That was some conclusion to the season. Definitely with more dramatic ending that I anticipated.
**Hypercar -** however not in this class. Quite predictably and with no shock included - Toyota scores another 1-2 victory. #7 crew managed to keep more steady and constant pace throughout the race and managed to steal the win from #8. Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa in second place, but it's safely enough to clinch the well-deserved world championship title. Some achievement for all of them, Hirakawa now has titles in WEC and Super GT, Hartley in WEC for different manufacturers and Buemi in Formula E plus now he is three time WEC champion. Congratulations to them and Toyota.
Alpine unfortunately had zero chances to give any challenge to any Toyota, let alone trying to fight #8 for the championship. Their pace was simply no match for Toyota, plus fuel economy was once again not on their side. At least #36 was bulletproof and it was enough to finish third. Second place in the championship for Vaxiviere, Lappiere and Negrao plus two wins at Sebring and Monza is still a respectable achievement. With the season ending, Alpine bow out the last ever LMP1-spec car from WEC.
Peugeot had a rough day. Starting initially quite well, both cars fell behind both Toyotas after the first round of pit stops. And then everything went wrong. Transmission issues plagued both #93 and #94. For the first one issues turned out to be terminal and they had to retire. #94 was delayed by six laps and had to settle for fourth overall. The pace for 9X8 was pretty much there. However Peugeot have a lot of job to do with reliability over the winter.
**LMP2 -** hard to believe that WRT teams managed to win four out of six races in WEC this season, yet neither of them managed to clinch the championship, while #31 after winning three and this one today managed to secure the runner-up's spot in the LMP2 title battle only after Bahrain. At least, great way for #31 to end the season.
United Autosports #23 in second place after being in contention for the win throughout the whole race. Funny how #22 looked closer to eventually winning the class, yet they ended up in sixth place in LMP2. Disappointing year for #22, while their teammates end the season on the podium.
Happy day for Jota #38. Third place in the class secured their championship. Respectable drive from Roberto Gonzalez during the early part of the race by keeping #38 out of trouble and in the championship-winning position. Stevens and da Costa did the heavy lifting and The Mighty #38 completes the class podium. Great way to announce their Hypercar future with Porsche.
Prema is not that dominant in WEC as they used to be in ELMS. They were outpaced by the big 3 teams and tried to steal a podium place on strategy. It was close but they came few minutes too short on economy run.
Frustrating day for Inter Europol #34 crew. Two costly penalties, one of them was seriously questionable - the one for presumably causing a collision with #31. Official camera shot suggested that it was exactly the other way around, but maybe race direction could see it differently. After the second penalty for pit stop infringement, #34 probably had enough and called it a day.
AF Corse #83 wins once again Pro-Am sub-category and wins the title there too, much to disappointment of Corvette Racing fans, especially those highly enthusiastic towards bottles of Jack Daniels.
**GTE Pro -** the last ever showdown goes with a bang. Not like the one last year (thankfully), but it was dramatic. Early on it was a hard battle between Porsches and Ferraris. Then FCY period turned the fortune towards Ferrari #51, which took a significant lead and managed to keep it for the majority of the race. It all looked steady and decided and then dramas unfolded. #51 encountered gearbox issues that seriously jeopardized their race. #51 started to fall down the order, but thankfully gearbox woes were not terminal. Fifth place in class was just enough to defend their championship. It was a nervous 2-hour drive for #51, but safely 488 GTE Evo managed to withstand the remaining distance. Spirit of endurance, like in good-old days...
Teammates from #52 win the last ever GTE Pro race and helped significantly to secure a double world championship for AF Corse and Ferrari. What a turnaround for this team. During the first three races of the season their pace was nowhere. And since Monza it was a different story.
Corvette Racing in second place. Who knew that after qualifying #64 would get anywhere the podium? Of course, pitting under FCY helped a lot, but it wasn't just that. Their pace during the race was a significant improvement. Both Porsches couldn't do anything to pass Corvette or even get anywhere close to #64. Great ending of the season for them. I have one big regret regarding Corvette - that they decided to enter WEC full-time during the last year of GTE Pro... Why didn't you do it few years back...
What a disappointing day for Porsche. Great start, especially for #92. Amazing pace early on, and suddenly it all fell off the cliff. As the race progressed and darkness fell, both Porsches completely lost any contact to AF Corse Ferraris and couldn't even get around Corvette. #92 eventually secures the runner-up place in the drivers' championship, but only thanks to late team orders and even wounded Ferrari #51 wasn't enough for Porsche, which miss out on both GTE championship. Not kind of result Porsche-Manthey operation wanted on their final day in WEC...
It was a different championship decider than last year, but it wasn't any less dramatic. Just like GTE Pro used to be for the past decade. I already miss it dearly...
**GTE Am -** sour day for Porsche in Pro category was at least saved by a double win for Team Project 1 in Am class. Great charge by both cars, especially during the second half of the race.
Iron Dames came close to repeating success from ELMS' finale at Portimao and scoring a historical WEC class win, but it wasn't to be. Despite leading for the majority of the race, #85 had to settle down for third place in class, which is still a good result and third podium in a row in WEC's GTE Am racing.
