1,071 comments on “F1 Fanatic Live: World Endurance Championship 2015-17”
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the World Endurance Championship Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. As you can see we’re testing a new version of F1 Fanatic Live today, the most significant feature of which is you no longer need a Facebook or Twitter account to participate. For the best experience, sign in using your F1 Fanatic account.
yeah, I definitely welcome the change, thanks! However, as many have aleady mentioned, the comment section does need to be a bit wider.
Well, would you look at this swanky new design.
Hi everyone, everyone ready for tyre-saving, DRS-assisted race? Eh, It is WEC at Spa, sorry :D
Is there a way to make the font smaller so that we can see more of peoples comments on screen? I mean, there aren’t many right now, but it might be an issue?
plus plus
Is this the race where Hulk is participating?
yeah he’s in the 19 Porsche
Thanks :)
Whats the link of WEC stream?
And more grid girls there for WEC. Don’t care what they call them they are still grid girls.
Love the new way of commentating as well! 8 factory prototypes, going to be amazing.
Hi guys. The comments section looks rather narrow.
Any live stream URLs? I’m in the UK, is there a way to get Motors TV online? (don’t have access to an actual TV!)
You can buy a livestream for the race at FIAWEC for 5€
I’m not going to do it, actually my age will be 18 in 2018.
It’s available from Motors TV, I watch there.
Great thanks, was just about to buy it through the website, found it on motors tv (sky 447) just in time
14 channels available @wec
My first WEC race :D
Incredible pace!
Dived from a bit too far back there.
19 in the barriers
Tandy is gone with the Manthey Porsche
Sorry for a noob question..but what will Happen to Hulk now? He was supposed to drive #19?
they will repair the car hopefully
Ahh okay :)
Hulk’s not going to get to race :((((
They will fix and race, there is so much of the race left
yeah saw the car get going again, damn it though, Toyota’s are slow, Hulk’s out of contention, my hopes for the race has gone to hell in 15 mins
I saw it coming when the camera changed and then the next thing was Tandy in the barriers
Wanted Hulk to get a podium, after his years in f1.
Anyone watching the DTM race?
That was quite a stupid move by Tandy what are your opinions?
No. I think Tandy was being too aggressive.
Not surprised at all after he took out another Porsche, was bump drafting Corvettes on the banking, and was called out by a BMW driver for hitting him repeatedly during the Daytona 24 earlier this year. I was surprised Porsche put him in the LMP1 for Spa and Le Mans over some of their other drivers. He may be fast, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t keep the car on track and in one piece.
Setback for Hulkenberg before he’s even got in the car…
Boy WEC races kick ass. 6 hours is very steep, but those LMP1 cars are glorious to behold.
Isn’t Mazda also joining LMP1 at Le Mans this year with that front wheel drive car?
*Nissan, sorry.
They do look awesome through the quick stuff, even if they’re not as fast as F1 cars there.
Passing 458s, 911s, Aston Martin’s at ridiculous speed differences also makes for some good perspective. :)
I do wish John Hindaugh would stop with his constant need to bash F1 at every opportunity.
He’s a great commentator, but suggesting that you push every lap in WEC compared to F1 is just plain rubbish. You can hear the LMP1 cars lifting and coasting on the onboard feeds…
Hartley trying to do an alternate bus stop
That will be a drive thru.
GT drivers get no slack.
How has Estre gotten the penalty for it? That’s madness!
for anyone that thinks 6 hours is too long, just watch it and you will find yourself lost in it if it is good racing. in Australia, the v8 supercars have a few enurance races about 6 hours, namely the famous bathurst race – which gets the biggest audience on the year, even on tv. i think F1 could do with an endurance round, imagine the cars having 2 drivers and having to stop for driver changes (and seat change no doubt), it would be the biggest event of the year in F1!
How the hell did Hartley get away with that move at the last turn without getting a penalty? Some of the officiating in WEC seems just as politicized as F1.
OK, so the #17 Porsche did get penalized.
the tweets on the left are annoying as they have nothing to do with this race.
The number 2 vs the number 9 battle is pretty fun! Wish we were seeing more of the 7 vs 8 car.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen a LMP car lose a door at speed before.
it is interesting to see the growing aerodynamic complexity of LMP1 cars. As if they have hit a certain level of mechanical performance and now try to get more with what they can achieve in aero.
Is anyone here? Just popping in, how come the #18 Porsche and the #7 and #8 Audis are so far out front with the next four LMP1s bunched up so tight? Different strategy or kindly falling cautions? (Poor Hulk, he obviously had a problem being so far behind in 8th.)
Btw, this F1F Live layout is actually not that good. Way too tight, less space and more unnecessary clutter. @keithcollantine, please take note. (By far it’s best new feature is the ability to tag people like in the comments section and on the forums. But otherwise, it’s a backwards step, imo.)
I’m not watching from the beginning, but from what I could understand, Webber’s car was having issues.
Re new layout… I’m not sure I like the pagination.
Yeah, it’s another element of it which is just not right – having to click to get the newest messages instead of having them up front first.
Hulkenberg is far behind because Tandy put the #19 car into another GT Porsche and into the barries early in the race. Had to go through repairs. Webber took a detour through a marshall post and got a 15s stop-go while he was leading + mechanical issues, while the Toyotas are plain slow. Also the #9 Audi is running the old and much slower aero spec.
thanks for the info!
Yep, thank you very much for bringing me up to date.
Wow, the Porches are so much quicker than anything else out there in a straight line – I rewatched the Porsche v. Audi battle from Silverstone and it was the same. Here it’s a little less pronounced, but here the Porsches are level in terms of downforce compared to Silverstone where they were visibly low on downforce compared to the Audi (and hence their greater straightline advantage).
Audi has their low down force Le mans package on, they had high down force at Silverstone, the same package that is on the #9 car today. Porsche are always quick in a straight, and are running the same package as they did at Silverstone.
Yeah, I thought so. That also means Porsche tested their current low downforce aero spec more than Audi – by the length of the 6hrs of Silverstone, to be exact. Bodes well for Le Mans.
No this is Porsche’s high down force package, they got the low drag coming for the le mans test
OMG. So basically you’re saying Porsche is this quick in a straight line even with it’s high downforce package on? Surely not…
I said they were this fast all the time, they were last year, and even faster now with 8 mega Jules.
OK, just realized that messages are actually sorted by newest first, but the pages are still oldest first…
The Toyotas are frighteningly off the pace if they didn’t have problems and are still this much behind… OK, they’ve already got their overall trophies last season, but Le Mans could still be a motivational factor. It seems like they’ve got something wrong here.
…No edit feature – this new layout is getting worse by the minute. :/
It’s really a shame, seems like atleast 1 second off the pace from the other teams
I really think Toyota’s best chance to win Le Mans was last year. It is only going to be tougher this year and especially next year after Nissan has gotten some experience.
I agree, last year they were comfortably the quickest car there.
without the safety cars they would have won the race in a landslide for sure
Toyota really didn’t find as much lap time during the winter than the other two cars
Everything that could annoy me in this race has happened. cars 1, 17 and 19. All spending time in the garage. The three cars that have drivers I really like.
Don’t count the #17 out, yet. 1 lap is not that big of a gap and Lotterer’s double stinting strategy can backfire.
Meanwhile, problem for the #8 as well? It’s quite down the order past the latest round of pit stops.
The #1 Toyota is in even more trouble, that’s fo’ sure.
Gearbox got jammed, aparently. Had to push the car into the garage.
Further feedback: every time I post a new message and refresh this page while doing so, the Twitter feed on the left switches back to the F1 one. @keithcollantine
…And that one was meant to be a separate post, not a replay, but that’s my fault, I’m afraid. :P
o for crying out loud!!! Only an Audi one, two could make the end of this race worse for me
A good ol’ Audi 1-2(-3). Had to say their reliability is better than that of the rest.
*have to
I feel the LMP2 battle for 1st is coming too. Jota been faster so far, but Rusinov is slowly gaining on them now, having clawed back about 10-15 seconds in the last 10 laps or so
the gap between Jota and G-Drive went another 10 seconds down in the last 3 laps. 32sec now.
aaand Rusinov pits…
who is leading?
Lotterer
Audi at the moment, but #18 Porsche is catching him quickly.
looks like a good battle for the lead… which car is usually quicker?
Over one lap the Porsche is, and the Audi is on older tires.
Porsche is quickest on the straights in sector 1 and 3. Audi still got sector 2. Both have the same fastest lap of the race so far down to hundredths
Come on Mr Lieb. You may be my least favourite Porsche in my second favourite team but go get him
Haha, great defending by Lotterer
Anyone here? Is Treluyer on fresher tyres than Lieb? Does he have to pit one more time than him?
These last two stops by the Audi and Porsche are going to be very interesting.
Porsche takes the lead!
So Porsche don’t put on tires in their final stop, wonder if Audi will do the same.
I think that’s it. Audi wins. Well played the strategy game.
That’s that, Audi wins. Epic stuff between Porsche and Audi.
#AnyoneButAudi
Ready for Le Mans! Next door neighbours are doing noisy DIY, which is a good excuse to don WEC ear defenders over the earphones…
(I’m primarily supporting Fisico and his friends in the #51 AF Corse, but also Nico Hulkenberg in the #19 LMP1 Porsche, Karun Chandhok in the #48 LMP2 Murphy and anything with “AF Corse” on the side).
Morning all! Just wondering about live video links, The drop down has F1, GP2, but no WEC/LeMans
Kind of a strange question, but anyone know where John Hindhaugh is commentating?
Radio LeMans I would assume
Oh right, I thought he did Eurosport for Le Mans
Morning folks. I’m SO very, VERY angry. Can’t get the race here in the States! Am traveling and Comcast doesn’t offer Fox Sports 2! I pay for FS2 on ATT Uverse but THEY are blocking streaming it! I can’t BELIEVE I’m going to miss this after waiting a YEAR for my favorite event!!!
Anyone know any links I can try to stream it from internationally that work here in the States?
search for henno.info
Same for Canada. Shame
Am I allowed to post the stream here?
in the drop down at the top, live timing, suggest link.
Encouraging to see the Porsches not immediately leaving the Audis behind on the straight.
Even more encouraging seeing the Toyotas staying relatively in touch with the Porsches and Audis.
Rooting for anyone in particular, Keith?
No I just want a fight that goes the full 24 rounds :-)
I’m hoping it goes at least a bit further than 24 rounds… ;-)
Audi’s look competitive
Toyota’s pace looks reasonable too, a bit better than I expected.
The did seem quietly confident they were’t out of it before the race. And Audi seems quicker to start than the porches, interesting.
Why oh why can there not be a Radio Le Mans video commentary. When they commentate the Bathurst 12 Hrs it’s amazing, but because I have to mute video and have the RLM commentary separate they’re a few seconds out of sync and no car sound :(
@vmaxmuffin Don’t the ACO cut a special deal with Eurosport for this round only? Don’t think the other WEC rounds are on Eurosport, at least not live.
ACO indeed has a Le Mans-only deal with Eurosport – but Quest has coverage of the start and finish on free-to-air UK TV.
Are you saying that in the UK the Eurosport coverage uses RLM commentary? I’m in Australia, I have a choice of Eurosport and Fox Sports coverage however I’m pretty sure neither are using RLM commentary. Muting and unmuting the RLM stream and Fox Sports/Eurosports streams they seem to be different commentary here.
but, this radiolemans on youtube works … sure also video, but if you put it in background?
oh, right, sorry didn’t fully capture what I read due to trying to watch like that too (ie. with RLM separate :)
Yeah I meant what I want is a “normal” race feed that RLM is commentating, rather than having to do the separate thing.
C’mon Nico, you’re not in a Force India now.
Still seems to be trying a different (longer tyre,fuel?) stint though, judging by that speed difference.
Nissans lapping over 22s off the pace of the leader and 2s off the quickest LMP2…
Are they still running without any KERS system (or whatever its called in WEC)
Yes, because they haven’t figured out how to get it to work properly yet.
I have their stream on, it now shows a very empty track ahead of their car!
Has one of the Nissan Nismos already retired?
The 23 hasn’t started yet, apparently
It’s in the pits, can see on the stream.
Oh, no indeed, they had a problem with the engine apparently.
No, I don’t think so, just not making much headway from his last of lmp startgrid yet.
Vanthoor gaining an advantage there, briefly. Shame his Blancpain team mate Frijns couln’t join him for today.
I’ve just turned the video quality on the Nissan onboard stream up to HD, then guiltily wondered if it might slow the car down…
It’s OK. it’s not using KERS yet. once it doesn, SD stream only please. hahaha
Loving the GTE race – their first stint at Le Mans is always bonkers.
Nico’s caught up with the Audis again.
and he passed the number 9 :)
love seeing LMP1 cars playing in traffic
Last Nissan now also starting, good work, let’s see how he fares
It seems the Toyotas are starting to drop back a bit
Maybe traffic? I see the others also not doing 3:20s anymore, about 4-7 s/lap slower
Maybe, the first 6 are covered by about 10 seconds, then 10 seconds back is the lead Toyota..
True, they couldn’t do those 3:20’s I think, were 2-3s off that pace, but now with the traffic it seems they are holding up fine.
Well, fine, still 2-3s slower, on closer inspection.
Clear laps this time, getting faster again now.
The LMP1s are already going around 4-5 secs slower. It’s not only Formula 1 that needs to save tires and fuel.
Curious to see which of the LMP1 runners can stay out longest.
Seems both Audi and Porche bring in the last of their three first.
Porsches are already managing pace. They know that reliability is their Achilles Heel
Toyota still staying out 3 more laps, that’s quite a big difference if they can maintain that!
that’s crazy. If they can stay within pit stop times they MIGHT have a chance.
So now the 2nd toyota is in, but 1 is still staying out
1 in as well now
yep, so not much longer than Porche, but maybe the other porche cars are indeed matching Audi in stints, but putting less fuel in
Even building doors that close seems difficult for Nissan…
Maybe the driver wants an open door policy, though seems they closed the door on that then.
oh boy… Nissan can’t catch a break
Yeah, and that was the ‘leading’ Nissan too, wasn’t it?
So after the first round of pit stops, Porsches and Audis still all covered by 15 seconds, Toyotas 30 seconds further back..
You don’t get that on your Playstation…
Is the sense of flashing headlights drivers telling each other to get out of the way, or due to the bumps in the road?
the former, I think.
yes, the LMP cars are much faster, so they flash lights to warn slower cars they are coming up behind them
Audi are too close to Porsche for me.
Porsche are being conservative considering the reliability issues that they’ve had.
In just an hour, Toyota are getting brutalized by the Germans. They really have a tough road ahead. They’re no match for Audi and Porsche.
Hi. Started watching 1/2 hour into the race.
Not too late considering it’s a 24-hour race.
Jani wants his lead back.
Saving a one full service pitstop would save around 40-50 secs and Toyota are way behind in achieving that as well.
Well, the #1 Toyota isn’t too far from that, currently, but yes, they need 24 of them, which is a bit much.
or a few SC’s
Well, with so much of pace deficit, it’s tough.
Yikes, that 92’s gonna go up, driver’s safely out.
Another car involved apart from Rebellion. It’s the end of 92. What a shame
They both slipped on the oil from that Porche, I think.
Radio Le Mans was saying none of the prototypes hit the GT Porsche. Supposedly it was already leaking oil.
Maybe, but they certainly hit each other. Strakka’s the other one, haven’t seen it on screen.
Guess that will slow down that distance record smashing pace a bit.
Time to bring out the cement dust… Did anyone see the legends race? :P
Unusual incident, can see why they went full Safety Car though.
Any weather update guys?
Did I just hear a commentator say Aleshin moved “out of single-seatersand into proper racing”?
Get over yourself, mate. Who needs pointless snobbery like that? No one. Pathetic.
What coverage/commentator would say something stupid like that?
It’s half-jokingly said on Radio Le Mans fairly frequently – several on that commentary team don’t have the greatest opinion of F1 in its current form.
It’s extremely sad to see the turn around of fortunes of Toyota. Huge pace deficit and I don’t understand why they don’t pitch 3 cars when Porsche, Audi and even Nissan has done it. It certainly reduces their chances as well as limits strategic moves.
I don’t understand why they don’t pitch 3 cars when Porsche, Audi and even Nissan has done it.
When you’re coming seven and eighth, what’s the value in coming ninth as well?
Suspect the decision to change engine tech for next year was made a long time ago, so they wouldn’t be able to justify a third car for this year.
That’s with the benefit of hindsight. No one expected Porsche to make such a step up and relatively, Audi has caught them up to an extent. However, the decision the run a third car is generally taken before the season begins.
They’ve got a break with this safety car – it’s pretty much given them a lap back
So far it’s shaping up well for Toyota, really. 15-20 sec. adrift after 1 hour and some is better than they must have hoped for, I think.
Hello all…just joined in. How is everything shaping up uptill now and how are Webber, Hulkenburg and Lotterer doing?
Shaping up well unless you were anywhere near the #92 Porsche (which spilt lots of oil, then caught fire).
Webber is leading (well, his team-mate in his car is!), Lotterer is 4th, Hulkenberg is 6th.
Thanks for the update :)
Hulkenberg can make up a lot of track position here if he’s acting quick on those Audis.
Just bagged another one, good stuff. Up to 4th now.
Might just make the “undercut” work too.
Such a shame about the Toyota’s. I don’t remember them being this much off the pace in Silverstone or Spa. Has something changed in the regulations to make them slower or have Audi and Porsche just improved massively?
Seems the porche and audi improved their package (or use of it) a lot
Woah, that’s the lead, just like that. Good traffic skillz by Lotterer.
Porsches are gonna go rabid now. Should be a first highlight, this.
Porsche are rattled. Now they’re taking real risk with the traffic.
Uggh. So bored of Audi
But it was a very good set of moves to take the lead. So I hope Porche can keep with him and overtake later.
The Nissan is worse than a GT Aston through the corners, amazing.
I hadn’t seen it on track before the race, so much under steer.
Ridiculous, always pitting. Anyway this KW thing really doesn’t add up nothing to the racing, just retires and locking the performance of the leading lmp1. Why is the commentators discussing Audi vs Porsche, the only differences on the cars outlook are cosmetic, the same dimensions but small aero differences, Porsche hasn’t got the front holes and therefore is quicker on the straights but worse on downforce and tyres, in the end it’s just a little difference, anyway VW wins.
this is ‘sarcastic F1 fan doing what some WEC commenters have been doing’ mode, right? Otherwise, why not go outside and do fun things? :p
I love the ad breaks right at the crucal moments on Eurosport!
Their coverage seems a lot more spotty than usual.
Either Eurosport are desperate for a few extra €€€s or their sponsors are adamant with the air time they want.
Odd how much slower the #2 Toyota is than the #1
Finally we’re back at F1F Live. It’s such an important part for me for every race that I watch.
It felt like a Safety Car on F1F :)
Sorry guys had a few problems with comments there, we’re back now.
You’ve got to respect the Audi. It shows why they’ve had so much success in such a compressed time. Super downforce, fuel efficient, much better on tires than the rivals, super-efficient pitstops and turn-around time in the garage. Respect!
Got to wonder how much time they spend practising those.
In the 1st documentary (Truth in 24), they’ve shown Audi crew practicing pitstops, full service stops, simulation of all kinds of technical problems and being the only garage that was open nearly 2 weeks prior to the big race.
This stat says it all,
Audi avg pitstop (full service) is 105 secs while Porsche is 114 secs and Toyota at 118 secs. Incredible!
First time watching Le Mans over here. Been fairly intrigued so far, WRC is attracting more of my attention however
What a lap by Audi no. 9. It’s not supposed to be the prime Audi. 5 secs faster than no. 17. Wow! Shattering lap.
Yes he is really flying!
That was an all time Le Mans record lap, in ANY configuration for a race lap!
Filipe Albuquerque (Audi no. 9) just broke the lap record from 2010 (3:18:477). Just amazing how advanced are these cars.
He broke that a few hours ago already.
No matter how much I try, I can’t generate interest in LMP2, GTE Pro and Am. How many of you feel the same?
Interesting point by Eurosport. Formula 1 makes an improvement of around a few tenths while these LMP1 monsters have improved by around 5-6 secs. Who knows that in a few years, these LMP1s might be faster than Formula 1 cars.
Which is pretty amazing – especially as they run hybrid systems. It’s odd that F1 is all about cost cutting at the moment, but it hasn’t been mentioned at all on the commentary thus far.
The LMP1s improved a lot, there’s no denying that. But comparing their time improvement here to F1 is a bit misleading. A lap around Le Mans takes more than three minutes to complete, a Formula one lap is typically one minute and a half long. Obviously you can make bigger time gains with a longer lap.
Indeed but it cannot be denied that LMP1s have improved at least by 150% over Formula 1 hybrids. Formula 1 is seriously threatened by LMP1s when it comes to the ‘pinnacle of technology’ title.
The improvement is unlikely to be this much next year as measures are being taken to slow the LMP1s down – a move necessary to avoid extensive alterations to Le Mans.
I wish we had such a developement battle and variability in F1. I can’t figure out how it costs F1 more if WEC is doing it.
maybe because in WEC its only 3 companies doing the big money spending (Audi, Porsche, Toyota) with Nissan now getting into it.
Well when it comes to engines, F1 is no different. Ferrari, Honda, Merc and Renault. Not only F1 engines are costly, they’re not even appealing in terms of technology to any new manufacturer to enter.
F1 had only one new engine manufacturer in the last three years, LMP1 had three.
yes, but its not really comparable is it. F1 is a sport where you have to bring money just to be part of it and THEN invest in the spotlight. In comparison, WEC you can turn up with a bang, start a new team and be in the top class, but still if you lose you can just say you tried, apart from the handfull of motorsport enthusiasts who like you just for trying not many people are going to notice.
Well I am not comparing the two sports as a whole. I am genuinely confused about the engine aspect of the two.
I see it simply as, F1 engine hybrids are extremely expensive while LMP1 engines are of varied technology innovations and yet are cost effective to F1 hybrids. So where is F1 going wrong with its engines when it calls itself the most technologically advanced?
There is nothing that makes the LMP1s inherently less extremely expensive. Just you don’t hear the customer teams complaining because there are none. F1 is now pushing a bit extra with the exhaust heat recovery part, although they could give more scope for the whole hybrid IMO. A huge difference is that there is a promotor in F1 who hates these engines and does a lot to talk them down, where the ACO and the manufacturers in WEC do far more to show the positives of it. And in WEC you have competition of more varying configurations making it more interesting (imo and maybe also for manufacturers)
Also remember they’ve added Tarmac run-off in a few places which the drivers are leaning on to improve their lap times. Though it certainly doesn’t account for a substantial part of the five seconds gain.
Well, looking at the lap time gain over last year is pretty misleading for F1, due to the new nose regulations brought in for 2015. The new noses are less aerodynamic than 2014’s, and have effectively cancelled out a large part of the aerodynamic gains made over the winter, so most of the gains in 2015 have been exclusively from the PU.
no. 9 Audi might take the actual lead by the next pitstop if they carry on like this. What a super run by Filipe Albuquerque
Something Smelly there at ByKolles now!
Rumours that Colin is running the post-race disco have been denied…
:-) ah, yes, practising the smoke machines already then
I think this could be a long night for me, as my favourite car looks to be stranded 6th in GTE-Pro for the foreseeable future…
better “stranded” in 6th place then stranded in Mulsanne corner (is that the 6th corner?)
