Toyota gains Le Mans vengeance on Ferrari beating with sweet success in an epic Monza 6 Hour in at the Templeof Speed.
Toyota Gazoo Racing bounced back from its Le Mans defeat to beat Ferrari at home in Italy as the Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi’s number 7 GR010 Hybrid held Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco Ferrari 499P LMH to win another epic World Endurance Championship (WEC) encounter at the Monza 6 Hour on Sunday.
In a dramatic race that saw Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot, and Porsche all leading at a point, it all came down to the final stops as the 7 Toyota exited the pits ahead of the 50 Ferrari and held on to take the win. Conway led early on, until Sebastian Buemi’s number 8 Toyota took an Aston Martin out. That after Buemi had also nurfed the 50 Ferrari into a fist turn spin.
Peugeot passed Toyota on track to lead
Mikkel Jensen then forced the 93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH past the leading Toyota at the restart, not long before the 50 Ferrari and Michael Christensen’s 5 Porsche 963 LMDh also found a way past. Buemi was meanwhile forced to take double penalty stops for his misdemeanours, dropping the number 8 Toyota down the order.
The Peugeot lead attack fizzled around the next pitstops, leaving the 7 Toyota leading the 50 Ferrari and half the Hypercar field on an alternative strategy after pitting early during the first safety car. Two more safety cars would go on to shape the race, as the 7 Toyota found itself in the nett lead form the 50 Ferrari and the 93 Peugeot.
Fuoco and the Ferrari on fresher tyres closed Kobayashi’s Toyota down approaching the final stop before both cars pitted and took new rubber. After which Kobayashi enjoyed the advantage to cruise home to win from Fuoco in the Ferrari, with Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne giving the Peugeot 9X8 its welcome maiden WEC podium in third.
Bad boy 8 Toyota fought back to fourth
The order behind reshuffled, as Brendon Hartley, Buemi, and Ryo Hirakawa’s number 8 Toyota delivered a storming final stint to pass the 51 Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado Ferrari, and the 5 Christensen, Dane Cameron and Fred Makowieck Porsche on track. They finished in that inverted order following a thrilling three-way battle, but that was however later revised when the 8 Toyota was demoted to sixth for exceeding its power limit.
Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor’s second Penske Porsche ended up seventh from Olivier Pla, Nathaniel Berthon and Romain Dumas in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007, Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Ye Yifei in the Jota-run Porsche, and the delayed Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook’s Ganassi Cadillac in tenth.
That leaves Toyota leading the WEC Manufacturers title on 152 points from Ferrari on 126, Cadillac on 72 from Porsche with 66, Peugeot 50 and Glickenhaus on 36 points. Hartley, Buemi, and Hirakawa lead the driver’s chase with Le Mans winners Giovinazzi, Pier Guidi and Calado tied in second with Monza winners Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi.
Porsche 1-2-3 as Corvette GTE-Am drivers take title
Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen and David Heinemeier-Hansson claimed Jota’s first LMP2 victory of the season from Signatech Alpine crew, Charles Milesi, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal, and championship leaders, Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade’s WRT car.
Porsche may have taken GTE Am 1-2-3, but Corvette drivers Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone and Ben Keating clinched that championship in fourth. Dempsey Proton trio Julien Andlauer, Mikkel Pedersen and Christian Ried led the Porsche 911 RSR-19 1-2-3 from Matteo Cressoni, Alessio Picariello and Claudio Schiavoni, and Ben Barker, Riccardo Pera and Mike Wainwright.
The World Endurance Championship now heads to Japan and Toyota’s Fuji Raceway on 10 September. The perfect site for a Ferrari revenge! The season ends in Bahrain 4 November.