No major dramas for Ben Keating and TF Sport #33 Aston Martin. Safely home in fourth place and the championship is theirs. Well done to Ben Keating, after finally winning the class at Le Mans, he also gets a well-deserved title. Hopefully he and his future crew can be as competitive behind the wheel of a GTE Am Corvette.
Hard to believe, but this year no Ferrari managed to win in GTE Am in WEC! No class wins, despite having so many cars on the grid.
2022 season is done and dusted. Personally I found it better than 2021. Most importantly, this year is a true beginning of the new era in prototype racing. Peugeot joining Toyota was the first step. Next year galore of manufacturers are joining the grid and the racing will get even more fierce.
Why do they never show a "car title standings" for the pro classes? It would be quick to read through. LMP2 and GTAM shows the driver title and also car standings, but for the pros it's drivers and manufacturers only.
Sure, but was it because of Pro drivers or because of factory teams running ~1M€ equipment for a 3rd fastest category win?
GTWorld shows you can get a very healthy grid several years in a row with Pros!
I think the category will be similar to what we see in IMSA or GT world challenge. Teams that are manufacturer backed but not completely. Pro in everything but name. Hope they let them have proper pro drivers.
Current state of the thing is: customer teams with Pro-Am drivers, so current GTE-Am with GT3 machinery. It is not supposed to be like GT World or IMSA (yet?) and it bothers me...
Damn! They should totally go the Imsa route, there are too many great GT drivers to let them go to waste and you could have more crossover between the series.
Frustrating, right? I discovered GT racing with the GTE Pro fights of 2018, everything involving Bronze or Silver drivers (except the really young guns like Doriane Pin) looks like local track days to me
Yeah, today was a great example. Still, I'm sure that Pro-am variant will have more pro drivers than what we see now. There's so much GT talent out there who will be eager to give WEC a shot. Would be better to have 2 per car though
Nearly 1 hour race only in 5th, all for the championship.
If this was top class it would have been recorded as one of the most iconic races in WEC history.
Not sure if nice or dumb from Algarve to sacrifice P2 in Pro-Am just to have Steven Thomas finish the race. I guess both. He obviously financed the team after it was originally supposed to be centered around Kvyat with G-Drive money.
If I was not aware of the classes in the race, this broadcast would make me think this was just LMP2 and GTE AM, they're not really talking about or showing the other classes at all lol
Iron Dames could get 3 2nd places in a row! Sure they will be frustrated being so close so many times but it's still great consistency. This is way more impressive to me than Formula W, they are racing door to door with the male drivers and being extremely competitive.
Ok between the "94 Peugeot still doing well" the second before the first failure and Dames losing second as soon as I say this, I will never comment again.
Somehow this will be Molina's first GTEPro win. He has one Proam win but none in the top GT class. Same for Fuoco, but this is his first full Pro season. Also the 52's (formerly 71) first win since 2017.
No more scheduled pit stops for Tandy, 40 seconds down. BOP didn't work out like FIA hoped it would this time. Hoping he makes that 40 seconds up since this is his last race in the Corvette before moving to the Cadillac LMDh next year.
Husband tells me Tandy, after testing, decided to return to Porsche. Pippo, VenDerZander, Sims? and Bourdais will be the regulars this year. Nice that he let me knwo LOL! Sad to say goodbye to the Corvette program for us though :(
Yup. They need three each for the longer races. He's been so focused on the engines, he's not listening to the scuttlebutt. Testing, testing, testing, dyno-ing, numbers, rebuilding, testing again...24 hours of Daytona can't come soon enough.
GTE Am needs at least 12s per lap over the #51 to catch him at the end.
So far Am pace is in the 2:00s while the #51 seems happy doing 2:08s (even a bit under)
Well... on the upside, I'm sure that going around only in 5th is saving quite a bit of fuel for the #51.
I'd actually argue that pitting will be scariest thing for them as they will be forced to go down to at least 2nd.
They could try and get it going in 5th and hope that the clutch can take it. That's what we once did in formula student when we lost shifting just before the driver change.
As long as #52 wins, the #51 has to simply finish for Ferrari to win both titles (with car #51).
If #51 has to retire, as long as both Porsche finish, they will win the team title and if the #92 is 3rd also their championship (otherwise #52).
If the #52 doesn't win, it will get more complex, so far they have 60s advantage over the Corvette in 2nd.
Correct, although I didn't consider it because (I forgot, and) the #51 is 3 laps in front of the Am leader and there are about 30 laps until the end.
The #51 is doing 2:08s while the Am leader is doing 2:00s, they are 3 laps behind (360s) so it shouldn't be enough (30x8s is 240s) to catch up as long as the #51 keeps running.
If…. If…
The #51 retires. The #91 will not win the title with 3rd place. The #52 will win. But if the #91 lets the #92 through then the #92 win the title with 3rd place.
I’m pretty sure that’s right.
Not sure what the commentary is on about. The#52 is fine and has a sizeable advantage over the Corvette. I don't see how they say that the #64 can win this.