Mulsanne is T16
yes, missed a 1 with that, my bad
Are you thinking of Tetre Rouge?
Audi are too quick, Nissan aren’t competitive and Webber is in the #17, so it will break down soon.
Sigh.
still only less than 6 hrs in, a lot can still happen
I love the ‘Slow Zone’ system. I wish Formula 1 adopts this. Really effective system.
Good move by Porsche no. 19. Hulk is inexperienced and hence it won’t be appropriate to send him in the darkness. So Nick Tandy would jump in and then Bamber would follow before the Hulk getting the car at dawn during the happy hour (provided all runs smoothly of course)
Yes, that must be why (he’s done the Singapore Grand Prix though!). Fässler hasn’t even had a go in the number 7 Audi yet.
Singapore is illuminated and doesn’t have traffic that is 20-50 secs slower per lap. Also, Le Mans has a history of having race changing incidents at night.
Sam Collins from Racecar Engineering on Radio Le Mans reckons rain is coming.
I’ve missed a few hours, but were Audi sandbagging during qualifying? They look faster than Porsche now.
Not necessarily. Audi stated from the very beginning that they would focus exclusively on their race setup. At the same time, Porsche had to admit that their cars were using the tyres a bit too much. I’m guessing the Porsche drivers are trying to drive a bit more carefully to make the tyres last a bit longer (possibly also with a less aggressive engine setting to save fuel and the rear tyres), while the Audis are pretty much able to floor it just like in qualifying. It’s true that the Audis have already set faster laps than during qualifying, but that’s probably just the track getting faster and faster.
trying to follow lemans for the first time after hearing bout it frm F1 drivers lately and im quite dissapointed in the coverage/broadcast team.
i dont even know whos leading the race but i know porsche and audi are infront if im not mistaken. i know its a close race but i dont know how big the gap is. if its seconds, a lap or 50 laps apart. split times occasionally would come in handy im guessing.
also when the accident broke the barrier and brought out safety car. they fixed it in a very impressive short time, what position did he rejoin the race in under safety car?
again its my first time watching but i think there are ways to improve the viewing for new viewers. just my 2 cents, sorry if i sound ignorant.
Not quite, but he’s in the fight for the final podium spot at the moment.
Also it might of interest to note that in the past, Marcel Fassler has traditionally gone really well at night and that could explain why Audi no. 7 delayed him.
Haha! The Porsche frightened the Nissan there :)
Alonso might have complained last Sunday, but Nissan truly look like amateurs this weekend.
What a PR mess! It’s the biggest and the worst stage to have a test session without actually racing before. I know that they’ve been hit with troubles but this is a PR debacle.
Weather: This might be a completely dry Le Mans. At least no rain expected through the night.
@adrianmorse Audi didn’t sandbag during qualifying but they were purely focusing on the race configuration.
that makes more sense of course :-)
just got back from the movies (Jurassic World is great btw), looks like the audi #9 is in the lead… are the Audi’s just easier on the tires today? Have there been issues with the Porshes?
Looks like Dumas has brake problems as we speak.
More than brake problems now…
Wonder if it was brakes, or was he frightened off the road by an F1 driver? Hulk was right behind him, he’d made up loads of ground.
Maybe he’d been watching Jurassic World as well and got a bit scared!
Hulkenberg is doing a good stint, I think he’s closing on the leaders again.
Yeah, looks like he’s getting the hang of it. His opening stint wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but he’s leaving a much better impression right now.
First lap fresh out of the pits (with used tyres): 3:20.6 Not bad.
Yeah he must have dialled in now!
It’s dusk and now we have the tv cameras for the first time at night in Le Mans history. Looks great but those headlights are damn powerful!
What was it before? Onboards? I remember watching night coverage before this year. But yes, these TV cameras look clearer than I remember, heh.
Eurosport answered my question, CCTV and pits cams
Great race so far! 6 cars within a minute after more than 7 hours of racing – impossible to tell who will win. Let’s just hope the race won’t be decided by a Safety Car or something similarly random.
could be in for an epic ending, but its still so far away!
Indeed.
Really impressed it’s still so close. (Apologies for being so quiet – it’s F1 Fanatic Jnr’s bath night!)
We understand, Keith, I skipped hour 6 for bedtime stories :-) How do you rate Hulkenberg’s team mates, btw? As it stands they’re still in the race for victory, and Nico is producing some impressive lap times.
They’re obviously top GT talents and like Hulkenberg they’re not LMP1 regulars so I can understand why Porsche’s put them together. I don’t follow GT racing that closely but Ben who I commentate does and he really rates Tandy.
Missed the baby announcement. Congrats.
Webber will need at least around 38-40 secs lead over Audi no. 9 (currently in 3rd) if it wants to come out in the overall lead. It’s around 33 secs at the moment.
Doesn’t he need the margin over the number 7 Audi?
no. 7 has an extra stop as it suffered a puncture in the afternoon. So no. 7 will also make the stop.
Oh right, I forgot which one had the puncture :)
And the #7 pits as we speak
I find it hard to keep track of all the pit stop strategies. Be great if the FIA could include the lap of a car’s last pit stop in the timing information. But that’s a minor complaint. It’s great to know that Porsche and Audi are effectively racing each other for the lead. What about Porsche possibly pitting a lap later from time to time? How’s that panning out?
Well the reason Porsche laps later is because they carry around 67 kgs of fuel while Audi being a diesel, they carry around 54 kgs which allows Porsche to lap later than Audi but makes them heavier and hence slower while Audi are great with tires so they quadruple stint while Porsche does a triple.
I see. What about the comparison between quadruple vs. triple stints and Porsche pitting later (thus eventually less frequently)? Which of the two strategic advantages is more important? Couldn’t it be that they’re cancelling each other out?
Nope, they won’t necessarily cancel each other as other factors would play a part like no of SCs, avg lap time of every stint as well as pitstop turn around time (where Audi are massively efficient over Porsche). That’s the best part of Le Mans 24 hours. Different strategies collide in the final few hours!
Wow! Driver change for no. 17! That’d give the edge to no. 9. Triple stints for Porsche while quadruple for Audi. It’s playing into Audi’s hands for the moment.
This is excellent, and for the next 20 minutes, there is coverage on Quest in the UK with Martin Haven which overlaps the Eurosport ads nicely!
Quest? How random!
I think it’s something to do with the Discovery Network buying into Eurosport, they also own Quest so they’re getting the race onto Freeview for a little while to get people interested
Any coverage is better than no coverage, but that’s even more obscure than ITV4! BBC weekend sports article didn’t even mention LM24hrs was on…
This is odd – what’s happened to the Alpine?
Well if they’re craning the caraway with the driver inside he must be OK.
Yeah, they’ve just aired a radio message saying that the driver is OK. What a relief.
As nobody else has come to a halt, could it be a car failure?
The Alpine hit a wall rather hard. Driver might be OK but the car patently isn’t.
LMP1 looking really tight now, the Hulk is right there in 3rd..
Cometh the 8th hour, cometh the Hulk!
Can’t wait too see them fight for the lead once the safety car pulls in! Just a thought: if Porsche are only triple stinting now, will they run out of tires near the end and have to refit used sets?
Possibly, but these Safety Cars will help given that they appear to have given up on Slow Zones for this race after the Audi/AF Corse debacle.
Nope. Even without SC, they should be fine.
From NeelJani’s calculations it sounds like 216kms vs 201kms, 15 kms difference every 3 and 4 stints. Just 1 lap extra!
The top 4 are now behind the same Safety Car. Good for us.
Are we going to get some wheel-to-wheel racing at the green flag?!
I hope so.
the front of the Nissan LMP1 is so damn complicated, but I can’t help but feel its a little too complicated.
Nissan’s Le Mans 2015 = PR mess!
Evening all! Been at work all day and struggled to make sense of occasional checks of Autosport’s text commentary… what have I missed?
– #8 Audi came steaming into some GTs slowing for yellow flags and clouted the #51 AF Corse. Both still running but with delays. A Safety Car resulted.
– #9 Audi and #17 Porsche have been duelling for the best strategy to win the race.
– Hulkenberg’s done a pretty good debut so far and is currently 4th
– The #36 Signatech Alpine hit the wall and caused the current Safety Car.
Thanks
A small correction: The Hulk is currently in P3 (and he was one of the quickest in the laps before the SC came out).
Quite a lengthy safety car, it looked like they had cleared the corner 10 minutes ago.
Are they replacing barriers? That’s usually what takes the time.
that might be, because it looked like the crash occurred before the corner.
They’re resuming with a slow zone. Kinda defeats the object of slow zones but at least we get a race.
Ok good night guys. It’s 2:30 a.m. Will keep some sleep and be back in a few hours. Bye!
catch ^
Sweet dreams. ^^
It’s lights out and away we go …
Phew, watched a good eight hours, off to bed now. See you guys in the morning.
I wonder why the Porsches switches positions… now Hulk in 2nd
I think Hulkenberg has newer tyres, and less fuel.
I think Webber’s about to lose 3rd as well.
Webber is 4 stinting, his tyres going off maybe.
They told Mark that Nico was faster. Also, Audi #7 was growing in Nico’s mirrors.
changing position is what racing is all about
Yay, Hulkenberg leads! :-)
Hulkenberg – Webber 1-2! Now, if Porsche entered F1 and bought Red Bull…. :P
As a Force India fan this makes me very happy :)
I think we can safely write off the Toyotas at this point. Unless at least 4 German cars explode or something along those lines, they won’t even make the podium…
Good morning evrryone from Australia
Good morning, you tune in at a good time, top 3 covered by less than 5 seconds.
Good evening!
This is one of my favourite times of the motor racing year. Night racing at Le Mans. It doesn’t get much better than this!
I was there in 2012 and hopefully will go next year again. Watching them race at night is just amazing.
I 100% concur. This is like Xmas for me every year ;D
Damien Faulkner on Eurosport is absolutely brilliant, he’s so informative and easy to listen to.
Any particular reason why the lap times are now almost in the 3:50s? Colder (tire) temps? Just stretching the tires?
slow zone, which has just been lifted.
Yellow zone due to the broken barrier.
Slow zone at Mulsanne
Check, I really must pay more attention…
stop-go for Webber :-(
1 min stop go? That’s a bit OTT
drive through is a better penalty
Race direction is fairly strict in WEC. I would concur with your assessment of 1 minute being too much for the offence compared to other offences, but it is pretty much the standard penalty.
Archaic penalties will keep a series niche in my opinion. But my picks Hulkenberg and Stanaway are leading Prototypes and GT!
Yeah I’m happy with #99 in GTE, would be awesome to see Evans do well too.
@fastiesty, remember it’s 24 hrs. so %wise it seems more reasonable.
what did he do?
Overtaking under yellow flags
I’m a long time F1 nerd. Over the last 10 years I’ve been a little blinkered to anything else, because F1 was delivering the goods. Now that F1 is failing, for reasons we’ve all read about on this very forum, I find myself watching the 24 hour race at Le Mans with any degree of committed attention.
I’ll be honest, I’m finding things pretty difficult to follow, but a fair level of finger pointing can be made in the direction of the UK TV coverage people for that. It’s not terrible, but far from poor also. I’m also struggling to follow some of the battles, but then again, I imagine it’s nearly impossible for the race camera director to cover such a large circuit with such a spread-out field to get all of the action in.
On the positive side, I love the speed of the LMP1 cars. They are very impressive to watch. I’m also impressed with the level of work undertaken by the pit crews to get the cars serviced and back on track. Especially the lengths they go to make repairs after an accident!
Broadcasts of the Race Director’s communications to the teams is a very good idea. As is the ‘Slow Zone’ idea. I’m am, however, concerned about the heavy braking in the yellow flagged zone prior to the slow zone. It looks a tad unsafe to me to unsettle cars of various braking capabilities stamping on the brakes so close to each other on the approach to the scene of an incident.
All in all, I’m properly enjoying this. F1 has A LOT to learn and should probably lend an ear to the WEC and how it does things. Even in regards to the speed and reliability the LMP1 regulations seems to provide. F1 should take note, better that than the current rhetoric of total ignorance and aggressive competition with rival categories.
Anyway, poor me another wine! There’s a race to watch!
Le Mans gives me the same feeling of childlike wonder that I felt when I first started watching F1 as a 10-year-old. It doesn’t even need to be a close race. I wouldn’t even care if there was a 5 lap gap between 1st and 2nd. It’s just such a joy to watch this race.
Totally agree.
Massive Webber fan (Aussie), have to say I’m pretty disappointed with his mistake, though I haven’t seen them show the replay of the incident yet. Feels like Korea 2010, though the race is still young and anything can happen.
I wonder if Hulk/Alonso/Webber would win this race on pure pace given equal reliability !
I’ll be sad to see Alonso retire from F1, but at the same time mega excited if he comes to WEC. Button will be fascinating to watch too. My money would be on Alonso though for sure.
Alonso/Button/Webber would be great in WEC
Based Hulkenberg
one thing is for certain, Audi are not going down without a fight
Nissan…
Perhaps not their fault this time, did he run over something?
Definitely
Wonder what Nissan hit on the circuit? Clearly something in the road just before the bonnet came off.
bad lap by Rast, a 3m27 compared to his quick 3m18 the lap before.
sorry, looks like he pitted. Looking good for Hulkenberg, though, I thought he had to pit before the 9.
That must have been a fun half a lap with no headlights…
Who is the nasally man on Eurosport?
Anywhere else broadcasting it without him – he’s making my eyes water!
I (as do many, especially who have eurosport) use radiolemans for commentary, video on mute.
First time watching LeMans.
Clearly a lesson learnt there. I dont know if he’s eating while talking (rude/unprofessional) or whether he has a problem with creating too much saliva.
in fact, everyone on eurosport sounds like they need to spit/blow their nose/stop eating
might well be that airco and mass of people together has resulted in most having a cold?
Maybe.
Thank you for the link.
That’s Martin Haven, he’s amazing!
Good night, enjoy the viewing, and see you tomorrow morning
Ah, that’s it for Hulk for now. Pretty awesome job for a rookie.
Yep. The Safety Car helped him a lot, but his pace was excellent. From P4 to P1 – it doesn’t get any better than this.
Might be wishful thinking on my part, but with Ganassi running the Ford GT program, what chance is there of Ganassi bringing some of their Indy drivers over for Le Mans? Obviously they’d have to make sure it doesn’t clash with an IndyCar race…
If the scheduling works out, I’d think it’s likely. After all, they already run IndyCar drivers in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
We need Montoya for the triple crown :P come on Penske!
Right folks, I’m off to sleep now, see you tomorrow :)
Nissan with a flat tyre
Or lost a tyre and caused a yellow?
Spun off after a few km on 3 wheels and a brake caliper
Didn’t pay much attention to the marshal telling him to stop – I wonder what he was hearing on the team radio…
Clearly does not know that had he succeeded he would simply have been black-flagged anyway. You can’t disobey a marshal and get away with it.
Yeah not too smart.
I’ve just woken up, can anyone tell me what the Audi vs Porsche pitstop strategy is?
Audi have been trying to eke an extra stint out of their tyres, it’s pretty nip-and-tuck though.
thanks Keith
There goes the pole sitter…
Meanwhile, Porsche #19 is absolutely flying and extends his lead by 5 seconds with a personal best of 3:18.6. Looking good for them.
It’d be ironic if Hulk wins Le Mans at the first time of asking yet still can’t get a top drive in F1
Once upon a time, just two years ago, there was a team that raced red cars. They were looking for a new driver to challenge their #1 driver. Hülkenberg was young, Hülkenberg was cheap, Hülkenberg was delivering race after race, Hülkenberg was perfect. Then they hired that guy who they had dumped a couple of years ago, who then went on to be overshadowed by his second and now his third team mate at that very same team. This little story was the beginning of the story of why I am now an estranged ex-fan of that team.
Not to mention that they paid Kimi a year’s salary not to drive for them in 2010. Looks like they went back for more.. he is their last WDC after all!
That part about the salary is a kind of urban myth. In fact, they just wanted to be rid of him. Sadly for them, he still had a valid contract, so they had to continue paying his salary. The only way out of that situation would’ve been Räikkönen signing a contract with a different F1 team. But the Finn made the maths and decided that he might as well take the 20 million squid and do something else, since there was no other team that would’ve offered him a similarly profitable contract. The fact that Ferrari continued to pay his salary although they definitely didn’t want him to drive their car anymore was then re-interpreted as a sort of gilded cage to prevent him from being competitive with a different team, when he was in fact a shelf warmer.
Can we all have a comment edit button please?
US coverage showing the Ford GT announcement promo (and Bill Ford interview) for Le Mans 2016
Ford and McLaren, bodes well for 2016 GT field
Who just crashed??
J. Fogarty in the Ligier JS
Hello All :) Watching the coverage for a bit..
welcome… doing the same :)
Battle in the GTE Pro for P1 between the leader Fernando Rees in the Aston Martin and P2 Oliver Gavin in the Corvette.
Rees & Stanaway, the simracing ‘allstars’ team could win GT!
Oliver Gavin takes the lead in the GTE Pro from Fernando Rees
Thanks for your company so far guys – I’ve got to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow’s commentary. Super race so far, really hope the fight at the front goes the distance…
Sweet dreams and thank you very much :)
Enjoy it Alianora :)
Thank you Keith, I think I’ll head too. Have a good night and see you tomorrow :)
Hope I catch it.. got on the channel just too late today! Didn’t realise the race was on..
Just tried to see the race on Utube, not good, 24hrs.Live = talking heads, broad daylight, before 4am. Also lots of panning across celebrities labelled “the start” and other clickbait.
Oh yeah, forgot the Nismo coverage, = team wandering around garage, splitscreen with something indecipherable, maybe in daylight ?
Mitch Evans is putting in some nice laps
I don’t think that’s supposed to burn like that.
The no 66 Ferrari caught fire in the pits. All safe.
66 Ferrari on fire 11:55 to go. Big fire. Going to take a bit of work to get it back in the race.
eurosport just went to commercial after fire aarrgghhh $#%^&#$
66 is still in the pits
The LMP1 cars sound awesome.
Lotterer in the lead from the number 19 after a driver change on the 198th lap.
And no. 19 back in the lead after Lotterer comes in
Lotterer pits for a driver change. Bamber takes the lead.
No. 19 is the only car on the lead lap. 10:26 to go.
US coverage pointing out a cracked left rear fender on Audi #9. Discussing the impact to the structural and aerodynamic integrity at speed. Might come from an impact with a GTE Ferrari, that Albuquerque apparently reports.
#98 lead GTE ASton Martin was in the garage. Looks like some front corner damage. Quickly fixed but loses the lead.
#99 Aston now in the garage for new body work and a radiator after an oopsie at the first chicane.
What is it with weird stuff happening when I am away from keyboard for a moment? I missed the #99 Aston and #46 Thiriet colliding!
Speculation on the US coverage that #99 hadn’t set his new brake rotors and couldn’t slow for the chicane after coming out of the pit
I’ve got my fingers crossed for Porsche… It would be great if they could pull this one off
does anyone in the US know where to watch right now? It’s supposed to be on Fox Sports 2, but all I am seeing is some dumb soccer match
Good morning guys. Back up after sleeping for about 5 hours. Can’t miss once in a year event like Le Mans.
So, can anyone update me on the happenings?
things are looking pretty close at the top still
good morning and good night, time for me to get some sleep!
Haha. Thanks and good night
eurosport coverage is doing my head in. cars almost made contact and it switches to pit crews sleeping :(
I think it’s the world feed. I am not sure though.
the vision isn’t the worst part of the eurosport coverage, the commentators are terrible… Especially that Neville guy
say what u want but f1 coverage is a league of its own. imagine if they had f1 level coverage in le mans
Weather: Should be dry for the next few hours which might allow the record breaking distance. However, chances of rain at around around 11 a.m.
Hulkenberg laps Webber!! :D
Brazil 2012 all over again, heh.
Disaster for no. 7 Audi. They worked hard to get back into the fight post puncture and now the car is coming apart.
Big crash for # 96 Aston Martin Am. Whenever I see a GTE crash, it reminds me Allen Simonsen and I get nervous.
Any idea what Hulkenberg’s stop was for?
Seemed routine. Just used the SC time they had to give it a big thorough in-garage service.
Normal stop but the incident of # 96 Aston happened after getting passed by Hulk and he might have touched it.
I think they just took the opportunity (having to wait for the second SC anyway) to clean out the car a bit more than in a regular stop when the track is green @adrianmorse
Wow look how Mark is just driving away from the no 9 Audi. The Porsches are looking more reliable than last year!
Mark will be in the pits soon while Audi #9 is done with the stop
So it’s probably fuel load?
yes, they are looking more sturdy this year, but as @neelv27 points out, Webber is shortly going to pit. He is now low fuel and making a gap to then try and get close/pass the #9 Audi later
So the Audi has been able to do a pitstop less throughout the night it seems?
Or like Eurosport just commented, half a stint…
half a stint but now they might make a pitstop less over #17. That’s what I believe.
Wow the Porsches are actually getting quicker. Mark had no pace earlier and now he’s flying. Top 3 on the same lap though and that’s nothing. The problem is it’s the wrong Audi, the No.7 (and to a lesser extent 8) would probably have the pace later if they were making up ground on the same lap. Is this Porsche’s race providing they stay reliable?
colder means they run better (more of their hybrid power). So rain is good news for them
yeah, Webber now getting in
made a gap of 25 seconds, respectable!
#9 lost a chunk of time in traffic. Might have caught a train of cars at the Porsche curves.
Did any of the other broadcasts pick up that set of complex instructions they gave the Audi #9 car for recycling everything between the chicanes? That was NUTS! No power, no brakes, no steering…get it up to 200mph and start resetting everything….I’m sure it will be ok! LOL These guys are nuts!
That TV director… Hmm, I could show the battle between Fässler trying to unlap himself from Tandy…. oooh, Lotterer eating a banana
LOL! I know, what are they thinking sometimes???
Haha! I love the way every time a Porsche or Audi comes by, Nissan jumps out of the way. Even LMP2 or GTE don’t move out so quick. :)
Why not? The class is ProAm, if a 60 year old Am driver wants to pay for a car to enter, it gives another two drivers with more talent/potential the chance to race, and if they’re living their dream, good luck to them.
I agree with Mathers there. If he can afford it and is healthy enough/sharp enough to pass the minimum requirements, why not? Nothing wrong with age, either young or old, they are just one factor. The guy is still driving better than many of us will ever do
Hello everyone – just checking in for half an hour before I head off to BT Sport. Amazing reliability from the leading LMP1 teams. Disappointing to see Strakka hit trouble, hope they can get going again.
What will be the strategy for audi in these last hours to get in front of those porsches?
Anyone having a stream which is showing cars running instead of interviews with drivers?
check out henno.info
Back from a splash and dash sleepstop. Did I miss anything in the last 6 hours?
I see, the #19 Porsche has a 1 lap lead over the #17 Porsche and a gap of a bit over 4 minutes over the first Audi. Neat. Keeping my fingers crossed for them.
Don’t think you missed much.
– Nissan #21 retired – Porsche #17 is firmly in P2 after a great battle with Audi #9 – Audi #7 chances blew even further after the car’s rear bodywork flew off by itself
It’s going extremely well for #47 in LMP2. They’ve dominated the race.
