6 Hours of Monza: Hour 4

Oh dear!  One of the Jota cars is slowing.  This is the #38 entry, the Davidson/Da Costa/Gonzalez car.  Antonio Felix Da Costa is slowing in the Curva Grande.  Could he be out of gas?  Maybe he heard the words “box, box, box” on the radio.  Now, he also appears he is back up to speed right in front of the second-place battle.  Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine, and Frank Mailleux in the Glickenhaus are still going at it.  Da Costa is now back up to speed, doing a Control, Alt, Delete.  That said, the Hypercars hve to scythe their way through all this traffic.

Da Costa has speed at different points.  Franck Mailleux was a chap who has not raced in WEC races outside of Le Mans until now as someone is off in the gravel.  The #92 Porsche is still leading GTE Pro but barely.  The #38 car is going to be wheeled straight into the garage.  It looks like it is game over for these blokes.  Mailleux is closing on Vaxiviere hand over fist, and fast.  This is Jim Glickenhaus’ dream coming true as Racing Team Nederland.  Racing Team Nederland pits from second in LMP2.  #38 has an electronics issue and #29, the Racing Team Nederland car has been pinged for speeding in the pit lane.  Renger van der Zande pits at Interueuropol, and Sean Gelael brings in the sister Jota Sport car, both of these stops for regular, routine service.

Intereuropol will change drivers and Jakub Smiechowski will step into the driving seat.  Now then, Vaxiviere is going to be chuckling like a madman inside his helmet because a Porsche, the Project 1 Mentos car, has balked the Glickenhaus.  Frank Mailleux makes quick work of the Porsche and will not set about continuing to attack.  He isn’t going to beat a hasty retreat any time soon.  Mailleux, oh my goodness!  He’s turned on the afterburners, look.  He is right on Vaxiviere’s six now.  Vaxiviere counterattacks shutting off Mailleux and using a lapped Ferrari GTE Am racer as a pick.

This is the #54 AF Corse GTE Am leading Ferrari, Alessio Rovera at the wheel of it.  As we can see, the Glickenhaus might have the legs on the Alpine.  This car, the Glickenhaus is powered by what is essentially two 600 horsepower rallycross engines that are joined together on a common crankshaft.  The engine, built by Pipo Moteurs, is comfortably capable of producing a thousand brake horsepower in unlimited trim.  When was the last time a U.S. team finished on the podium in a World Endurance Championship race?

We’ll answer that question shortly as we now see Alpine in the pit lane.  We are told Nicolas Lapierre will take over at the controls of the Alpine for this next stint.  We are aware it is now Frits van Eerd behind the wheel of the #29 Racing Team Nederland automobile as well.  Driver change as well at the #28 Jota Sport LMP2 camp with Tom Blomqvist stepping into that car.  The sister car remains in the garage.  Risi Competizione has also made a stop and Felipe Nasr is now at the wheel of the #82 Oreca.  ARC Bratislava are also into the lane.  Miro Konopka is the current driver.  We don’t know if he’s staying in or handing the wheel to a co-driver just yet.

United Autosport in and out in quick fashion.  Fabio Scherer now driving that car, the #22 Oreca.  He runs ahead of Frits van Eerd, and also Charles Milesi in the #31 WRT car that sat on pole in class for this race.  Red and white cars are at the sharp end of the field but not from the same teams.  Toyota leads Glickenhaus right now.  Nico Lapierre takes the Alpine back on track as Matthieu Vaxiviere debriefs with the team.  Toyota #7 in the lead, with Jose Maria Lopez currently driving.  “Pechito” is getting close to the end of his second stint in this race before handing the car over either to Kamui Kobayashi or to Mike Conway.

The Toyota is built quite a bit like a single seater or like the second-generation Can Am cars that raced in the 1980s where there is a tub and then, the fenders are on the outside.  Here at Monza, we are right outside Milan and near the Italian lakes and the Italian Alps, the mountains.  Gorgeous scenery here at Monza and an ultra-fast racetrack as well.  Toyota now have one dog left in the hunt ahead of Glickenhaus and Alpine.  United Autosports leads LMP2.  In terms of distance, the leader has now run 106 laps, 382 miles.  United Autosports leads LMP2 as Racing Team Nederland leads Pro Am.  Porsche leads GTE Pro with a Ferrari the meat in a Porsche sandwich.  An Italian sausage sandwich on a pumpernickel bun if you will.

