It will not be until the classification when the real performance of each other will be seen, but the FP2 of the 6 Hours of Monza has offered a scenario of maximum equality between the six hypercars present in the fourth round of the WEC. In fact, the LMH prototypes from Toyota, Peugeot and Glickenhaus and the LMP1 from Alpine closed the session with a margin of just over four tenths. Brendon Hartley has set the tone with the #8 Toyota after setting a time of 1:37.692, but the equality has been maximum in the premier class.
Hartley signed his best lap as soon as he started his stint, setting the bar at this 1:37.6 that no one could beat. However, each and every one of the prototypes present in the hypercar class fell very close. Mikkel Jensen took the #93 Peugeot to second position after completing a lap 83 thousandths slower than the #8 Toyota. Pipo Derani finished in third position with the Glickenhaus #708. Behind, Gustavo Menezes placed the #94 Peugeot in fourth position ahead of the Alpine and Kamui Kobayashi’s #7 Toyota. They were all separated by 424 thousandths.
All times between the LMHs, except for Mikkel Jensen in the #93, occurred during the first half of the sessionbefore the red flag caused by the strong accident of Tijmen Van der Helm with the ORECA #44 of ARC Bratislava. The Dutch driver hit the gravel at the start of the ‘Variante della Rogia’ and hit the barriers violently. The session was under a red flag for 23 minutes due to the repair of the barriers. Stopped chrono repairs that lengthened the session by almost half an hour.
Among the LMP2 and apart from the Tijmen Van der Helm accident, The Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque has set the pace at the controls of the ORECA #22 of the United Autosports team. The Portuguese has signed a time of 1:38.917 to beat the ORECA #83 of AF Corse by just over two tenths and a half. Alessio Rovera was in charge of setting the fastest time for the local team’s prototype, although it did not prevent Albuquerque from being the only driver in 1:38. For its part, ORECA #31 of Team WRT took third place.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing / Peugeot Sport