6 Hours of Monza: Hour 2

We are an hour into the motor race and haven’t slowed down.  Wow.  So glad to have fans here at Monza, at least a few, to see the race.  We continue watching the LMP2 battle between United Autosport, WRT, and Racing Team Nederland.  Nyck de Vries has been closing on the leaders.  Plenty of punches to go in the boxing match as we see Phil Hanson ahead still of Robin Frijns and Nyck de Vries can close in a little more.  Phil Hanson is surely in the lead and momentum is so important now with the 2021 spec LMP2 cars with less power and less downforce.  Team Project 1 make their first pit stop of the race.  Egidio Perfetti out of the car.  Not sure which of the two Italian co-driver’s it will be, either Matteo Cairoli or Ricardo Pera.  Sarah Bovy also has yet to stop, running third in GTE Am.

36 laps, 130 miles done and dusted.  A leaderboard update after an hour sees the two Toyota’s leading ahead of the Alpine and one of the Glickenhaus’ in Le Mans Hypercar.  United Autosport leads LMP2 while Racing Team Nederland is the top Pro-Am team in that division.  Porsche leads Ferrari in GTE Pro with the #92.  Both team cars are running liner stern at Porsche and Ferrari and the Ferrari’s are behind each of the Porsche’s as we speak.  AF Corse and one of their Ferrari’s leads GTE Am.  Both cars are actually at the top of GTE Am right now, and AF Corse has so many cars entered in both GTE Pro and GTE Am that it gets confusing.

Amato Ferrari’s team is very committed to the GTE class in World Endurance and as we have heard already, they will be the team to represent Scuderia Ferrari once their Le Mans Hypercar program comes online in a few years, fully half a century after Ferrari pulled their factory efforts out of sports car racing to focus on Formula 1 even though they did have privateer customer teams race their venerable 333 SP open cockpit car for a number of years in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

Egidio Perfetti is in the pocket right now, but we wonder, what is going on with Team Project 1 and with Dempsey Proton Racing.  The GTE Am Porsche’s are not having a good race at Monza so far.  The #46 Team Project 1 Porsche was in the lane earlier but appears now to have no lingering issues.  That is the car being shared, once again, by Norwegian’s Dennis Olson and Anders Buchardt, alongside American sports car and GT standout, Max Root.  It may well be just pace.  Axcil Jeffries, the Zimbabwean driver usually joins the team, but not for the race here at Monza. 

We have also seen time loss for the regularly entered and familiar #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19.  This, another LM GTE Am entry for the all-British trio of Ben Barker, Mike Wainwright, and Tom Gamble.  Toyota #7 has a six second gap over the sister car.  37 laps now complete as we look at the top left-hand corner of the screen for the running order.  The #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari has a penalty to serve for violating Full Course Yellow procedure.  Satoshi Hoshino has not been the quickest Bronze rated driver but he is doing a decent job in this race here at Monza.

As the Glickenhaus team runs fourth and fifth, we are about to talk to the man himself, the team boss, Jim Glickenhaus, who tells the TV crew, “a little louder, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”  Glickenhaus says that #709 is running well.  #708 had a broken spark plug and went out on seven of the eight cylinders.  It was only a broken spark plug and now the car is at full song once again.  Richard Westbrook’s car is running like a clock as well according to Mr. Glickenhaus.  We see a good battle forming between two of the yellow cars, the #44 ARC Bratislava Ligier from Slovakia with Oliver Webb at the wheel, and the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca for the team from Poland, with Alex Brundle currently driving.

Brundle is recovering from a drive through penalty.  In principle, you have a limited number of laps you can stay out before serving the penalty before others come.  Brundle is trying hard through the Ascari chicane and into Parabolica.  A team from Slovakia and Poland.  We have teams from Turkey as well in the European Le Mans Series of course.  The battle of the yellow cars.  These pro drivers are hired guns.  Both these teams have come through other forms of prototype and GT racing as well as the ACO ladder system.  Brundle is told on the radio, “brilliant job, keep pushing.”

More action coming in LMP2.  Look who is now behind Alex Brundle.  It is Tatiana Calderon in the #1 Richard Mille Racing Oreca.  She is moving rapidly and will give Alex Brundle a run for his money here soon I would think.  The Oreca has more grip and better handling than the Ligier does.  Brundle gets the run and moves ‘round Oliver Webb.  Meanwhile, Tatiana Calderon is thinking, “Oliver, may I have my spot back?  It does not belong to you, sunbeam.  Move it or lose it.”  Alex Brundle made a mistake into the chicane.  But he is the quickest of the trio.

