know,
00:46:46give Anthony a couple of minutes
00:46:48and see if you can get to speak to him.
00:46:49Yeah, what were we just saying about media getting in the way
00:46:51and we then go and send our guys out.
00:46:55Anthony Davidson.
00:46:56Anthony Davidson.
00:46:57If we can manage that, please.
00:46:59There's a challenge for you,
00:47:00to our Anthony.
00:47:01We've sent him a challenge of Toyota's Anthony.
00:47:03So, he's quite up for a challenge.
00:47:06He's looking forward to that.
00:47:09So, he did a big shift last night.
00:47:12Don't say that we sent you.
00:47:13OK, once you...
00:47:16If you can and once you have him,
00:47:17that's fine.
00:47:18Don't pressurise the situation,
00:47:20but it would be great to hear
00:47:21from the drivers who just got out of that lead car.
00:47:23Neil Yanni, the number two,
00:47:25slicing his way through the P2.
00:47:29Now, the gap down to 38...
00:47:3132.8 seconds,
00:47:33pure and simply because of the pit stop
00:47:36that just happened there.
00:47:37So, looking down the order
00:47:39to Oli Jarvis in that number eight Audi
00:47:42who's in fourth place.
00:47:43Talking about fastest laps,
00:47:45well, he's just done his fastest lap,
00:47:46but it's one second off
00:47:48Kobayashi's fastest lap
00:47:49from way earlier in the race.
00:47:53So, good to see him pushing hard
00:47:55at this time of day.
00:47:56That car's obviously on song now.
00:47:58Both the Audis, as we know,
00:47:59have had issues all week, really.
00:48:03All little things,
00:48:04just not putting them on the back foot
00:48:06and just kind of scuppering their chances,
00:48:10whereas Toyota seem, you know,
00:48:12they've, I mean, they deserve it.
00:48:15They've run relatively flawless.
00:48:17Okay, little issues with Kobayashi
00:48:19and his contact,
00:48:21but thankfully there's another car up there.
00:48:24Neil Yanni's up there,
00:48:26and again, it's so long ago,
00:48:28I've forgotten what happened
00:48:29to the Weber Porsche.
00:48:31It was a water pump,
00:48:32which was very difficult to get to,
00:48:35and so it meant a lot of time.
00:48:36Remarks from Kazuki,
00:48:38as we spoke before.
00:48:40Concentrate on the recovery,
00:48:42especially the traffic.
00:48:46Yeah.
00:48:46So concentrate on recovering the energy.
00:48:51Oh, yeah, recovering energy,
00:48:52and then traffic,
00:48:53which is obvious,
00:48:54but, you know, as you said.
00:48:55They don't want any silly contact now.
00:48:57If you're in doubt, just wait.
00:48:58You know, there's no point
00:48:59in pushing the matter
00:49:00unless Yanni is so close
00:49:03that you have to give it 100%,
00:49:04then just err a little bit
00:49:06on the side of caution.
00:49:08They're still currently doing
00:49:09one lap more on a stint
00:49:11than Yanni is.
00:49:13But it's not just,
00:49:15I mean, people might say,
00:49:16well, Nakajima's just got in the car.
00:49:18But it's not just,
00:49:21because Kazuki's got another
00:49:2250-odd cars on this racetrack
00:49:24that he's going to have to overtake
00:49:25in the next 2 hours, 12 minutes.
00:49:27So it's other drivers
00:49:29who are tired
00:49:30getting towards the end of their stints.
00:49:31Their tyres are getting old,
00:49:34and, yeah, as you say,
00:49:35Kazuki might just dive down
00:49:37the inside somewhere,
00:49:38and he doesn't need to.
00:49:39And to be fair,
00:49:40it is more along the lines
00:49:41of the GT-AM cars
00:49:42that he's got,
00:49:43or possibly if the bronze drivers
00:49:46are in the LMP2 cars,
00:49:48he's got to keep an eye open.
00:49:51That's it.
00:49:51As you said, be safe.
00:49:53Don't take any risks.
00:49:54Just overtake where it's
00:49:55really clear and sensible.
00:49:57He's now a leading GT-E Pro car.
00:50:13It's a great noise.
00:50:15It's almost the best place
00:50:16to be in the car now.
00:50:18Because away from all of the hype
00:50:21building up around the pit garage.
00:50:23Yeah, as I said,
00:50:24when it's in your control
00:50:26and you can dictate,
00:50:28then it's almost better
00:50:29to be there.
00:50:29When you're sitting in the pits
00:50:31and you know you're done
00:50:32for the day,
00:50:33and you're sitting in a position
00:50:35that could potentially win,
00:50:36in a sense,
00:50:37you're glad that your teammates
00:50:38are in it and not you,
00:50:39but in the other sense,
00:50:40it's like, well,
00:50:41I can't do anything.