20 hours into the race and the GTE Pro fight is still intense between #64 and #51. Wow! Just 2 secs separate the two. They’ll fight till the end, I am sure.
Do the cars run on full slicks? (Will they need to change tires if it rains hard enough?)
Yes, although they do have the option of Michelin’s grooveless intermediates, which are visually the same as slicks, but for some reason they cope very well in the damp, and are also useable in fully dry conditions.
I think Porsche are fortunate that the Audis with the fastest drivers have hit the most trouble. Lotterer has been banging in some very quick lap times, and I haven’t seen that kind of consistent speed from the #9.
Yeah I agree, and they just got another nail in the coffin with this drive-thru
Though seeing that replay, the drive-through is quite deserved. Won’t make much of a difference though I think. Still Audi third.
Every Le Mans have a splash of luck and this was no different. I could conclude from this is that the Audi is the best car in the race trim and #7 is the best team within Audi.
Well, the fastest team, but they had bad luck and some mistakes, so not sure about best. Also, Porche is a newer team, but with a car that is quite close to the Audi in race trim, otherwise it wouldn’t still be so close as it has been for most of the race.
That was close !! Car 17 left wheel into the grass and nearly binned it just before straight
That was closer! Completely off track at turn 1 Car17,
It looked a bit clumsy, but these guys must be getting tired.
Quite likely, yeah. What stint of his run is Bernard on now? Is it his 4th?
close indeed!
Eurosport says that it’s the first sign of rains. Seriously?
only a little drizzle in some spots is what I heard yes
Aaargh, nasty moment – just came back, thought the leader was out – then realised I was looking at page 1, from the Spa race! Fingers crossed for the part-timers in no.19.
#27 has had a record number of punctures I guess :)
Looking a bit drizzly at Mulsanne!
If it stays dry and if we don’t have a very long Safety Car period, we just might see an unbelievable 400 laps by the winner!
It’s currently 397 laps in 2010 by Audi
Also Bamber and Hulkenberg would be the first drivers since Laurent Aïello in 1998 to win Le Mans on their debut.
Bamber now showing some very good pace. It was slightly damp, but doesn’t seem to have held them back much
Yeah, still lapping in the very low 3:20s
Bamber is a good driver who probably ran out of money to move up in single seaters.. interesting how he got into the LMP1 by ‘winning’ his way in with Porsche when given a chance.
I wonder, what’s the last driver who also won Le Mans, while doing a full season in F1? Hulkenberg might be up for a huge credentials boost here.
I hope it jump starts his career, Schumi had fastest lap in the 1991 edition for example.
Here’s hoping you’re not jinxing him with that kind of question. ;-) But yeah, he could be in for a massive reputation boost that might help his F1 career.
I think it was Graham Hill
It was Herbert and Gachot for Mazda in ’91 I believe.
Didn’t count Herbert in because he didn’t do a full season in F1 in ’91, but I guess that’s the most recent reference there is.
That’s right. Sebastian Bourdais came very close in 2009 as well.
Does Gachot count? He was supposed to do the full season until he got sent to prison…
.. and created the chance for Schumi with £150k from Mercedes to Jordan!
400 laps will be a great marker to hit
Seeing those pitstop replays, I would really hope that instead of horrible complicated things, F1 would just cut down on how many people can work on a car at a time. IF you want pitstops to be more interesting, this will help making it more of a moment. It will challenge the team too. A slight cost saving and improved safety on top = win IMO
+1
I’d prefer to keep the 2 point something second stops, I’m still gobsmacked by those. But yeah, if we had to have refuelling back in F1, make them complete the fuelling, then do the tyres. Or left tyres first, then right with the same people changing them.
oh, #9 is in the garage
seems they are solving some issues on the other cars as well then?
or was that a replay?
Man that Porsche GTE sticky tire, that must be so frustrating…
i was really curious to see if it would come off but bloody eurosport always go to commercials at the worst time aarrgghh
Do you think that Hulkenberg might consider switching to Endurance Series if he doesn’t get a top drive in Formula 1?
I think so, yes.
Could probably win that title at some point. Lotterer on a charge, fastest lap!
I think he might. There is no point in wasting this much of talent in mid field cars
its still F1 though
How much fun would it be to drive FI’s when you can get a race winning car here in WEC. I wish Ferrari to consider him to replace Raikkonen
My question is, where would he go? It’s so rare for top LMP1 teams to unceremoniously dump one of their drivers, Lapierre being the exception. The only time you’ll see a vacancy open up is when a driver retires or a new team enters. And even then, most manufacturers tend to promote from within. I reckon Hulkenberg will carry on in F1 while driving the third Porsche for the next few years.
It’s so rare for top LMP1 teams to unceremoniously dump one of their drivers
But it doesn’t have to be unceremonious. Lieb could always take back the wheel of a 911 RSR, while Dumas is preeeetty much a loaner from Audi.
Hulkenberg SHOULD make that move, to be honest, if someone offers him a full season contrct. It’s not “if he doesn’t get a top drive in F1”. He won’t. No way Ferrari or Red Bull or McLaren are going to pick him over Bottas or Verstappen or Magnussen or Vandoorne.
Also, winning here with Porsche might just prove to be the perfect start of a very fruitful sportscar career. I don’t tip him for a 2016 move just yet, but I have no doubt he’ll end up in the WEC at some point soon.
But Ferrari did have an option on him – and this was while they still had Bianchi waiting in the wings! It’s not impossible Ferrari will hire him, but now he’s up against Ricciardo and Bottas. If they get Bottas to replace Kimi that might steal him away from direct competitors however..
If that were to happen then Williams should sign up Hulkenberg again ASAP!
Hulk-Nasr (once Massa retires) wouldn’t be a bad line up would it? Or Bottas-Nasr if Hulk goes to Ferrari.
Agree with both of your comments above. To be really honest, I rate Hulk more than Bottas, so I would love to see him drive a Ferrari…and he has got #27 also, iconic with Ferrari
Heh yes, now we know that he had that pre-contract with Ferrari… picking #27 makes sense :D!
Funnily, so many former Red Bull juniors are following their master Dr. Helmut Marko by racing in Le Mans and hardly racing in Formula 1.
Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley Neel Jani (that’s not me) Karun Chandhok Sebastian Buemi
Have any RB juniors won Le Mans like Marko?
I doubt! They’re trying their best :)
Yep, the 4 LMP1 drivers there all have a good shot!
Buemi must have come closest with 2nd and 3rd in the last two years. Jani has a couple of 4th place finishes as well.
Also Mikhail Aleshin!
On another note, why doesnt F1 hold race here in Le Mans? safety concern or Bernie just being too greedy?
I’m not sure the track is up to F1 standards, plus it is a very long track…
Yeah, I think the full circuit is Grade 2 when F1 can only race on grade 1 circuits.
True, I think the only race was Le Mans Bugatti in 1967, called a ‘mickey mouse track’ at the time, a bit like Tilkedromes now compared to the classics! No doubt they’d have rather run the classic course..
2 1/2 hours left and LMP2 is coming alive after being the most one sided category.
Indeed! Jota have really clawed it back after losing some laps early on.
Not enough, I believe.
Don’t forget that they’ve had 2 issues in the last 4 hours. From a lead of 2 laps, it’s down to just about 90 secs
How much horsepower is there in the porche and audio electric engines?
Around 900 hp
About 900-1000bhp overall. 500-ish in the combustion engine, 400-ish in the batteries.
Ok thanks. I was just wondering why the electric power in F1 is so arbitrary restricted when the super agressive hybrids works so well in LMP1.
Mainly because of fear one manufacturer might be way ahead, triggering a spending war on ERS. Agree open, but with a fixed price to customers, would be better aligned with goal of the PU.
I agree with more open, especially leaving more room to increase the hybrid use – the MGH especially. Then again, just imagine Mercedes being even further ahead …
Mercedes have the perfect package for current regulations but theres nothing that says they will stay on top with more added headroom to the ERS.
I recall the sky guys saying Ferrari has better ERS at teh moment than Mercedes, though Mercedes might have the engine modes optimised better , I think.
ERS development sounds like the obvious solution in F1, but they’d probably settle for whichever is most cost effective now, maybe ICE development might level the field easier?
OMG! These Eurosport commentaters are getting on my nerves! Bunch of ignorant nerds!
Ok so Audi no. 7 will take these tyres to the finish then. Guess its Trulleyer going to the finish then too, right.
Yup
Looking better and better for Porsche now…
Unless something dramatic happens, Porsche are set in stone in 1st and 2nd.
Is Hulk going to the chequer now? 90 mins to go!
#7’s unplanned engine cover fixes just killed their hunting game with the 2nd Porsche, I believe.
what happened to the #9 Audi that it lost so many laps?
I think it was an Hybrid issue
So there you go, after nearly 22 hours of fight in GTE Pro, the fate is sealed between Corvete and Ferrari after #51 goes into the garage
Keith really getting into the flow with commentating on WSR!
“Le Mans is a 24 hour sprint race” has to be the biggest lie in motoraport today.
It’s the truth mate
It does seem like that watching it.. no retirements of the top 8 etc. but I’m sure there is conservation of fuel and tyres to make the ‘quad stints’ or not run out of fuel on a 13km lap back to the pits etc.
That, or they really reached a certain next level in terms of reliability with these cars. But yeah, fuel conservation has been a bit of an issue this race.
Every race has some sort of conservation as it’s in the DNA of competitors to find an advantage in any shape or form and Le Mans is no different. However, to say that it’s purely a race to last 24 hours isn’t correct. These guys go flat out for most of the and yet the gaps in some of these classes are just around 30-40 secs which might seem a lot but it’s nothing when you fight for 24 hours.
Just look now at the GTE Pro class. They had a sprint for 22 hours and now the Ferrari #51 which was nearly 4 laps in front of Ferrari #71 is behind them.
Same for LMP2 and LMP1.
It indeed is a sprint as well as a marathon!
Hulkenberg in for the final stint…
I really want him to take the chequered flag for the win!
And then see Ted’s next chat with him now as the LM24hrs winner in the notebook, hehe,
They’re only one F1 race distance to the win :)
Made sense to put him in, though.
What is the record for most laps done ever in 24 hrs LeMans?
397 was mentioned earlier… with 400 possible today without a safety car!
400 would be great to be acheived by #19 with Hulk on board ::D
Should achieve between 400-405 laps
I think for a 400 lap race they’d need to be averaging 3:30 per lap, which is more than possible with these cars, but slow zones and safety cars have made it impossible.
I think this would be mega for Hulk fans (like me) to watch him win the race and then posting record laps ever for LeMans. This would be some headline for tomorrow :D
I don’t think they’re going to break 400, they’re been averaging 17 laps per hour up until now, so doing 23 is almost impossible…
Last remaining Nissan is done. What a massive flop this was for them…
If Chilton was torn between a career in an IndyCar or a Nissan LMP1, I wonder if this has swayed his decision at all…
Jordan Taylor’s great, ain’t he?
What happened to Ferrari #51?
Gearbox gone bust. Had to tear it apart and put it back together in the garage. Lost about 7 laps or so.
That’s a shame :/ Thanks for the info!
Can the GTE-Pro podium include Am cars? Am cars currently 2nd and 3rd in the overall GT classes!
Probably not. Would be strange to be on two podiums.
They get their own podium I think – the Pros behind them will still be 2nd and 3rd in their class.
They do — but GT Am drivers still score points toward the overall GT championship in the WEC, so perhaps they could be on the podium? Either way, Pedro Lamy & co are going to score 50 points toward that championship — they’re going to be ahead of most of the pro teams!
On that note, Nick Tandy’s my tip for world champion this year, if he goes back to KCMG for the rest of the season!
Not anymore…
Hulk very close to winning.
Interested to see how Radio Le Mans would handle Hulkenberg winning.
Radio Le Mans gets a bit precious about endurance racing versus Formula 1. I think the idea that an F1 driver could come in and potentially win Le Mans at the first attempt after they spend so much time criticising modern Formula 1 doesn’t really suit their narrative that endurance racers are so much more admirable than F1 drivers.
They poke fun at Formula 1 but I’ve never heard them criticise the talents of the drivers. They usual direct their criticism at the spectacle and the quality of the cars.
Swap out Hamilton with Lotterer and he probably would win a F1 GP aswell.
GT AM leading #98 Aston has crashed!
My fault. I shouldn’t have mentioned they were on for 50 points…
Steering issue? It looked like an odd crash. You don’t usually go that(!) straight there.
These amateurs are looking like a bunch of McLaren drivers.
Devastating.
Funny how Eurosport is still showing the Audi commercial while it’s obvious by now that their ambitions won’t be matched. :P
Eh, they’ve been showing the Nissan Nismo-gismo spot over and over again, so I it could be a lot worse.
Hehe, true that.
Watching the weather radar — huge green blob floating across France towards Le Mans.
the nerves must seriously be ramping up for the Porsche boys!
Having HULK behind the wheel would make me feel pretty good, massive confidence that he won’t put a foot wrong, even if it rains.
Yeah probably better to have him in there over Bamber and Tandy if it starts spitting.
Better than Tandy?
I suppose I’m biased, this is F1Fanatic after-all!
I know Hulk goes well in the wet, and all 3 are quite new to the LMP1.. don’t know if Tandy or Bamber are better in the wet?
Also whoever got the most sleep.. guessing that was Hulk in the night (as he was first and last stint).
thats a good point, you want the freshest driver out there
Memories of Sao Paulo 2012 coming to mind. Oh, wait …
:p
Shut up
Chill mate, he’s great. He was stellar that day, but made a rookie error. But that’s almost 3 years ago, and he has absolutely no reason to push as hard as a Force India driver trying do overtake a dominant McLaren.
only if there is a debris safety car that totally changes the race for the sake of the championship!
Awesome effort by Hulk! Watching his onboard is amazing
Yes, Porsche curves at night Hulk onboard was great!
Looks like we will fall 2 laps short of the record – 395 laps?
Lotterer looks dejected, I think he has fastest lap though.
Albuqurque has fastest lap
3:17.4!
Sorry no he doesn’t ignore memissed that, sorry!
This could be getting more than just psychological rain.
The Formula BMW, F3 and GP2 champion – Le Mans in waiting?
I wonder if it’s worth slowing by 15 seconds approaching the line to lose an extra lap and avoid the random “6 minute rule” on the last lap!
Ah they could do a photo finish! 1-2!
Audi have given up i guess
Hulk still pushing through the curves, awesome stuff
Hulk should ask the FIA to change his F1 number to #1…
it is up for grabs afterall right …
Oh my, Hulk giving it the beans through the Porsche curves is making me wince!
This will make Hulkenberg the statistically fifth best driver according to DriverDB.
as in amount of wins + achievement rate?
Yes, of the drivers in operation.
Where is that? Can’t find it on the new layout.. interesting to see ‘best by age’.. Kvyat, de Vries, Elliott, Ocon, Leclerc, Stroll
Malvern must be up there, 55 wins from 128 starts!
as the commentators just mentioned: Car #17 getting win no. 17 in for Porsche
ah, wait, right. Yeah, thats why the other car should have won
Well, no. #17 finishes second.
When he is back in F1 paddock, he will be Le Mans Champion. How many years back did that last happen?
Herbert 1991!
HULK SMASH!
Alonso will be gutted! Great to see Hulk celebrate!
Webber 2nd again!!
Hulk & Bamber rookie winners!
Well done Nico
Delighted for Hulkenberg, though I have a feeling this could spell the end of his F1 career if he can’t get a decent seat next season.
He’s got to be signed by Ferrari.
We can but hope. He more than deserves it.
I agree. If he can keep a string of decent results throughout the year in F1, today’s win should carry a great deal of weight on his CV.
…or a reason for Ferrari to sign him.
Yeah, surely Ricciardo, Bottas, Hulk are better value than Raikkonen? I’m sure they wanted Bianchi for next year but they should have gotten him in for 2014 imo.
I would say Hulk is better value than the vast majority of people in the top seats.
It’s also gonna encourage other drivers to look down WEC’s way. If I’d be Alonso, I’d really, really, really want to do this race now.
Emotional ! Hulk deserves this He drove his best race ever
Vijay Mallya must be thrilled, lots of marketing exposure coming is way.
Hulkenberg is going to be the star of the show in Austria, that’s for sure.
He’ll need a bigger helmet.
Will make Ted’s next interview with him more interesting, haha
Haha, look out for Mallya, Christian Horner and other F1 “personalities” trying to grab some reflected glory
Mallya quite certainly, yes. Horner? Didn’t they sort of fall out a bit with Mark?
Red Bull are still ruining the side of Webber’s helmet (and Brendon Hartley’s). And Horner likes to stick his oar in about everything.
I’d day Marko and Mateschitz will certainly want to have Webbo and Brendon attending the Austrian GP, at least they will then have something to show off, yes. Not sure about Horner, although, you are right about him being able to suddenly be “hugely proud” of Mark and somehow claiming he had anything to do with it, maybe adding how LeMans is now better than F1 or something.
Bravo Hulk! Also delighted for my favorite team – Chavy Corvette!!! I’m in tears now. What a race.
Wonder if Porsche will wheel out the number 19 again, and let him have a home race in Germany?
That would be some good PR !
Real happy for Lapierre as well. That’s some proper redemption after last year.
Epic
Thanks as always for joining in guys – if you’ve not had enough racing action yet there’s IndyCar tonight!
Fantastic, looking like another potentially wet one too…
:-) Thanks for the blog Keith
Nice.. Also good job commentating today!
If Button, Alonso and Hulkenburg all depart F1 for WEC, F1 maybe in a very sorry state.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live. After two-and-a-half months the WEC is finally back!
WEC its the best race champ.
Evening Keith… it seems as if the World Feed is down already :(
Well, everyone watch the timing screens!
It’s back on MotorsTV
Pictures are back. That was a bit like when all the replays come on at the beginning of a Grand Prix…
Porsche not disappearing, then, Toyota already dropping back though.
Looking forward to the leaders getting in among this GTE madness.
Didn’t take them long to start lapping.
The Porsche got out of the last corner so quickly when it was briefly under pressure from the Audis. Phenomenal.
Terrific action as the LMP1 runners dodge through traffic.
I just watched the 3-hour update. What’s this about fuel usage penalties. Did they also have those at Le Mans?
The fuel penalty system was introduced with the new regulation package, which places strict limits both on the fuel flow rate and the amount of fuel which can be used over an average of three laps. I do not think that anybody has fallen foul of it before, but the penalty system was in place at Le Mans.
I’ve just reappeared for the last hour – have I missed much?
A-ha. Update :)
The in-car sound from he P1’s is amazing, sounds like a jet engine with quick response throttle..
Good job by the Bernhard/Webber/Hartley Porsche, shame the fuel consumption penalty had such a strong effect, though. Some good battles earlier on though.
Nice to see Webber getting a win under his belt :) I’ll be back for the Indycars later, see you then!
I wonder how much of an asset those couple of laps on the tyres will be for the 17 car, otherwise, I see 18 disappearing as they did at the Nürburgring.
Hello everyone! Time for round five of the WEC…
Have the Astons had a little intra-team altercation there?
Seems like most of the drivers are battling with their team mates.
True…. …but most of them are managing not to half-spin in the process.
“Start is under investigation” – are they going to give the start a drive-through penalty?
That would be quite amusing, though I suspect they really mean some people may have jumped the start.
Looks like “start” is the current #83 AF Corse’s pilot…
Nice to hear my BT Sport co-commentator Johnny Mowlem on Eurosport!
It’s not often that I watch three competitive racing sessions and the F1 is the least Noah’s Ark-esque… Still, some interesting racing is happening in the back half of the field.
More track limit warnings for the WEC already than there were in the whole TUSCC race.
Toyota really needs a better car, hope next year for a more competitive campaign
they really picked a bad time for the race start. had it been three hours earlier i’d have been able to watch the whole race, but since this race is over at 6 am for me i can’t watch it. can’t stay awake for this long.
I’m not convinced I can stay up until 5 am given there’s a marathon running near my house tomorrow morning…. …but there’s a loud concert going on now that means I need the WEC to block out the racket! Can’t win.
Nice to see Patrick Dempsey’s GTE Am Porsche team having a good run..
That will be another full course yellow because of the Toyota.
JPM spotted checking out the scene, will we see him in a Porsche at Le Mans?
@At the moment IndyCars are off from June 26th to July 16th…
Hiii guys :)
I just missed the Yacaman crash, what happened?
they punted each other off.
The 17 is getting really close to the 18 now. Will there be a fight, or team orders?
Multi 17-18 all the way @adrianmorse. I won’t be as angry at it this time because it deosn’t change #18’s championship status (#18 will be out whether they finish 1st or 2nd wrt #17), even if team orders at Fuji did a hell of a lot for that.
Bit of open wheel racing by the Rebellion. Impressed that all their spare noses etc are the right colour – they’ve used enough of them in this race!
Webber and co. are 14 points in front of Lotterer and co.
Web and co. can clinch the title by finishing on 3rd place or higher in Bahrain, in 3 weeks time.
Wow, what a deserted place this is despite the drama involving the #17 Porsche! It’s a major bummer, but boy, they’ve been quick to catch up once again.
I hope they’ll do it and take the remaining two positions they need – from the Toyotas, one of which may get a penalty for just spinning out the LMP2 leader.
As things stand, the Audis have practically began their pit cycles early (about lap 25 vs the Porsche’s lap 30) and generally drive shorter stints (about 25-lap vs the Porsches’ 30-lap). Now I wonder if that will set them on a 7-stop race (28*7 plus a few laps for the expected 205, give or take a two). Vs. Porsche’s 6 stops (30*6 plus a few laps).
…Because, obviously, if the #18 Porsche can steal the win, Webber and Co. practically won.
OK, it’s now #7 Audi v. #18 Porsche for the win as the #8 Audi also has a problem. If Porsche wins that particular battle – currently down to strategy – they’ve for the title for the other car.
Ah, indeed, if the #8 Audi is out of the picture, the #18 Porsche may just simply slow down and let the #17 ahead to the required 4th place.
Also, the #17 is about 30s behind the 4th-place Toyota on-track – 2 laps down on the standings, but if they can claw a lap back (they are lapping 2s faster), they’ll be just 1 lap down. They can get that thing back until the checkered on their own as well.
Now I’m off to watch ROC – it was sad that no-one was here while I was. :(
No telecast of wec here in india
Popping back to catch up with things: the #17 Porsche is not able to hunt down any of the Toyotas after all (still 1 lap plus the better part of 30s down), so I guess it’ll come down to Porsche seeing how strategy pans out in the final half an hour – and then decide: if the #18 can win the race, they won’t interfere, but if it cannot, they’ll surely instruct it to stop with 4-6 laps to go.
Porsche now only has to cover Audi with the #18 in terms of strategy – and they will win.
Loose wheel for the #7, this could be it now…
…Or not: #17 into the garage just minutes later. But they now have to finish just 7th, so they have plenty of time to sort the car out again.
But then the #18 MUST win.
Webber is back on track again – no places lost, but blimey, that Porsche seems to be on its last legs. It was the engine actuator once again. Meanwhile, Mr Le Mans blitzes into the ROC semis in London… :D
Webber is lapping very slowly – he has a margin of 2 laps to P6 and further 5 laps to P7, the minimum the #17 now has to do. I’m sure Porsche just set the car up to bring it home safely.