AF Corse leads Project 1, D’Station, and AMR next up.  The Aston Martin’s could make their way past the Project 1 Porsche.  Ah.  Toyota #8 has gone by the Glickenhaus, at least one of them.  Matthieu Vaxiviere says Alpine is doing their best to prove they are here and in contention.  They want to fight in the Hypercar class against both Glickenhaus and Toyota.  Vaxiviere says that tire degradation during his double stint was a big deal and he says Nico knows what to do, and Andre Negrao is credited too, with helping Matthieu Vaxiviere.  You can always rely on your teammates.

Toyota #8 we hear is going to be forced to run shorter stints.  They have to live with the fuel pickup problem probably for the remainder of this motor race.  108 laps for the lead Toyota while the sister car is on 94 laps, 14 laps down.  The Glickenhaus also still owes us a pit stop as the #7 Toyota is 29 seconds ahead.  1:41 dead for the Toyota as best lap.  1:39.403 for Mailleux.  Nico Lapierre is coming in a hurry as well.  United Autosports has a 32 second lead in LMP2.  Fabio Scherer leads Frits van Eerd who is being monstered by Charles Milesi.  Next up it is Jakub Smiechowski for Inter Europol Competition, car #34, and then comes the #1 Richard Mille Racing entry for Tatiana Calderon.

Anthony Davidson is back on the road in the #38 Jota Sport Oreca.  But, with their litany of woes, they’ve lost 30 minutes in the lane.  The Porsche vs. Ferrari fight in GTE Pro has been a slugfest all day and has not let up as Neel Jani leads over James Calado.  Jani and Calado lead ahead of their respective team mates Richard Lietz and Daniel Serra.  The strategies for Porsche were split between the two cars.  Neel Jani, though, he knows how to handle the pressure.  He used to race for Porsche in their LMP1 program.  The first pair of Porsche/Ferrari, they are eleven seconds up the road from the other battle between their sister cars.  Richard Lietz is in the #91 as we mentioned a bit earlier.  He has a two and a half second cushion over Daniel Serra.

Glickenhaus #709 is back on track and now we see Romain Dumas, the experienced Frenchman, at the keyboard.  #709 is in third spot overall and he is ten or so second behind Nico Lapierre.  The traffic is holding up Lapierre and he must be annoyed.  110 laps now run for the leading Toyota.  Romain Dumas will also have to wrestle through this clump of traffic.  Touch wood, Glickenhaus have been running fault free with the #709 car for well over half the race here at Monza as we watch the #31 WRT entry in LMP2 pressing on it’s way.  Ferdinand Habsburg just completed a great stint and he says it was a very good stint getting the undercut after the pit stop.

But they did get snookered by the safety car as well.  Peaks and valleys are what endurance racing is all about.  Charles Milesi is confident and fast.  Missed opportunities are the worst, says Ferdi Habsburg, but he knows as does his team, that staying focused on the rest of the race is what they must do.  You can’t ask questions about what could happen.  Focus on what will happen as the race goes on.  Don’t give away 15-16 seconds on the pit stop.  What can Charles Milesi do?  He won pole in LMP2 and is now on a clear lap.  1:42.4 in traffic for Milesi while Fabio Scherer uncorked a 1:40.2 and Milesi is chasing Scherer.  Toyota #7 is in the lane now for service and a driver change.  That car is now ahead of the Alpine with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel.  Lapierre, a former driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

We have two hours and 40 minutes to go on the race clock, the standard time duration of an IMSA sprint event in the states.  Kamui Kobayashi gets into the #7, replacing Jose Maria Lopez.  Toyota have one bullet left in the gun.  Will they have to fire it?  We’ll see.  The electronics are going all wonky on one car, and if so, they could go wonky on another as well.  We shall see.  The Risi Competizione LMP2 car is being penalized for not respecting the emergency service procedure.  IMSA has the same rules.  Miro Konopka has also been pinged for track limits at Variante della Roggia.  He has handed the car over to his son Matej Konopka for this next driving stint.