00:50:43I'm just, I'm nervous,
00:50:44but I'm completely out of control.
00:50:46And, you know,
00:50:49it's all on the driver
00:50:50who's driving now
00:50:51and the team
00:50:52to make sure
00:50:54that car comes home.
00:50:54Sounds as nice
00:51:11from outside
00:51:12than inside.
00:51:14This is the leader
00:51:15of the GTE Pro category.
00:51:17Joey Hand in this Ford.
00:51:18Drive-through penalty.
00:51:20We've already talked about that.
00:51:21It just come up on the screen
00:51:22there just for your information.
00:51:23Car 60,
00:51:24drive-through penalty.
00:51:25That is the Danish Ferrari.
00:51:29Christina Nilsson
00:51:29aboard it at the moment.
00:51:31She's in the pits now,
00:51:32so I suspect
00:51:32she's serving that penalty.
00:51:36There's a couple
00:51:37of Twitter notifications
00:51:39coming in.
00:51:40Jake Robinson
00:51:41is just reminding us
00:51:42what happened to Villander.
00:51:44He spun that Porsche
00:51:45similar to Kobayashi.
00:51:47I think we kind of,
00:51:48yeah, we did miss it,
00:51:49but we got the gist
00:51:51from the other commentators.
00:51:53Sam Ticknell thinks
00:51:54maybe I should join you
00:51:55on a WRC event.
00:51:57Yeah.
00:51:57Yeah, why not?
00:51:58I like a bit of rallying.
00:51:59You like a bit of rallying.
00:52:01Philip Bond,
00:52:02who I think
00:52:02he's got good knowledge himself.
00:52:04He's asking us
00:52:05the last time before
00:52:07that a major manufacturer
00:52:09won its class debut
00:52:10at Le Mans
00:52:12and to be honest,
00:52:14I have not a clue.
00:52:15Not a clue.
00:52:16So, Phil,
00:52:17I think you can probably
00:52:18work that one out.
00:52:19You've got more knowledge
00:52:20in us than that one.
00:52:22So, just a shot there
00:52:24from our TV director
00:52:26for the girls.
00:52:27They're waking up.
00:52:27I shot Patrick Dempsey
00:52:29in the pit garage.
00:52:31And you talk about passion,
00:52:32you talk about emotion
00:52:33and what it means.
00:52:36Dempsey on the podium
00:52:37last year
00:52:38was just incredible.
00:52:39It was like,
00:52:40he's had big blockbuster movies,
00:52:43but it didn't seem to matter
00:52:44from what he did last year
00:52:45getting on the podium here.
00:52:47Yeah, yeah.
00:52:48I think it was a massive thing
00:52:50for him.
00:52:51He was kind of helped out
00:52:52towards the end
00:52:53and it did look like
00:52:54at one stage
00:52:55that he, you know,
00:52:55the way he was coming up
00:52:56from fifth, fourth
00:52:57up to third
00:52:59and what,
00:52:59he finished second
00:53:00in the end, didn't he?
00:53:01And he benefited
00:53:02from that
00:53:03very late
00:53:04crash
00:53:05of the Aston 98 car
00:53:07which moved him up
00:53:09and it did look like
00:53:09his fairy tale
00:53:10might actually come true
00:53:11and he might actually
00:53:12get a win out of this
00:53:12but not in the end.
00:53:15But yeah,
00:53:15he's come back
00:53:15as a team manager.
00:53:17He even said,
00:53:19he talked about
00:53:19the stress levels
00:53:20being even higher
00:53:21as a team manager
00:53:22because he feels
00:53:23responsible for everyone
00:53:24and has to make sure
00:53:26everyone's okay
00:53:27and that the drivers
00:53:29have what they need,
00:53:30et cetera.
00:53:30So Pat Long
00:53:33finally has actually
00:53:35dropped to third place.
00:53:36Maybe he's changed over
00:53:37to Heinemeyer Hansen
00:53:38as well.
00:53:40He's been in second place
00:53:41for a long time.
00:53:42Aguas in the Ferrari,
00:53:43they had a slow start.
00:53:45He's in the car
00:53:45with Collard
00:53:46and two very,
00:53:48very fast drivers
00:53:49in that Ferrari 83 car.
00:53:52Gradually found their way
00:53:53back up
00:53:54after having early dramas
00:53:55in the race
00:53:56but it's taken,
00:53:57you know,
00:53:57the best part of 22 hours
00:53:58to get back to second place.
00:54:01Jeff Seagal
00:54:01up in the 62 car Ferrari
00:54:04done a great job.
00:54:07In fact,
00:54:07everyone in that car
00:54:08has done a great job.
