Weekend Recap: Alpine Extends WEC Points Lead With Monza Win
Results and post-race reaction from Sunday's fourth round of FIA World Endurance Championship season...
Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere extended their points advantage at the top of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar standings by winning a dramatic and closely-fought 6 Hours of Monza.
The drivers of the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson took the race victory ahead of Ryo Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
The early exchanges of Sunday’s six-hour contest were dominated by Glickenhaus, with the American squad’s No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo showing strong pace in the first half.
Their challenge unraveled after the halfway point when Pipo Derani was forced to serve a penalty for speeding under a Full Course Yellow.
Not long after that, the Podium Advanced Technologies-assisted team dropped out of the race entirely when a sudden turbocharger failure ended its race.
With both debuting Peugeots also suffering numerous issues, the battle evolved into a fight between Alpine and both Toyotas.
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Corvette “Fully Expected” Ferrari to Reach End Without Fuel Splash
Nick Tandy says Corvette Racing was surprised by its late GTE-Pro victory in the 6 Hours of Monza, as it “fully expected” the class-leading Ferrari to have enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.
Corvette took its first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship outside the 24 Hours of Le Mans when Tandy brought the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he shares with Tommy Milner across the line on Sunday evening.
The American squad had looked set to finish second behind AF Corse less than a handful of laps before, as it had been trailing behind the No. 52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.
Fuoco, however, had to pit for a splash of fuel with two laps remaining, which allowed Corvette to take the lead and the class victory.
Tandy said that the events at the conclusion of the six-hour enduro had their roots at the halfway point, when all but Porsche driver Fred Makowiecki pitted under a safety car triggered by an enormous airborne crash for TF Sport’s Henrique Chaves.
With the timing of the stop, Tandy predicted that it was going to be difficult for the GTE-Pro contenders to make it to the end on two scheduled pit visits from there.
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Habsburg: Early Triple Stint Strategy “Paid Off in Long Term”
Ferdinand Habsburg said that a decision to commit to an early triple stint on tires while at the head of the 6 Hours of Monza LMP2 field ‘paid off in the long run’ after it initially caused Realteam by WRT to drop away from the class lead.
Habsburg, along with Norman Nato and Rui Andrade, took the class victory in the No. 41 Oreca 07 Gibson, coming out ahead of JOTA’s championship-leading No. 38 crew.
The Austrian took the checkered flag after he came charging up in the closing hour, carrying out a recovery drive after he had dropped away at around the halfway point.
Habsburg, who at that time had fought up to the front of the class after passing United Autosports driver Filipe Albuquerque for the lead early in the third hour, explained that a call to commit to an early triple stint cost the team several positions.
It was while at the head of the field that the safety car then came out for Henrique Chaves’ major crash at Variante della Roggia, which bunched the pack up.
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Peugeot “Learned a Lot” in Challenging LMH Debut
Peugeot “learned a lot” during the race debut of its 9X8 LMH car at Monza, according to the French manufacturer’s FIA World Endurance Championship technical director.
Despite a challenging afternoon, Olivier Jansonnie declared after the six-hour race that it was “mission accomplished” for Peugeot, which went into the event aiming to learn as much as possible about its new hybrid-powered prototype in competitive conditions.
Both Peugeot 9X8s encountered significant problems and underwent trips to the garage, with only the No. 94 car of Gustavo Menezes, James Rossiter and Loic Duval reaching the checkered flag in 33rd place, at a loss of 25 laps.
The sister No. 93 car of Mikkel Jensen, Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne, which started from the back of the grid after a stoppage in qualifying, retired due to a melange of technical issues that occurred in the early stages.
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