The tire window is closing in.  41 laps completed as far as the tire stint.  That’s almost 150 miles.  Tatiana Calderon continues to press Oliver Webb.  Webb seems to be wriggling all over the shop here.  Meanwhile, Stoffel Vandoorne is closing on the Risi Competizione car.  That is likely still Oliver Jarvis at the wheel, or it could be Felipe Nasr or Ryan Cullen.  Hard to tell at this point.  Calderon sends it at Variante della Roggia and then makes the pass on Oliver Web in Lesmo one, and then Webb takes it back in Lesmo two.  Tatiana Calderon had to back off to avoid running into the gravel trap.  Sophia Florsch is ready to take over car #1.  Phil Hanson is pulling away again from both WRT and Racing Team Nederland.  Alex Brundle’s team, Intereuropol’s team boss, must see the Race Director for a meeting about contact.  They are showing the #34 car a black and orange flag, a meatball flag.  There’s a mechanical issue, someplace.

It could be a flapping bit of bodywork, or a number panel that isn’t illuminated.  Oliver Webb is eking out a gap on Tatiana Calderon.  Calderon and Florsch are just a duo for this race.  It is still hot out as the two of them must drive three hours each.  We see Porsche 911 RSR-19 #91 overcooking the chicane in the Lesmo’s.  Gianmaria Bruni locked a brake it seems.  That was probably Premier Variante though.  WRT and Risi Competizione in the lane for service in LMP2.  A battle is ensuing in GTE Am between Roberto Lacorte and Paul Dalla Lana.  We will be back to that one in a minute. 

Four tires and fuel for WRT.  High Class, meanwhile, have pitted.  Jan Magnussen in the car.  He and his son Kevin will be sharing the car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next time out, and Kevin Magnussen has been named to the Peugeot Hypercar program for next year with their wildly off the wall, revolutionary 9X8 racer that looks like something out of a Transformers’ cartoon.  Car #82 is in the lane for Risi Competizione as we are figuring out driver lineups for the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month.  But, more about that later, after this race is done and dusted. 

Nikki Thiim will race for the #98 Aston Martin team as Augusto Farfus has other racing commitments that weekend.  Meanwhile, the #44 ARC Bratislava car is in pit lane for service and Miro Konopka steps in for his stint.  Sophia Florsch also, is into the #1 Richard Mille car.  They were delayed on their pit stop and we also see DragonSpeed and others in the lane.  Juan Pablo Montoya started, and Henrik Hedman might still stay in the car.  Ferdinand Habsburg has now taken over the #31 WRT car. Alpine hit the lane for their second stop in Hypercar, with 46 laps on the board here at Monza, 166 miles into the race.

So, the Alpine is the first Hypercar to stop, but has the smaller LMP2 fuel tank size, whereas the full tanks are on the Toyota and the Glickenhaus, the Hypercar sized fuel tankage.  Oh dear!  The #47 Cetilar Ferrari has whacked the wall, hard!  Big damage both front and rear for Roberto Lacorte and it’s game over for these boys, no question.  That is the exit of Lesmo two.  He has dropped the left rear wheel on the curb and was touched by the factory Porsche!  One of the two factory Porsche’s will indeed be under investigation by the stewards, and it is the third placed #91, Gianmaria Bruni.  Roberto Lacorte lost it on his own.  Bruni had nothing to do with it.

Bruni had to have a heart in throat moment there, and said over the radio, “the guy in front of me just spun out.”  Reply from the team, “copy, copy.”  The front end of that Porsche will be damaged.  This is going to bring out yet another Full Course Yellow.  Richard Lietz should be ready to take over.  He is suited and booted.  Roberto Lacorte backing up, and we shall see if the steering and suspension are damaged.  Edoardo Freitas may not have to go Full Course Yellow on this.  Full Course Yellow now removed.  Meanwhile, in GTE Am, it is a battle of the Aston Martin’s and the privateer drivers including Ben Keating and Paul Dalla Lana. 

Dalla Lana, and Keating, will catch Roberto Lacorte at the Parabolica as we see Toyota #8 in the lane.  #7 has pace but the #8 has stopped for fuel.  #8 fuel saved like crazy at Portimao last time out.  Now, in Le Mans Hypercar, we see Glickenhaus has also chosen to pit and has brought Richard Westbrook in car #709 into the lane just at the same exact time as Toyota.  Strategy, that is the name of the game in endurance sports car racing.  Monkey see, monkey do.  It seems both Toyota and Glickenhaus are faring well in the fuel economy department.

