The opening portion of the intro for this race can be credited to Duke Video, and Videovision Broadcast International, as well as narrator Bob Constanduros for their coverage of the 1986 running of the Monza Group C sprint race, "Supersprint '86" in the first incarnation of the FIA WEC during the glory days of the Group C era. "Summer in Milan, and a young Italian's heart turns to fast cars and in particular to the historic Autdromo Nazionale di Monza, nestling in a city park in the shadow of the snow-capped alps. This weekend, the attention of the motor race world is focused, here, on round four of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Monza." After a drama filled 24 Hours of Le Mans as the cornerstone of the championship, last month, the order of the day from here on out are the traditional six -hour races.
Today sees a new addition, finally, to the Hypercar grid. The long-awaited debut of Peugeot and their wingless wonder Le Mans Hypercar, the 9X8 is here! Peugeot have had great success in the World Sports Car Championship, before, winning Le Mans, three times, in 1992 and '93 with the awesome V10 powered 905 Group C car, and in 2009 with the mighty diesel powered 908 HDI FAP. Now, they are back with the new 9X8 Hypercar, two of them to be precise, for Peugeot TotalEnergies. Like the Toyota, the Peugeot 9X8 is a hybrid powered car utilizing electric motors coupled to it's 2.6 liter turbocharged V6 engine.
Car #93 is set to be driven by Paul di Resta of Scotland, Dane Mikkel Jensen, and French ex-Formula 1 and Formula E driver, Jean Eric Vergne. The sister car #94 will see Frenchman Loic Duval (already a veteran of sports car racing worldwide and particularly in the United States in the recent past), American Gustavo Menezes, and James Rossiter, from England, on the driver's strength. A lot has changed in sports car racing since Peugeot was last on the scene. They are hoping for good things for their radically designed new 9X8 racer. How will it fare today in it's first race outing?
Toyota are looking to continue where they left off after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and after their unlikely Sebring triumph when the race was shorted due to a torrential storm of lightning and rain, Alpine also want another bite of the cherry. Glickenhaus, the American team, they also have a second home here in Italy as Podium Engineering who helped design and run Jim Glickenhaus' retro masterpiece Hypercar, are based right here in Italy. The team have also changed liveries from their classic red and white livery that evokes Ferrari and Luigi Chinetti with the North American Racing Team, to a baby blue, in reference to the great privateer Ford GT40's, Porsche 917's and Cosworth Ford powered Mirage Spyder's run by Gulf Racing and their legendary team boss, John Wyre who had such success on the international sports car racing scene in the late '60s through to the mid 1970s.
Ciao a tutti e benvenuti all'Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. Good day. We are at the Cathedral of Speed and the fans are back, after two years of tumbleweed. Sunday lunch time, and it is time to go racing. We have had two years to wait for this. Kevin Estre, and his wife and son are together, and his son just recently celebrated his second birthday. Happy belated Birthday little man. After Le Mans, the winners get a bucketload of points. But there's tons to play for yet. GM head of global motorsports Laura Wontrop Klauser is here at Monza supporting the Corvette Racing team in GTE Pro. She brings Corvette GT3 cars to Europe we hope, and the Cadillac GTP/LMDh car will be here too. The Temple of Speed is fanstastically quick and very technical. Mistakes can be made under braking.
Be very careful. It is going to be a hot race today. Air temp ambient will be up there, too as we look at Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO and Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich who was the head of the mightily successful Audi Sport program for so many years and is now an advisor to the ACO. Linda Richards, the CEO of Peugeot Great Britain is also here. The new Peugeot's are here. We have CEO's from many major auto manufacturers here as this new era of sports car racing kicks into high gear. General Motors, Stellantis Group (who oversee Peugeot), Lamborghini Automobili S.p.A., Ferrari, and more. More and more cars and teams are coming here in Europe and in the United States.
Peugeot have arrived. The Ferrari, the Cadillac, the BMW, the Acura, all of them are coming. We have seen the Cadillac and the Porsche in action already. Peugeot have been a test team for the longest time and today is the day they are going to become a race team here at Monza. Two LMP2 cars and a Hypercar have been moved to the back of the prototype grid, the back of the overall grid, for a variety of reasons before we get this race started. Jota, car #38, that is the car that won last time out at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2, the car to be driven by Antonio Felix Da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez, and Will Stevens. Jota will be racing with Hertz sponsorship and a privateer Porsche 963 LMDh car next year.
