Practice report
WEC Monza
Monza WEC: Toyota fastest in opening practice
Toyota's pair of Le Mans Hypercars locked out the top two positions in opening practice for this weekend's Monza FIA World Endurance Championship round.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jul 17, 2021, 10:10 AM
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Jose Maria Lopez set what proved to be the fastest time of 1m38.401s early on in the one hour, 45 minute session at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
That was enough to edge out the sister #8 car of Brendon Hartley by 0.134s.
What was originally planned to be a 90-minute session, the WEC's first official running at the track since the 2017 Prologue pre-season test, was extended by 15 minutes owing to a red flag at the 33-minute mark, caused by the Roberto Lacorte suffering a crash in the Cetilar Racing Ferrari.
After action resumed, the Signatech-run Alpine A480-Gibson set its fastest time of 1m38.553s in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre to move up to third ahead of the two Glickenhaus 007 LMHs.
Both Glickenhaus cars were within seven tenths of the pace, with Romain Dumas setting the American marque's fastest time of 1m39.042s aboard the #709 car inside the first 10 minutes of the session - briefly going fastest overall before both Toyotas improved.
Olivier Pla set the quickest time in the #708 Glickenhaus, just four hundredths behind Dumas.
United Autosports led the way in the LMP2 class, with the returning Filipe Albuquerque - absent from the previous round at Portimao owing to an IMSA clash - going fastest on a 1m39.373s in the team's #22 Oreca 07-Gibson.
That was a little under half a second up on the time set by Nyck de Vries for Racing Team Nederland, which has lost two of its regular drivers, Job van Uitert and Giedo van der Garde, for this weekend due to positive COVID-19 tests.
Ben Hanley put DragonSpeed third-fastest, another two tenths back, ahead of the fourth-placed WRT car and the two JOTA entries.
Risi Competizione was 10th-fastest in its first session running its new Oreca, with Oliver Jarvis setting the team's best time of 1m40.996s to go 10th-fastest in the 12-car class.
Ferrari led the way in GTE Pro as its two AF Corse-run factory entries beat the two works Porsches.
Miguel Molina led in the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo on a 1m46.329s, nearly four tenths up on the #51 entry of James Calado, while Neel Jani was third-fastest in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Porsche did however set the pace in GTE Am thanks to a last-ditch effort of 1m47.194s by Riccardo Pera in the #56 Project 1 car, knocking ex-Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari off the top of the times.
Watch Sunday's WEC action from Monza unfold on motorsport.tv – click here.
Session results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'38.401 2 8
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'38.535 0.134 3 36
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'38.553 0.152 4 709
Romain Dumas
Franck Mailleux
Richard Westbrook Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'39.042 0.641 5 708
Pipo Derani
Gustavo Menezes
Olivier Pla Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'39.085 0.684 6 22
Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer
Filipe Albuquerque Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.373 0.972 7 29
Frits van Eerd
Paul-Loup Chatin
Nyck de Vries Oreca 07 LMP2 1'39.837 1.436 8 21
Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ben Hanley Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.075 1.674 9 31
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.101 1.700 10 28
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne
Tom Blomqvist Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.148 1.747 11 70
Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval
Norman Nato Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.277 1.876 12 38
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.400 1.999 13 34
Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande
Alex Brundle Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.669 2.268 14 1
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.911 2.510 15 82
Ryan Cullen
Oliver Jarvis
Felipe Nasr Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.996 2.595 16 20
Jan Magnussen
Anders Fjordbach
Dennis Andersen Oreca 07 LMP2 1'41.093 2.692 17 44
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb
Matej Konopka Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1'43.191 4.790 18 52
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'46.329 7.928 19 51
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'46.700 8.299 20 92
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'46.895 8.494 21 91
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'46.983 8.582 22 56
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli
Riccardo Pera Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.194 8.793 23 54
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.388 8.987 24 60
Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini
Matteo Cressoni Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.479 9.078 25 777
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Andrew Watson Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'47.599 9.198 26 83
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.640 9.239 27 71 Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy
Ben Barnicoat Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.700 9.299 28 33
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Felipe Fraga Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'47.754 9.353 29 88
Andrew Haryanto
Marco Seefried
Alessio Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.962 9.561 30 77
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.985 9.584 31 85
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Sarah Bovy Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.048 9.647 32 98
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus
Marcos Gomes Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'48.238 9.837 33 47
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Antonio Fuoco Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.310 9.909 34 388
Pierre Ehret
Christian Hook
Jeroen Bleekemolen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.665 10.264 35 86
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Tom Gamble Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'48.700 10.299 36 61
Christoph Ulrich
Simon Mann
Toni Vilander Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.834 10.433 37 46
Dennis Olsen
Anders Buchardt
Maxwell Root Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'49.682 11.281 View full results
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