Racing Team Nederland are also stuck with a drive through penalty and a close shave there, look, between the Alpine and a GTE Am Ferrari!  Frits van Eerd we hear will also have to serve a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane.  Charles Milesi is matching Fabio Scherer’s times.  The Iron Dames #85 car was the lapped car being monstered by the Alpine.  Frits van Eerd continues on his way as Kamui Kobayashi is back on the road in the #7 Toyota, and Juan Pablo Montoya has taken over from Ben Hanley at DragonSpeed in LMP2.  Jaxon Evans, meanwhile, is driving the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. 

Evans, from New Zealand is a former Porsche Junior driver and he also races in Porsche’s Mobil 1 Super Cup Series.  Tom Gamble is your GTE Am leader in the #86 GR Racing Porsche.  Gamble leads GTE Am over three AF Corse Ferrari’s with Alessio Rovera, Toni Vilander, and Thomas Flohr, in #83, #61, and #54.  #28 for Jota Sport battles and the #38 car is back in the garage.  They have a misfire on that car while Frits van Eerd takes his drive through penalty.  Toyota #7, the new GR010 Hypercar, leads the motor race.  United, leads Team WRT and Intereuropol in LMP2 while in GTE Pro Neel Jani leads James Calado and Richard Lietz.

Again, Tom Gamble is leading GTE Am.  Is it true that the GR Porsche is off sequence?  It could be.  #86 is coming to the end of it’s stint while the other stints are different.  Vilander is finishing up and so is Thomas Flohr, while Alessio Rovera has just begun another shift.  We also do see the #85 Iron Lynx Ferrari for the Iron Dames, Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Sarah Bovy.  Racing Team Nederland in the lane for fuel, tires, and a driver change.  11 laps in a stint for Frits van Eerd.  Toyota #8 still having woes.  They’ve gone ahead of the #708 Glickenhaus of Gustavo Menezes.

Ferrari #83 has now run in GTE Am, 105 laps, 378 miles.  #8 needs repairs on the fuel system.  RealTeam Racing in the #70 car is in the lane.  13 seconds is the gap between Nico Lapierre and Romain Dumas.  The last time Dumas was on a podium in the World Endurance Championship was his Le Mans win in 2016 driving for Porsche.  The Jani and Calado scrap continues unabated.  Felipe Fraga in the #33 Aston Martin is the last healthy running car in the order.  Ben Barker is now driving the Porsche #86.  Alessio Rovera has retaken the lead of the GTE Am class and he is in the car that started caboose on the field.  We have more art and drama shots of the racing we have seen so far here at Monza.

Monza is such an evocative, legendary palace of speed.  The action today has been thrilling so far.  The Jani/Calado scrap in GTE Pro continues as we have just two and a half hours left on the board before this 6 Hours of Monza is completed.  We are seeing a strong battle in GTE Pro after it withered on the vine last time out at Portimao in the Portuguese heat.  Filipe Albuquerque says he is surprised that his team is leading in LMP2 at United Autosport.  He knows he needs to be lucky and so do his co-drivers.  You lose time to the GTE Am cars and there’s nothing you can do. 

Ascari is the longest of the chicanes here at Monza followed by Variante della Roggia and Variante Rettifilo as well.  Managing traffic is the key in LMP2 because of the regulation changes we are seeing now, and we watch the battle between Tom Blomqvist at Jota Sport and Dennis Andersen at High Class Racing.  This is for sixth in class in LMP2, ninth overall.  Blomqvist seems to be struggling right now.  Fabio Scherer is running very well.  But now, Romain Dumas we can see him running purple, running fastest sector times of anyone, in the #709 Glickenhaus.  Mike Conway still has fastest lap of the motor race. 

Formula 1 with your sprint race, think your so clever… hold my beer, says World Endurance Championship.  Romain Dumas is set to start his 21^st consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans!  Wow!  He has not missed Le Mans in the 21^st century so far.  Charles Milesi wants to put a lap on both Dennis Andersen and Tom Blomqvist.  Milesi goes the long way ‘round Curva Grande.  Second and third place cars are catching the leader.  No rest for the weary at Toyota.  Push, push, push.  The same is true in all the classes and GTE Pro is one example.  Persistence pays off.