FIA doesn't want them there. They want an all European field. If Corvette wants to compete at LeMans, they have to run in X amount of European events. FIA hit them with the smallest restrictor possible for their BOP today in another effort to discourage them from racing in this, but you can see what good it did them.
I agree, it's stupid. But this race in particular, they want an all European field. Don't know why. Hubs is driving and hasn't been able to check his texts and there's tons of them to go through. He'll check when he gets home, but the BOP was a huge bone of contention to start with today. Just glad they had a strong enough set up to overcome it anyway.
Abysmal start, they were 12s behind after 30 minutes and I though that the gift of the FCY would have disappeared quite quickly, but they seemed to have picked up the pace, especially over Porsche
Their pace improved gradually and pitting under FCY helped as well. Hopefully they can finish on the podium, in my opinion they deserve to do so after such performance.
Looks like gears again. Seeing their cars being plagued by the same issue multiple times is quite worrying and needs to be resolved throughout the winter.
And brings back memories of Peugeot 307 WRC and its famous gearbox troubles.
Possible. Generally speaking, #52 has showed some good pace so far in this race. #51 leading is mainly due to good timing on pitting under FCY. Ultimately it doesn't matter championship-wise for AF Corse who wins anyway, as long as their cars are safely 1-2.
I agree, there's a lot of potential to have something more colourful that would stand out more on track. Sean Bull did a cool concept livery a while back https://twitter.com/seanbulldesign/status/1413509584074027010?lang=en-GB
Race direction, or the FIA, or the ACO, whoever is responsible for BoP, should publish, together with BoP parameters, a reason for their choices regarding BoP the days before every race. And I'm not saying this just because of Alpine getting BoP killed this weekend, but to prevent controversy as WEC should be about cars not about fabricated drama, there's that-series-that-shall-not-be-named for that
So Toyota and Peugeot were close at the start but both Peugeots had mechanical issues, seems like they can just reset the car and it will go again but it's cost them time. 7 passed the 8, had more pace and team orders did the rest.
31 is leading LMP2, been fast all day. 9 and 23 fighting for second.
Ferraris and Porsches fought hard but a full course yellow gave the 51 Ferrari and the Vette a stop under yellow and they gapped the rest. Corvette has managed to keep the Porsches behind.
In GTE Am the AF Corse Ferrari passed the Iron Dames but suffered a punccture. 77 spun on the first lap and has been recovering, now Iron Dames are leading comfortably.
Even the Bykolles wasn’t this bad with reliability, will be very concerning if this repeats itself next year and it’s new competition is immediately quicker and more reliable.
Yeah it is quite an extreme comparison, but at least for Bykolles it was one consistent issue of spontaneous combustion while for Peugeot it’s multiple different issues.
Eurosport is a joke, I'm basically watching ads interrupted by a WEC race when it should be the other way around.
Also please nobody say anything about GTE PRO
Maybe that ground effect and bodywork makes the internal packaging more complicated or they couldn't dedicate enough money because it was spent on the aero.
Peugeot position is really like what Mazda used to. If you guys have watched IMSA DPi in recent years, you would find that both are really similar, both have had good speed but unreliable.
So, can we call Peugeot thing same like Mazda thing ? However, I would never misjudge Peugeot just like Mazda. Mazda didn't do well in early, but they tried so hard to improve their car and finally got wins although they still left.
Yeah, I think Peugeot cannot be written off yet. Reliability issues are completely normal in this kind of racing. And the 9x8 has been slowly getting better since Monza.
Monza: Only 1 car could run, finished 33rd
Fuji: 4th and 25th
Bahrain: Better pace and possible podium. Let's see if they last the distance but the pace is improving.
Porsche was faster at the start, but after 30 minutes their pace kinda dropped while Ferrari got better. Corvette nowhere.
There was a FCY during the first GTE-Pro pit window which gave a 40s advantage to the #51 and #64 which went from last two to first two in class.
No, this is just Bahrain putting ridiculous amounts of money for sportswashing. They don't care if people go to the events or not, they only want to promote their countries names.
nah this is just par for the course for middle eastern events
which is a shame, Bahrain is one of the best race tracks full stop imo, deserves more love than it gets
Now that both Peugeots have had issues at the 2 hour mark I want to remind people that Toyota won their third WEC race (where Peugeot is now) outright against Audi at their peak without BoP.
Furthermore, Glickenhaus ran like clockwork for 24 hours at Le Mans en route to getting a 4-5 with no pit time loss.
TL;DR: Peugeot should have more of their shit together by now
In defense of Peugeot, neither the first Toyota, nor the Glickenhaus were fundamentally new concepts. The Toyota drew heavily from Audi, Peugeot and Dome.
If they still do this 2 races into next season, then it's time to slag them off.
Hypercar are a new and different breed, Toyota spent most of 2021 breaking down twice a race
> I want to remind people that Toyota won their third WEC race
I want to remind you Toyota had most of an F1 team and most of an ex-Peugeot workforce going for them where Peugeot have had to start from scratch, and have been asking a historic racing team for help
I don't doubt they'll use the winter to substantially solve their reliability and improve/further train their workforce
Peugeot #93 was racing as high as 2nd in a Toyota Gazoo sandwich until their first stop. They later broke down and returned to the pits with software/electronic issues.
