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Practice report
WEC Monza

Monza WEC: Toyota heads Peugeot in red-flagged FP2

Toyota edged out Peugeot by just 0.083s in a disrupted second practice session for Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship race at Monza.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Both Toyota GR010 Hybrids set their quickest laps early on in FP2 as part of their qualifying simulations, initially monopolising the top two spots in the six-car Hypercar field.

Brendon Hartley set the early benchmark in the #8 Toyota with a 1m38.761s and continued to find more time over the next few flying laps, eventually laying down a new marker of 1m37.692s.

Kamui Kobayashi settled for second in the sister #7 car after posting a time of 1m38.116s, putting Toyota ahead of rivals Peugeot, Alpine and Glickenhaus after the opening 10 minutes.

Peugeot then separated the two Toyotas with an impressive lap time of 1m38.061s by Gustavo Menezes in the #94 9X8, before Pipo Derani displaced him from second with a 1m37.961s in the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH.

Mikkel Jensen was next to improve in the #93 Peugeot, coming within a tenth of Hartley’s benchmark with a time of 1m37.775s.

This would be as close as anyone would get to Hartley’s laptime, as the Le Mans-winning #8 Toyota remained on top when the chequered flag was waved just before 11am in a session extended for a prolonged red flag caused by an LMP2 car.

Jensen, Derani and Menezes held on to their second, third and fourth place spots respectively, while Matthieu Vaxivere ended up fifth courtesy of a 1m38.082s effort in the #36 Alpine A480.

It left Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota last among the Hypercar entrants, albeit only four tenths down on its pace-setting sister car in a closely fought session at the Italian venue.

  • Watch the WEC 6 Hours of Monza qualifying and the race live on Motorsport.tv (geo-restrictions may apply). 

United Autosports led the way in the LMP2 class at Monza, with Filipe Albuquerque setting the pace in the #22 Oreca 07.

The Portuguese driver’s time of 1m38.917s set in the first 30 minutes of the session put him a quarter of a second clear of Alessio Rovera in the Pro-Am #83 AF Corse Oreca, with Robin Frijns ending up just behind in third in the #31 WRT entry.

The ARC Bratislava squad ended up fourth despite Tijmen van der Helm causing a lengthy red-flag just before the halfway point of the session when he crashed his #44 Oreca at the exit of the second chicane.

Although the Dutch driver was able to return to the pits under his own steam, the damage to the barriers disrupted proceedings long enough for race control to extend the session by 25 minutes.

Behind the ARC Bratislava entry, whose fastest time was set by Mathias Beche prior to van der Helm’s shunt, Alex Lynn was fifth-fastest in the #23 United Autosports Oreca.

#91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Frederic Makowiecki

#91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Frederic Makowiecki

Photo by: Paul Foster

In GTE Pro, Porsche and Ferrari traded the top spot for much of the session, with the German manufacturer eventually surging ahead following an impressive lap time of 1m46.245s by Gianmaria Bruni in the #91 Porsche.

Bruni, who has a new teammate in Frederic Makowiecki this weekend following a positive COVID-19 test for Richard Lietz, ended up nearly a quarter of a second up on the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Miguel Molina.

Molina’s late effort of 1m46.714s put him a tenth clear of James Calado in the #51 Ferrari, as the second Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Michael Christensen finished fourth.

Corvette ended up last and a second off the leader’s pace in GTE Pro, with Tommy Milner only managing a time of 1m47.255s in the #64 C8.R.

Porsche also topped the order in the GTE Am division thanks to Mikkel Pedersen's lap of 1m47.738s in the #46 Team Project 1 car.

Ferrari was once again Porsche’s closest rivals as the two AF Corse entries ended up second and third, with Toni Vilander in the #21 car leading Nick Cassidy in the #54 machine.

The top three cars in GTE Am were separated by just 0.039s.

Monza WEC - FP2 results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'37.692
2 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'37.775 0.083
3 708 France Olivier Pla
France Romain Dumas
Brazil Pipo Derani
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'37.961 0.269
4 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
United Kingdom James Rossiter
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'38.061 0.369
5 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'38.082 0.390
6 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'38.116 0.424
7 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'38.917 1.225
8 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.172 1.480
9 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.186 1.494
10 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Switzerland Mathias Beche
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.253 1.561
11 23 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.315 1.623
12 28 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Edward Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.331 1.639
13 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.443 1.751
14 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.801 2.109
15 9 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.903 2.211
16 10 Switzerland Nico Müller
Ireland Ryan Cullen
France Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.988 2.296
17 45 United States Steven Thomas
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.183 2.491
18 1 France Lilou Wadoux
France Paul-Loup Chatin
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.437 2.745
19 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.520 2.828
20 35 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'41.242 3.550
21 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'46.245 8.553
22 52 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'46.714 9.022
23 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'46.816 9.124
24 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'47.063 9.371
25 64 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 1'47.255 9.563
26 46 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.738 10.046
27 21 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.757 10.065
28 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.777 10.085
29 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.817 10.125
30 33 United States Ben Keating
Portugal Henrique Chaves Jr.
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'47.883 10.191
31 77 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.951 10.259
32 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.985 10.293
33 56 United States Brendan Iribe
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'48.024 10.332
34 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'48.205 10.513
35 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.216 10.524
36 71 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.385 10.693
37 88 United States Fred Poordad
United States Patrick Lindsey
Belgium Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'48.395 10.703
38 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'48.456 10.764

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