Dennis Andersen has been with High Class Racing before entering WEC.  They have been in both European Le Mans Series and Renault Sport Trophy racing for these last number of years and Dennis Andersen has been there for all of it.  Does the #38 car have ongoing troubles?  Romain Dumas in the #709 Glickenhaus will soon be upon a boatload of traffic.  Juan Pablo Montoya will be the next car on his shopping list.  Don’t wait.  Release the beast and go now.  Romain Dumas has a great history as both a racing and rallying driver. 

#38 is still being worked on back in the garage, but it is game over for that car.  They are not going to see further track action here in Italy I’m afraid.  Find out what is wrong with the car because the next race you have on the schedule is the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Romain Dumas has raced in WEC in LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro, and now Le Mans Hypercar.  Nico Lapierre is going to race his 13^th consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races this year.  Nico Lapierre is still team manager for the Cool Racing team, but he is driving as a factory driver for Alpine in Hypercar. 

It is the garage of doom for the poor old #8 Toyota and the #38 Jota Sport car.  This is a new car for Toyota this year and it is better to have a bucketful of troubles here at Monza than at Le Mans next month.  The Toyota Hypercar has a very different hybrid system compared to last year’s LMP1 car.  Tatiana Calderon is back on track after a standard pit stop for the #1 Richard Mille Racing Oreca.  The hybrid technology is closer to that used on road cars for the GR010 than it was on the TS050.  Romain Dumas is catching up to Nico Lapierre as the #7 Toyota in the lead of the motor race has now run 123 laps, 443 miles.

Neel Jani is three seconds ahead of James Calado in GTE Pro as Dennis Andersen has the #20 High Class Racing car in the lane from second in the Pro-Am division in LMP2 as Juan Pablo Montoya is next in the serial.  He is the professional while Henrik Hedman is the amateur.  Now, Kamui Kobayashi is still in the lead.  In GTE Am, Alessio Rovera leads followed by Toni Vilander, Ricardo Pera, and Andrew Watson.  Ferrari, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin.  These chaps are racing laps in the 1:47-1:49 range but Andrew Watson, he is flying right now. 

In car #777, Satoshi Hoshino has completed his drive time as the Am in the lineup, meaning Andrew Watson and Tomonobu Fujii will drive this race the rest of the way.  Toni Vilander has the #61 AF Corse Ferrari running second in GTE Am right now, the car started by Christoph Ulrich, and Simon Mann as well, is the other driver on that team.  Mann is a Bronze rated driver.  Check that.  He is Silver rated.  Ullrich is a Bronze.  Sad news direct from the horse’s mouth at Glickenhaus.  Jim Glickenhaus confirms the #708 car, game over.  Gearbox failure for Pipo Derani, Gustavo Menezes, and Olivier Pla. 

Sadly, this is the first retirement of the motor race.  Glickenhaus still has the #709 flying out there.  1:37.813 vs. 1:37.889.  The gap between the top three Hypercars is closing.  D’station Aston Martin have leapfrogged the #61 AF Corse Ferrari as Toni Vilander makes a routine pit stop.  Francois Perrodo has completed his driving as the D’Station Aston Martin moves to third in GTE Am.  Charles Milesi is also third in LMP2 in the #31 WRT car.  One of the factory Porsche’s blows right through the Lesmo chicane and onto the escape road.  Oh my.  This is the #91 vs. the #51.

Ben Barker, fifth in GTE Am is moving up.  Everyone in GTE believed there’d be a splash and a dash at the end.  That could be possible.  Mike Wainwright still has 20 minutes to go before his driver time is in good shape for the entire race.  In GTE Pro, if you blink, you lose.  Felipe Nasr, meanwhile, brings the Risi Competizione LMP2 car to the pit lane from tenth spot in LMP2, car #82.  Porsche #91 in the lane, and now, Gianmaria Bruni is back into the car.  The finish in GTE Pro will be amazing.  Porsche or Ferrari could be in for a 1-2.  Porsche was not in the hunt last time out in the 8 Hours of Portimao for some reason.

