WEC season 10: 6 Hours of Monza 2022 FP1: LMh-PRO
Kick off of the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship today at Autodromo Nationale Monza, celebrating its 100th anniversary, with FP1 with 32°.
Hypercar
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
Peugeot was making its debuts with its new 9X8 Hypercar. Everyone present was looking forward to see both cars on track. Nobody was disappointed even though they were not the fastest … yet!
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
Romain Dumas with #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH did set the fastest time in today’s session, 0.618 sec. ahead of #36 Alpine. Together with Olivier Pla (6th best today) they are third in the teams and drivers championships, 12 points behind the championship leaders. Their teammate at Monza Luis Felipe Derani was 4th best during the session. The consistency of all three drivers in the car show the velocity of the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH. Although this session is probably not significative, one could start betting on Glickenhaus victory! Wait and see!
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
André Negrao did set the second best performance today with the Alpine A480-Gibson. With his teammates Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxivierre they are atop the class standings with the #36 Signatech-run A480 with a small margin of 3 points.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
Paul DI Resta was the fastest of the Peugeot TotalEnergies squad 0.200 sec. slower than Negrao. His teammates driving the #93 Peugeot 9X8 Jean-Eric Vergne is 10th and Mikkel Jensen 13th in LMh class.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
Sebastien Buemi with the #8 Toyota is fifth, 1.136 sec. Slower than Romain Dumas. Together with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa they are second in championship ranking, three points behind the Alpine squad.
Reigning champions and last year Monza winners Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 GR010 HYBRID did set respectively the 7th, 8th and 9th performance of the session. They are fourth in the championship, 17 points behind their teammates.
📷 © Luc Warnotte @ 6 Hours of Monza 2022.
#94 Peugeot 9X8 did only 8 laps, which is far less than the others. Loïc Duval and James Rossiter were the slowest of LMh class. Their teammate Gustavo Menezes was not able to drive the car as it stayed too long in the garage!
LM GTE PRO
Porsche is leading the GT Manufacturers FIA World Endurance Championship, 26 points ahead of Ferrari. Chevrolet Corvette, with only one car versus 2 for the others, does not have the means to compete equally in this championship. It’s drivers Nick Tandy and Tony Milner are 6th in the GT Driver’s championship 44 points behind leading #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 drivers, Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz who are 3 points ahead of sister #92 car driven by Estre and Michael Christensen. The #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi is just five points off the lead in third. The fight for the championship between those three teams is promising.
Kevin Estre was the fastest LMGTE with Porsche 911 RSR-19 #92
Antonio Fuoco was second with Ferrari 488 GTE EVO #52 for 0.324 sec.
Nick Tandy with Chevrolet Corvette C9.R was third fastest 0.105 slower than Fuoco.
Gianmaria Bruni was fourth fastest LM GTE with Porsche 911 RSR-19 #91. Note that his teammate has changed: Frédéric Makowiecki is replacing Richard Lietz. Makowiecki was the slowest LMGTE PRO driver of the session even slower than Ben Barnicoat in LMGTE AM also with a Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Alessandro Pierguidi was fifth with Ferrari 488 GTE EVO #51.