Ferrari #47 and Glickenhaus #709 are in the lane.  Trouble for the Glickenhaus as it stalls in the lane.  Come on!  Crank up, you little rotter!  Battle of the GTE Am Aston Martin’s as Ben Keating has his hands full once again, look, with Paul Dalla Lana.  Keating was so excited to claim pole for GTE Am.  Toyota #8 is also running very slowly on approach to the Parabolica!  Dear me!  Brendon Hartley has just gotten into #8 and Hartley is trying to switch something on the car’s steering wheel.  It is either on the pit lane speed limiter or stuck in gear.  Hartley says, “I have no drive, no power!” Oh dear!

It’s something in the fuel injection on the Toyota and we are hearing reports that the #709 Glickenhaus is also slow due to heat soak from the previous pit stop.  Hartley tells the team point blank, “I’m having trouble with the fuel pump.”  No fuel being pumped to the motor equals no drive.  They were one lap less than their sister car of Mike Conway.  So, this will reshuffle the deck at Toyota Gazoo Racing because the #8 car has won both races so far in 2021.  Maybe the #7 will be in with a shout, but there’s a long way to go yet.  Glickenhaus passes for third spot.

Salvation for Toyota as they get the car to the lane and did not stop dead stick on the road.  Franck Mailleux of France is now at the wheel of the #709 Glickenhaus.  Toyota #8 is wheeled into the garage on it’s dolly jacks.  Brendon Hartley cannot believe this is happening!  They are dropping like a stone.  Team WRT is now ahead of United Autosport in LMP2.  Filipe Albuquerque is now seven seconds behind the WRT #31 car.  Not sure who is driving at this moment in that automobile.  The battle rages in LMP2 between Ryan Cullen in the #82 Risi Competizione car and the #28 Jota Sport car in the hands of Sean Gelael. 

Gelael moves into fourth spot in class.  Antonio Felix Da Costa is driving the other car.  Toyota have the #8 in the garage, running through the gearbox and revving the engine.  Jim Glickenhaus is happy!  Two thumbs up, meaning Toyota’s loss is his gain!  #8 are leading the points and they have won both races as well.  The sister #7 Toyota will also be looking to make inroads on their teammates.  The GTE Pro scrap picks back up.  Porsche vs. Ferrari.  Kevin Estre vs. Alessandro Pier Guidi.  Both cars are on older Michelin tires although the Ferrari seems to have either a tire advantage or has cut through traffic cleaner than has the Porsche. 

Pier Guidi is looking for a win in his and Ferrari’s home race.  Filipe Albuquerque threads the needle trying to get back on terms with the #31 WRT car.  Word is the #8 Toyota is back on the pit lane and should be back into the race momentarily.  Toyota #8 is down and away.  They were in the lane, in the garage for four and a half minutes.  They’ve fallen to 21^st spot, and they’ll have to grind it out and soldier on.  Kevin Estre dips a rear wheel in the corner and so Alessandro Pier Guidi has another bite of the cherry in his quest to get by. 

 Toyota did not have a mechanical problem.  The computer system had to be reset and power cycled.  So, it was a software issue on the car, not anything mechanical.  We’ve run just over an hour and a half of this race.  Porsche runs deep going in the corner.  Pier Guidi tries to have a head of steam.  Estre is making him go the long way ‘round.  Gianmaria Bruni in the sister factory Porsche in the lane, and back out again is the #47 Cetilar Racing Am class Ferrari.  Porsche won’t change the whole nose, but they will be behind the eight ball.  Pier Guidi is now right behind Estre.  It took three minutes for the Cetilar team to repair their Ferrari.

GTE Pro leaders in the lane, now.  Will we see driver changes?  What strategy do you use?  Christoph Ulrich has run half of his minimum drive time requirements.  An hour and 45 minutes, that is the maximum time required.  He will need to do another stint.  Now, Neel Jani is at the wheel of the #92 Porsche taking over from Kevin Estre.  Christoph Ulrich and Simon Mann, driving this #61 entry, they are the first reserve entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans if any entries should drop out in the month of time we have before the race happens.  Mann was in the car before.  Toni Vilander is the third driver on the team, the experienced Finlander and Ferrari ace.