Hi guys, can’t find a live stream of it, so if anyone’s watching, which is the classification?
Also, read my notes here, I followed it and it was a thriller already!
How can Web win it if Lot finish 1st/2nd?
If lot finishes 1st Webb just finish 4th or higher
If lot finishes 2nd, Webb 7th or higher
So Lot basically HAS to win, otherwise Web’s a Champ, for the 1st time in his career.
And Webb can nurse that car to the finish. Something really not right with #17
He pits now..
As things stand atm, i can’t see Mark losing the title. He’s safe in 5th, so it’s all up to Lotterer now, but he’s about a lap down from P1.
18 mins. to go :D
If #17 retires now, will he still be classified in probably 6th as P7 is 7 laps further back?
I think not. I think they’ll have to see the checkered in order to be classified.
Irrelevant with WEC, but seeing the Aston Martin tweet reminded me of the possible F.I. buyout. And if that happens, i wouldn’t want a “rebrand”. Better have a full takeover, to make an Aston Martin works team. Simple rebranding an outfit seems..cheap.
Even if, say, Neel retied now, Lot would inherit 1st, but Web would been 4th. The Porsche boys have this in the bag now. Only a Interlagos 2008 can send the title to the Audi garage now.
Quite.
5 to go now.
3 to go.
1:30 to go now…
Come’on Web, mate… just bring the beast home.. Porsche are the rightfull winners this year…
IT’S ALL OVER!!! IT’S OVER, WEBBER IS WORLD CHAMPION!
Whoohoo, well done webbs!!! World champion, finally!
Woohoo, finally! I’m so happy for Webber. :) He really deserves it. :)
Yep :D Maybe F1 was too much for him, but this year both his team and driver pairing were stronger than Audi/Lot and co. and it showed.
WORLD CHAMPIONs!!! WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
It’s quite iconic – as Webber finally wins a major championship, Vettel, in about the exact same moment, perhaps literally, clinches his first Race of Champions title. Which he pursued for nearly a decade now. It’s a big fat happy ending for the ex team mates.
Indeed. I was actually thinking the same thing. If this was a hollywood movie, the timing would’ve been perfect. Perhpaps it actually is.
It doesn’t matter-both will go home happy now. A big achievement for Vettel, he finally wins ROC, but a massive, massive win for Webber. He can finally tell that he’s actually a World Champion :D Jesus… i’m so excited :D
Also heart-warming to see Wurz’s farewell with a podium finish. I’m only a little bit gutted that Wolff didn’t procedded much in ROC, but she was close nevertheless. A great day.
And – in a role reversal – I was just about to say that. :) It’s such a great script indeed. :)
Well, see you tomorrow for… what’s in town tomorrow, really? Gonna check the timetable.
Goodnight everyone!
Bye-bye.
The only thing missing fro Webber is a proper title celebration – it’s such a lame thing that no series has a championship podium except NASCAR. Even if you win by finishing 17th, you still get the championship celebration (aside from the separate victory lane, of course).
NASCAR- of course! We have the final race of the Chase for the Cup tomorrow!
I’ll be rooting for Busch tomorrow ;D
Wanna watch it
anyone watching?
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
For those watching in the UK I believe this race is almost completely live on Motors TV.
Pole sitter Brendon Hartley telling the world feed that, unusually, tyre degradation will be a factor. File that one under ‘this is not F1’…
Any idea why 2 formation laps?
Spin for Manor. Those Audis are crazy fast!
Come on Toyota. Please.
The Audi’s killing them on the straights.
So frustrating when the Toyotas are clearly quicker through the slower stuff
Awesome foxtel covered silverstone here in Australia but they aren’t covering this one I don’t know what i pay them for
Yeah, I don’t know what anyone pays foxtel for really. But that’s what keeps them around…
It’s on FoxPlus 4, it says EPL upcoming, but it’s the WEC. I missed the start because of it.
Brilliant TV direction during those start highlights but they seem to have missed what happened to Lieb…
Wow super-brave attempt by Buemi, perhaps even a little generous to Treluyer go off at the top of Raidillon and let him have the place.
Not the right Toyota but I’ll take it.
What downforce package are Toyota using?
I have to say, hand on heart, this is engaging me far more than any of the four F1 races so far this year. Feels more authentic.
I felt like that last year too, the racing is more “pure”. Nobody is talking about balancing the field etc. Here’s the rules, here’s the calendar. Go for it!
WEC is not a “six hour sprint” as much as Radio Le Mans love to claim it is, but this has been a truly engrossing first half hour of motorsport.
Poor Treluyer got held up by traffic but still good move by Conway
That’s a hell of a place to make a pass.
Brilliant racing!
Bloody hell!
Oh Mike :(
That was silly.
Slip-up for Conway. Penalty for that I expect. Should just feel glad he’s not a Red Bull driver.
Big one for the Aston.
The marshals signaling ‘ok’ to the drivers at the crash scene. Full course yellow.
Any idea as to why Radio Le Mans isn’t broadcasting 6 hours of Spa?
Really going off Graham Goodwin, sadly.
Hello everyone and welcome back to F1 Fanatic Live for the Le Mans 24 Hours!
Qualifying for the F1 race in Baku is about to begin at the same time, you can find the live chat for that here: https://www.racefans.net/live/f1/
Hello everyone! Hope for a thrilling 24h and I try to stay up the whole 24 for the first time in my life so fingers crossed
Woah, it’s chucking it down! Thanks for mentioning it’s on Quest on the TV times page. Didn’t even know that was a channel! Now I can watch the first hour, then F1 qualifying on Channel 4+1…
…but I’ll watch qualifying live if they’re just going round behind the safety car
Good afternoon/evening everyone! Hoping for a great race and some good discussions. In dilemma right now whether to watch f1 quail or Race start under SC.
was the le mans supposed to start at exactly the same time as baku qualiffying?
Yes.
Into lap 2, no sign of the Safety Car coming in.
Funny thing in the official WEC live timing: no 22nd and 23rd position is visible. :P
Actually the cars form those positions at that moment are not shown at all. One of them is Greaves #41.
it looks dry enough to start the race now
And they’re off
Not looking good for audi
What a disaster for no. 7 Audi! They’ve really struggled this weekend.
…and it’s only a few laps into the active race part.
Turbo change for the number seven Audi already. Didn’t expect the gremlins to hit this quickly…
Hydraulic problems for the no. 7
Traffic really hard to navigate with the large field!
Toyota is coming…
And now in the lead (due to pitstops for the Audi and the Porsche ahead)
Where’s Brundle?
Finished 2nd in Road to Le Mans (which is like a support race)
I think light showers at around 8-9 p.m. local time however I am surprised that it’s going to be primarily a dry race.
Great start to the race. Just like Spa, Toyota are really looking strong and by extending their furl stints to around 14 laps, they’re looking very strong currently.
Both Toyota should be in the top 3 after this pitstop I believe.
…except Davidson’s had a problem and just had to make an extra stop!
vibration in the tyre – took a while to get that info out!
Yup, unfortunately. It’s been a great race till now though and GTE Pro is intense!
I’m thoroughly enjoying the race. Ford are highly impressive, especially in context of a rather indifferent start to the WEC.
I really don’t know what to make of the GTE battle given the row over the Balance of Performance, not to mention the fact Ford are racing a car you can’t even buy yet.
why did they check those pitstops for 2 and 8 (the ones they now say will see no penalties/further action)?
Potentially more than allowed pit crew working while in the box.
thanks!
Great stint by Webber, also great battles between the Fords
Toyota takes the proper lead of the race thanks to their better fuel efficiency.
GETE Pro battle is the true highlight! Around 90 laps and top 3 are seperated by around 5 seconds and 50 years since the bitter Ferrari vs Ford battle, history is repeating itself.
The Ford GT is such a beautiful car in my opinion.
I second that. It’s beautiful. Awaiting their road version though, planned in 2017.
I love this time when it starts to go dark and the complexion of the race begins to become clear. Amazed how close it still is after seven hours as well.
Another big blow for Audi – seemingly the same turbo problem on both cars.
Audi saying their cars’ “side number panels had to be replaced”? Hmm…
Didn’t saw anything wrong. They seemed to work normal while it seems like turbo problems again. I dunno what’s gong wrong with Audi this year.
Reckon it’s their worst race ever at Le Mans.
Seems quite a lot of other cars are having to do the same – the Porsches too!
Porsche guys were only cleaning the lights which is normal but with Audi it seemed unusual.
Although it’s 2:30 at night here, I too always enjoy the night and the dawn at Le Mans however the only thing I hate are those blinding bright lights of the prototypes!
That’s a huge setback for Porsche then.
Once again it’s the night at Le Mans that provides the drama. With the #1’s issues, it’s got me wide awake again.
Before the race, reliability was always a big question mark this year and it’s not surprising how Toyota are running relatively trouble free compared to their German rivals.
Btw massive respect for Sausset Frédéric for his bravery. It pains to see him get into the car with the help of a rod.
What an utterly horrifying illness he had as well.
Yup. Interesting article on the way the car works for him.
Strange why not a driver change for Toyota #5 when it’s an SC and Nakajima is already on his 3rd stint.
Nice on-track pass for the lead by Jani in the Porsche.
It’s not going well for Porsche in either class: the 91 Estre/Pilet/Tandy car expires, ironically laying oil throughout the Porsche curves…
still someone awake?
1.17 pm here in Melbourne so yeah, we are awake over here!
Great to see such a tight race after racing this long time!
Anyone else? Good morning!
Good morning. Slept for 5 hours and back up.
What’s going on suddenly? 7 incidents in 30 minutes! Clean race till 7 a.m. and suddenly they start fall like bowling pins.
Good job by the Race Director to let Porsche know that they can’t play the dirty game here. Aprreciate such governing, wish it was in F1 also.
^Appreciate
of course, in an endurance race, the blue flags (esp. for those many laps behind, and in a much slower category) also make a lot more sense than they do in F1; I agree, good move by the RD to make it clear right away so no one need even put effort into thinking about it :)
First time watching Le Mans 24 live. Loving it.
Sadly, I don’t have Eurosport2, so not currently having the full race anymore :(
thanks – and I see that they are really back onto EUsport1 too, so I’m in again :)
Yeah, now it’ll be on Euro 1 till the flag.
Hope the top three can keep this going for another 5 hours
Well they have for the last 19 hours :)
#2 has played its card. They’ll only do full service once while Toyota has had done one and will have to do another. That’s fascinating and now Toyota will have to launch an attack on track.
Hi everyone, so its been changed quite a bit since this morning 1 am when I went to bed! Toyota both still running?
Yeah and looking like a Toyota 1, 2 at the moment
Maybe not, 6 just went off..
yeah, that could have been the end of their race! Fatigue setting in?
Can’t be, kobi just got in I think
ah, maybe he forgot his morning coffee! Guess he had to get back in a rithm then
Just about – Kamui just threw his one into the gravel. He’s 3rd anyway, not quite keeping up with the leaders’ pace. But he’s on his way again.
is the #2 now behind both again after stop?
Wow, steering failure?
Damaged nose broke off and went under his wheels! A bit like an F1 front wing
Bodywork under to front wheels..
So Webber just needs 39 F1 Safety cars to get back in this
Hi. Finally have a stream now.
well done, ready for the last 3 and a half hours
Hah, Ant put in his place by engineer about sticking to strategy and come in. Will they stay ahead?
Problems for the number six Toyota, that leaves the Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima car Without support up front.
number 6 Toyota – Sarrrazin really going for it,using all the track and a bit to get on.
Fourth spin for #28 at Mulsanne. Talk about changing your driver lineup! :)
Who’s commentating on Eurosport?
Of the three drivers in Toyota number six, the one I’d feel least comfortable having in the car at this point if I was the team boss is Nakajima.
<1 hour to go!
Is the race going to finish before F1 finishes the warm-up lap?
It’s usually a ceremonial finish but that may depend on how close the two leading cars are.
So to answer your question (!) I suspect either way the chequered flag will be a few minutes after the formation lap at Baku.
with a bit of luck the finish will be right when FOM starts the endless repeats of the start during lap 3 :-)
Toyota wisely pitting to cover Porsche’s last stop.
Really don’t agree with cars being forced to pit for something peripheral like their ‘leader lights’ not working.
Nakajima “has no power”
what an upset in the last few minutes!
Wow. Surely fate can’t be this cruel to Toyota.
indeed. Stopped a lap before the finish.
NNNNOOOO UNBELIEVABLE
OMG!!
1 lap to go and now it’s all over for Toyota. Unbelievable.
Staggering.
It’s a real shame that Toyota won’t win this but I’m happy that the Ford GT is going to win in its class!
I have to get away from screen, going to watch F1 start on tv – wow, gutting in penultimate lap.
Amazing! What a race
Actually can’t believe it !
Now onto F1
Well that was amazing. Thanks to those of you for joining in and see you soon for the next WEC round.
The Mexican marshals are going to be absolutely knackered from six consecutive hours of blue flag waving.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the Six Hours of COTA!
Strong start for Audi – interesting to see them getting one of the Porsches early on and the other Porsche is holding up the Toyotas.
Blimey strong move by Dumas to try to keep Conway behind.
I really need to go to one of these races at COTA! Very aggressive defensive move!
He’ll need that A/C unit to be working through the night!
Interesting to hear Whiting wants a proper kerb in place at turn 19 before the grand prix. Always see a lot of drivers going off there.
I’ve walked that hill at Turn 1 and it’s much steeper than it looks on the broadcast. Race not on broadcast TV but live-streaming on Fox.
I’ve walked that hill and it’s steeper than it looks in the flesh… And driving it you think you’re going to take off and never land!
Pretty hot in Texas even at this time of year and the heat lasts well after sunset.
Was that David Richards in the chair?
It’s unfortunate the American teams that do LeMans annually cannot race in the 6 Hours just for this race.
Tight confines in those cockpits! I miss the open cockpits.
Great close racing between the Audi and Porsche! Why does F1 need DRS again?
cool
Any idea which channel this will be on?
Best 5 euros i”ve spent on the live race with WEC app.
How far into the race are we, time wise? I’ve been sleeping.
5 hours to race start. Warm up just finished.
Hahah :) You haven’t missed anything just yet Alex.
6min left to the one of 2 best motorsport events (with Indy500) of the year!
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for one of my favourite races of the year – the Le Mans 24 Hours!
Hi all, Tony K in for Seb in Chips Ford..cool.. Two minutes to go in LA, let the fun begin :)
Buemi puts the number eight Toyota ahead of Conway’s number seven car.
What a fight going on for GTE-P! Multiple manufacturers having it out!
1 hour already done and didn’t even realised.
Did he push him off or did the Porsche spin before him?
Looked to me like he pushed him off.
Sad for 88 – seemed blameless there to me.
It’s only gone downhill after pole for no. 26.
Such a good idea, these slow zones. Barrier repairs used to mean an hour behind the safety car.
Yup…I remember when you’re sleepy already and you’ve a safety car going on for an hour :D
Looks like Rusinov’s made it back in but the back of the G-Drive is clearly badly damaged.
Have to say so far Porsche look a bit more competitive than I expected. Still early days though!
Bruno Senna drove an impressive couple of stints in such a closely fought LMP2 category.
Both the Rebellion cars going well, built up a bit of a lead.
After two hours the leaders are:
LMP1: #7 Toyota – Conway/Kobayashi/Sarrazin LMP2: #31 Rebellion – Prost/Beche/Heinemeier Hanson GTE Pro: #95 Aston Martin – Sorensen/Thiim/Stanaway GTE Am: #62 Ferrari – MacNeil/Sweedler/Bell
Costly tail light repair for Ford no. 69 when you’ve such a close GTE – Pro fight.
It’s just unbelievable how close GTE-Pro fights are with so many manufacturers!
High heat would really make it tricky for tire preservation.
Slow zone’s finally over. Apparently a grass fire delayed repairs!
Toyota may finally get that elusive victory this time.
Only when they take the chequered flag….no one knows this better than Toyota themselves!
Right now, broadcast only available on Fox Sports website until 12PM Central then it goes to FS2
Yeah….much more important to show bleeping NASCAR practicing going round and round in circles..
It is better to just watch online using the Fox app if you can. When they go to ads on TV the online feed continues to show the world feed.
I’d forgotten Porsche had given Tandy a crack in the LMP1 car again. Good to see.
Porsche has its dedicated in-car feed going on their website but Corvette Racing does not. Curious
I haven’t watched LM24 in a couple of years. So glad not to see the disgusting Marcos cars… I hated them.
Dunno what to make out of N Prost, he has struggled to match his team mate in Formula E over the years and hasn’t impressed either in LMP2.
Jean Todt in the Toyota pits. Probably trying to convince them to come back to F1 in 2020
Hats off to Kubica, turns out that stepping back from of the ByKolles LMP1 project to focus on F1 again was an almost prophetic decision.
Ooooh, hate to see any of the LMP Porsches in trouble
So a third of the LMP1 cars have hit trouble in the first 4 hours…LMP2 on the podium?
Should say I mean a third as in 1/3 of the field, not that 3 cars are in trouble.
I wouldn’t be surprised. If things get a bit crazy, the LMP1 race might become a complete farce. 6 cars on the grid – that’s not a crisis anymore, that’s a catastrophe.
Audi really left them in the lurch. But it’s also the WEC/FIA/ACO’s fault for failing to ensure LMP1 remained a viable customer class.
Guys, anybody know what this car is??? Some Peugeot I guess….
Got it! Praga R1 – a racing car sold for road use.
Anyone else having troubles with the official WEC streaming on the website?
Toyota may have been the lead team so far but you wouldn’t say their position is looking completely comfortable.
This is anyone’s game in LMP1, LMP2 and GTE-P
Ford GTs look great in the day, they look equally good in the dark! What illumination!
Don’t look quite as good in the gravel traps… Nice illumination on the rear engine cover though.
Safety Car for gravel? Hmm…
The Porsche 1 almost lost it entring the pit
Wow!
Toyota 7 with clutch issue, stuck at 1st gear
For now…LMP2 (no. 31) is on overall podium place!
Sad for the #7 toyota, ugh and #9 puncture and worse. But, got to go sleep so good night everyone
This is unbelievable! I am at loss of words….3 cars against 2 and yet they’ve blown it….aah…gutted!
Toyota is saying they were hit by an LMP2 car. That had to be the Manor that crashed out.
So one more LMP1 to go before the LMP2-class fights for overall victory?
The #2 Porsche is running again and the Radio Le Mans guys are saying it should be able to catch up to the 1st LMP2, assuming the #2 doesn’t have any more issues.
At the moment 3 laps behind right?
Maybe ! Unbelievable, damn shame, gobsmacked, I go out for half an hour and….
Oh sweet googli moogli, a Porsche is in the lead, hah!
Good morning! 2 Porsches on the lead.
Incredible – Lotterer’s Porsche stops! Are we going to have an LMP2 winner?
Lotterer’s got out of his car…
There’s now a slow zone at the Mulsanne Kink where Lotterer has stopped – that’s going to make it harder for the other Porsche to catch up!
Are we sure the LMP1 cars aren’t secretly powered by Honda :-)
Oh noooo!!!! Hey, wait! Loterrer back in the car!
So the Oliver Jarvis/Ho-Pin Tung/Thomas Laurent ORECA-Gibson LMP2 is poised to take the lead, albeit in just under half an hour!
Porsche 2 vs yellow zone vs LMP2
Managed to get a decent amount of sleep but still seen all the drama in LMP1. Whilst this is fascinating to watch it is a shame to see just one LMP1 car with a chance of being on the podium
So we are in for an on-track battle for the lead once Porshe-2 catches the leading LMP2.
At the moment he should be able to do it comfortably but a Safety Car or a few slow zones could really tighten it up.
Porsche’2 might not push for win in order to save car and championship points. That would be underwhelming.
At Le Mans? Surely not.
The number one Porsche has now disappeared from live timing and the number 38 ORECA-Gibson LMP2 is shown as the race leader!
You have to say, the LMP1s have been extremely unlucky. The #1 Porsche and the #7 & #9 Toyotas had their issues in the worst possible place, being on the pit straight. We saw how close Toyota got to the pits – if they had their problems a KM or two later, they could’ve made it back to the garage, fixed it, and potentially finished.
Well no oil pressure aint exactly the easiest problem to fix so who knows.
Any live timing links please?
Rubens Barrichello looks totally exhausted sitting out of the car…
If Porsche’2 doesn’t win the race… Do they still get a trophy for winning their category (LMP1)? Hah :)
So the LMP1 race has indeed become farcical? I thought that was a possibility, not an inevitability …
By the way, the timestamps are a bit off. Unless the post-Brexit UK have decided to adjust their time zone to 1:15 behind the European mainland, that is.
Oreca n°38 with a 1’27” advantage over Porsche n°2.
Barring further trouble for the #2 Porsche or a long Safety Car phase, they won’t stand a chance.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they didn’t
And still the podiums not done, Le Mans so often proves to be surprising and always a big challenge to just finish.
Have to wonder if Rebellion had persisted with their LMP1 programme they might have been in a position to win this.
Or be 2 of 6 retirees, I guess?
Why not give the LMP2 cars 1000hp engines as well for next year? With the shortage of LMP1 competitors, you need them to represent the true speed of Le Mans cars.
The engines are the main difference between the categories and the primary source of costs. That’d only kill off the LMP2 field.
are this the 24 hours of Le Mans or the 24 hours of “dramatic shots of the pit crews that are more interesting than the race itself!”?
Amazing fight in GTE Pro!
Nice little fight there at the end.
Spectacular last lap!
Great race. Too bad Buemi’s Toyota was too far to fight for a podium at least.
I guess Ickx is right about Le Mans
What did he say?
What everyone says, that you don’t win Le Mans. Le Mans lets you win
Well Toyota’s bad luck hasn’t gone anywhere.
I guess we’re getting the last two hours live in California, Fox sports, on at 2PM..better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick I suppose.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the World Endurance Championship Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. As you can see we’re testing a new version of F1 Fanatic Live today, the most significant feature of which is you no longer need a Facebook or Twitter account to participate. For the best experience, sign in using your F1 Fanatic account.
yeah, I definitely welcome the change, thanks! However, as many have aleady mentioned, the comment section does need to be a bit wider.
Well, would you look at this swanky new design.
Hi everyone, everyone ready for tyre-saving, DRS-assisted race? Eh, It is WEC at Spa, sorry :D
Is there a way to make the font smaller so that we can see more of peoples comments on screen? I mean, there aren’t many right now, but it might be an issue?
plus plus
Is this the race where Hulk is participating?
yeah he’s in the 19 Porsche
Thanks :)
Whats the link of WEC stream?
And more grid girls there for WEC. Don’t care what they call them they are still grid girls.
Love the new way of commentating as well! 8 factory prototypes, going to be amazing.
Hi guys. The comments section looks rather narrow.
Any live stream URLs? I’m in the UK, is there a way to get Motors TV online? (don’t have access to an actual TV!)
You can buy a livestream for the race at FIAWEC for 5€
I’m not going to do it, actually my age will be 18 in 2018.
It’s available from Motors TV, I watch there.
Great thanks, was just about to buy it through the website, found it on motors tv (sky 447) just in time
14 channels available @wec
My first WEC race :D
Incredible pace!
Dived from a bit too far back there.
