I was gonna say...but you beat me to it. Want Ferrari of course but Aston looks competitive.....Porsche highly likely.
Aston Martin (which is on pole oh by the way) is also in the class. My vote goes for AF Corse Ferrari, keen to avenge their embarrassing result from last year when both entires DNF'd with parts failures. They qualified second and fourth and have been consistent in the first two races this year. Honestly, too close to call though. It's going to be a helluva race in GTE Pro and Am. As usual, whomever avoids problems, cut tires, delays in the pits, etc. and runs to strategy will win. They were talking on Radio Le Mans yesterday how it could be possible that a GTE Pro car could crack into the top five and even top three to garner a podium finish. The Porsche 919 had some overheating issues during second qualifying and weather is supposed to be sunny and hot through race weekend which could cause reliability issues with P1 and P2 cars. BHW
Interestingly Toyota could be handicapped by hot weather as the rules mandate a change of driver every 80 minutes for cars that don't have aircon, if the temperature reaches 32 degree. The Porsche have aircon, but not the Toyota! That would throw Toyota pit stop schedule out the window, since they plan to refuel every 55 minutes. Being an inveterate Porsche supporter, I pray for scorching weather !!!
Haha! Yes, they mentioned that on Radio Le Mans the brief time I had it on this morning. They were talking about Porsche's overheating issue and how a purple light was on the car when it pulled off during qualifying. A Porsche engineer they were interviewing at the time acknowledged that the light was an indicator of an issue with the car but he didn't go into any great detail. So, now they've not only got telemetry, but a lighting system on the car that indicates the first sign of any trouble. Even with Audi now gone, it's going to be an epic race throughout. BHW
Considering that Team Corvette has been the class of the GT field for a decade now, I find it hard to bet against them.
Especially coming off their fantastic performances at Daytona and Sebring earlier in the year. They top seven or eight GTE Pro cars are covered by like 1.5 seconds in qualifying. So, it comes down to time spent in the pits at the end of the day. BHW
No one put money on Aston Martin. Pity. The Prodrive AMR cars all ran a great race, were at or near the front the entire race and deserved the first place finish. Pity for Taylor though as he'd already won Daytona and Sebring O/A this year and winning GTE Pro at Le Mans would have been the trifecta. Crazy, I remember when Wayne used to bring the boys out to a private go-kart track outside Lakeland (not so many) years ago where he was teaching them how. Fifth was the best AF Corse could salvage. Curious why the 488s didn't have the pace to run at the front although they kept things close most of the way. BHW