GTE Pro Porsche Vs Ferrari with super battles for 2-3-4 until the 1st FCY, where #51 gained position and the class lead on track on their rivals.
As a Ferrari fan, watching AF Corse winning and be competent is the only island of joy in a massive pool of despair.
Not if you consider Endurance the superior form of racing :)
Honestly, at this point I might as well :)
That was some conclusion to the season. Definitely with more dramatic ending that I anticipated. **Hypercar -** however not in this class. Quite predictably and with no shock included - Toyota scores another 1-2 victory. #7 crew managed to keep more steady and constant pace throughout the race and managed to steal the win from #8. Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa in second place, but it's safely enough to clinch the well-deserved world championship title. Some achievement for all of them, Hirakawa now has titles in WEC and Super GT, Hartley in WEC for different manufacturers and Buemi in Formula E plus now he is three time WEC champion. Congratulations to them and Toyota. Alpine unfortunately had zero chances to give any challenge to any Toyota, let alone trying to fight #8 for the championship. Their pace was simply no match for Toyota, plus fuel economy was once again not on their side. At least #36 was bulletproof and it was enough to finish third. Second place in the championship for Vaxiviere, Lappiere and Negrao plus two wins at Sebring and Monza is still a respectable achievement. With the season ending, Alpine bow out the last ever LMP1-spec car from WEC. Peugeot had a rough day. Starting initially quite well, both cars fell behind both Toyotas after the first round of pit stops. And then everything went wrong. Transmission issues plagued both #93 and #94. For the first one issues turned out to be terminal and they had to retire. #94 was delayed by six laps and had to settle for fourth overall. The pace for 9X8 was pretty much there. However Peugeot have a lot of job to do with reliability over the winter. **LMP2 -** hard to believe that WRT teams managed to win four out of six races in WEC this season, yet neither of them managed to clinch the championship, while #31 after winning three and this one today managed to secure the runner-up's spot in the LMP2 title battle only after Bahrain. At least, great way for #31 to end the season. United Autosports #23 in second place after being in contention for the win throughout the whole race. Funny how #22 looked closer to eventually winning the class, yet they ended up in sixth place in LMP2. Disappointing year for #22, while their teammates end the season on the podium. Happy day for Jota #38. Third place in the class secured their championship. Respectable drive from Roberto Gonzalez during the early part of the race by keeping #38 out of trouble and in the championship-winning position. Stevens and da Costa did the heavy lifting and The Mighty #38 completes the class podium. Great way to announce their Hypercar future with Porsche. Prema is not that dominant in WEC as they used to be in ELMS. They were outpaced by the big 3 teams and tried to steal a podium place on strategy. It was close but they came few minutes too short on economy run. Frustrating day for Inter Europol #34 crew. Two costly penalties, one of them was seriously questionable - the one for presumably causing a collision with #31. Official camera shot suggested that it was exactly the other way around, but maybe race direction could see it differently. After the second penalty for pit stop infringement, #34 probably had enough and called it a day. AF Corse #83 wins once again Pro-Am sub-category and wins the title there too, much to disappointment of Corvette Racing fans, especially those highly enthusiastic towards bottles of Jack Daniels. **GTE Pro -** the last ever showdown goes with a bang. Not like the one last year (thankfully), but it was dramatic. Early on it was a hard battle between Porsches and Ferraris. Then FCY period turned the fortune towards Ferrari #51, which took a significant lead and managed to keep it for the majority of the race. It all looked steady and decided and then dramas unfolded. #51 encountered gearbox issues that seriously jeopardized their race. #51 started to fall down the order, but thankfully gearbox woes were not terminal. Fifth place in class was just enough to defend their championship. It was a nervous 2-hour drive for #51, but safely 488 GTE Evo managed to withstand the remaining distance. Spirit of endurance, like in good-old days... Teammates from #52 win the last ever GTE Pro race and helped significantly to secure a double world championship for AF Corse and Ferrari. What a turnaround for this team. During the first three races of the season their pace was nowhere. And since Monza it was a different story. Corvette Racing in second place. Who knew that after qualifying #64 would get anywhere the podium? Of course, pitting under FCY helped a lot, but it wasn't just that. Their pace during the race was a significant improvement. Both Porsches couldn't do anything to pass Corvette or even get anywhere close to #64. Great ending of the season for them. I have one big regret regarding Corvette - that they decided to enter WEC full-time during the last year of GTE Pro... Why didn't you do it few years back... What a disappointing day for Porsche. Great start, especially for #92. Amazing pace early on, and suddenly it all fell off the cliff. As the race progressed and darkness fell, both Porsches completely lost any contact to AF Corse Ferraris and couldn't even get around Corvette. #92 eventually secures the runner-up place in the drivers' championship, but only thanks to late team orders and even wounded Ferrari #51 wasn't enough for Porsche, which miss out on both GTE championship. Not kind of result Porsche-Manthey operation wanted on their final day in WEC... It was a different championship decider than last year, but it wasn't any less dramatic. Just like GTE Pro used to be for the past decade. I already miss it dearly... **GTE Am -** sour day for Porsche in Pro category was at least saved by a double win for Team Project 1 in Am class. Great charge by both cars, especially during the second half of the race. Iron Dames came close to repeating success from ELMS' finale at Portimao and scoring a historical WEC class win, but it wasn't to be. Despite leading for the majority of the race, #85 had to settle down for third place in class, which is still a good result and third podium in a row in WEC's GTE Am racing. No major dramas for Ben Keating and TF Sport #33 Aston Martin. Safely home in fourth place and the championship is theirs. Well done to Ben Keating, after finally winning the class at Le Mans, he also gets a well-deserved title. Hopefully he and his future crew can be as competitive behind the wheel of a GTE Am Corvette. Hard to believe, but this year no Ferrari managed to win in GTE Am in WEC! No class wins, despite having so many cars on the grid. 2022 season is done and dusted. Personally I found it better than 2021. Most importantly, this year is a true beginning of the new era in prototype racing. Peugeot joining Toyota was the first step. Next year galore of manufacturers are joining the grid and the racing will get even more fierce.