Andrew Watson, too, he is catching the #56 Team Project 1 Mento’s Porsche in GTE Am, hand over fist.  Romain Dumas goes purple, fastest of all.  In the pit lane too, the #92 Porsche factory car as Kevin Estre is now back in the car replacing Neel Jani.  Daniel Serra completes his double stint aboard the #52 AF Corse Ferrari, handing over to rapid Spaniard, Miguel Molina.  The battles here are still extremely close.  #28 and #31 in LMP2 are back on track as Fabio Scherer also pits in the #22 United Autosport car.  James Calado now has the #51 Ferrari in the lane from the lead on the road.  Calado will hand off to Alessandro Pier Guidi. 

Fabio Scherer is doing a double stint and will stay in the #22 car followed by Charles Milesi and Paul Loup Chatin.  Calado and Pier Guidi, the #51 Ferrari have a fuel advantage as we see the #36 Alpine into the pit lane.  Romain Dumas goes to second in the sole remaining Glickenhaus.  Dumas is slightly quicker than Kamui Kobayashi in the Toyota.  We see now that the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari and the #38 Jota Sport cars have parked it.  Nico Lapierre is still driving the Alpine.  Ferrari #51 and Oreca #70, the RealTeam Racing car in LMP2, both leap over the curbs through the Lesmo’s.  Loic Duval tried the banzai pass but didn’t make it.  He had to give it up.

Toyota leads from Glickenhaus and Alpine in Le Mans Hypercar.  In LMP2 it is United Autosport, Team WRT, and Team Nederland.  In GTE Pro, it is Porsche #92 leading a pair of Ferrari’s.  In GTE Am, the #83 AF Corse leads the #777 D’station Aston, and the Project 1 Porsche, #56.  Romain Dumas’ lap average through his latest stint is 1:38.3 while Mike Conway from the green flag was a 1:38.044.  131 laps completed for Toyota #7 in the lead.  472 miles.  Dumas has clear road ahead between he and Conway.  Glickenhaus have tested the car constantly.  It has also run up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.  Portimao was the first race for Glickenhaus.  But this is the first event, here at Monza, where they’ve had two entered cars instead of one.

Reliability is the key issue for Glickenhaus.  It has pace.  We know it can keep up with the Toyota’s.  But reliability will be a big deal.  The only way that Glickenhaus can beat Toyota at Le Mans is by having zero, zilch, nada, zippo, in terms of problems during the motor race.  As the circuit loses grip here at Monza, the Glickenhaus gets stronger through the low-speed chicanes.  How will it develop now and how will we see the cars race at Le Mans?  At Le Mans, just as it is here, the Alpine, with it’s smaller petrol tank, will struggle with fuel mileage.  Le Mans is almost three times as long as the track here at Monza.  Alpine could get jolly lucky and have the long lap at Le Mans come to their advantage.

We shall wait and find out.  The mechanics are discussing adjustments on the car as we see Jim Glickenhaus watching the race, give the OK sign.  We can hope the car is running reliably and quickly at the checkered flag.  The Glickenhaus is filthy right now, it is full of dirt.  So is the #7 Toyota.  They lead but only by 20 seconds.  The #8 still has trouble.  Fuel pressure, Rob Leupen says, has been an issue.  They are losing fuel pressure all day.  They have had that problem, on their settings, and the second problem is damage to the car after Brendon Hartley ran wide in one of the chicanes.

Fuel pressure settings have been all over the place and how did Brendon Hartley run wide in the final chicane?  Rob Leupen says “I don’t know where we are in terms of points with the #8 car.  In terms of points, we are classified in position five.  That is all we can expect today.”  The key for #8 is to earn points they must complete a certain distance, or a certain percentage of distance.  Kamui Kobayshi leads the motor race in the #7 Toyota.  #8 must cover minimum distance to score points.  136 laps now on the board, so that’s 490 miles.  Toyota #8 is 35 laps down.  If they don’t lose any more time, they can make it.  They can’t lose more than 15 laps before the end of the race, or they’re efforts will be for naught.  As we’ve seen, feast for one Toyota and famine for the other.  A sweet ice cream cone for the #7 and a lingering ice cream headache for the #8.  They must complete a certain distance.  Kobayashi leading has no worries at this stage.  We will have two hours to go bang on the nose in just a few seconds.