6 Hours of Monza: Toyota strikes fourth victory

Jul 9

The second half of the 6 Hours of Monza (first three hours here) ended with the victory of Toyota #7 who dominated the race with 143 laps on the lead out of the 200 covered.

Fourth and fifth hours

No major event during the fourth hour except for the abandon of the #99 Porsche 969 from Proton Competition.

A new safety car at the beginning of the fifth hour made nothing to the fourty seconds lead of toyota #7 over Ferrari #50 and Peugeot #93. However, since the restart, Kamui Kobayashi widened again the gap so that, at one hour from the finish, the gap on the #50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco was of 15''7. Third at 37''7, the Peugeot 9X8 #93 was still within a podium seat.

Epilogue

The ranking for podium didn’t change during the last hour.

In P4, Makowiecki with the Porsche #5 was irresistibly taken up by Hartley with the Toyota #8 who overtook the Porsche on the 193rd lap (7 laps before the end!). One lap later, it was to the turn of Giovinazzi with the Ferrari #51 to overtake the #5 Porsche for P5.

Toyota #7 third win this season

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López won for the third time this season in their #7 GR010 HYBRID, by 16.520secs from the #50 Ferrari.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza. Toyota GR010 HYBRID #7.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “I am very happy with that result. It was a really close battle, and we had to push hard because the competition was very strong. The key was making no mistakes throughout the race and managing the tyres. I had a long stint at the end which was hard and quite tense. But it was great to fight with Ferrari and, after our result at Le Mans, it is nice to get a bit of revenge over them today. Thanks to the team, as well as our partners and sponsors who really supported us a lot after Le Mans. This was a good team result after car #8 fought back to score good points. They showed why it’s important to never give up. We have two races to go and we will do our best to win both World Championships. I am sure it will be a close fight.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “It’s nice to beat Ferrari on their home ground so big thanks to the crew and my team-mates. The pit stops were really solid, particularly the last one which was mega and helped us stay in front, and all the calls from the pit wall worked out well too. It feels good to win again and get a decent haul of points for the team. We had to really fight for it. We knew this race would be all about tyre management and there were some different strategies going on out there. We executed our plan well and whenever we lost ground, with getting the hard tyres up to temperature or a safety car, we managed to claw it back. José drove well to build a gap and Kamui put in a very strong last stint to win it.”

José María López (Driver, car #7): “After a tough Le Mans, it was important to bounce back and everyone did a fantastic job. It was a tough race, but the car felt good. We had a strong pace, perfect pit stops and the right strategy. It feels great to get our third win of the year, especially because this puts us back in the game for the World Championship. I felt very comfortable in the car. I could attack, get into the lead and build up a nice gap. At the same time, you always know that in endurance racing the gap can be reset very quickly and the safety car made it tricky at the end for Kamui. He had a really hard job, but we finished on top, and it feels nice to win at a track like this in front of the tifosi.” Source: Toyota Gazoo Racing

P2 for Ferrari

« After winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the expectation was to fight in the same conditions as in the French race. However, the conditions imposed at Monza put the team at a disadvantage compared to its rivals. Despite this imposed limitation, a perfect strategy, impeccable work by the mechanics during pit stops and a flawless performance by the drivers, Ferrari claimed its fifth podium out of five FIA World Endurance Championship races with a second place for the 499P number 50 driven by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina in the 6 Hours of Monza. » Source: Ferrari

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza. Ferrari 499P #50.

First podium for Peugeot

After making its debuts on this same track last season, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies claims its very first podium of the Hypercar era with Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Paul Di Resta crossing the finish line in third position.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza. Peugeot 9X8 #93.

Jean-Eric Vergne – #93: “I’m extremely happy about this podium, our first one together in Hypercar with PEUGEOT. We had a rough start at the beginning of the season, but the team has been working relentlessly and this podium shows that all the hard work is starting to pay off. It will motivate us even more to keep working this hard, to get more of this kind of result and hopefully a win before the end of the season, it will be amazing. “

Paul Di Resta – #93: “After Le Mans, we had such a great positive energy. The teamwork has been incredible to get the car ready for this race, I know how hard it’s been. We did not have a straightforward weekend, but we managed to turn it around. Mikkel had a good start, JEV did a really good job yesterday in qualifying, we stayed steady, and I think we’ve done a really good job. Now we are heading into summer break, we still have some work to do but well done to the whole team.”

Mikkel Jensen – #93: “I would not say we expected this result when we started this weekend but in practice sessions we saw that we had good pace and it all came together today. We had a great start, moved up positions and it was all about staying out front, managing the tyres, not making any bad decisions. I think we managed to avoid every mistake and that’s why we are on the podium.” Source: Peugeot Sport

P4 for Ferrari #51

The race for the #51 got off to a bad start with a spin in "Prima Variante". Last in the Hypercars class at the end of the first lap, Giovinazi, Pier Guidi and Calado made a gradual comeback to finish 5th but classified 4th following a penalty affecting the #8 Toyota.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza. Ferrari 499P #51.

Porsche #5 fifth

Ending sixth but ranked fifth since Toyota #8 was penalised, Fréderic Makowiecki, Michael Christensen and Dane Cameron with Porsche 963 #5.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Monza. Porsche 963 #5.

Dane Cameron (Porsche 963 #5): “Fifth place for our number five Porsche here in Monza – in the end, it was a good day. We made smart tactical decisions during the race and executed them well. We were pretty much at the limit of our current capabilities. It’s a pity that towards the end, our chances of a podium finish slipped through our fingers like they did at Spa. Nevertheless, we made good progress with the Porsche 963 and with the development of the team.” Source: Porsche