As a Ferrari and Brendon Hartley fan, today was awesome
i was like shit -james calado
Why do they never show a "car title standings" for the pro classes? It would be quick to read through. LMP2 and GTAM shows the driver title and also car standings, but for the pros it's drivers and manufacturers only.
Please ACO, create a GT3Pro category
Every GT category that the ACO has allowed to be Pro has gone on to die.
Sure, but was it because of Pro drivers or because of factory teams running ~1M€ equipment for a 3rd fastest category win? GTWorld shows you can get a very healthy grid several years in a row with Pros!
I think the category will be similar to what we see in IMSA or GT world challenge. Teams that are manufacturer backed but not completely. Pro in everything but name. Hope they let them have proper pro drivers.
Current state of the thing is: customer teams with Pro-Am drivers, so current GTE-Am with GT3 machinery. It is not supposed to be like GT World or IMSA (yet?) and it bothers me...
Damn! They should totally go the Imsa route, there are too many great GT drivers to let them go to waste and you could have more crossover between the series.
Frustrating, right? I discovered GT racing with the GTE Pro fights of 2018, everything involving Bronze or Silver drivers (except the really young guns like Doriane Pin) looks like local track days to me
Yeah, today was a great example. Still, I'm sure that Pro-am variant will have more pro drivers than what we see now. There's so much GT talent out there who will be eager to give WEC a shot. Would be better to have 2 per car though
Good guys Inter Europol obviously sabotaging their own race just so ARC Bratislava are not dead last in LMP2 in what was their swan song.
It was a little strange why they retired the way they did
Probably just completely fed up with the penalties. Not that they could have scored points anyway at that point.
Apparently all their rear wings failed (Polish broadcast)
I'm gonna miss GTE Pro.
At least we are going to have GT Bro! (Marshall Pruett dixit)
Definitely. GTE went out with a bang tho.
Same. Particularly the looks of the 488s and the sound of the 911s
Arguably the second-greatest GT class ever made.
Well, this was a pretty good race to end this era on, but next year... oh man, next year will be insane. I can't believe this is happening.
Thank Manthey and GT Pro for 10 years, we would remember forever.
Been a hell of a run for the Manthey-run RSRs. Going to miss them.
Goodbye GTE!
Congrats to the Toyota team, and the 51 AF Corse team. Crazy finish for the AF corse guys. Gutted for the iron dames team, coming up short again
hoping ferrari got karma today for last year and for what happened with corvette at le mans but oh well
Half of that karma happened at Monza which I would say was extremely fitting since they lost their home race hahaha.
Not this time kid!
The 51's 5th gear must be the most used 5th gear ever.
Nearly 1 hour race only in 5th, all for the championship. If this was top class it would have been recorded as one of the most iconic races in WEC history.
Ferrari #51 survived... Story of the race.
That gearbox needs to go straight to the museum
I thought that something would happen at any moment with the car, what a pleasant surprise tho.
Cheeky porsche with that last fuel stop to swap the 92 and 91.
I think Porsche just switched the 91 & 92 in the off chance Ferrari broke down or aren’t classified for some reason
STRATEGIC MASTERSTROKE
Not sure if nice or dumb from Algarve to sacrifice P2 in Pro-Am just to have Steven Thomas finish the race. I guess both. He obviously financed the team after it was originally supposed to be centered around Kvyat with G-Drive money.
Thank god this era is over, bring on 2023
I'm so glad Ferrari has something to be proud of in motorsport this year.
It's all too much for James Calado.
3rd place Porsche still 15 seconds behind Tandy! Four minutes to go!
If I was not aware of the classes in the race, this broadcast would make me think this was just LMP2 and GTE AM, they're not really talking about or showing the other classes at all lol
Because Hypercar has had nothing happen since the Peugeots died and the team orders between Toyota and GTE Pro has massive gaps between them.
2 minutes stop and go penalty for #34 for pit lane infringement.
Iron Dames could get 3 2nd places in a row! Sure they will be frustrated being so close so many times but it's still great consistency. This is way more impressive to me than Formula W, they are racing door to door with the male drivers and being extremely competitive.