They are at the back for a pit lane penalty today and so is the #23 United Autosports Oreca Gibson for failing to set a qualifying time. Oliver Jarvis, Josh Pierson, and Alex Lynn, have a long road ahead here at Monza this afternoon. Also at the back in 36th spot is the #93 Peugeot 9X8 with Mikkel Jensen driving. He brought out the red flag at the end of qualifying with a clutch problem on the brand new car. Therefore, they too will start at the tail end of the grid. Porsche #56, the Team Project 1 Porsche was going out on a recon lap and got caught up in the gravel in Variante della Roggia. He had to trundle the car back to the pit lane before the grid was set up and clean out the gravel that went all over the shop.
Now, Ben Barnicoat, Brendon Iribe, and Ollie Milroy, will all have to play catch up. That's the plan. Can they make it back to the sharp end of the GTE-Am field? Christian Ried, the evergreen driver in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19, he will start that car as he has in every WEC race that has ever happened over the last decade. Ben Keating, the American automobile dealer from Texas, he put the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin in a good spot but has not scored pole. For the first time in any FIA sanctioned series around the world, we have a female pole sitting driver as Sara Bovy put the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE at the top of the shop. Bovy, sharing with Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting of course.
Monza has always run well here. mMaybe it is because this track is one of their spiritual homes. Congratulations to Sara Bovy. The Get Well Soon message on one of the Porsche factory driver's helmets is for Richard Lietz. He was here the weekend before this race happened running in European Le Mans Series but tested positive for the virus. So, he is sitting this one out. We will have more European Le Mans coverage for you, down the road. Yours truly has been so busy with all these other races. I sound like a broken record, sure. But, I am hoping to find a hole in ye olde schedule to cover the ELMS for you all.
Fred Makowiecki is the substitute dreiver in #91 sharing with Gianmaria Bruni. Richard, we miss you and we'll see you at Fuji, after 55 races consecutively, broken by the blasted virus. Drivers out there are either suited and booted, ready to go for the start, or they are waiting their turn to drive and still in their civies. Romain Dumas took the #708 Glickenhaus to pole as the fastest car around Monza in a straight line, the car now with its sky-blue livery we talked about. Dumas sharing with Olivier Pla and Pipo Derani, who of course are also co-drivers for the Action Express Cadillac team in IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car competition back stateside.
We get a glimpse of the cars the fans here in Italy want to see the most, one of the two Rosso Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE's. This is the #52 AF Corse entry, Antonio Fuoco taking the race start alongside Miguel Molina. They did not top the timesheets in Free Practice but in qualifying they did well, split by Corvette Racing and the yellow #64 C8.R. Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy are driving today. Corvette has had silver and gray liveries but they have brought the yellow livery back to the factory GM team. They are very easy to see that way. On the pole position is the second AF Corse Ferrari, for Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado.
The Corvette, amazingly, split up the Ferrari party in qualifying. Tandy uncorked a banzai lap to get to second place. Alessandro Pier Guidi has also been shaking down the new Ferrari Hypercar we will see next year. Fans in the grandstands, but there are other grandstands that are being refurbished. There are spots at the Ascari chicane and the Parabolica. This place is set in a national park, but it is verdant and green. The old buildings and the old banking are still around and have been for a century. We are going to be watching car #9 in LMP2 for the Prema Orlen team with Louis Deletraz, the starting driver aboard that car. Robert Kubica and Lornezo Colombo are his co-drivers. It is a gamble to start your higher ranked drivers in LMP2. We will also see Charles Milesi at the wheel of the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca that he is sharing alongside Lilou Wadoux and for this race, Paul-Loup Chatin.
Algarve Pro Racing start tenth in the LMP2 class. Car #45, another Oreca, has Steven Thomas, the American driver, starting it alongside England's James Allen, and Austrian, Rene Binder. The risk is neutralizing a safety car phase and burning time away from more experienced drivers. Bronze and Silver drivers are being put on track. On the other end of the coin, we saw Will Owen start for United Autosport at Le Mans and of course that was not a good deal. Francois Perrodo rolls off fourth in LMP2 at AF Corse, sharing with Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera, another Oreca, car #83. We wonder if the Pro-Am section of LMP2 will continue into the future.
