Domination and surprises mark Monza qualifying.
MONZA, Italy—Toyota Gazoo Racing proved Saturday evening that it is still the dominant force in hypercar racing. The #7 entry of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez took the pole position for Sunday’s Six Hours of Monza with the best time of 1:35:899. The #8 Japanese entry followed with Sebastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley driving.
Following an accident earlier in practice two, the sole Alpine entry–driven by Andre Negreo, Nicholas Lapierre, and Mathieu Vaivierre–took third, followed by the two American Glickenhaus cars, which qualified two seconds behind the Toyotas.
The LMP 2 class had the only accident of the afternoon as Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne lost his rear coming out of the second Lesmos corner, prompting a red flag with only 2:47 left in the qualifying session for the hypercars and the LMP 2’s. The JOTA driver was not injured, and the best class time went to a coincidental Belgian team led by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, and Charles Milesi. Their Team WRT entry clocked a time of 1:38:521, ahead of the surprising American Dragonspeed entry led by former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Third went to Racing Team Nederland with another former F1 driver, Giedo Van Der Garde.
Many thought that the home Ferraris, which were incredibly good in the two practice sessions, would come out on top in the qualifying phase for the GTE Pros. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the 92 Porsche entry of Kevin Estre and his Swiss counterpart, Neel Jani, ran a 1:45:412 fastest time to outclass both Italian cars.
TF Sport was the class of the GTE AM division as American Ben Keating with co-drivers Dylan Pereira and Brazilian Felipe Fraga had a 1:47:272 best time in an Aston Martin Vantage.
Sunday’s race will be sparsely attended by design, with most fans watching on TV or via the WEC app. Here is the complete list of viewing options. It’s the last tune-up before the end of August when the 24 Hours of Lemans takes place.