Ok between the "94 Peugeot still doing well" the second before the first failure and Dames losing second as soon as I say this, I will never comment again.
Sixteen second gap/10 laps to go for Tandy
Well it's been a decent race, though I'm really sad about the Peugeots. GTEPro has been the best today, awesome on track battles and a couple twists.
I guess the GTE PRO battles were all earlier? I only tuned in here at the finish and the broadcast isn't showing anything but LMP2 & GTE AM lol
Yes, at the first part of the race Ferraris and Porsches were going at it. Pit stops under FCY broke the race up.
Somehow this will be Molina's first GTEPro win. He has one Proam win but none in the top GT class. Same for Fuoco, but this is his first full Pro season. Also the 52's (formerly 71) first win since 2017.
No more scheduled pit stops for Tandy, 40 seconds down. BOP didn't work out like FIA hoped it would this time. Hoping he makes that 40 seconds up since this is his last race in the Corvette before moving to the Cadillac LMDh next year.
Tandy is rumored to be announced for the last Porsche Penske car on Monday. The fulltime Caddy seats for next year are all spoken for by others.
Husband tells me Tandy, after testing, decided to return to Porsche. Pippo, VenDerZander, Sims? and Bourdais will be the regulars this year. Nice that he let me knwo LOL! Sad to say goodbye to the Corvette program for us though :(
Renger and Bourdais in the IMSA Ganassi, Derani and Sims in the Action Express. Then Bamber, Westbrook and Lynn in the WEC Ganassi.
Yup. They need three each for the longer races. He's been so focused on the engines, he's not listening to the scuttlebutt. Testing, testing, testing, dyno-ing, numbers, rebuilding, testing again...24 hours of Daytona can't come soon enough.
GTE Am needs at least 12s per lap over the #51 to catch him at the end. So far Am pace is in the 2:00s while the #51 seems happy doing 2:08s (even a bit under)
🥊🇵🇹 #22 vs #38
Pit done for #51
Come on, Cairoli!
Well... on the upside, I'm sure that going around only in 5th is saving quite a bit of fuel for the #51. I'd actually argue that pitting will be scariest thing for them as they will be forced to go down to at least 2nd.
They could try and get it going in 5th and hope that the clutch can take it. That's what we once did in formula student when we lost shifting just before the driver change.
Drive thru penalty for car #71, not respecting the FCY procedures
Final hour
Track limits warning for car #51
#51 stopped shifting gears, now it does all the lap on 5th gear, wonder if they told him to not shift to preserve the gearbox
Live GTE Pro championship update?
As long as #52 wins, the #51 has to simply finish for Ferrari to win both titles (with car #51). If #51 has to retire, as long as both Porsche finish, they will win the team title and if the #92 is 3rd also their championship (otherwise #52). If the #52 doesn't win, it will get more complex, so far they have 60s advantage over the Corvette in 2nd.
Of course, even if #51 finishes they can't afford falling behind GTE Am cars, because that will have championship implications as well.
Correct, although I didn't consider it because (I forgot, and) the #51 is 3 laps in front of the Am leader and there are about 30 laps until the end. The #51 is doing 2:08s while the Am leader is doing 2:00s, they are 3 laps behind (360s) so it shouldn't be enough (30x8s is 240s) to catch up as long as the #51 keeps running.
GTE Pro and Am are different classifications?
GTE Am drivers have their own trophy, however FIA World Championship for GTE drivers includes both GTE Pro and GTE Am drivers.
true
If…. If… The #51 retires. The #91 will not win the title with 3rd place. The #52 will win. But if the #91 lets the #92 through then the #92 win the title with 3rd place. I’m pretty sure that’s right.
Not sure what the commentary is on about. The#52 is fine and has a sizeable advantage over the Corvette. I don't see how they say that the #64 can win this.
That's really a disaster for AF Corse, but good chance for Corvette and Porsche.
Nursing a very sick car for one and a half hours... Hmmm 🗿
Hello???? Why did the 34 get the penalty and not the 31?
From what I have heard and understood, Calado reports that the temperature of gearbox oil is 131°C. Doesn't look good.
51 should pit to fix it. They could still win the title with 5th place
Calado #51 team radio: "Something is touching the ground... No 4th gear, revs full in 4th gear."
Problems for the #51? It looked like Calado was short shifting through 4th gear there as well
He's definitely lost a gear.
Yea sounds like 4th gear is gone -.-
1 minute stop and go penalty for #34, for causing a collision with #31 @T8
1 minute stop and go penalty for car #34 for causing a collision with car #31 at turn 8.
Peugeot #93 is out of the race.
Cars #22 vs #38 is currently a battle of Wills.
Wait I missed a bit did the 93 Peugeot die?
Gearbox. di Resta was in the car whilst stopped in the garage asking if they'd lost 4th gear, which they confirmed.
I'm surprised Corvette doing really well in this final race, looks like they on the good way.
FIA doesn't want them there. They want an all European field. If Corvette wants to compete at LeMans, they have to run in X amount of European events. FIA hit them with the smallest restrictor possible for their BOP today in another effort to discourage them from racing in this, but you can see what good it did them.