Toyota #7 continues to lead.  They’ve run 56 laps, just over 200 miles, (almost 202 miles).  There is also a 42 second gap between the #36 Alpine and the first Glickenhaus.  As for the second Glickenhaus, they are clawing their way towards the top ten and just about to get there.  #708 had the spark plug problem if you remember.  The points battle sees that the #708 Glickenhaus ought to pick up as much as they can as Matthieu Vaxiviere is now in the #36 Alpine.  We now watch Glickenhaus #709, Frank Mailleux driving currently.

Straight line speed is relative to corner performance here at Monza.  Toyota has been running well here.  Someone has blown the chicane with a flatspotted tire.  Gustavo Menezes is currently at the wheel of the #708 Glickenhaus, flashing the lights to warn a slower GTE Am Porsche, let me through!  Uh oh.  Same song, second verse, and more woes for Toyota #8!  Aye yaye yaye.  Brendon Hartley has just been passed by a GTE Am runner, not sure which car.  Likely, he blew the chicane as well.  Toyota are languishing here in Italy.  Oh my!  Hartley outbrakes himself and goes off roading!  Holy moly Martha!  Braking issues on that car as team boss Rob Leupen is on the radio.

Leupen, Toyota team boss, says they are not sure what is going on other than to say there is a malfunction in the electronics on the steering wheel that controls many of the systems on the car.  Maybe Brendon Hartley is pushing too hard.  The team is stumped.  They are not sure.  Maybe the brake balance is not working as the hybrid system is recuperating.  Hartley says the brakes, or the front drivetrain is not working.  It shifted all the power to the rear.  This is a brake by wire system on the Toyota.  Road cars also have this now.

So, the car is in the pit lane, and we can see the pit crew visually scanning the car to see what might be going on unless it is something internally, again, within the guts of the computer systems that control it.  There are metal shavings that have been machined off the brakes.  That’s cause for concern as the team wheels the car back into the garage.  That’s a brake issue because of the metal swarth you can see chipping off.  That’s a rotor issue, a caliper issue, a pad issue, with the brakes themselves.  Something has machined off the brakes and that’s why the damn thing didn’t stop.  Computers?  Nope.  Brake discs?  Yeah.

Matthieu Vaxiviere is now second for Alpine.  He is trying to move ‘round the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca with Renger van der Zande, the Dutchman, at the controls.  The fastest car on track is the third place Glickenhaus.  Toyota #8, the wheel has welded itself to the hub assembly and tapping the snot out of it with a ball peen hammer will take an eternity.  In replay, when they let the car down off the air jacks, a boatload of shrapnel sprayed out of the spaces on the wheel itself.  Cars don’t machine their wheels by habit.  So, something is wrong at the Toyota camp.

Right now, the sister #7 Toyota does lead the motor race.  Jose Maria Lopez at the wheel of it, followed by Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine, and the second Glickenhaus, for Franck Mailleux.  This is the first time we have seen three Hypercar brands in the top three.  A Toyota, a Glickenhaus, and an Alpine.  You must be perfect, and these cars will get better as time goes by.  The second Glickenhaus is ninth with Gustavo Menezes.  Racing Team Nederland has Frits van Eerd in the car, the boss of Jumbo Supermarkets, and he is driving.  The fill-in driver for Giedo van der Garde, their normal second driver, Paul Loup Chatin is getting suited and booted, readying for his stint.

Ferdinand Habsburg is the leader in LMP2 for WRT.  He is being pursued by Filipe Albuquerque and Sean Gelael.  Antonio Felix Da Costa has now taken over the Jota Sport LMP2 car, #38.  Neel Jani is in the thick of a battle in GTE Pro as he leads the class over the AF Corse Ferrari, and I believe it is the #51.  The Porsche mechanics on the radio to Jani tell him that he has started his stint well and should look after his tires.  The right-side tires have been wearing out.  If they double stint the tires, they will do four stints.  Managing the tires is a science.  How far do you push it without pushing the tires too much? 

James Calado is in the car, for Ferrari, in the #51.  Will the Briton race the Swiss driver, or will he play the long game and let himself catch up to Jani?  That’s what we have yet to find out.  Finding the pace isn’t the issue.  It is maintaining it constantly.  Now, Calado is going to scream past Jani here, which tells us that maybe those tires on the Porsche are indeed busted.  Whoa.  Wait.  Yours truly was confused.  Calado went by the Am class Porsche of Egidio Perfetti.  That was not the leading factory car.  Whip me with a wet noodle.  That was my mistake. 

