WEC Monza: Toyota heads Peugeot in red-flagged FP2

Both Toyota GR010 HYBRID cars 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 a new marker with a 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 flier in the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH that topped the times in FP1 on Friday.

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

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This would be as close a driver would get to the Kiwi's time, as the Le Mans-winning #8 Toyota remained on top when the chequered flag was waved just before 11am local time in a session extended for a prolonged red flag caused by LMP2 driver Tijmen van der Helm.

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.

#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8 of Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne

Photo by: Morgese / Gandolfi

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

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United Autosports led the way in the LMP2 class at Monza, with Filipe Albuquerque setting the pace in the #22 ORECA-Gibson 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 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 on his own stream, the damage to the barriers disrupted the 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 finished in the #23 United Autosports ORECA.

In GTE Pro, Porsche and Ferrari traded the top spot for much of the session, with the German manufacturer eventually surging ahead thanks to a 1m46.245s lap from Gianmaria Bruni in the #91 Porsche.

Bruni, who is joined by 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.

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

Photo by: Paul Foster

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 lapping the circuit in 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.

WEC Monza FP2 Results:

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