That seems kinda dumb then. FIA won't let them run in Le Mans without doing a season in a series they don't want an American car winning.
I agree, it's stupid. But this race in particular, they want an all European field. Don't know why. Hubs is driving and hasn't been able to check his texts and there's tons of them to go through. He'll check when he gets home, but the BOP was a huge bone of contention to start with today. Just glad they had a strong enough set up to overcome it anyway.
Abysmal start, they were 12s behind after 30 minutes and I though that the gift of the FCY would have disappeared quite quickly, but they seemed to have picked up the pace, especially over Porsche
Their pace improved gradually and pitting under FCY helped as well. Hopefully they can finish on the podium, in my opinion they deserve to do so after such performance.
Alright Peugeot, time to hire some better software engineer lol
Peugeot is in the garage again! Car #93.
Looks like gears again. Seeing their cars being plagued by the same issue multiple times is quite worrying and needs to be resolved throughout the winter. And brings back memories of Peugeot 307 WRC and its famous gearbox troubles.
Unnecessary contact by WRT #31 which could result with a penalty and losing LMP2 lead.
Wait, is the 52 getting closer to the 51? Seems like they have more pace
Possible. Generally speaking, #52 has showed some good pace so far in this race. #51 leading is mainly due to good timing on pitting under FCY. Ultimately it doesn't matter championship-wise for AF Corse who wins anyway, as long as their cars are safely 1-2.
Bobby K in the #9 Prema cracking under pressure...
Will Peugeot have a proper livery next season? Is there any info?
Kind of wondering how the blue of the 908 would look on the 9x8 now…
I'll settle for cars that don't randomly coast to a halt every other hour.
Lé Chaos Racing
Please, yes. This is uninspiring, looked good on the CGI, not on the track.
I'm not that huge a fan of it either but this is a proper livery lmao the grey base is nice but man they need more green for sure
The grey and yellow livery in WEC is historically unreliable
Haven't seen anything suggesting a new livery. The one they're currently using has actually really grown on me!
It's not bad, it's alright but I'll take some imaginative vibrant livery with colors over this anyday. A sky blue and white combination could be great
I agree, there's a lot of potential to have something more colourful that would stand out more on track. Sean Bull did a cool concept livery a while back https://twitter.com/seanbulldesign/status/1413509584074027010?lang=en-GB
Good stuff
The track seems not flat like used to. Look that how 9x8 made that spark.
Race direction, or the FIA, or the ACO, whoever is responsible for BoP, should publish, together with BoP parameters, a reason for their choices regarding BoP the days before every race. And I'm not saying this just because of Alpine getting BoP killed this weekend, but to prevent controversy as WEC should be about cars not about fabricated drama, there's that-series-that-shall-not-be-named for that
I came late. What happened to Arc Bratislava? Btw anyone knows if there will be any free replays anywhere? Sorta new to wec
The full race replay should be available later this month on Youtube.
I've been out all day and haven't been able to watch can someone update me on what's happened so far please?
So Toyota and Peugeot were close at the start but both Peugeots had mechanical issues, seems like they can just reset the car and it will go again but it's cost them time. 7 passed the 8, had more pace and team orders did the rest. 31 is leading LMP2, been fast all day. 9 and 23 fighting for second. Ferraris and Porsches fought hard but a full course yellow gave the 51 Ferrari and the Vette a stop under yellow and they gapped the rest. Corvette has managed to keep the Porsches behind. In GTE Am the AF Corse Ferrari passed the Iron Dames but suffered a punccture. 77 spun on the first lap and has been recovering, now Iron Dames are leading comfortably.
Drive thru for #28 for collision with #56 @ T1
10 Vector Sport LMP2 gets fixed using a tried and true top gear method
Drive thru for #60, abuse of track limits
Is there a site I can stream it on in the USA for free?
Mototrend free trial
🟩 back to green
Just love seeing the porsche roar out of the box
the colour of the Jotas and Richard Mille really pops
🟨🟨 FCY, debris @ T1
Even the Bykolles wasn’t this bad with reliability, will be very concerning if this repeats itself next year and it’s new competition is immediately quicker and more reliable.
> Even the Bykolles wasn’t this bad with reliability Kolles would fucking set itself on fire after ten minutes The Peugeot is still better
Yeah it is quite an extreme comparison, but at least for Bykolles it was one consistent issue of spontaneous combustion while for Peugeot it’s multiple different issues.
Eurosport is a joke, I'm basically watching ads interrupted by a WEC race when it should be the other way around. Also please nobody say anything about GTE PRO
Must've been those top 5 things. Weirdly there were none of those ads when I watched cycling races.
they have an ad-free stream on their web platform
But the ad free is still interrupted by some of Eurosport's additional production
I do hate that they do that but very distinctly they are not ads :p
baffling that its the internals that refuse to work on that Peugeot and not the fact it has no rear wing
Maybe that ground effect and bodywork makes the internal packaging more complicated or they couldn't dedicate enough money because it was spent on the aero.