Third place in LMP2, we will be seriously keeping an eye on the #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca entry. This is the car being started by Rui Andrade of Angola sharing with Austria's Ferdinand Habsburg, and Norman Nato of France. Andrade is of Portuguese heritage but is from Angola. Paul Loup Chatin was a star in the European Le Mans Series race. Again, you will have to wait to hear about that one. I really hope to write about it fairly soon. Second on the grid in LMP2 is the #44 ARC Bratislava entry. Miro Konopka, Tijmen van der Helm, and Mathias Beche are the driving trio in this car.
ARC Bratislava and Mathias Beche put a stonking lap in udring qualifying. In the waning moments of qualifying, Will Owen, the American for United Autosports scorched the Autodromo on his way to the pole in LMP2. Owen sharing with Filipe Albuquerque from Portugal, and England's Phil Hanson. Fifth on the grid is the #94 Peugeot 9X8. This is one of the two new Peugeot's to keep an eye on with Loic Duval, the starting driver alongside Gustavo Menezes and James Rossiter. What a fantastic new car! The Hypercar era begins with this machine. No disrespect to Toyota, to Alpine, or to Glickenhaus. But the Peugeot is designed and built to truly be what a Hypercar sets out to be.
We will see a tsunami of new cars coming for FIA WEC and for IMSA. Toyota created their car to stay in the top tier, Alpine modified their car. Jim Glickenhaus wanted to come with a newly designed car. Peugeot has history in three different eras of racing. Porsche are coming and could race before the end of the year. Now we hear the official National Anthem of motor racing. The Italian national anthem. Excellent! The national anthem of motor racing. The French like to think La Marseilles is. But truly it is the Italian National Anthem. Il Canto degli Italiani.
That anthem is very special. Congratulations to the singers and it is great to hear it sung. We know the tune, but, we have not heard it sung, I don't think. Wow. Next up, the #7 Toyota, the defending champions of this race. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and Jose Maria Lopez, are driving. Glickenhaus is an American team, but they have an Italian connection because of meeting Luigi Chinetti. He was Italian, domiciled in New York, and was the U.S. Ferrari importer for many, many decades, who also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Ferrari as a driver. Peugeot Sport are showcasing their cars here. Third on the grid is the #36 Alpine A480 Gibson.
Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, sharing with Frenchmen Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere. This is the final time we will see an LMP1 spec car start a race in Europe, as this is the last European race of the season for the FIA WEC before we do the flyaway races in Japan and Bahrain to close out the season. Second on the grid, Toyota #8, to be started by Sebastien Buemi, sharing with Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa. This is the last time we will see GTE Pro cars in Europe as well. On the pole, it is the #708 Glickenhaus. Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas, and Pipo Derani. Romain Dumas starts the car. This is their second pole this season and the second pole for Glickenhaus in WEC and for this season.
The last time Romain Dumas had pole in a top class car in the FIA WEC was aboard the Porsche 919 Hybrid during the LMP1 days. Romain Dumas and the Glickenhaus have pace. In Hypercar, you cannot turn up turbo boost, no matter how you generate the power. There is a maximum power output for every car. Three minutes to go before we get the formation lap underway. We know other boutique automakers are looking at the Hypercar class as we have a Captain Cook at the starting grid. 30 seconds to go. Tomonobu Fujii, the Silver rated driver at D'station Racing Aston Martin, will start their #777 Aston Martin in LM GTE Am. We have other well-known and highly touted Am drivers starting as well. Christian Ried, Christoph Ulrich, Thomas Flohr, Brendon Iribe, Ben Keating, Mike Wainwright and so on.
Linda Richards, Peugeot CEO waves the green flag. The gorilla in the room will be the arrival of a car testing today in Maranello, Ferrari. Peugeot, Cadillac, and more will be coming. Next year, when we come to Monza with Ferrari in the Hypercar class, the Tifosi, around this place, will go absolutely bonkers! There are so many CEO's here. Peugeot is the only new car on the grid right now while the other senior management of the companies are telling us what they will bring to the table as the cars are on their formation lap. The safety car leads the grid on a single formation lap as we anticipate the start.
Alright. we're ready for a start. Now, the Hypercars, the LMP2's, they have gapped each other on purpose so they don't trip over each other, and we don't have a massive shemozzle right at the start of the motor race. There is a built n gap befroe mashing the gas pedal. Keep the gaps minimal, but those are a requirement, and they don't look entirely minimal. Here we go. Red lights, on. Red lights, out! Away we go! The bright blue Glickenhaus shoots into the lead with Toyota #8 in second spot. Third place, the Alpine. Romain Dumas, locking up into Variante del Rettifilio for the first time. Romain Dumas leads ahead of Toyota and Alpine. The LMP2 and GTE cars are stacked up through the first few corners and we have a spinner at the back already! That is the #86 GR Racing Porsche for Ben Barker, Mike Wainwright, and Ricardo Pera.
