Monza WEC: Toyota survives major scare to beat Alpine
Toyota survived a major scare to claim a third FIA World Endurance Championship victory of the 2021 season at Monza ahead of Signatech Alpine, as United Autosports finished on the overall podium.
Watch: 6 Hours of Monza Full Race Highlights
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez led from pole position in the #7 GR010 Hybrid and were untroubled for most of the race, as neither Alpine nor Glickenhaus were able to challenge the two Toyotas on race pace.
But there was drama at the beginning of the penultimate hour when Kobayashi crawled to a halt on the long straight following the second Lesmo corner with a suspected technical problem, allowing the #709 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Romain Dumas to come through and take the lead.
Kobayashi eventually managed to restart the car and get going again, but rejoined the track 40s behind the Glickenhaus.
There was reprieve for Toyota when the American boutique manufacturer elected to bring the car into the garage for a precautionary brake change, but the Alpine - which had dropped to third after making an earlier stop - remained in contention for victory.
The race was set to go down the wire as Conway needed to make a late splash-and-dash to ensure the #7 GR010 could make it to the finish line. But a late FCY to recover debris from track put paid to the chances of a late scrap for victory between Toyota and Alpine, Conway essentially earning a free stop and emerging from the pits the best part of a minute ahead of Matthieu Vaxiviere.
An investigation into Toyota's final pitstop had the potential to throw a spanner in the works, but the manufacturer was able to get away with a warning, ensuring it continued its unbeaten run in the hypercar era as the #7 crew claimed its first win of 2021.
Vaxiviere, Nicolas Lapierre and Andre Negrao finished second in the #36 Alpine, earning the French manufacturer its joint-best result since it stepped up to the top class of the WEC with the grandfathered A480-Gibson that was previously campaigned by the Rebellion LMP1 team.
The #709 Glickenhaus of Dumas, Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux eventually finished third in class and fourth overall after losing a number of laps in the pits due to a brake change.
The sister #708 entry driven by Pipo Derani, Gustavo Menezes and Olivier Pla was running on seven cylinders and had to pit for a change of spark plug before eventually retiring from the race.
The #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi was classified 43 laps down in fourth in the Hypercar class after having to make four trips to the garage with multiple technical gremlins, including for a fuel pressure issue.
Technical issues or retirements for all but the Alpine meant an LMP2 car finished on the overall podium for the first time since last year's season finale in Bahrain, where only two cars were entered in the top class.
It was United Autosports that seized the opportunity, beating the WRT team that started on pole position.
The lead changed hands a number of times but an ill-timed pitstop before a FCY by WRT proved to be decisive, granting the #22 crew of Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Fabio Scherer an advantage they wouldn't cede.
Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi eventually finished second in the #31 WRT Oreca, just under a minute behind the winning United car.
Nyck de Vries, Frits van Eerd and Paul Loup Chatin finished third in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca, claiming the Pro-Am honours in the process. The Dutch team ran with a heavily-revised line-up at Monza after both Giedo van der Garde and Job van Uitert tested positive for COVID-19.
Inter Europol Competition finished fourth in the #34 Oreca driven by Alex Brundle, Renger van der Zande and Jakub Smiechowski despite a drive-through penalty for causing a collision with the #70 Realteam Oreca in the opening 30 minutes of the race.
The #28 JOTA trio of Stoffel Vandoorne, Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist recovered from a crash in qualifying to finish fifth.
Risi Competizione's preparatory appearance for Le Mans 24 Hours ended in disappointment as Oliver Jarvis, Felipe Nasr and Ryan Cullen finished 10th in the #82 Oreca after running inside the top five early on in the race.
GTE: Estre, Jani hand Porsche win over Ferrari
Porsche denied Ferrari a GTE Pro victory on the Italian marque's home turf, with Kevin Estre and Neel Jani scoring their second win of the season in the #92 911 RSR-19.
Porsche lost the lead during the third hour when Jani was overtaken by James Calado in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at the exit of the first chicane, but a faster pitstop allowed it to return to the front and then cruise to a comfortable win.
Estre and Jani eventually crossed the line 32s clear of Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, who had to pit with five minutes to run for a fuel-only stop.
Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni took the final spot on the podium in the #91 Porsche ahead of #52 Ferrari duo Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra, after Lietz passed Molina under braking into Turn 1 in the penultimate hour.
That was despite Bruni picking up visible damage on to the front-left side of his car when he hit the #47 Cetilar Ferrari of Roberto Lacorte, who spun in front of him at the exit of the second Lesmo in a repeat of Vandoorne's crash that brought qualifying to a halt on Saturday.
Despite their disappointment in the GTE Pro class, AF Corse and Ferrari did claim victory in the GTE Am category, with Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera crossing the line 45 seconds clear of the opposition.
The battle for the second place was decided on the final lap, as Aston Martin trio Augusto Farfus, Paul Dalla Lana and Marcos Gomes beat the customer D'station Vantage of Tomonobu Fujii, Satoshi Hoshino and Andrew Watson.
Ben Keating led the race from pole position in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage but paid the price of extending his second stint beyond the expected tyre life, the front-left Michelin on his car spectacularly exploding at high-speed and shredding bodywork on his car. The debris thrown on track prompted the only safety car appearance of the race.
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Race results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 204 | |
2 | 36 |
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 204 | 1'00.908 |
3 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 200 | 4 Laps |
4 | 709 |
Romain Dumas
Franck Mailleux Richard Westbrook |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 200 | 4 Laps |
5 | 31 |
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 200 | 4 Laps |
6 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Paul-Loup Chatin Nyck de Vries |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 200 | 4 Laps |
7 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 199 | 5 Laps |
8 | 28 |
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 199 | 5 Laps |
9 | 21 |
Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 199 | 5 Laps |
10 | 70 |
Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 198 | 6 Laps |
11 | 1 |
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 198 | 6 Laps |
12 | 20 |
Jan Magnussen
Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 197 | 7 Laps |
13 | 82 |
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 196 | 8 Laps |
14 | 44 |
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 191 | 13 Laps |
15 | 92 |
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 190 | 14 Laps |
16 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 190 | 14 Laps |
17 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 190 | 14 Laps |
18 | 52 |
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 190 | 14 Laps |
19 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 187 | 17 Laps |
20 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 187 | 17 Laps |
21 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 187 | 17 Laps |
22 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 187 | 17 Laps |
23 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 186 | 18 Laps |
24 | 88 |
Andrew Haryanto
Marco Seefried Alessio Picariello |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 186 | 18 Laps |
25 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 186 | 18 Laps |
26 | 85 |
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 185 | 19 Laps |
27 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 185 | 19 Laps |
28 | 61 |
Christoph Ulrich
Simon Mann Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 185 | 19 Laps |
29 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 184 | 20 Laps |
30 | 388 |
Pierre Ehret
Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 184 | 20 Laps |
31 | 46 |
Dennis Olsen
Anders Buchardt Maxwell Root |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 183 | 21 Laps |
32 | 33 |
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 175 | 29 Laps |
33 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 161 | 43 Laps |
38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 127 | 77 Laps | |
708 |
Pipo Derani
Gustavo Menezes Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 90 | 114 Laps | |
60 |
Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 37 | 167 Laps | |
View full results |
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