Toyota #7 wins the 6-hour Monza race ahead of #36 Alpine
One month after the 24 Hours of Le Mans (August 21-22), Toyota claimed a coveted victory on Sunday by returning the World Endurance Championship (WEC) to Monza after a 29-year absence. Thanks to the GR010 Hybrid n° 7, the Japanese factory, which won its first race in this championship in 1992 on the same circuit, won the speed temple after six hours and 204 laps.
But the afternoon at Gazoo Racing was not calm since the winning car had a minor mechanical problem in the fourth hour of the race when Kamui Kobayashi had to immobilize his hypercar for just over a minute before the start of the race. Ascari, he also had to expect the hole to stop due to a hole. As for the number 8 trio of Buemi-Nakajima-Hartley, he finished 43 laps behind after having several problems with steering and braking, which was also a real fear for the New Zealander from the first Chikan.
In Glickenhaus, rhythm but broken
So there is still work to ensure the reliability of Japanese hypercars ahead of the Le Mans event, which could hold many surprises. Because at the same time, the Alpine A480 (Negrao – Lapierre – Vaxivière) had a smooth sprint, but due to a slightly slower pace (about a second per lap) and racing conditions (a safety car, yellow full-track) which did not help it stop, she had to make do In second place, one minute ahead of the winning Toyota car.
As for the Glickenhaus, they looked a lot braver than they did a month ago in Portimão. In terms of speed, No. 709 (Domas – Maelux – Westbrook), basically, was very close to his rivals, which also allowed him to take the race head for two laps after the problem of No. 7. But in terms of reliability, as in the Japanese camp, the team The American didn’t run a perfect race either, far from it. #709 lost four laps in the garage to fix a brake problem, which even denied him a third podium step, dropping to LMP2, #22 United Autosports (Hanson – Scherer – Albuquerque), and #708 (Derani – Menezes – None) pulled out. After 90 laps only because of the gearbox.
A battle rages in GTE Pro
The LMP2 podium was completed by the No. 31 of the WRT team (Frenz – Melese – Habsburg) and the No. 29 of Racing Nederland (Schaten – Van Erd – de Vries). In the GTE Pro class, the battle was intense between the four champions, two Porsches and two Ferraris (holding in 54 seconds after 190 laps), but finally the 911 n° 92 of Estre and Jani was forced after a final stop for Ferrari #51 (Pierre Guidi-Calado) ) two minutes after the end. Finally, in the GTE Am, this time the Italian brand won domestically, thanks to 488 n ° 83 from AF Corse (Perrodo – Nielsen – Rovera).