19 in the barriers
Tandy is gone with the Manthey Porsche
Sorry for a noob question..but what will Happen to Hulk now? He was supposed to drive #19?
they will repair the car hopefully
Ahh okay :)
Hulk’s not going to get to race :((((
They will fix and race, there is so much of the race left
yeah saw the car get going again, damn it though, Toyota’s are slow, Hulk’s out of contention, my hopes for the race has gone to hell in 15 mins
I saw it coming when the camera changed and then the next thing was Tandy in the barriers
Wanted Hulk to get a podium, after his years in f1.
Anyone watching the DTM race?
That was quite a stupid move by Tandy what are your opinions?
No. I think Tandy was being too aggressive.
Not surprised at all after he took out another Porsche, was bump drafting Corvettes on the banking, and was called out by a BMW driver for hitting him repeatedly during the Daytona 24 earlier this year. I was surprised Porsche put him in the LMP1 for Spa and Le Mans over some of their other drivers. He may be fast, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t keep the car on track and in one piece.
Setback for Hulkenberg before he’s even got in the car…
Boy WEC races kick ass. 6 hours is very steep, but those LMP1 cars are glorious to behold.
Isn’t Mazda also joining LMP1 at Le Mans this year with that front wheel drive car?
*Nissan, sorry.
They do look awesome through the quick stuff, even if they’re not as fast as F1 cars there.
Passing 458s, 911s, Aston Martin’s at ridiculous speed differences also makes for some good perspective. :)
I do wish John Hindaugh would stop with his constant need to bash F1 at every opportunity.
He’s a great commentator, but suggesting that you push every lap in WEC compared to F1 is just plain rubbish. You can hear the LMP1 cars lifting and coasting on the onboard feeds…
Hartley trying to do an alternate bus stop
That will be a drive thru.
GT drivers get no slack.
How has Estre gotten the penalty for it? That’s madness!
for anyone that thinks 6 hours is too long, just watch it and you will find yourself lost in it if it is good racing. in Australia, the v8 supercars have a few enurance races about 6 hours, namely the famous bathurst race – which gets the biggest audience on the year, even on tv. i think F1 could do with an endurance round, imagine the cars having 2 drivers and having to stop for driver changes (and seat change no doubt), it would be the biggest event of the year in F1!
How the hell did Hartley get away with that move at the last turn without getting a penalty? Some of the officiating in WEC seems just as politicized as F1.
OK, so the #17 Porsche did get penalized.
the tweets on the left are annoying as they have nothing to do with this race.
The number 2 vs the number 9 battle is pretty fun! Wish we were seeing more of the 7 vs 8 car.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen a LMP car lose a door at speed before.
it is interesting to see the growing aerodynamic complexity of LMP1 cars. As if they have hit a certain level of mechanical performance and now try to get more with what they can achieve in aero.
Is anyone here? Just popping in, how come the #18 Porsche and the #7 and #8 Audis are so far out front with the next four LMP1s bunched up so tight? Different strategy or kindly falling cautions? (Poor Hulk, he obviously had a problem being so far behind in 8th.)
Btw, this F1F Live layout is actually not that good. Way too tight, less space and more unnecessary clutter. @keithcollantine, please take note. (By far it’s best new feature is the ability to tag people like in the comments section and on the forums. But otherwise, it’s a backwards step, imo.)
I’m not watching from the beginning, but from what I could understand, Webber’s car was having issues.
Re new layout… I’m not sure I like the pagination.
Yeah, it’s another element of it which is just not right – having to click to get the newest messages instead of having them up front first.
Hulkenberg is far behind because Tandy put the #19 car into another GT Porsche and into the barries early in the race. Had to go through repairs. Webber took a detour through a marshall post and got a 15s stop-go while he was leading + mechanical issues, while the Toyotas are plain slow. Also the #9 Audi is running the old and much slower aero spec.
thanks for the info!
Yep, thank you very much for bringing me up to date.
Wow, the Porches are so much quicker than anything else out there in a straight line – I rewatched the Porsche v. Audi battle from Silverstone and it was the same. Here it’s a little less pronounced, but here the Porsches are level in terms of downforce compared to Silverstone where they were visibly low on downforce compared to the Audi (and hence their greater straightline advantage).
Audi has their low down force Le mans package on, they had high down force at Silverstone, the same package that is on the #9 car today. Porsche are always quick in a straight, and are running the same package as they did at Silverstone.
Yeah, I thought so. That also means Porsche tested their current low downforce aero spec more than Audi – by the length of the 6hrs of Silverstone, to be exact. Bodes well for Le Mans.
No this is Porsche’s high down force package, they got the low drag coming for the le mans test
OMG. So basically you’re saying Porsche is this quick in a straight line even with it’s high downforce package on? Surely not…
I said they were this fast all the time, they were last year, and even faster now with 8 mega Jules.
OK, just realized that messages are actually sorted by newest first, but the pages are still oldest first…
The Toyotas are frighteningly off the pace if they didn’t have problems and are still this much behind… OK, they’ve already got their overall trophies last season, but Le Mans could still be a motivational factor. It seems like they’ve got something wrong here.
…No edit feature – this new layout is getting worse by the minute. :/
It’s really a shame, seems like atleast 1 second off the pace from the other teams
I really think Toyota’s best chance to win Le Mans was last year. It is only going to be tougher this year and especially next year after Nissan has gotten some experience.
I agree, last year they were comfortably the quickest car there.
without the safety cars they would have won the race in a landslide for sure
Toyota really didn’t find as much lap time during the winter than the other two cars
Everything that could annoy me in this race has happened. cars 1, 17 and 19. All spending time in the garage. The three cars that have drivers I really like.
Don’t count the #17 out, yet. 1 lap is not that big of a gap and Lotterer’s double stinting strategy can backfire.
Meanwhile, problem for the #8 as well? It’s quite down the order past the latest round of pit stops.
The #1 Toyota is in even more trouble, that’s fo’ sure.
Gearbox got jammed, aparently. Had to push the car into the garage.
Further feedback: every time I post a new message and refresh this page while doing so, the Twitter feed on the left switches back to the F1 one. @keithcollantine
…And that one was meant to be a separate post, not a replay, but that’s my fault, I’m afraid. :P
o for crying out loud!!! Only an Audi one, two could make the end of this race worse for me
A good ol’ Audi 1-2(-3). Had to say their reliability is better than that of the rest.
*have to
I feel the LMP2 battle for 1st is coming too. Jota been faster so far, but Rusinov is slowly gaining on them now, having clawed back about 10-15 seconds in the last 10 laps or so
the gap between Jota and G-Drive went another 10 seconds down in the last 3 laps. 32sec now.
aaand Rusinov pits…
who is leading?
Lotterer
Audi at the moment, but #18 Porsche is catching him quickly.
looks like a good battle for the lead… which car is usually quicker?
Over one lap the Porsche is, and the Audi is on older tires.
Porsche is quickest on the straights in sector 1 and 3. Audi still got sector 2. Both have the same fastest lap of the race so far down to hundredths
Come on Mr Lieb. You may be my least favourite Porsche in my second favourite team but go get him
Haha, great defending by Lotterer
Anyone here? Is Treluyer on fresher tyres than Lieb? Does he have to pit one more time than him?
These last two stops by the Audi and Porsche are going to be very interesting.
Porsche takes the lead!
So Porsche don’t put on tires in their final stop, wonder if Audi will do the same.
I think that’s it. Audi wins. Well played the strategy game.
That’s that, Audi wins. Epic stuff between Porsche and Audi.
#AnyoneButAudi
Ready for Le Mans! Next door neighbours are doing noisy DIY, which is a good excuse to don WEC ear defenders over the earphones…
(I’m primarily supporting Fisico and his friends in the #51 AF Corse, but also Nico Hulkenberg in the #19 LMP1 Porsche, Karun Chandhok in the #48 LMP2 Murphy and anything with “AF Corse” on the side).
Morning all! Just wondering about live video links,
The drop down has F1, GP2, but no WEC/LeMans
Thanks!
@ccolanto Good point, I’ll get on that.
@ccolanto Have added a couple, will throw in any more I find or which are submitted via the menu.
thank you @keithcollantine
he all!
Kind of a strange question, but anyone know where John Hindhaugh is commentating?
Radio LeMans I would assume
Oh right, I thought he did Eurosport for Le Mans
Morning folks. I’m SO very, VERY angry. Can’t get the race here in the States! Am traveling and Comcast doesn’t offer Fox Sports 2! I pay for FS2 on ATT Uverse but THEY are blocking streaming it! I can’t BELIEVE I’m going to miss this after waiting a YEAR for my favorite event!!!
Anyone know any links I can try to stream it from internationally that work here in the States?
search for henno.info
Same for Canada. Shame
Am I allowed to post the stream here?
in the drop down at the top, live timing, suggest link.
Encouraging to see the Porsches not immediately leaving the Audis behind on the straight.
Even more encouraging seeing the Toyotas staying relatively in touch with the Porsches and Audis.
Rooting for anyone in particular, Keith?
No I just want a fight that goes the full 24 rounds :-)
I’m hoping it goes at least a bit further than 24 rounds… ;-)
Audi’s look competitive
Toyota’s pace looks reasonable too, a bit better than I expected.
The did seem quietly confident they were’t out of it before the race. And Audi seems quicker to start than the porches, interesting.
Why oh why can there not be a Radio Le Mans video commentary. When they commentate the Bathurst 12 Hrs it’s amazing, but because I have to mute video and have the RLM commentary separate they’re a few seconds out of sync and no car sound :(
@vmaxmuffin Don’t the ACO cut a special deal with Eurosport for this round only? Don’t think the other WEC rounds are on Eurosport, at least not live.
ACO indeed has a Le Mans-only deal with Eurosport – but Quest has coverage of the start and finish on free-to-air UK TV.
Are you saying that in the UK the Eurosport coverage uses RLM commentary? I’m in Australia, I have a choice of Eurosport and Fox Sports coverage however I’m pretty sure neither are using RLM commentary. Muting and unmuting the RLM stream and Fox Sports/Eurosports streams they seem to be different commentary here.
but, this radiolemans on youtube works … sure also video, but if you put it in background?
oh, right, sorry didn’t fully capture what I read due to trying to watch like that too (ie. with RLM separate :)
Yeah I meant what I want is a “normal” race feed that RLM is commentating, rather than having to do the separate thing.
C’mon Nico, you’re not in a Force India now.
Still seems to be trying a different (longer tyre,fuel?) stint though, judging by that speed difference.
Nissans lapping over 22s off the pace of the leader and 2s off the quickest LMP2…
Are they still running without any KERS system (or whatever its called in WEC)
Yes, because they haven’t figured out how to get it to work properly yet.
I have their stream on, it now shows a very empty track ahead of their car!
Has one of the Nissan Nismos already retired?
The 23 hasn’t started yet, apparently
It’s in the pits, can see on the stream.
Oh, no indeed, they had a problem with the engine apparently.
No, I don’t think so, just not making much headway from his last of lmp startgrid yet.
Vanthoor gaining an advantage there, briefly. Shame his Blancpain team mate Frijns couln’t join him for today.
I’ve just turned the video quality on the Nissan onboard stream up to HD, then guiltily wondered if it might slow the car down…
It’s OK. it’s not using KERS yet. once it doesn, SD stream only please. hahaha
Loving the GTE race – their first stint at Le Mans is always bonkers.
Nico’s caught up with the Audis again.
and he passed the number 9 :)
love seeing LMP1 cars playing in traffic
Last Nissan now also starting, good work, let’s see how he fares
It seems the Toyotas are starting to drop back a bit
Maybe traffic? I see the others also not doing 3:20s anymore, about 4-7 s/lap slower
Maybe, the first 6 are covered by about 10 seconds, then 10 seconds back is the lead Toyota..
True, they couldn’t do those 3:20’s I think, were 2-3s off that pace, but now with the traffic it seems they are holding up fine.
Well, fine, still 2-3s slower, on closer inspection.
Clear laps this time, getting faster again now.
The LMP1s are already going around 4-5 secs slower. It’s not only Formula 1 that needs to save tires and fuel.
Curious to see which of the LMP1 runners can stay out longest.
Seems both Audi and Porche bring in the last of their three first.
Porsches are already managing pace. They know that reliability is their Achilles Heel
Toyota still staying out 3 more laps, that’s quite a big difference if they can maintain that!
that’s crazy. If they can stay within pit stop times they MIGHT have a chance.
So now the 2nd toyota is in, but 1 is still staying out
1 in as well now
yep, so not much longer than Porche, but maybe the other porche cars are indeed matching Audi in stints, but putting less fuel in
Even building doors that close seems difficult for Nissan…
Maybe the driver wants an open door policy, though seems they closed the door on that then.
oh boy… Nissan can’t catch a break
Yeah, and that was the ‘leading’ Nissan too, wasn’t it?
So after the first round of pit stops, Porsches and Audis still all covered by 15 seconds, Toyotas 30 seconds further back..
You don’t get that on your Playstation…
Is the sense of flashing headlights drivers telling each other to get out of the way, or due to the bumps in the road?
the former, I think.
yes, the LMP cars are much faster, so they flash lights to warn slower cars they are coming up behind them
Audi are too close to Porsche for me.
Porsche are being conservative considering the reliability issues that they’ve had.
In just an hour, Toyota are getting brutalized by the Germans. They really have a tough road ahead. They’re no match for Audi and Porsche.
Hi. Started watching 1/2 hour into the race.
Not too late considering it’s a 24-hour race.
Jani wants his lead back.
Saving a one full service pitstop would save around 40-50 secs and Toyota are way behind in achieving that as well.
Well, the #1 Toyota isn’t too far from that, currently, but yes, they need 24 of them, which is a bit much.
or a few SC’s
Well, with so much of pace deficit, it’s tough.
Yikes, that 92’s gonna go up, driver’s safely out.
Another car involved apart from Rebellion. It’s the end of 92. What a shame
They both slipped on the oil from that Porche, I think.
Radio Le Mans was saying none of the prototypes hit the GT Porsche. Supposedly it was already leaking oil.
Maybe, but they certainly hit each other. Strakka’s the other one, haven’t seen it on screen.
Guess that will slow down that distance record smashing pace a bit.
Time to bring out the cement dust… Did anyone see the legends race? :P
Unusual incident, can see why they went full Safety Car though.
Any weather update guys?
Did I just hear a commentator say Aleshin moved “out of single-seatersand into proper racing”?
Get over yourself, mate. Who needs pointless snobbery like that? No one. Pathetic.
What coverage/commentator would say something stupid like that?
It’s half-jokingly said on Radio Le Mans fairly frequently – several on that commentary team don’t have the greatest opinion of F1 in its current form.
It’s extremely sad to see the turn around of fortunes of Toyota. Huge pace deficit and I don’t understand why they don’t pitch 3 cars when Porsche, Audi and even Nissan has done it. It certainly reduces their chances as well as limits strategic moves.
When you’re coming seven and eighth, what’s the value in coming ninth as well?
Suspect the decision to change engine tech for next year was made a long time ago, so they wouldn’t be able to justify a third car for this year.
That’s with the benefit of hindsight. No one expected Porsche to make such a step up and relatively, Audi has caught them up to an extent. However, the decision the run a third car is generally taken before the season begins.
They’ve got a break with this safety car – it’s pretty much given them a lap back
So far it’s shaping up well for Toyota, really. 15-20 sec. adrift after 1 hour and some is better than they must have hoped for, I think.
Hello all…just joined in. How is everything shaping up uptill now and how are Webber, Hulkenburg and Lotterer doing?
Shaping up well unless you were anywhere near the #92 Porsche (which spilt lots of oil, then caught fire).
Webber is leading (well, his team-mate in his car is!), Lotterer is 4th, Hulkenberg is 6th.
Thanks for the update :)
Hulkenberg can make up a lot of track position here if he’s acting quick on those Audis.
Just bagged another one, good stuff. Up to 4th now.
Might just make the “undercut” work too.
Such a shame about the Toyota’s. I don’t remember them being this much off the pace in Silverstone or Spa. Has something changed in the regulations to make them slower or have Audi and Porsche just improved massively?
Seems the porche and audi improved their package (or use of it) a lot
Woah, that’s the lead, just like that. Good traffic skillz by Lotterer.
Porsches are gonna go rabid now. Should be a first highlight, this.
Porsche are rattled. Now they’re taking real risk with the traffic.
Uggh. So bored of Audi
But it was a very good set of moves to take the lead. So I hope Porche can keep with him and overtake later.
The Nissan is worse than a GT Aston through the corners, amazing.
I hadn’t seen it on track before the race, so much under steer.
Ridiculous, always pitting. Anyway this KW thing really doesn’t add up nothing to the racing, just retires and locking the performance of the leading lmp1. Why is the commentators discussing Audi vs Porsche, the only differences on the cars outlook are cosmetic, the same dimensions but small aero differences, Porsche hasn’t got the front holes and therefore is quicker on the straights but worse on downforce and tyres, in the end it’s just a little difference, anyway VW wins.
this is ‘sarcastic F1 fan doing what some WEC commenters have been doing’ mode, right? Otherwise, why not go outside and do fun things? :p
I love the ad breaks right at the crucal moments on Eurosport!
Their coverage seems a lot more spotty than usual.
Either Eurosport are desperate for a few extra €€€s or their sponsors are adamant with the air time they want.
Odd how much slower the #2 Toyota is than the #1
Finally we’re back at F1F Live. It’s such an important part for me for every race that I watch.
It felt like a Safety Car on F1F :)
Sorry guys had a few problems with comments there, we’re back now.
You’ve got to respect the Audi. It shows why they’ve had so much success in such a compressed time. Super downforce, fuel efficient, much better on tires than the rivals, super-efficient pitstops and turn-around time in the garage. Respect!
Got to wonder how much time they spend practising those.
In the 1st documentary (Truth in 24), they’ve shown Audi crew practicing pitstops, full service stops, simulation of all kinds of technical problems and being the only garage that was open nearly 2 weeks prior to the big race.
This stat says it all,
Audi avg pitstop (full service) is 105 secs while Porsche is 114 secs and Toyota at 118 secs. Incredible!
First time watching Le Mans over here. Been fairly intrigued so far, WRC is attracting more of my attention however
What a lap by Audi no. 9. It’s not supposed to be the prime Audi. 5 secs faster than no. 17. Wow! Shattering lap.
Yes he is really flying!
That was an all time Le Mans record lap, in ANY configuration for a race lap!
Filipe Albuquerque (Audi no. 9) just broke the lap record from 2010 (3:18:477). Just amazing how advanced are these cars.
He broke that a few hours ago already.
No matter how much I try, I can’t generate interest in LMP2, GTE Pro and Am. How many of you feel the same?
Interesting point by Eurosport. Formula 1 makes an improvement of around a few tenths while these LMP1 monsters have improved by around 5-6 secs. Who knows that in a few years, these LMP1s might be faster than Formula 1 cars.
Which is pretty amazing – especially as they run hybrid systems. It’s odd that F1 is all about cost cutting at the moment, but it hasn’t been mentioned at all on the commentary thus far.
The LMP1s improved a lot, there’s no denying that. But comparing their time improvement here to F1 is a bit misleading. A lap around Le Mans takes more than three minutes to complete, a Formula one lap is typically one minute and a half long. Obviously you can make bigger time gains with a longer lap.
Indeed but it cannot be denied that LMP1s have improved at least by 150% over Formula 1 hybrids. Formula 1 is seriously threatened by LMP1s when it comes to the ‘pinnacle of technology’ title.
The improvement is unlikely to be this much next year as measures are being taken to slow the LMP1s down – a move necessary to avoid extensive alterations to Le Mans.
I wish we had such a developement battle and variability in F1. I can’t figure out how it costs F1 more if WEC is doing it.
maybe because in WEC its only 3 companies doing the big money spending (Audi, Porsche, Toyota) with Nissan now getting into it.
Well when it comes to engines, F1 is no different. Ferrari, Honda, Merc and Renault. Not only F1 engines are costly, they’re not even appealing in terms of technology to any new manufacturer to enter.
F1 had only one new engine manufacturer in the last three years, LMP1 had three.
yes, but its not really comparable is it. F1 is a sport where you have to bring money just to be part of it and THEN invest in the spotlight.
In comparison, WEC you can turn up with a bang, start a new team and be in the top class, but still if you lose you can just say you tried, apart from the handfull of motorsport enthusiasts who like you just for trying not many people are going to notice.
Well I am not comparing the two sports as a whole. I am genuinely confused about the engine aspect of the two.
I see it simply as, F1 engine hybrids are extremely expensive while LMP1 engines are of varied technology innovations and yet are cost effective to F1 hybrids. So where is F1 going wrong with its engines when it calls itself the most technologically advanced?
There is nothing that makes the LMP1s inherently less extremely expensive. Just you don’t hear the customer teams complaining because there are none. F1 is now pushing a bit extra with the exhaust heat recovery part, although they could give more scope for the whole hybrid IMO.
A huge difference is that there is a promotor in F1 who hates these engines and does a lot to talk them down, where the ACO and the manufacturers in WEC do far more to show the positives of it. And in WEC you have competition of more varying configurations making it more interesting (imo and maybe also for manufacturers)
Also remember they’ve added Tarmac run-off in a few places which the drivers are leaning on to improve their lap times. Though it certainly doesn’t account for a substantial part of the five seconds gain.
Well, looking at the lap time gain over last year is pretty misleading for F1, due to the new nose regulations brought in for 2015. The new noses are less aerodynamic than 2014’s, and have effectively cancelled out a large part of the aerodynamic gains made over the winter, so most of the gains in 2015 have been exclusively from the PU.
no. 9 Audi might take the actual lead by the next pitstop if they carry on like this. What a super run by Filipe Albuquerque
Something Smelly there at ByKolles now!
Rumours that Colin is running the post-race disco have been denied…
:-) ah, yes, practising the smoke machines already then
I think this could be a long night for me, as my favourite car looks to be stranded 6th in GTE-Pro for the foreseeable future…
better “stranded” in 6th place then stranded in Mulsanne corner (is that the 6th corner?)
Mulsanne is T16
yes, missed a 1 with that, my bad
Are you thinking of Tetre Rouge?
Audi are too quick, Nissan aren’t competitive and Webber is in the #17, so it will break down soon.
Sigh.
still only less than 6 hrs in, a lot can still happen
I love the ‘Slow Zone’ system. I wish Formula 1 adopts this. Really effective system.
Good move by Porsche no. 19. Hulk is inexperienced and hence it won’t be appropriate to send him in the darkness. So Nick Tandy would jump in and then Bamber would follow before the Hulk getting the car at dawn during the happy hour (provided all runs smoothly of course)
Yes, that must be why (he’s done the Singapore Grand Prix though!). Fässler hasn’t even had a go in the number 7 Audi yet.
Singapore is illuminated and doesn’t have traffic that is 20-50 secs slower per lap. Also, Le Mans has a history of having race changing incidents at night.
Sam Collins from Racecar Engineering on Radio Le Mans reckons rain is coming.
I’ve missed a few hours, but were Audi sandbagging during qualifying? They look faster than Porsche now.
Not necessarily. Audi stated from the very beginning that they would focus exclusively on their race setup. At the same time, Porsche had to admit that their cars were using the tyres a bit too much.