00:54:09They've led for quite a while now,
00:54:11at least more than 12 hours
00:54:13anyway,
00:54:13so yeah,
00:54:15doing a great job there
00:54:16and I mentioned
00:54:18for Rob Bell as well
00:54:19in the 61,
00:54:20two rookie teammates,
00:54:21first time here,
00:54:22their fourth.
00:54:23At the moment,
00:54:24Rob Bell's
00:54:25lapping very quickly.
00:54:26I think he's done
00:54:26a lot of this race,
00:54:27Rob has,
00:54:28when the others
00:54:29maybe do a couple
00:54:30of stints,
00:54:30he does three stints,
00:54:31so he must be a tired lad now
00:54:33and surely
00:54:34on his last one
00:54:36now,
00:54:37I mean,
00:54:37he might be seeing it
00:54:38to the end
00:54:39but at least
00:54:41only two hours
00:54:42and seven minutes
00:54:43to go for him
00:54:44and Adam Carle
00:54:45up there as well
00:54:46in the 86
00:54:47Golf Porsche,
00:54:48again,
00:54:48problems for them
00:54:49in the past
00:54:50but yeah,
00:54:51they're running
00:54:52nicely up in fifth place,
00:54:54Porsche we know
00:54:55is maybe not
00:54:56the car to have
00:54:57in the arm class,
00:54:58the Ferrari
00:54:58seems to be quicker
00:54:59whereas the Ford
00:55:00seems to be slightly
00:55:01quicker than
00:55:02in the pro class.
00:55:03Fizzy Keller
00:55:04back in the 82 car
00:55:05now in second place,
00:55:06so he will be there
00:55:08to finish off
00:55:09I think
00:55:10and Dirk Muller
00:55:14in the class
00:55:15leading 68 car
00:55:16pole position man
00:55:18late on the
00:55:21Wednesday night,
00:55:22was it Wednesday?
00:55:23Wednesday night,
00:55:24yeah.
00:55:24Was that long ago?
00:55:25It was that long ago
00:55:26and they'd just done
00:55:27that driver change
00:55:27there,
00:55:28Dirk Muller
00:55:28on his out lap
00:55:29and Joey Hand
00:55:30got out
00:55:31and he strapped
00:55:32Dirk in
00:55:33and he put
00:55:33the mesh
00:55:35across the door
00:55:36and everything
00:55:36and it was a big
00:55:37pat on the leg
00:55:39kind of like
00:55:39just bring that
00:55:41home then,
00:55:42come on.
00:55:42That's the thing,
00:55:43all these guys,
00:55:46they're all mates
00:55:47as well as teammates,
00:55:48you know,
00:55:48they have to get on
00:55:49well,
00:55:50they have to pass it
00:55:51they rely on each
00:55:53other to do
00:55:53a good job
00:55:54and I think
00:55:55there's a lot
00:55:57of goodwill
00:55:57in motorsport
00:55:59and especially
00:56:00when you get
00:56:00to this level,
00:56:01you know,
00:56:02in the cut and thrust
00:56:03of Formula 1
00:56:04you see them
00:56:05always arguing
00:56:06and fighting
00:56:08amongst themselves
00:56:08and you know,
00:56:10the Hamilton
00:56:11and Rosberg
00:56:12dramas and
00:56:12everything
00:56:13but they're all
00:56:14they're in it
00:56:15for themselves
00:56:16there's only one
00:56:16in the car
00:56:17whereas here
00:56:17we've got three
00:56:18in the car
00:56:19and they've all
00:56:19got to work
00:56:19together
00:56:20and it's a
00:56:20totally different
00:56:21team aspect.
