Ben Keating

A Kodis Lexus 78 for Tom Van Rompuy starts on the penultimate row with Anthony McIntosh or Tony McIntosh in his BMW.

And the final two cars, the championship leader Ben Keating, TF Sport number 33 with Johannes Zelger in the second orange.

of the AMGs.

That is the grid for the 2026 Lone Star Le Mans and the leading hypercars are nearing the end now of their second green flag lap.

But yeah, the incident...

Now is that 11 or is that actually turn 12 at the end of the back straight but certainly it's the 61 AMG going down the inside of Alexander West so Martin Berry catches the back of West's McLaren and pitches the 58 car into a spin hence why Alexander West completed the first lap sadly in stone last 18th position.

still don't quite know why Thomas Floor lost so much ground but with all the jostling going on in the early stages it's very easy for various cars to change positions in that phase but yeah Eric Powell and Stefano Gattuso seem to be today's cream rising to the surface the question is can they sustain this sort of speed now for the next just under six hours they're only separated by half a second as well so Gattuso will want to get ahead of Powell yes they're teammates but they're differently funded initiatives meanwhile in the background for third position Ian James comes from a fairly long way back to stay ahead of Darren Young and now there's a spin for the championship leading GT car this is Ben Keating in Corvette number 33 exit of turn one and was he helped well there was a car in front of him and it was the first of the McLarens but what about the Ferrari in behind yep I'm afraid it was potentially Thomas Flohr that in the 54 car which has come from a bit too far back as Ben is turning into turn one Flohr arrives and wallops that Corvette and nerfs it into a big big spin so Keating who and there's the noise from his perspective inside the car putting a brave face on the situation this weekend because they're carrying a lot of ballast in that car 36 kilos I think it is because they're doing so well in the championship and they're really going to have to do it the hard way now from the back of the order

and there's no quarter being asked or given end of the back straight again Lexus on the Tony McIntosh BMW the red white very red white Levi's car this weekend and those guys are absolutely at it hammer and tongs this looks this looks like one of those Gran Turismo challenges that you get Johnny where you've only got 11 laps to go from the back of the grid to the front of the grid and McIntosh has got damage on the left rear of that BMW from WRT he'll have to call into the pits this next time by

Charmy Lacey drives the second placed Alpine and it has lost a bit of ground now.

to Earl Bamber because of that traffic but traffic giveth and it taketh away so we will find out whether Earl Bamber stumbles across some GT traffic of his own relatively shortly The other thing to point out is that well the 33 Corvette is really just trying to pick up any bits of points that it can at the moment it's out of the points but has now been handed from Ben Keating to Nicky Katzberg who could not race in Brazil because of an IMSA clash but he's back in the WEC paddock this weekend.

So let's see how the Dutchman gets on.

But they're down in 15th position with a very heavy Corvette this weekend.

So anyone that wins this race... have got a lot of ground to make up on the 33 anyway so it wouldn't be a disaster if the 33 didn't score any points unless of course the 92 actually the 92 is behind them Riccardo

Pera and laps behind

as well so the scenario is not as bad as it might feel right now for Ben Keating and others in the 33 camp

Nicky Katzberg is still effectively on a lap that would get him into the points.

You can tell me who was at the wheel of the number 33.

I don't know who you were going to say, but it's Ben Keating.

I was going to say Ben Keating.

I presume it's Ben Keating out first.

This is very much his home race, of course.

He's on cloud nine to be back here, still recovering from that nasty elbow injury that took him out the first part.