I’m guessing the Porsche drivers are trying to drive a bit more carefully to make the tyres last a bit longer (possibly also with a less aggressive engine setting to save fuel and the rear tyres), while the Audis are pretty much able to floor it just like in qualifying. It’s true that the Audis have already set faster laps than during qualifying, but that’s probably just the track getting faster and faster.
trying to follow lemans for the first time after hearing bout it frm F1 drivers lately and im quite dissapointed in the coverage/broadcast team.
i dont even know whos leading the race but i know porsche and audi are infront if im not mistaken. i know its a close race but i dont know how big the gap is. if its seconds, a lap or 50 laps apart. split times occasionally would come in handy im guessing.
also when the accident broke the barrier and brought out safety car. they fixed it in a very impressive short time, what position did he rejoin the race in under safety car?
again its my first time watching but i think there are ways to improve the viewing for new viewers. just my 2 cents, sorry if i sound ignorant.
This might help you
http://live.fiawec.com/
http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/867
http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/867
http://www.spotterguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/LM_15_V1.pdf
Also, quite a few people are following via Twitter. Primary ones include @dscracelive and @BaronVonClutch .
If you’ve any questions, please do ask here and I’ll try to answer.
thanks guys. the live timing makes sense to everything now
WEC Live timing is a must to follow it properly
where do i get that??
http://live.fiawec.com/
thank you!!
Is Nico winning?
Not quite, but he’s in the fight for the final podium spot at the moment.
Also it might of interest to note that in the past, Marcel Fassler has traditionally gone really well at night and that could explain why Audi no. 7 delayed him.
Haha! The Porsche frightened the Nissan there :)
Alonso might have complained last Sunday, but Nissan truly look like amateurs this weekend.
What a PR mess! It’s the biggest and the worst stage to have a test session without actually racing before. I know that they’ve been hit with troubles but this is a PR debacle.
Weather: This might be a completely dry Le Mans. At least no rain expected through the night.
@adrianmorse Audi didn’t sandbag during qualifying but they were purely focusing on the race configuration.
that makes more sense of course :-)
just got back from the movies (Jurassic World is great btw), looks like the audi #9 is in the lead… are the Audi’s just easier on the tires today? Have there been issues with the Porshes?
Looks like Dumas has brake problems as we speak.
More than brake problems now…
Wonder if it was brakes, or was he frightened off the road by an F1 driver? Hulk was right behind him, he’d made up loads of ground.
Maybe he’d been watching Jurassic World as well and got a bit scared!
Hulkenberg is doing a good stint, I think he’s closing on the leaders again.
Yeah, looks like he’s getting the hang of it. His opening stint wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but he’s leaving a much better impression right now.
First lap fresh out of the pits (with used tyres): 3:20.6
Not bad.
Yeah he must have dialled in now!
It’s dusk and now we have the tv cameras for the first time at night in Le Mans history. Looks great but those headlights are damn powerful!
What was it before? Onboards? I remember watching night coverage before this year. But yes, these TV cameras look clearer than I remember, heh.
Eurosport answered my question, CCTV and pits cams
Great race so far! 6 cars within a minute after more than 7 hours of racing – impossible to tell who will win. Let’s just hope the race won’t be decided by a Safety Car or something similarly random.
could be in for an epic ending, but its still so far away!
Indeed.
Really impressed it’s still so close. (Apologies for being so quiet – it’s F1 Fanatic Jnr’s bath night!)
We understand, Keith, I skipped hour 6 for bedtime stories :-) How do you rate Hulkenberg’s team mates, btw? As it stands they’re still in the race for victory, and Nico is producing some impressive lap times.
They’re obviously top GT talents and like Hulkenberg they’re not LMP1 regulars so I can understand why Porsche’s put them together. I don’t follow GT racing that closely but Ben who I commentate does and he really rates Tandy.
Missed the baby announcement. Congrats.
Webber will need at least around 38-40 secs lead over Audi no. 9 (currently in 3rd) if it wants to come out in the overall lead. It’s around 33 secs at the moment.
Doesn’t he need the margin over the number 7 Audi?
no. 7 has an extra stop as it suffered a puncture in the afternoon. So no. 7 will also make the stop.
Oh right, I forgot which one had the puncture :)
And the #7 pits as we speak
I find it hard to keep track of all the pit stop strategies. Be great if the FIA could include the lap of a car’s last pit stop in the timing information. But that’s a minor complaint.
It’s great to know that Porsche and Audi are effectively racing each other for the lead. What about Porsche possibly pitting a lap later from time to time? How’s that panning out?
Well the reason Porsche laps later is because they carry around 67 kgs of fuel while Audi being a diesel, they carry around 54 kgs which allows Porsche to lap later than Audi but makes them heavier and hence slower while Audi are great with tires so they quadruple stint while Porsche does a triple.
I see.
What about the comparison between quadruple vs. triple stints and Porsche pitting later (thus eventually less frequently)? Which of the two strategic advantages is more important? Couldn’t it be that they’re cancelling each other out?
Nope, they won’t necessarily cancel each other as other factors would play a part like no of SCs, avg lap time of every stint as well as pitstop turn around time (where Audi are massively efficient over Porsche). That’s the best part of Le Mans 24 hours. Different strategies collide in the final few hours!
Wow! Driver change for no. 17! That’d give the edge to no. 9. Triple stints for Porsche while quadruple for Audi. It’s playing into Audi’s hands for the moment.
This is excellent, and for the next 20 minutes, there is coverage on Quest in the UK with Martin Haven which overlaps the Eurosport ads nicely!
Quest? How random!
I think it’s something to do with the Discovery Network buying into Eurosport, they also own Quest so they’re getting the race onto Freeview for a little while to get people interested
Any coverage is better than no coverage, but that’s even more obscure than ITV4! BBC weekend sports article didn’t even mention LM24hrs was on…
This is odd – what’s happened to the Alpine?
Well if they’re craning the caraway with the driver inside he must be OK.
Yeah, they’ve just aired a radio message saying that the driver is OK. What a relief.
As nobody else has come to a halt, could it be a car failure?
The Alpine hit a wall rather hard. Driver might be OK but the car patently isn’t.
LMP1 looking really tight now, the Hulk is right there in 3rd..
Cometh the 8th hour, cometh the Hulk!
Can’t wait too see them fight for the lead once the safety car pulls in!
Just a thought: if Porsche are only triple stinting now, will they run out of tires near the end and have to refit used sets?
Possibly, but these Safety Cars will help given that they appear to have given up on Slow Zones for this race after the Audi/AF Corse debacle.
Nope. Even without SC, they should be fine.
From NeelJani’s calculations it sounds like 216kms vs 201kms, 15 kms difference every 3 and 4 stints. Just 1 lap extra!
The top 4 are now behind the same Safety Car. Good for us.
Are we going to get some wheel-to-wheel racing at the green flag?!
I hope so.
the front of the Nissan LMP1 is so damn complicated, but I can’t help but feel its a little too complicated.
Nissan’s Le Mans 2015 = PR mess!
Evening all! Been at work all day and struggled to make sense of occasional checks of Autosport’s text commentary… what have I missed?
– #8 Audi came steaming into some GTs slowing for yellow flags and clouted the #51 AF Corse. Both still running but with delays. A Safety Car resulted.
– #9 Audi and #17 Porsche have been duelling for the best strategy to win the race.
– Hulkenberg’s done a pretty good debut so far and is currently 4th
– The #36 Signatech Alpine hit the wall and caused the current Safety Car.
Thanks
A small correction:
The Hulk is currently in P3 (and he was one of the quickest in the laps before the SC came out).
Quite a lengthy safety car, it looked like they had cleared the corner 10 minutes ago.
Are they replacing barriers? That’s usually what takes the time.
that might be, because it looked like the crash occurred before the corner.
They’re resuming with a slow zone. Kinda defeats the object of slow zones but at least we get a race.
Ok good night guys. It’s 2:30 a.m. Will keep some sleep and be back in a few hours. Bye!
catch ^
Sweet dreams. ^^
It’s lights out and away we go …
Phew, watched a good eight hours, off to bed now. See you guys in the morning.
I wonder why the Porsches switches positions… now Hulk in 2nd
I think Hulkenberg has newer tyres, and less fuel.
I think Webber’s about to lose 3rd as well.
Webber is 4 stinting, his tyres going off maybe.
They told Mark that Nico was faster. Also, Audi #7 was growing in Nico’s mirrors.
changing position is what racing is all about
Yay, Hulkenberg leads! :-)
Hulkenberg – Webber 1-2! Now, if Porsche entered F1 and bought Red Bull…. :P
As a Force India fan this makes me very happy :)
I think we can safely write off the Toyotas at this point. Unless at least 4 German cars explode or something along those lines, they won’t even make the podium…
Good morning evrryone from Australia
Good morning, you tune in at a good time, top 3 covered by less than 5 seconds.
Good evening!
This is one of my favourite times of the motor racing year. Night racing at Le Mans. It doesn’t get much better than this!
I was there in 2012 and hopefully will go next year again. Watching them race at night is just amazing.
I 100% concur. This is like Xmas for me every year ;D
Damien Faulkner on Eurosport is absolutely brilliant, he’s so informative and easy to listen to.
Any particular reason why the lap times are now almost in the 3:50s? Colder (tire) temps? Just stretching the tires?
slow zone, which has just been lifted.
Yellow zone due to the broken barrier.
Slow zone at Mulsanne
Check, I really must pay more attention…
stop-go for Webber :-(
1 min stop go? That’s a bit OTT
drive through is a better penalty
Race direction is fairly strict in WEC. I would concur with your assessment of 1 minute being too much for the offence compared to other offences, but it is pretty much the standard penalty.
Archaic penalties will keep a series niche in my opinion. But my picks Hulkenberg and Stanaway are leading Prototypes and GT!
Yeah I’m happy with #99 in GTE, would be awesome to see Evans do well too.
@fastiesty, remember it’s 24 hrs. so %wise it seems more reasonable.
what did he do?
Overtaking under yellow flags
I’m a long time F1 nerd. Over the last 10 years I’ve been a little blinkered to anything else, because F1 was delivering the goods. Now that F1 is failing, for reasons we’ve all read about on this very forum, I find myself watching the 24 hour race at Le Mans with any degree of committed attention.
I’ll be honest, I’m finding things pretty difficult to follow, but a fair level of finger pointing can be made in the direction of the UK TV coverage people for that. It’s not terrible, but far from poor also. I’m also struggling to follow some of the battles, but then again, I imagine it’s nearly impossible for the race camera director to cover such a large circuit with such a spread-out field to get all of the action in.
On the positive side, I love the speed of the LMP1 cars. They are very impressive to watch. I’m also impressed with the level of work undertaken by the pit crews to get the cars serviced and back on track. Especially the lengths they go to make repairs after an accident!
Broadcasts of the Race Director’s communications to the teams is a very good idea. As is the ‘Slow Zone’ idea. I’m am, however, concerned about the heavy braking in the yellow flagged zone prior to the slow zone. It looks a tad unsafe to me to unsettle cars of various braking capabilities stamping on the brakes so close to each other on the approach to the scene of an incident.
All in all, I’m properly enjoying this. F1 has A LOT to learn and should probably lend an ear to the WEC and how it does things. Even in regards to the speed and reliability the LMP1 regulations seems to provide. F1 should take note, better that than the current rhetoric of total ignorance and aggressive competition with rival categories.
Anyway, poor me another wine! There’s a race to watch!
Le Mans gives me the same feeling of childlike wonder that I felt when I first started watching F1 as a 10-year-old. It doesn’t even need to be a close race. I wouldn’t even care if there was a 5 lap gap between 1st and 2nd. It’s just such a joy to watch this race.
Totally agree.
Massive Webber fan (Aussie), have to say I’m pretty disappointed with his mistake, though I haven’t seen them show the replay of the incident yet. Feels like Korea 2010, though the race is still young and anything can happen.
I wonder if Hulk/Alonso/Webber would win this race on pure pace given equal reliability !
I’ll be sad to see Alonso retire from F1, but at the same time mega excited if he comes to WEC. Button will be fascinating to watch too. My money would be on Alonso though for sure.
Alonso/Button/Webber would be great in WEC
Based Hulkenberg
one thing is for certain, Audi are not going down without a fight
Nissan…
Perhaps not their fault this time, did he run over something?
Definitely
Wonder what Nissan hit on the circuit? Clearly something in the road just before the bonnet came off.
bad lap by Rast, a 3m27 compared to his quick 3m18 the lap before.
sorry, looks like he pitted. Looking good for Hulkenberg, though, I thought he had to pit before the 9.
That must have been a fun half a lap with no headlights…
Who is the nasally man on Eurosport?
Anywhere else broadcasting it without him – he’s making my eyes water!
I (as do many, especially who have eurosport) use radiolemans for commentary, video on mute.
First time watching LeMans.
Clearly a lesson learnt there. I dont know if he’s eating while talking (rude/unprofessional) or whether he has a problem with creating too much saliva.
But where can i find radio lemans?
sorry, http://www.radiolemans.com
Danke
in fact, everyone on eurosport sounds like they need to spit/blow their nose/stop eating
might well be that airco and mass of people together has resulted in most having a cold?
Maybe.
Thank you for the link.
That’s Martin Haven, he’s amazing!
Good night, enjoy the viewing, and see you tomorrow morning
Ah, that’s it for Hulk for now. Pretty awesome job for a rookie.
Yep. The Safety Car helped him a lot, but his pace was excellent. From P4 to P1 – it doesn’t get any better than this.
Might be wishful thinking on my part, but with Ganassi running the Ford GT program, what chance is there of Ganassi bringing some of their Indy drivers over for Le Mans? Obviously they’d have to make sure it doesn’t clash with an IndyCar race…
If the scheduling works out, I’d think it’s likely. After all, they already run IndyCar drivers in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
We need Montoya for the triple crown :P come on Penske!
Right folks, I’m off to sleep now, see you tomorrow :)
Nissan with a flat tyre
Or lost a tyre and caused a yellow?
Spun off after a few km on 3 wheels and a brake caliper
Didn’t pay much attention to the marshal telling him to stop – I wonder what he was hearing on the team radio…
Clearly does not know that had he succeeded he would simply have been black-flagged anyway. You can’t disobey a marshal and get away with it.
Yeah not too smart.
I’ve just woken up, can anyone tell me what the Audi vs Porsche pitstop strategy is?
Audi have been trying to eke an extra stint out of their tyres, it’s pretty nip-and-tuck though.
thanks Keith
There goes the pole sitter…
Meanwhile, Porsche #19 is absolutely flying and extends his lead by 5 seconds with a personal best of 3:18.6.
Looking good for them.
It’d be ironic if Hulk wins Le Mans at the first time of asking yet still can’t get a top drive in F1
Once upon a time, just two years ago, there was a team that raced red cars. They were looking for a new driver to challenge their #1 driver. Hülkenberg was young, Hülkenberg was cheap, Hülkenberg was delivering race after race, Hülkenberg was perfect.
Then they hired that guy who they had dumped a couple of years ago, who then went on to be overshadowed by his second and now his third team mate at that very same team.
This little story was the beginning of the story of why I am now an estranged ex-fan of that team.
Not to mention that they paid Kimi a year’s salary not to drive for them in 2010. Looks like they went back for more.. he is their last WDC after all!
That part about the salary is a kind of urban myth. In fact, they just wanted to be rid of him. Sadly for them, he still had a valid contract, so they had to continue paying his salary. The only way out of that situation would’ve been Räikkönen signing a contract with a different F1 team. But the Finn made the maths and decided that he might as well take the 20 million squid and do something else, since there was no other team that would’ve offered him a similarly profitable contract.
The fact that Ferrari continued to pay his salary although they definitely didn’t want him to drive their car anymore was then re-interpreted as a sort of gilded cage to prevent him from being competitive with a different team, when he was in fact a shelf warmer.
Can we all have a comment edit button please?
US coverage showing the Ford GT announcement promo (and Bill Ford interview) for Le Mans 2016
Ford and McLaren, bodes well for 2016 GT field
Who just crashed??
J. Fogarty in the Ligier JS
Hello All :) Watching the coverage for a bit..
welcome… doing the same :)
Battle in the GTE Pro for P1 between the leader Fernando Rees in the Aston Martin and P2 Oliver Gavin in the Corvette.
Rees & Stanaway, the simracing ‘allstars’ team could win GT!
Oliver Gavin takes the lead in the GTE Pro from Fernando Rees
Thanks for your company so far guys – I’ve got to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow’s commentary. Super race so far, really hope the fight at the front goes the distance…
Sweet dreams and thank you very much :)
Enjoy it Alianora :)
Thank you Keith, I think I’ll head too. Have a good night and see you tomorrow :)
Hope I catch it.. got on the channel just too late today! Didn’t realise the race was on..
Just tried to see the race on Utube, not good, 24hrs.Live = talking heads, broad daylight, before 4am. Also lots of panning across celebrities labelled “the start” and other clickbait.
Oh yeah, forgot the Nismo coverage, = team wandering around garage, splitscreen with something indecipherable, maybe in daylight ?
Mitch Evans is putting in some nice laps
I don’t think that’s supposed to burn like that.
The no 66 Ferrari caught fire in the pits. All safe.
66 Ferrari on fire 11:55 to go. Big fire. Going to take a bit of work to get it back in the race.
eurosport just went to commercial after fire aarrgghhh $#%^&#$
66 is still in the pits
The LMP1 cars sound awesome.
Lotterer in the lead from the number 19 after a driver change on the 198th lap.
And no. 19 back in the lead after Lotterer comes in
Lotterer pits for a driver change. Bamber takes the lead.
No. 19 is the only car on the lead lap. 10:26 to go.
US coverage pointing out a cracked left rear fender on Audi #9. Discussing the impact to the structural and aerodynamic integrity at speed. Might come from an impact with a GTE Ferrari, that Albuquerque apparently reports.
#98 lead GTE ASton Martin was in the garage. Looks like some front corner damage. Quickly fixed but loses the lead.
#99 Aston now in the garage for new body work and a radiator after an oopsie at the first chicane.
What is it with weird stuff happening when I am away from keyboard for a moment? I missed the #99 Aston and #46 Thiriet colliding!
Speculation on the US coverage that #99 hadn’t set his new brake rotors and couldn’t slow for the chicane after coming out of the pit
I’ve got my fingers crossed for Porsche… It would be great if they could pull this one off
Ouch, that Aston really drop kicked that LMP2 car
http://gfycat.com/LiquidUncomfortableCoelacanth
does anyone in the US know where to watch right now? It’s supposed to be on Fox Sports 2, but all I am seeing is some dumb soccer match
Good morning guys. Back up after sleeping for about 5 hours. Can’t miss once in a year event like Le Mans.
So, can anyone update me on the happenings?
things are looking pretty close at the top still
good morning and good night, time for me to get some sleep!
Haha. Thanks and good night
eurosport coverage is doing my head in. cars almost made contact and it switches to pit crews sleeping :(
I think it’s the world feed. I am not sure though.
the vision isn’t the worst part of the eurosport coverage, the commentators are terrible… Especially that Neville guy
say what u want but f1 coverage is a league of its own. imagine if they had f1 level coverage in le mans
Weather: Should be dry for the next few hours which might allow the record breaking distance. However, chances of rain at around around 11 a.m.
Hulkenberg laps Webber!! :D
Brazil 2012 all over again, heh.
Disaster for no. 7 Audi. They worked hard to get back into the fight post puncture and now the car is coming apart.
Big crash for # 96 Aston Martin Am. Whenever I see a GTE crash, it reminds me Allen Simonsen and I get nervous.
Any idea what Hulkenberg’s stop was for?
Seemed routine. Just used the SC time they had to give it a big thorough in-garage service.
Normal stop but the incident of # 96 Aston happened after getting passed by Hulk and he might have touched it.
I think they just took the opportunity (having to wait for the second SC anyway) to clean out the car a bit more than in a regular stop when the track is green @adrianmorse
Wow look how Mark is just driving away from the no 9 Audi. The Porsches are looking more reliable than last year!
Mark will be in the pits soon while Audi #9 is done with the stop
So it’s probably fuel load?
yes, they are looking more sturdy this year, but as @neelv27 points out, Webber is shortly going to pit. He is now low fuel and making a gap to then try and get close/pass the #9 Audi later
re. @tatzko
re. @latzko, sorry
So the Audi has been able to do a pitstop less throughout the night it seems?
Or like Eurosport just commented, half a stint…
half a stint but now they might make a pitstop less over #17. That’s what I believe.
Wow the Porsches are actually getting quicker. Mark had no pace earlier and now he’s flying. Top 3 on the same lap though and that’s nothing. The problem is it’s the wrong Audi, the No.7 (and to a lesser extent 8) would probably have the pace later if they were making up ground on the same lap. Is this Porsche’s race providing they stay reliable?
colder means they run better (more of their hybrid power). So rain is good news for them
yeah, Webber now getting in
made a gap of 25 seconds, respectable!
#9 lost a chunk of time in traffic. Might have caught a train of cars at the Porsche curves.
Refreshing Le Mans:
1955 was the worst accident in Le Mans history ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster ), I believe that this was the biggest crash of the modern era.
Allan Mcnish’s Audi #3 at the 2011 Le Mans in the very first hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW3NDGk6YQE
Did any of the other broadcasts pick up that set of complex instructions they gave the Audi #9 car for recycling everything between the chicanes? That was NUTS! No power, no brakes, no steering…get it up to 200mph and start resetting everything….I’m sure it will be ok! LOL
These guys are nuts!
That TV director… Hmm, I could show the battle between Fässler trying to unlap himself from Tandy…. oooh, Lotterer eating a banana
LOL! I know, what are they thinking sometimes???
Haha! I love the way every time a Porsche or Audi comes by, Nissan jumps out of the way. Even LMP2 or GTE don’t move out so quick. :)
This is going too well.
I hope this doesn’t become prophetic!
60 year olds shouldn’t be driving an LMP2 car…
@jmc200 Hear, hear.
Why not? The class is ProAm, if a 60 year old Am driver wants to pay for a car to enter, it gives another two drivers with more talent/potential the chance to race, and if they’re living their dream, good luck to them.
I agree with Mathers there. If he can afford it and is healthy enough/sharp enough to pass the minimum requirements, why not? Nothing wrong with age, either young or old, they are just one factor. The guy is still driving better than many of us will ever do
Hello everyone – just checking in for half an hour before I head off to BT Sport. Amazing reliability from the leading LMP1 teams. Disappointing to see Strakka hit trouble, hope they can get going again.
What will be the strategy for audi in these last hours to get in front of those porsches?
Anyone having a stream which is showing cars running instead of interviews with drivers?
check out henno.info
Back from a splash and dash sleepstop. Did I miss anything in the last 6 hours?
I see, the #19 Porsche has a 1 lap lead over the #17 Porsche and a gap of a bit over 4 minutes over the first Audi. Neat. Keeping my fingers crossed for them.
Don’t think you missed much.
– Nissan #21 retired
– Porsche #17 is firmly in P2 after a great battle with Audi #9
– Audi #7 chances blew even further after the car’s rear bodywork flew off by itself
It’s going extremely well for #47 in LMP2. They’ve dominated the race.
20 hours into the race and the GTE Pro fight is still intense between #64 and #51. Wow! Just 2 secs separate the two. They’ll fight till the end, I am sure.
Do the cars run on full slicks? (Will they need to change tires if it rains hard enough?)