That is the Mento’s car.  Ricardo Pera is at the controls, presently.  In the background, look, we have a scrum for LMP2 positions between Frits van Eerd and Sean Gelael.  Gelael is currently at the wheel of the second Jota Sport car, the #28.  Check that again.  Gelael has passed van Eerd, and so that was indeed the #38 of Antonio Felix Da Costa, the sister Jota sport car.  Ricardo Pera was racing in second in GTE Am.  ARC Bratislava will have a five second pit time penalty for an incident in the second Lesmo.  Miro Konopka was the bloke who went off the road.  Speaking of off the road and outside the bounds of the circuit, that is indeed how Sean Gelael passed the Porsche.

That’s a no no, sunshine.  The stewards are going to ping you for that one and send you to the sin bin, briefly.  Well, at least it’s a warning at first.  We have to see what Race Control says.  More work on the left front corner of the #8 Toyota.  Filipe Albuquerque is making inroads of Ferdinand Habsburg.  Habsburg still leads in class.  Charles Milesi did put the WRT car on pole in LMP2 and of course Robin Frijns is the third driver in that #31 car.  Jota and United are running quicker than WRT.  We watch the replays of the process of Brendon Hartley having his troubles.

The brakes have not been working well on that car.  Everything is a rehearsal for the big dance next month which is the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  That is the crème de la crème, the big kahuna, the whole deal, for the World Endurance Championship, and really all of sports car racing worldwide.  #7 are hoping that their parts hold together.  Sean Gelael and Antonio-Felix Da Costa have the two Jotas cars third and fourth in LMP2.  But, Da Costa, the Spaniard, is under investigation by the stewards.  He overtook off track at Parabolica.  Will there be a warning or a penalty?  We shall see.

The Porsche vs. Ferrari GTE Pro battle rages on.  This is Daniel Serra in the Ferrari, being monstered by Richard Lietz.  They are overtaken as well, look, by the High Class Racing LMP2 machine of Jan Magnussen, the #20 Oreca.  The top GTE Pro cars seem to be running in the 1:48 range for lap times.  #91 fourth out of four in LM GTE Pro.  Renger van der Zande in the Inter Europol #34 car is moving up in LMP2.  Fuel conservation to extend stint lengths, is the name of the game here for the Porsche boys.  Give it full beans, though, to get past the Ferrari, because the Ferrari is holding up Richard Lietz in a major way.

Da Costa in the #38 machine is being warned about track limits through Parabolica.  Gustavo Menezes in the #708 Glickenhaus is slightly off the pace after running in the 1:48 bracket while the car was running 1:38’s earlier in the motor race.  Maybe the performance is down due to the fact the team had to swap out that fowled sparkplug, earlier on.  They’ve got a misfire.  Meanwhile, Antonio Felix Da Costa is warned by the stewards for passing ‘round the outside.  61 laps, 220 miles, completed by the GTE Pro leading Porsche thus far.          

The team radio is a double-edged sword.  You can converse with your driver, but with an open radio channel, if we can hear it on the telecast, the other competition can hear every darn thing you are saying!  Scary thought!  Don’t give away your secrets!  Ah.  Too late, bucky!  It’s public knowledge!  Toyota #8 finally goes back on track.  Brendon Hartley knows he’ll have to cool it into the braking zone and just be gentle at this stage.  The leading WRT LMP2 car passes the GTE Pro lead battle, and this car has a comfortable cushion over the second place in class racer of United Autosport.  Filipe Albuquerque is not making a dent into said gap.

Richard Lietz has been told to zone in on Daniel Serra and try to make a move.  But said move has been unsuccessful thus far.  Gustavo Menezes’ lap times are falling.  He is now in the 1:45 range which indicates the second Glickenhaus also has a problem.  A baptism by fire for these boys in only their second ever WEC race.  They are doing what they can but have a mountain to climb in competing against the might of Toyota and their factory effort from Japan with their awesome American entered yet multifaceted car with components from several different places, very much like how the original Ford GT40 was built.

Poor old Gustavo Menezes is running four to five seconds slower than an LMP2 car.  Glickenhaus are learning, but they are doing so the hard way.  Toyota #8 in the meantime, they have changed the full left front corner of that automobile.  Porsche #88, one of the Dempsey Proton GTE Am cars runs off the road onto the grass at the exit of the Variante Ascari.