00:56:23Scott Dixon's eyes
00:56:24he's just
00:56:26constantly
00:56:27that's what
00:56:27he's looking at
00:56:28he's constantly
00:56:29checking the mirrors
00:56:29there's a P2 car
00:56:30coming
00:56:31and
00:56:32well yeah
00:56:33he's
00:56:33at that point
00:56:34he's thinking
00:56:35well a number
00:56:36of things
00:56:36he's thinking
00:56:37right
00:56:37when is
00:56:37this car
00:56:38going to
00:56:38come out
00:56:38team radio
00:56:39some radio
00:56:39first and second
00:56:40are just in the pits
00:56:41for their outlaps
00:56:42that's a good lap
00:56:43that'll help us
00:56:44quite a bit here
00:56:44so yes
00:56:47he's had a very good
00:56:48outlap
00:56:49it seems like
00:56:50yeah
00:56:51so he's
00:56:51thinking
00:56:52when is this car
00:56:53going to
00:56:53get to me
00:56:54is he going to get to me
00:56:55before the chicane
00:56:56or am I going to
00:56:57just block him
00:56:58and take the chicane
00:57:00take the line on my own
00:57:01and hope that he doesn't
00:57:01hit me
00:57:02you know
00:57:02all these little things
00:57:03going through his mind
00:57:04and a lot of the time
00:57:06it's better just to lift
00:57:07that brief bit
00:57:08because
00:57:08that P2 car
00:57:10might dive bomb him
00:57:11anyway
00:57:11so if you just lift off
00:57:12you make it easier
00:57:13for both of you
00:57:14so you're just calculating
00:57:15all these things
00:57:16as you're approaching
00:57:16the corner
00:57:17and bearing in mind
00:57:18everyone's tired now
00:57:19so this is when
00:57:20the mistakes will happen
00:57:21that's it
00:57:21it's exactly what
00:57:22Nakajima was warned
00:57:24by his pit crew
00:57:26when he left
00:57:27just
00:57:28be safe
00:57:30kind of thing
00:57:31just look after everything
00:57:32and in that situation
00:57:33so we're hearing
00:57:41from the pits
00:57:42that Anthony
00:57:43couldn't get a hold
00:57:44of Anthony
00:57:45he's gone for something
00:57:46to eat
00:57:46no Davidson for us
00:57:48unfortunately
00:57:48I'm not that surprised
00:57:49to be honest
00:57:50he's in a high pressure
00:57:51situation
00:57:52and I'm not sure
00:57:53I would want to talk
00:57:54to you
00:57:54oh dear me
00:57:59well yeah
00:58:00at the end of the day
00:58:00you were just saying
00:58:01that you would probably
00:58:02try and hide yourself
00:58:03when it's nothing
00:58:04personal
00:58:05it's not that he's grumpy
00:58:06or anything like that
00:58:07it's just kind of
00:58:07I don't want to start
00:58:09talking about
00:58:09tension is high
00:58:10and he's on the brink
00:58:11of winning his first Le Mans
00:58:12and yeah
00:58:13he just doesn't want
00:58:16to do anything
00:58:16to upset that
00:58:18he wants to just
00:58:18take care of himself
00:58:19I mean
00:58:20I doubt it
00:58:21but he might
00:58:22even
00:58:23no no
00:58:24there's no way
00:58:24he's getting back
00:58:25in the car
00:58:25but you don't know
00:58:26that do you
00:58:26you just do not
00:58:28know what
00:58:28I suppose
00:58:29I suppose
00:58:30this situation
00:58:30could arise
00:58:31that they
00:58:32they need
00:58:33the quickest driver
00:58:34in the car
00:58:34and it probably
00:58:37is him
00:58:37for the last stint
00:58:39but
00:58:39I doubt it
00:58:40I think
00:58:40I think
00:58:41they're all on
00:58:41a similar pace
00:58:42Nakajima now
00:58:43lapping
00:58:44and bearing in mind
00:58:46he's taking it easy
00:58:46he's lapping about
00:58:47a second slower
00:58:48than Gianni
00:58:49so he's 28 seconds
00:58:50up the road
00:58:51so still all good
00:58:53as long as that
00:58:55doesn't become
00:58:56two and three seconds
00:58:57a lap slower than him
00:58:58yeah
00:58:59that's
00:58:59and what we've got
00:59:00to remember is
00:59:00there is more pit stops
00:59:03to come
00:59:03and they are
00:59:04on slightly different
00:59:05pit stop strategies
00:59:07and these two cars
00:59:08pure and so many
00:59:09Toyota
00:59:10basically can run
00:59:13one lap more
00:59:15on their fuel
00:59:16in the car
00:59:16they can stretch it out
00:59:17and then when we
00:59:18go right back
00:59:19to the start
00:59:20the two Porsche
00:59:22came in
00:59:23having struggled
00:59:24a little bit
00:59:25so we're getting
00:59:41some information
00:59:42from the pits
00:59:43that the Porsche
00:59:44boss
00:59:46engineer
00:59:47is making
00:59:49a hurried
00:59:50trip
00:59:51to the race
00:59:52engineer
00:59:52the race
00:59:53director
00:59:54for some reason
00:59:55maybe that will
00:59:56become a part
00:59:56maybe not
00:59:57but
00:59:57yeah
00:59:58maybe
00:59:59yeah
01:00:00it would be interesting
01:00:01to see what that is
01:00:02he's trying to
01:00:03trying to
01:00:04I don't know
01:00:06yeah
01:00:06well
01:00:07whatever
01:00:07get one over
01:00:08on Toyota
01:00:08for some reason
01:00:09yeah
01:00:09yeah
01:00:09yeah
Recommended
59:59
|
Up next
1:00:04
1:00:13
1:00:02
1:00:02
1:00:12
1:00:00
59:56
59:54
1:00:00
58:42
1:00:02
1:00:04
59:59
59:57
1:00:02
59:59
1:00:02
1:00:03
1:00:00
1:00:00
1:00:01
Be the first to comment