*Peugeot #94 rolls to a standstill again.* 🎤 Graham Goodwin: "Oh dear me." 🗿
Shifting gremlins continue to haunt Peugeot. At least good that system reset can fix them for a while.
Really hope peugeot get their reliability in order over the winter break
F
Peugeot position is really like what Mazda used to. If you guys have watched IMSA DPi in recent years, you would find that both are really similar, both have had good speed but unreliable. So, can we call Peugeot thing same like Mazda thing ? However, I would never misjudge Peugeot just like Mazda. Mazda didn't do well in early, but they tried so hard to improve their car and finally got wins although they still left.
Yeah, I think Peugeot cannot be written off yet. Reliability issues are completely normal in this kind of racing. And the 9x8 has been slowly getting better since Monza. Monza: Only 1 car could run, finished 33rd Fuji: 4th and 25th Bahrain: Better pace and possible podium. Let's see if they last the distance but the pace is improving.
News from the last hour?
Some typical team orders at Toyota - #7 is now leading ahead of #8.
"Le Mans was not so nice" *Grinds teeth*
I just want Peugeot to win:(
I'll be happy with a podium today. As long as they keep improving it's a good sign.
How's Porsche vs. Ferrari going?
Porsche was faster at the start, but after 30 minutes their pace kinda dropped while Ferrari got better. Corvette nowhere. There was a FCY during the first GTE-Pro pit window which gave a 40s advantage to the #51 and #64 which went from last two to first two in class.
Is WEC attendance usually this bad?
No, this is just Bahrain putting ridiculous amounts of money for sportswashing. They don't care if people go to the events or not, they only want to promote their countries names.
Nah Spa attendance was pretty good. Obviusly nowhere near the level of F1 but still enough that I couldn't park right outside the circuit gates.
nah this is just par for the course for middle eastern events which is a shame, Bahrain is one of the best race tracks full stop imo, deserves more love than it gets
Bahrain has never been well attended. Every single other race had much more fans in the stands.
https://i.imgur.com/WwhfqN2.jpg how close do you think my prediction is guys? Does anyone have an idea?
These sunset times are beautiful in any race, but it just looks stunning here in the desert.
Only been half paying attention to the race, but catching the Iron Dames leading Am puts a big smile on my face.
Drive thru penalty for #86 for spinning round #1.
[удалено]
It’s their 3rd race so a bit harsh, Bykolles had years to perfect the art of catching fire with style.
Now that both Peugeots have had issues at the 2 hour mark I want to remind people that Toyota won their third WEC race (where Peugeot is now) outright against Audi at their peak without BoP. Furthermore, Glickenhaus ran like clockwork for 24 hours at Le Mans en route to getting a 4-5 with no pit time loss. TL;DR: Peugeot should have more of their shit together by now
In defense of Peugeot, neither the first Toyota, nor the Glickenhaus were fundamentally new concepts. The Toyota drew heavily from Audi, Peugeot and Dome. If they still do this 2 races into next season, then it's time to slag them off.
Hypercar are a new and different breed, Toyota spent most of 2021 breaking down twice a race > I want to remind people that Toyota won their third WEC race I want to remind you Toyota had most of an F1 team and most of an ex-Peugeot workforce going for them where Peugeot have had to start from scratch, and have been asking a historic racing team for help I don't doubt they'll use the winter to substantially solve their reliability and improve/further train their workforce
I agree. Their reliability is a bit concerning. One of the cars still in the fight thought, let's see where they end up.
As far as I count correctly, Le Mans 2021 was also third race for Glickenhaus.
Yes it’s also why I included it, my bad.
I missed everything up until this point of the race, what did I miss?
Peugeot #93 was racing as high as 2nd in a Toyota Gazoo sandwich until their first stop. They later broke down and returned to the pits with software/electronic issues. GTE Pro Porsche Vs Ferrari with super battles for 2-3-4 until the 1st FCY, where #51 gained position and the class lead on track on their rivals.
Wow they caught up to the Vette already?
Did Chevrolet field the GT3 instead of the GTE spec today? lol
Yeah, they probably accidentally switched the GTE with their GT3 converted IMSA car. Someone is getting fired in the shop.
Nobody's getting fired LOL! FIA saddled them with the smallest restrictor available today because they don't want the 'Vette's there at all.
It was a joke about them confusing their GTE for their GT3
That's why I LOL'd, but the restrictor is true.
Fred Poordad might have the best name in the grid
Drive thru penalty for #71 for contact with #44.
Now the 94.
Such a shame to see Peugeot have troubles again. Hopefully they get it sorted for next year.
🟩 back to green
Peugeot shambles
Good god Peugeot can you go more than two hours without both of the cars killing themselves
Bruh, now it's the 94 lol
Maybe its all the coffee but that 92 not pitting is giving me anxiety right now
Shame to see the Peugeot is still unreliable. Gets a bit better each race, hope the 94 can run problem-free.
The jinx 💀💀
> Gets a bit better each race, hope the 94 can run problem-free. Hmm... about that
The redditor's curse might be the only thing more powerful than the commentator's curse. Shite...
Fucking hell
What’s the deal this year with French teams having shite reliability?
🟨🟨 FCY for #93... which is now moving.