After four hours of practice, it looks increasingly like the Le Mans Hypercar category is going to produce a close, hard-fought race in Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Monza.
It was extremely close in Hypercar in the third and final 60-minute session, which ran with no notable incidents. Less than a second separated all six cars once again, with Glickenhaus, which topped FP1, ending up setting the fastest time again. Romain Dumas in the No. 708 managed a 1m36.813s on this occasion.
Behind came the two Peugeots which continue to look strong so far, managing a combined 60 laps and within 0.3s of the best lap from the Glickenhaus. The two Toyotas ended up fourth and fifth, with the Alpine, in its new green livery, sixth.
JOTA’s No. 38 led the way in LMP2, with Jonathan Aberdien reeling off a 1m38.904s to go two-tenths clear of the other runners in the class. Robin Frijns ended up setting the second-fastest time in the No. 31 WRT ORECA, while Ferdinand Habsburg took third in the sister car.
In GTE-Pro, Corvette Racing finished up top of the class for the first time this weekend. Nick Tandy reeled off a 1m45.902s tour of Monza in the No. 64 C8.R, good enough to knock Porsche off the top spot for the first time.
“We’re just working through our program today,” Tandy said. “The car was good this morning. It was good yesterday. Ultimately the peak lap times can be different from session to session. It doesn’t really tell the whole story. We did a qualifying simulation (in FP3), and it looked OK. The others, of course, have the potential to be just as fast. We’re happy with the direction the car is moving in. It’s the first time here in Monza and not knowing downforce levels and this sort of thing. So we’re making progress.”
Porsche took second in the classification, with Michael Christensen in the No. 911 911 RSR 19 setting a 1m46.000s. Making it three marques in the top three was Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari.
Ferrari topped Am, with Nick Cassidy putting the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari at the top of the pile, although just over a tenth quicker than Harry Tincknell in the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
UP NEXT: Qualifying for the FIA WEC runners is set to start at 5:30pm local time this afternoon.
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