Yes, although they do have the option of Michelin’s grooveless intermediates, which are visually the same as slicks, but for some reason they cope very well in the damp, and are also useable in fully dry conditions.
I think Porsche are fortunate that the Audis with the fastest drivers have hit the most trouble. Lotterer has been banging in some very quick lap times, and I haven’t seen that kind of consistent speed from the #9.
Yeah I agree, and they just got another nail in the coffin with this drive-thru
Though seeing that replay, the drive-through is quite deserved. Won’t make much of a difference though I think. Still Audi third.
Every Le Mans have a splash of luck and this was no different. I could conclude from this is that the Audi is the best car in the race trim and #7 is the best team within Audi.
Well, the fastest team, but they had bad luck and some mistakes, so not sure about best. Also, Porche is a newer team, but with a car that is quite close to the Audi in race trim, otherwise it wouldn’t still be so close as it has been for most of the race.
That was close !! Car 17 left wheel into the grass and nearly binned it just before straight
That was closer! Completely off track at turn 1
Car17,
It looked a bit clumsy, but these guys must be getting tired.
Quite likely, yeah. What stint of his run is Bernard on now? Is it his 4th?
close indeed!
Eurosport says that it’s the first sign of rains. Seriously?
only a little drizzle in some spots is what I heard yes
Aaargh, nasty moment – just came back, thought the leader was out – then realised I was looking at page 1, from the Spa race!
Fingers crossed for the part-timers in no.19.
#27 has had a record number of punctures I guess :)
Looking a bit drizzly at Mulsanne!
If it stays dry and if we don’t have a very long Safety Car period, we just might see an unbelievable 400 laps by the winner!
It’s currently 397 laps in 2010 by Audi
Also Bamber and Hulkenberg would be the first drivers since Laurent Aïello in 1998 to win Le Mans on their debut.
Bamber now showing some very good pace. It was slightly damp, but doesn’t seem to have held them back much
Yeah, still lapping in the very low 3:20s
Bamber is a good driver who probably ran out of money to move up in single seaters.. interesting how he got into the LMP1 by ‘winning’ his way in with Porsche when given a chance.
I wonder, what’s the last driver who also won Le Mans, while doing a full season in F1? Hulkenberg might be up for a huge credentials boost here.
I hope it jump starts his career, Schumi had fastest lap in the 1991 edition for example.
Here’s hoping you’re not jinxing him with that kind of question. ;-)
But yeah, he could be in for a massive reputation boost that might help his F1 career.
I think it was Graham Hill
It was Herbert and Gachot for Mazda in ’91 I believe.
Didn’t count Herbert in because he didn’t do a full season in F1 in ’91, but I guess that’s the most recent reference there is.
That’s right. Sebastian Bourdais came very close in 2009 as well.
Does Gachot count? He was supposed to do the full season until he got sent to prison…
.. and created the chance for Schumi with £150k from Mercedes to Jordan!
400 laps will be a great marker to hit
Seeing those pitstop replays, I would really hope that instead of horrible complicated things, F1 would just cut down on how many people can work on a car at a time. IF you want pitstops to be more interesting, this will help making it more of a moment. It will challenge the team too. A slight cost saving and improved safety on top = win IMO
+1
I’d prefer to keep the 2 point something second stops, I’m still gobsmacked by those. But yeah, if we had to have refuelling back in F1, make them complete the fuelling, then do the tyres. Or left tyres first, then right with the same people changing them.
oh, #9 is in the garage
seems they are solving some issues on the other cars as well then?
or was that a replay?
Man that Porsche GTE sticky tire, that must be so frustrating…
i was really curious to see if it would come off but bloody eurosport always go to commercials at the worst time aarrgghh
Do you think that Hulkenberg might consider switching to Endurance Series if he doesn’t get a top drive in Formula 1?
I think so, yes.
Could probably win that title at some point. Lotterer on a charge, fastest lap!
I think he might. There is no point in wasting this much of talent in mid field cars
its still F1 though
How much fun would it be to drive FI’s when you can get a race winning car here in WEC. I wish Ferrari to consider him to replace Raikkonen
My question is, where would he go? It’s so rare for top LMP1 teams to unceremoniously dump one of their drivers, Lapierre being the exception. The only time you’ll see a vacancy open up is when a driver retires or a new team enters. And even then, most manufacturers tend to promote from within. I reckon Hulkenberg will carry on in F1 while driving the third Porsche for the next few years.
But it doesn’t have to be unceremonious. Lieb could always take back the wheel of a 911 RSR, while Dumas is preeeetty much a loaner from Audi.
Hulkenberg SHOULD make that move, to be honest, if someone offers him a full season contrct. It’s not “if he doesn’t get a top drive in F1”. He won’t. No way Ferrari or Red Bull or McLaren are going to pick him over Bottas or Verstappen or Magnussen or Vandoorne.
Also, winning here with Porsche might just prove to be the perfect start of a very fruitful sportscar career. I don’t tip him for a 2016 move just yet, but I have no doubt he’ll end up in the WEC at some point soon.
But Ferrari did have an option on him – and this was while they still had Bianchi waiting in the wings! It’s not impossible Ferrari will hire him, but now he’s up against Ricciardo and Bottas. If they get Bottas to replace Kimi that might steal him away from direct competitors however..
If that were to happen then Williams should sign up Hulkenberg again ASAP!
Hulk-Nasr (once Massa retires) wouldn’t be a bad line up would it? Or Bottas-Nasr if Hulk goes to Ferrari.
Agree with both of your comments above. To be really honest, I rate Hulk more than Bottas, so I would love to see him drive a Ferrari…and he has got #27 also, iconic with Ferrari
Heh yes, now we know that he had that pre-contract with Ferrari… picking #27 makes sense :D!
Funnily, so many former Red Bull juniors are following their master Dr. Helmut Marko by racing in Le Mans and hardly racing in Formula 1.
Filipe Albuquerque
Brendon Hartley
Neel Jani (that’s not me)
Karun Chandhok
Sebastian Buemi
Have any RB juniors won Le Mans like Marko?
I doubt! They’re trying their best :)
Yep, the 4 LMP1 drivers there all have a good shot!
Buemi must have come closest with 2nd and 3rd in the last two years. Jani has a couple of 4th place finishes as well.
Also Mikhail Aleshin!
On another note, why doesnt F1 hold race here in Le Mans? safety concern or Bernie just being too greedy?
I’m not sure the track is up to F1 standards, plus it is a very long track…
Yeah, I think the full circuit is Grade 2 when F1 can only race on grade 1 circuits.
True, I think the only race was Le Mans Bugatti in 1967, called a ‘mickey mouse track’ at the time, a bit like Tilkedromes now compared to the classics! No doubt they’d have rather run the classic course..
https://www.racefans.net/2015/04/29/f1-at-le-mans-ugly-cars-and-more-of-your-questions/
This article explains why
@mjf1fan As Stefan notes, it’s not a high enough grade. La Sarthe is grade two.
How on earth is Monaco grade 1? Legacy? Surely it would be too short, too hilly, too tight etc. now to get verified!
I wonder if we’d get a race at Buriram if Red Bull bought F1?
Thanks @stefguy for the link…this explains why it is not featuring in F1 calender.
Come on Dempsey Racing! You guys deserve that podium.
:-)
They’re far from making a fool of themselves, are they? Haven’t been the fastest out there, but kept out of trouble in a remarkable way.
Here here.
whats up with the PROTON porsche thing lol
Audi #9! What a disaster. We expected Porsche to hit trouble but instead it’s the Audi.
It’s behind a Toyota now. That’s adding humiliation to insult to injury…
Oh no! LMP2 #47! It’s dominated the whole 21 hours! Nooooo!!
2 1/2 hours left and LMP2 is coming alive after being the most one sided category.
Indeed! Jota have really clawed it back after losing some laps early on.
Not enough, I believe.
Don’t forget that they’ve had 2 issues in the last 4 hours. From a lead of 2 laps, it’s down to just about 90 secs
How much horsepower is there in the porche and audio electric engines?
Around 900 hp
About 900-1000bhp overall. 500-ish in the combustion engine, 400-ish in the batteries.
Ok thanks. I was just wondering why the electric power in F1 is so arbitrary restricted when the super agressive hybrids works so well in LMP1.
Mainly because of fear one manufacturer might be way ahead, triggering a spending war on ERS. Agree open, but with a fixed price to customers, would be better aligned with goal of the PU.
I agree with more open, especially leaving more room to increase the hybrid use – the MGH especially. Then again, just imagine Mercedes being even further ahead …
Mercedes have the perfect package for current regulations but theres nothing that says they will stay on top with more added headroom to the ERS.
I recall the sky guys saying Ferrari has better ERS at teh moment than Mercedes, though Mercedes might have the engine modes optimised better , I think.
ERS development sounds like the obvious solution in F1, but they’d probably settle for whichever is most cost effective now, maybe ICE development might level the field easier?
OMG! These Eurosport commentaters are getting on my nerves! Bunch of ignorant nerds!
Ok so Audi no. 7 will take these tyres to the finish then. Guess its Trulleyer going to the finish then too, right.
Yup
Looking better and better for Porsche now…
Unless something dramatic happens, Porsche are set in stone in 1st and 2nd.
Is Hulk going to the chequer now? 90 mins to go!
#7’s unplanned engine cover fixes just killed their hunting game with the 2nd Porsche, I believe.
what happened to the #9 Audi that it lost so many laps?
I think it was an Hybrid issue
So there you go, after nearly 22 hours of fight in GTE Pro, the fate is sealed between Corvete and Ferrari after #51 goes into the garage
Keith really getting into the flow with commentating on WSR!
“Le Mans is a 24 hour sprint race” has to be the biggest lie in motoraport today.
It’s the truth mate
It does seem like that watching it.. no retirements of the top 8 etc. but I’m sure there is conservation of fuel and tyres to make the ‘quad stints’ or not run out of fuel on a 13km lap back to the pits etc.
That, or they really reached a certain next level in terms of reliability with these cars. But yeah, fuel conservation has been a bit of an issue this race.
Every race has some sort of conservation as it’s in the DNA of competitors to find an advantage in any shape or form and Le Mans is no different. However, to say that it’s purely a race to last 24 hours isn’t correct. These guys go flat out for most of the and yet the gaps in some of these classes are just around 30-40 secs which might seem a lot but it’s nothing when you fight for 24 hours.
Just look now at the GTE Pro class. They had a sprint for 22 hours and now the Ferrari #51 which was nearly 4 laps in front of Ferrari #71 is behind them.
Same for LMP2 and LMP1.
It indeed is a sprint as well as a marathon!
Hulkenberg in for the final stint…
I really want him to take the chequered flag for the win!
And then see Ted’s next chat with him now as the LM24hrs winner in the notebook, hehe,
They’re only one F1 race distance to the win :)
Made sense to put him in, though.
What is the record for most laps done ever in 24 hrs LeMans?
397 was mentioned earlier… with 400 possible today without a safety car!
400 would be great to be acheived by #19 with Hulk on board ::D
Should achieve between 400-405 laps
I think for a 400 lap race they’d need to be averaging 3:30 per lap, which is more than possible with these cars, but slow zones and safety cars have made it impossible.
I think this would be mega for Hulk fans (like me) to watch him win the race and then posting record laps ever for LeMans. This would be some headline for tomorrow :D
I don’t think they’re going to break 400, they’re been averaging 17 laps per hour up until now, so doing 23 is almost impossible…
Last remaining Nissan is done. What a massive flop this was for them…
If Chilton was torn between a career in an IndyCar or a Nissan LMP1, I wonder if this has swayed his decision at all…
Jordan Taylor’s great, ain’t he?
What happened to Ferrari #51?
Gearbox gone bust. Had to tear it apart and put it back together in the garage. Lost about 7 laps or so.
That’s a shame :/ Thanks for the info!
Can the GTE-Pro podium include Am cars? Am cars currently 2nd and 3rd in the overall GT classes!
Probably not. Would be strange to be on two podiums.
They get their own podium I think – the Pros behind them will still be 2nd and 3rd in their class.
They do — but GT Am drivers still score points toward the overall GT championship in the WEC, so perhaps they could be on the podium? Either way, Pedro Lamy & co are going to score 50 points toward that championship — they’re going to be ahead of most of the pro teams!
On that note, Nick Tandy’s my tip for world champion this year, if he goes back to KCMG for the rest of the season!
Not anymore…
Hulk very close to winning.
Interested to see how Radio Le Mans would handle Hulkenberg winning.
Radio Le Mans gets a bit precious about endurance racing versus Formula 1. I think the idea that an F1 driver could come in and potentially win Le Mans at the first attempt after they spend so much time criticising modern Formula 1 doesn’t really suit their narrative that endurance racers are so much more admirable than F1 drivers.
They poke fun at Formula 1 but I’ve never heard them criticise the talents of the drivers. They usual direct their criticism at the spectacle and the quality of the cars.
Swap out Hamilton with Lotterer and he probably would win a F1 GP aswell.
GT AM leading #98 Aston has crashed!
My fault. I shouldn’t have mentioned they were on for 50 points…
Steering issue? It looked like an odd crash. You don’t usually go that(!) straight there.
These amateurs are looking like a bunch of McLaren drivers.
Devastating.
Funny how Eurosport is still showing the Audi commercial while it’s obvious by now that their ambitions won’t be matched. :P
Eh, they’ve been showing the Nissan Nismo-gismo spot over and over again, so I it could be a lot worse.
Hehe, true that.
Watching the weather radar — huge green blob floating across France towards Le Mans.
the nerves must seriously be ramping up for the Porsche boys!
Having HULK behind the wheel would make me feel pretty good, massive confidence that he won’t put a foot wrong, even if it rains.
Yeah probably better to have him in there over Bamber and Tandy if it starts spitting.
Better than Tandy?
I suppose I’m biased, this is F1Fanatic after-all!
I know Hulk goes well in the wet, and all 3 are quite new to the LMP1.. don’t know if Tandy or Bamber are better in the wet?
Also whoever got the most sleep.. guessing that was Hulk in the night (as he was first and last stint).
thats a good point, you want the freshest driver out there
Memories of Sao Paulo 2012 coming to mind.
Oh, wait …
:p
Shut up
Chill mate, he’s great. He was stellar that day, but made a rookie error. But that’s almost 3 years ago, and he has absolutely no reason to push as hard as a Force India driver trying do overtake a dominant McLaren.
only if there is a debris safety car that totally changes the race for the sake of the championship!
Awesome effort by Hulk!
Watching his onboard is amazing
Yes, Porsche curves at night Hulk onboard was great!
Looks like we will fall 2 laps short of the record – 395 laps?
Lotterer looks dejected, I think he has fastest lap though.
Albuqurque has fastest lap
3:17.4!
Sorry no he doesn’t ignore memissed that, sorry!
This could be getting more than just psychological rain.
The Formula BMW, F3 and GP2 champion – Le Mans in waiting?
I wonder if it’s worth slowing by 15 seconds approaching the line to lose an extra lap and avoid the random “6 minute rule” on the last lap!
Ah they could do a photo finish! 1-2!
Audi have given up i guess
Hulk still pushing through the curves, awesome stuff
Hulk should ask the FIA to change his F1 number to #1…
it is up for grabs afterall right …
Oh my, Hulk giving it the beans through the Porsche curves is making me wince!
This will make Hulkenberg the statistically fifth best driver according to DriverDB.
as in amount of wins + achievement rate?
Yes, of the drivers in operation.
Where is that? Can’t find it on the new layout.. interesting to see ‘best by age’.. Kvyat, de Vries, Elliott, Ocon, Leclerc, Stroll
Malvern must be up there, 55 wins from 128 starts!
as the commentators just mentioned: Car #17 getting win no. 17 in for Porsche
ah, wait, right. Yeah, thats why the other car should have won
Well, no. #17 finishes second.
When he is back in F1 paddock, he will be Le Mans Champion. How many years back did that last happen?
Herbert 1991!
HULK SMASH!
Alonso will be gutted! Great to see Hulk celebrate!
Webber 2nd again!!
Hulk & Bamber rookie winners!
Well done Nico
Delighted for Hulkenberg, though I have a feeling this could spell the end of his F1 career if he can’t get a decent seat next season.
He’s got to be signed by Ferrari.
We can but hope. He more than deserves it.
I agree. If he can keep a string of decent results throughout the year in F1, today’s win should carry a great deal of weight on his CV.
…or a reason for Ferrari to sign him.
Yeah, surely Ricciardo, Bottas, Hulk are better value than Raikkonen? I’m sure they wanted Bianchi for next year but they should have gotten him in for 2014 imo.
I would say Hulk is better value than the vast majority of people in the top seats.
It’s also gonna encourage other drivers to look down WEC’s way. If I’d be Alonso, I’d really, really, really want to do this race now.
Emotional !
Hulk deserves this
He drove his best race ever
Vijay Mallya must be thrilled, lots of marketing exposure coming is way.
Hulkenberg is going to be the star of the show in Austria, that’s for sure.
He’ll need a bigger helmet.
Will make Ted’s next interview with him more interesting, haha
Haha, look out for Mallya, Christian Horner and other F1 “personalities” trying to grab some reflected glory
Mallya quite certainly, yes. Horner? Didn’t they sort of fall out a bit with Mark?
Red Bull are still ruining the side of Webber’s helmet (and Brendon Hartley’s). And Horner likes to stick his oar in about everything.
I’d day Marko and Mateschitz will certainly want to have Webbo and Brendon attending the Austrian GP, at least they will then have something to show off, yes. Not sure about Horner, although, you are right about him being able to suddenly be “hugely proud” of Mark and somehow claiming he had anything to do with it, maybe adding how LeMans is now better than F1 or something.
Bravo Hulk!
Also delighted for my favorite team – Chavy Corvette!!!
I’m in tears now. What a race.
Wonder if Porsche will wheel out the number 19 again, and let him have a home race in Germany?
That would be some good PR !
Real happy for Lapierre as well. That’s some proper redemption after last year.
Epic
Thanks as always for joining in guys – if you’ve not had enough racing action yet there’s IndyCar tonight!
Fantastic, looking like another potentially wet one too…
:-) Thanks for the blog Keith
Nice.. Also good job commentating today!
If Button, Alonso and Hulkenburg all depart F1 for WEC, F1 maybe in a very sorry state.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live. After two-and-a-half months the WEC is finally back!
WEC its the best race champ.
Evening Keith… it seems as if the World Feed is down already :(
Well, everyone watch the timing screens!
It’s back on MotorsTV
Pictures are back. That was a bit like when all the replays come on at the beginning of a Grand Prix…
Porsche not disappearing, then, Toyota already dropping back though.
Looking forward to the leaders getting in among this GTE madness.
Didn’t take them long to start lapping.
The Porsche got out of the last corner so quickly when it was briefly under pressure from the Audis. Phenomenal.
Terrific action as the LMP1 runners dodge through traffic.
I just watched the 3-hour update. What’s this about fuel usage penalties. Did they also have those at Le Mans?
The fuel penalty system was introduced with the new regulation package, which places strict limits both on the fuel flow rate and the amount of fuel which can be used over an average of three laps. I do not think that anybody has fallen foul of it before, but the penalty system was in place at Le Mans.
I’ve just reappeared for the last hour – have I missed much?
A-ha. Update :)
The in-car sound from he P1’s is amazing, sounds like a jet engine with quick response throttle..
Good job by the Bernhard/Webber/Hartley Porsche, shame the fuel consumption penalty had such a strong effect, though. Some good battles earlier on though.
Nice to see Webber getting a win under his belt :) I’ll be back for the Indycars later, see you then!
I wonder how much of an asset those couple of laps on the tyres will be for the 17 car, otherwise, I see 18 disappearing as they did at the Nürburgring.
Hello everyone! Time for round five of the WEC…
Have the Astons had a little intra-team altercation there?
Seems like most of the drivers are battling with their team mates.
True…. …but most of them are managing not to half-spin in the process.
“Start is under investigation” – are they going to give the start a drive-through penalty?
That would be quite amusing, though I suspect they really mean some people may have jumped the start.
Looks like “start” is the current #83 AF Corse’s pilot…
Nice to hear my BT Sport co-commentator Johnny Mowlem on Eurosport!
It’s not often that I watch three competitive racing sessions and the F1 is the least Noah’s Ark-esque… Still, some interesting racing is happening in the back half of the field.
More track limit warnings for the WEC already than there were in the whole TUSCC race.
Toyota really needs a better car, hope next year for a more competitive campaign
they really picked a bad time for the race start. had it been three hours earlier i’d have been able to watch the whole race, but since this race is over at 6 am for me i can’t watch it. can’t stay awake for this long.
I’m not convinced I can stay up until 5 am given there’s a marathon running near my house tomorrow morning…. …but there’s a loud concert going on now that means I need the WEC to block out the racket! Can’t win.
Nice to see Patrick Dempsey’s GTE Am Porsche team having a good run..
That will be another full course yellow because of the Toyota.
JPM spotted checking out the scene, will we see him in a Porsche at Le Mans?
@At the moment IndyCars are off from June 26th to July 16th…
Hiii guys :)
I just missed the Yacaman crash, what happened?
they punted each other off.
The 17 is getting really close to the 18 now. Will there be a fight, or team orders?
Multi 17-18 all the way @adrianmorse. I won’t be as angry at it this time because it deosn’t change #18’s championship status (#18 will be out whether they finish 1st or 2nd wrt #17), even if team orders at Fuji did a hell of a lot for that.
Bit of open wheel racing by the Rebellion. Impressed that all their spare noses etc are the right colour – they’ve used enough of them in this race!
Webber and co. are 14 points in front of Lotterer and co.
Web and co. can clinch the title by finishing on 3rd place or higher in Bahrain, in 3 weeks time.
Wow, what a deserted place this is despite the drama involving the #17 Porsche! It’s a major bummer, but boy, they’ve been quick to catch up once again.
I hope they’ll do it and take the remaining two positions they need – from the Toyotas, one of which may get a penalty for just spinning out the LMP2 leader.
As things stand, the Audis have practically began their pit cycles early (about lap 25 vs the Porsche’s lap 30) and generally drive shorter stints (about 25-lap vs the Porsches’ 30-lap). Now I wonder if that will set them on a 7-stop race (28*7 plus a few laps for the expected 205, give or take a two). Vs. Porsche’s 6 stops (30*6 plus a few laps).
…Because, obviously, if the #18 Porsche can steal the win, Webber and Co. practically won.
OK, it’s now #7 Audi v. #18 Porsche for the win as the #8 Audi also has a problem. If Porsche wins that particular battle – currently down to strategy – they’ve for the title for the other car.
Ah, indeed, if the #8 Audi is out of the picture, the #18 Porsche may just simply slow down and let the #17 ahead to the required 4th place.
Also, the #17 is about 30s behind the 4th-place Toyota on-track – 2 laps down on the standings, but if they can claw a lap back (they are lapping 2s faster), they’ll be just 1 lap down. They can get that thing back until the checkered on their own as well.
Now I’m off to watch ROC – it was sad that no-one was here while I was. :(
No telecast of wec here in india
Popping back to catch up with things: the #17 Porsche is not able to hunt down any of the Toyotas after all (still 1 lap plus the better part of 30s down), so I guess it’ll come down to Porsche seeing how strategy pans out in the final half an hour – and then decide: if the #18 can win the race, they won’t interfere, but if it cannot, they’ll surely instruct it to stop with 4-6 laps to go.
Porsche now only has to cover Audi with the #18 in terms of strategy – and they will win.
Loose wheel for the #7, this could be it now…
…Or not: #17 into the garage just minutes later. But they now have to finish just 7th, so they have plenty of time to sort the car out again.
But then the #18 MUST win.
Webber is back on track again – no places lost, but blimey, that Porsche seems to be on its last legs. It was the engine actuator once again. Meanwhile, Mr Le Mans blitzes into the ROC semis in London… :D
Webber is lapping very slowly – he has a margin of 2 laps to P6 and further 5 laps to P7, the minimum the #17 now has to do. I’m sure Porsche just set the car up to bring it home safely.
Hi guys, can’t find a live stream of it, so if anyone’s watching, which is the classification?
http://live.fiawec.com/ But it should be live on Eurosport by now (the last hour).
Also, read my notes here, I followed it and it was a thriller already!
How can Web win it if Lot finish 1st/2nd?
If lot finishes 1st Webb just finish 4th or higher
If lot finishes 2nd, Webb 7th or higher
So Lot basically HAS to win, otherwise Web’s a Champ, for the 1st time in his career.
And Webb can nurse that car to the finish. Something really not right with #17
He pits now..
As things stand atm, i can’t see Mark losing the title. He’s safe in 5th, so it’s all up to Lotterer now, but he’s about a lap down from P1.
18 mins. to go :D
If #17 retires now, will he still be classified in probably 6th as P7 is 7 laps further back?
I think not. I think they’ll have to see the checkered in order to be classified.
Irrelevant with WEC, but seeing the Aston Martin tweet reminded me of the possible F.I. buyout. And if that happens, i wouldn’t want a “rebrand”. Better have a full takeover, to make an Aston Martin works team. Simple rebranding an outfit seems..cheap.
Even if, say, Neel retied now, Lot would inherit 1st, but Web would been 4th. The Porsche boys have this in the bag now. Only a Interlagos 2008 can send the title to the Audi garage now.
Quite.
5 to go now.
3 to go.
1:30 to go now…
Come’on Web, mate… just bring the beast home.. Porsche are the rightfull winners this year…
IT’S ALL OVER!!! IT’S OVER, WEBBER IS WORLD CHAMPION!
Whoohoo, well done webbs!!! World champion, finally!
Woohoo, finally! I’m so happy for Webber. :) He really deserves it. :)
Yep :D Maybe F1 was too much for him, but this year both his team and driver pairing were stronger than Audi/Lot and co. and it showed.
WORLD CHAMPIONs!!! WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
It’s quite iconic – as Webber finally wins a major championship, Vettel, in about the exact same moment, perhaps literally, clinches his first Race of Champions title. Which he pursued for nearly a decade now. It’s a big fat happy ending for the ex team mates.
Indeed. I was actually thinking the same thing. If this was a hollywood movie, the timing would’ve been perfect. Perhpaps it actually is.
It doesn’t matter-both will go home happy now. A big achievement for Vettel, he finally wins ROC, but a massive, massive win for Webber. He can finally tell that he’s actually a World Champion :D Jesus… i’m so excited :D
Also heart-warming to see Wurz’s farewell with a podium finish.
I’m only a little bit gutted that Wolff didn’t procedded much in ROC, but she was close nevertheless. A great day.
And – in a role reversal – I was just about to say that. :) It’s such a great script indeed. :)
Well, see you tomorrow for… what’s in town tomorrow, really? Gonna check the timetable.
Goodnight everyone!
Bye-bye.
The only thing missing fro Webber is a proper title celebration – it’s such a lame thing that no series has a championship podium except NASCAR. Even if you win by finishing 17th, you still get the championship celebration (aside from the separate victory lane, of course).
NASCAR- of course! We have the final race of the Chase for the Cup tomorrow!
I’ll be rooting for Busch tomorrow ;D
Wanna watch it
anyone watching?
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
For those watching in the UK I believe this race is almost completely live on Motors TV.
Pole sitter Brendon Hartley telling the world feed that, unusually, tyre degradation will be a factor. File that one under ‘this is not F1’…
Any idea why 2 formation laps?
Spin for Manor. Those Audis are crazy fast!
Come on Toyota. Please.
The Audi’s killing them on the straights.
So frustrating when the Toyotas are clearly quicker through the slower stuff
Awesome foxtel covered silverstone here in Australia but they aren’t covering this one
I don’t know what i pay them for
Yeah, I don’t know what anyone pays foxtel for really. But that’s what keeps them around…
It’s on FoxPlus 4, it says EPL upcoming, but it’s the WEC. I missed the start because of it.
Brilliant TV direction during those start highlights but they seem to have missed what happened to Lieb…
Wow super-brave attempt by Buemi, perhaps even a little generous to Treluyer go off at the top of Raidillon and let him have the place.
Not the right Toyota but I’ll take it.
What downforce package are Toyota using?
I have to say, hand on heart, this is engaging me far more than any of the four F1 races so far this year. Feels more authentic.
I felt like that last year too, the racing is more “pure”. Nobody is talking about balancing the field etc. Here’s the rules, here’s the calendar. Go for it!
WEC is not a “six hour sprint” as much as Radio Le Mans love to claim it is, but this has been a truly engrossing first half hour of motorsport.
Poor Treluyer got held up by traffic but still good move by Conway
That’s a hell of a place to make a pass.
Brilliant racing!
Bloody hell!
Oh Mike :(
That was silly.
Slip-up for Conway. Penalty for that I expect. Should just feel glad he’s not a Red Bull driver.
Big one for the Aston.
The marshals signaling ‘ok’ to the drivers at the crash scene. Full course yellow.
Any idea as to why Radio Le Mans isn’t broadcasting 6 hours of Spa?
Really going off Graham Goodwin, sadly.
Hello everyone and welcome back to F1 Fanatic Live for the Le Mans 24 Hours!
Qualifying for the F1 race in Baku is about to begin at the same time, you can find the live chat for that here: https://www.racefans.net/live/f1/
Hello everyone! Hope for a thrilling 24h and I try to stay up the whole 24 for the first time in my life so fingers crossed
Woah, it’s chucking it down!
Thanks for mentioning it’s on Quest on the TV times page. Didn’t even know that was a channel! Now I can watch the first hour, then F1 qualifying on Channel 4+1…
…but I’ll watch qualifying live if they’re just going round behind the safety car
Good afternoon/evening everyone! Hoping for a great race and some good discussions. In dilemma right now whether to watch f1 quail or Race start under SC.
was the le mans supposed to start at exactly the same time as baku qualiffying?
Yes.
Into lap 2, no sign of the Safety Car coming in.
Funny thing in the official WEC live timing: no 22nd and 23rd position is visible. :P
Actually the cars form those positions at that moment are not shown at all. One of them is Greaves #41.
it looks dry enough to start the race now
And they’re off
Not looking good for audi
What a disaster for no. 7 Audi! They’ve really struggled this weekend.
…and it’s only a few laps into the active race part.
Turbo change for the number seven Audi already. Didn’t expect the gremlins to hit this quickly…
Hydraulic problems for the no. 7
Traffic really hard to navigate with the large field!
Toyota is coming…
And now in the lead (due to pitstops for the Audi and the Porsche ahead)
Where’s Brundle?
Finished 2nd in Road to Le Mans (which is like a support race)
You can watch it here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKedBm-_WTU
Looks like there may be some more rain coming.
I think light showers at around 8-9 p.m. local time however I am surprised that it’s going to be primarily a dry race.
Great start to the race. Just like Spa, Toyota are really looking strong and by extending their furl stints to around 14 laps, they’re looking very strong currently.
Both Toyota should be in the top 3 after this pitstop I believe.
…except Davidson’s had a problem and just had to make an extra stop!
vibration in the tyre – took a while to get that info out!
Yup, unfortunately. It’s been a great race till now though and GTE Pro is intense!
I’m thoroughly enjoying the race. Ford are highly impressive, especially in context of a rather indifferent start to the WEC.
I really don’t know what to make of the GTE battle given the row over the Balance of Performance, not to mention the fact Ford are racing a car you can’t even buy yet.
why did they check those pitstops for 2 and 8 (the ones they now say will see no penalties/further action)?
Potentially more than allowed pit crew working while in the box.
thanks!
Great stint by Webber, also great battles between the Fords
Toyota takes the proper lead of the race thanks to their better fuel efficiency.
GETE Pro battle is the true highlight! Around 90 laps and top 3 are seperated by around 5 seconds and 50 years since the bitter Ferrari vs Ford battle, history is repeating itself.
The Ford GT is such a beautiful car in my opinion.
I second that. It’s beautiful. Awaiting their road version though, planned in 2017.
I love this time when it starts to go dark and the complexion of the race begins to become clear. Amazed how close it still is after seven hours as well.
Another big blow for Audi – seemingly the same turbo problem on both cars.
Audi saying their cars’ “side number panels had to be replaced”? Hmm…
Didn’t saw anything wrong. They seemed to work normal while it seems like turbo problems again. I dunno what’s gong wrong with Audi this year.
Reckon it’s their worst race ever at Le Mans.
Seems quite a lot of other cars are having to do the same – the Porsches too!
Porsche guys were only cleaning the lights which is normal but with Audi it seemed unusual.
Although it’s 2:30 at night here, I too always enjoy the night and the dawn at Le Mans however the only thing I hate are those blinding bright lights of the prototypes!
That’s a huge setback for Porsche then.
Once again it’s the night at Le Mans that provides the drama. With the #1’s issues, it’s got me wide awake again.
Before the race, reliability was always a big question mark this year and it’s not surprising how Toyota are running relatively trouble free compared to their German rivals.
Btw massive respect for Sausset Frédéric for his bravery. It pains to see him get into the car with the help of a rod.
What an utterly horrifying illness he had as well.
Yup. Interesting article on the way the car works for him.
http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/06/a-quadruple-amputee-will-be-competing-in-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-this-weekend/
Strange why not a driver change for Toyota #5 when it’s an SC and Nakajima is already on his 3rd stint.
Nice on-track pass for the lead by Jani in the Porsche.
It’s not going well for Porsche in either class: the 91 Estre/Pilet/Tandy car expires, ironically laying oil throughout the Porsche curves…
still someone awake?
1.17 pm here in Melbourne so yeah, we are awake over here!
Great to see such a tight race after racing this long time!
Anyone else? Good morning!
Good morning. Slept for 5 hours and back up.
What’s going on suddenly? 7 incidents in 30 minutes! Clean race till 7 a.m. and suddenly they start fall like bowling pins.
Good job by the Race Director to let Porsche know that they can’t play the dirty game here. Aprreciate such governing, wish it was in F1 also.
^Appreciate
of course, in an endurance race, the blue flags (esp. for those many laps behind, and in a much slower category) also make a lot more sense than they do in F1; I agree, good move by the RD to make it clear right away so no one need even put effort into thinking about it :)
First time watching Le Mans 24 live. Loving it.
Sadly, I don’t have Eurosport2, so not currently having the full race anymore :(
oh, are they back again on eurosport1? Jay
oh, summary
This might help you.
http://tgctv.jimdo.com/
thanks – and I see that they are really back onto EUsport1 too, so I’m in again :)
Yeah, now it’ll be on Euro 1 till the flag.
Hope the top three can keep this going for another 5 hours
Well they have for the last 19 hours :)
#2 has played its card. They’ll only do full service once while Toyota has had done one and will have to do another. That’s fascinating and now Toyota will have to launch an attack on track.
Hi everyone, so its been changed quite a bit since this morning 1 am when I went to bed! Toyota both still running?
Yeah and looking like a Toyota 1, 2 at the moment
Maybe not, 6 just went off..
yeah, that could have been the end of their race! Fatigue setting in?
Can’t be, kobi just got in I think
ah, maybe he forgot his morning coffee! Guess he had to get back in a rithm then
Just about – Kamui just threw his one into the gravel. He’s 3rd anyway, not quite keeping up with the leaders’ pace. But he’s on his way again.
is the #2 now behind both again after stop?
Wow, steering failure?
Damaged nose broke off and went under his wheels! A bit like an F1 front wing
Bodywork under to front wheels..
So Webber just needs 39 F1 Safety cars to get back in this
Hi. Finally have a stream now.
well done, ready for the last 3 and a half hours
Hah, Ant put in his place by engineer about sticking to strategy and come in. Will they stay ahead?
Problems for the number six Toyota, that leaves the Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima car Without support up front.
number 6 Toyota – Sarrrazin really going for it,using all the track and a bit to get on.
Fourth spin for #28 at Mulsanne. Talk about changing your driver lineup! :)
Who’s commentating on Eurosport?
Of the three drivers in Toyota number six, the one I’d feel least comfortable having in the car at this point if I was the team boss is Nakajima.
<1 hour to go!
Is the race going to finish before F1 finishes the warm-up lap?
It’s usually a ceremonial finish but that may depend on how close the two leading cars are.
So to answer your question (!) I suspect either way the chequered flag will be a few minutes after the formation lap at Baku.
with a bit of luck the finish will be right when FOM starts the endless repeats of the start during lap 3 :-)
Toyota wisely pitting to cover Porsche’s last stop.
Really don’t agree with cars being forced to pit for something peripheral like their ‘leader lights’ not working.
Nakajima “has no power”
what an upset in the last few minutes!
Wow. Surely fate can’t be this cruel to Toyota.
indeed. Stopped a lap before the finish.
NNNNOOOO UNBELIEVABLE
OMG!!
1 lap to go and now it’s all over for Toyota. Unbelievable.
Staggering.
It’s a real shame that Toyota won’t win this but I’m happy that the Ford GT is going to win in its class!
I have to get away from screen, going to watch F1 start on tv – wow, gutting in penultimate lap.
Amazing! What a race
Actually can’t believe it !
Now onto F1
Well that was amazing. Thanks to those of you for joining in and see you soon for the next WEC round.
The Mexican marshals are going to be absolutely knackered from six consecutive hours of blue flag waving.
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for the Six Hours of COTA!
Strong start for Audi – interesting to see them getting one of the Porsches early on and the other Porsche is holding up the Toyotas.
Blimey strong move by Dumas to try to keep Conway behind.
I really need to go to one of these races at COTA! Very aggressive defensive move!
He’ll need that A/C unit to be working through the night!
Interesting to hear Whiting wants a proper kerb in place at turn 19 before the grand prix. Always see a lot of drivers going off there.
I’ve walked that hill at Turn 1 and it’s much steeper than it looks on the broadcast. Race not on broadcast TV but live-streaming on Fox.
I’ve walked that hill and it’s steeper than it looks in the flesh… And driving it you think you’re going to take off and never land!
Pretty hot in Texas even at this time of year and the heat lasts well after sunset.
Was that David Richards in the chair?
It’s unfortunate the American teams that do LeMans annually cannot race in the 6 Hours just for this race.
Tight confines in those cockpits! I miss the open cockpits.
Great close racing between the Audi and Porsche! Why does F1 need DRS again?
cool
Any idea which channel this will be on?
Best 5 euros i”ve spent on the live race with WEC app.
How far into the race are we, time wise? I’ve been sleeping.
5 hours to race start. Warm up just finished.
Hahah :) You haven’t missed anything just yet Alex.
6min left to the one of 2 best motorsport events (with Indy500) of the year!
Hello everyone and welcome to F1 Fanatic Live for one of my favourite races of the year – the Le Mans 24 Hours!
Hi all,
Tony K in for Seb in Chips Ford..cool..
Two minutes to go in LA, let the fun begin :)
Oh no Ollie’s car is down already :-(
Bummer!!
Live Timing Link.
http://www.lemans.org/fr/24-heures-du-mans
Another live timing link.
http://www.fiawec.com/en/live
And now an engine problem for the ByKolles car…
8 laps behind..and counting..groan.
Buemi puts the number eight Toyota ahead of Conway’s number seven car.
What a fight going on for GTE-P! Multiple manufacturers having it out!
1 hour already done and didn’t even realised.
Did he push him off or did the Porsche spin before him?
Looked to me like he pushed him off.
Sad for 88 – seemed blameless there to me.
It’s only gone downhill after pole for no. 26.
Such a good idea, these slow zones. Barrier repairs used to mean an hour behind the safety car.
Yup…I remember when you’re sleepy already and you’ve a safety car going on for an hour :D
Looks like Rusinov’s made it back in but the back of the G-Drive is clearly badly damaged.
Have to say so far Porsche look a bit more competitive than I expected. Still early days though!
Bruno Senna drove an impressive couple of stints in such a closely fought LMP2 category.
Both the Rebellion cars going well, built up a bit of a lead.
After two hours the leaders are:
LMP1: #7 Toyota – Conway/Kobayashi/Sarrazin
LMP2: #31 Rebellion – Prost/Beche/Heinemeier Hanson
GTE Pro: #95 Aston Martin – Sorensen/Thiim/Stanaway
GTE Am: #62 Ferrari – MacNeil/Sweedler/Bell
Costly tail light repair for Ford no. 69 when you’ve such a close GTE – Pro fight.
It’s just unbelievable how close GTE-Pro fights are with so many manufacturers!
High heat would really make it tricky for tire preservation.
Slow zone’s finally over. Apparently a grass fire delayed repairs!
Toyota may finally get that elusive victory this time.
Only when they take the chequered flag….no one knows this better than Toyota themselves!
Right now, broadcast only available on Fox Sports website until 12PM Central then it goes to FS2
Yeah….much more important to show bleeping NASCAR practicing going round and round in circles..
It is better to just watch online using the Fox app if you can. When they go to ads on TV the online feed continues to show the world feed.
I’d forgotten Porsche had given Tandy a crack in the LMP1 car again. Good to see.
Porsche has its dedicated in-car feed going on their website but Corvette Racing does not. Curious
I haven’t watched LM24 in a couple of years. So glad not to see the disgusting Marcos cars… I hated them.
Dunno what to make out of N Prost, he has struggled to match his team mate in Formula E over the years and hasn’t impressed either in LMP2.
Jean Todt in the Toyota pits. Probably trying to convince them to come back to F1 in 2020
Hats off to Kubica, turns out that stepping back from of the ByKolles LMP1 project to focus on F1 again was an almost prophetic decision.
Ooooh, hate to see any of the LMP Porsches in trouble
So a third of the LMP1 cars have hit trouble in the first 4 hours…LMP2 on the podium?
Should say I mean a third as in 1/3 of the field, not that 3 cars are in trouble.
I wouldn’t be surprised. If things get a bit crazy, the LMP1 race might become a complete farce. 6 cars on the grid – that’s not a crisis anymore, that’s a catastrophe.
Audi really left them in the lurch. But it’s also the WEC/FIA/ACO’s fault for failing to ensure LMP1 remained a viable customer class.
Guys, anybody know what this car is??? Some Peugeot I guess….
http://www.autosport.nu/bestanden/130623RB-6198.jpg
Got it! Praga R1 – a racing car sold for road use.
Anyone else having troubles with the official WEC streaming on the website?
Toyota may have been the lead team so far but you wouldn’t say their position is looking completely comfortable.
This is anyone’s game in LMP1, LMP2 and GTE-P
Ford GTs look great in the day, they look equally good in the dark! What illumination!
Don’t look quite as good in the gravel traps… Nice illumination on the rear engine cover though.
Safety Car for gravel? Hmm…
The Porsche 1 almost lost it entring the pit
Wow!
Toyota 7 with clutch issue, stuck at 1st gear
For now…LMP2 (no. 31) is on overall podium place!
Sad
for the #7 toyota, ugh and #9 puncture and worse. But, got to go sleep so good night everyone
This is unbelievable! I am at loss of words….3 cars against 2 and yet they’ve blown it….aah…gutted!
Toyota is saying they were hit by an LMP2 car. That had to be the Manor that crashed out.
So one more LMP1 to go before the LMP2-class fights for overall victory?
The #2 Porsche is running again and the Radio Le Mans guys are saying it should be able to catch up to the 1st LMP2, assuming the #2 doesn’t have any more issues.
At the moment 3 laps behind right?
Maybe !
Unbelievable, damn shame, gobsmacked, I go out for half an hour and….
Oh sweet googli moogli, a Porsche is in the lead, hah!
Good morning! 2 Porsches on the lead.
Incredible – Lotterer’s Porsche stops! Are we going to have an LMP2 winner?
Lotterer’s got out of his car…
There’s now a slow zone at the Mulsanne Kink where Lotterer has stopped – that’s going to make it harder for the other Porsche to catch up!
Are we sure the LMP1 cars aren’t secretly powered by Honda :-)
Oh noooo!!!! Hey, wait! Loterrer back in the car!
So the Oliver Jarvis/Ho-Pin Tung/Thomas Laurent ORECA-Gibson LMP2 is poised to take the lead, albeit in just under half an hour!
Porsche 2 vs yellow zone vs LMP2
Managed to get a decent amount of sleep but still seen all the drama in LMP1. Whilst this is fascinating to watch it is a shame to see just one LMP1 car with a chance of being on the podium
So we are in for an on-track battle for the lead once Porshe-2 catches the leading LMP2.
At the moment he should be able to do it comfortably but a Safety Car or a few slow zones could really tighten it up.
Porsche’2 might not push for win in order to save car and championship points. That would be underwhelming.
At Le Mans? Surely not.
The number one Porsche has now disappeared from live timing and the number 38 ORECA-Gibson LMP2 is shown as the race leader!
You have to say, the LMP1s have been extremely unlucky. The #1 Porsche and the #7 & #9 Toyotas had their issues in the worst possible place, being on the pit straight. We saw how close Toyota got to the pits – if they had their problems a KM or two later, they could’ve made it back to the garage, fixed it, and potentially finished.
Well no oil pressure aint exactly the easiest problem to fix so who knows.
Any live timing links please?
Rubens Barrichello looks totally exhausted sitting out of the car…
If Porsche’2 doesn’t win the race… Do they still get a trophy for winning their category (LMP1)? Hah :)
So the LMP1 race has indeed become farcical? I thought that was a possibility, not an inevitability …
By the way, the timestamps are a bit off. Unless the post-Brexit UK have decided to adjust their time zone to 1:15 behind the European mainland, that is.
Oreca n°38 with a 1’27” advantage over Porsche n°2.
Barring further trouble for the #2 Porsche or a long Safety Car phase, they won’t stand a chance.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they didn’t
And still the podiums not done, Le Mans so often proves to be surprising and always a big challenge to just finish.
Have to wonder if Rebellion had persisted with their LMP1 programme they might have been in a position to win this.
Or be 2 of 6 retirees, I guess?
Why not give the LMP2 cars 1000hp engines as well for next year? With the shortage of LMP1 competitors, you need them to represent the true speed of Le Mans cars.
The engines are the main difference between the categories and the primary source of costs. That’d only kill off the LMP2 field.
are this the 24 hours of Le Mans or the 24 hours of “dramatic shots of the pit crews that are more interesting than the race itself!”?
Amazing fight in GTE Pro!
Nice little fight there at the end.
Spectacular last lap!
Great race. Too bad Buemi’s Toyota was too far to fight for a podium at least.
I guess Ickx is right about Le Mans
What did he say?
What everyone says, that you don’t win Le Mans. Le Mans lets you win
Well Toyota’s bad luck hasn’t gone anywhere.
I guess we’re getting the last two hours live in California, Fox sports, on at 2PM..better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick I suppose.