Alpine shoot to third around Toyota #7 and one of the Peugeot's is already beginning to challenge the Toyota. Loic Duval starting the race for Peugeot #93, and he can get tire temperature better than can the Toyota headed for Ascari for the first time. In LMP2, United Autosport leads RealTeam and ARC Bratislava, under the old banking for the first time. Porsche leading Ferrari, leading Corvette in GTE Pro from the start. Romain Dumas is sailing ahead of Sebastien Buemi and he was shot from a cannon on the start. The Glickenhaus was able to put heat into the tires more effectively right from the start and now Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine also wants to make his move on the Toyota. He wants to pass by Sebastien Buemi.
At the pit exit, a lap down, is Brendon Iribe. You join the race a lap down. In LMP2, Ryan Cullen in the #10 Vector Sport entry passes Stephen Thomas in the #45 car for Algarve Pro Racing. Louis Deletraz and Charles Milesi, too, are beginning to make inroads right from the start. Milesi makes his move through Lesmo 1. The Peugeot's who started from the back are carving their way through GTE traffic and Mikkel Jensen aboard the #93 is making the best progress of the two 9X8's at this opening stage. Jensen is merely 18 seconds behind the other Hypercars having already sliced and diced his way past the GTE cars. Buemi gets tripped up through the Ascari chicane and Vaxiviere wants it. He is moe agile through the corners. Ferrari 1-2 in GTE Pro. Under braking for the Lesmos, the Alpine is going to do what he can to get by the Toyota. Vaxiviere vs. Buemi.
Bingo. Right down the inside and he makes his move, maximizing the traction. We know the Toyota has the straight line speed. The LMP2 fight continues. Now, remember that the Alpine being a grandfathered LMP1 car is around 100 kilograms lighter than the Toyota or perhaps even than the Glickenhaus and the Peugeot. It is the strengths and weaknesses, the subtleties of differences between performance. Romain Dumas, so far, he is on a Sunday cruise and he wants the rest of these guys to be slicing and dicing with their elbows out so he can just serenely whistle off into the distance. A walk in the park, quite literally, is what Dumas is looking for.
We are racing in a national park of course, here at Monza. Nurse the brakes. The tire and brake longevity for Glickenhaus is a concern that the team will be monitoring as the race goes on. A nicely executed pass by Matthieu Vaxiviere on Sebastien Buemi, late, under braking. Poor old Vaxiviere was a sitting duck, Philippe Sinault, looking on, a man, like Jim Glickenhaus, who has really kept at it. Alpine will have their own Hypercar/LMDh in 2024 and next year, they will step back to LMP2 and kind of regroup to see where they are. Signatech Alpine, though, they were the team to beat in LMP2 just a short number of years ago. So, they will be returning to their roots for at least a year.
Vaxiviere had a Captain Cook, but Buemi clearly had the preferred line into the corner. Ferrari, Ferrari, Corvette, Porsche, Porsche in GTE Pro while Vaxiviere has shown his hand but now, he gets the run into the Parabolica. Buemi does not even have to defend. Here's Vaxivierie, but he can't get any benefits off the tow. He will go for it late into the Lesmo's under braking. No dice. Extra late braking just isn't working. With these two blokes chopping and changing, let me tell you, Romain Dumas is a happy bunny. He is whistling off into the distance in the lead of the motor race early doors and has clear sailing ahead for the foreseeable futute.
The three cars we are watching, the two Toyota's and the Alpine, are clearing away ahead of the first of the Peugeot's, the #94 with James Rossiter at the wheel of it. The second Peugeot, the #93 is now up to 11th place, 22 seconds in-arrears of the leaders. It is easier for the Peugeot to clear past the GT cars than it will be once Mikkel Jensen gets to the LMP2 cars. The cars are beginning to spread out and he can find more gaps, as he catches up with Charles Milesi who is trying to make a move on Ryan Cullen as well. The Ferrari's are 1-2 in GTE Pro as Vaxiviere is really trying to go for it catching Buemi. Soon, he will be told to drop back to improve performance. Louis Deletraz is chasing down Rui Andrade right now and Ryan Cullen is next in the serial in LMP2.
You will notice the all gray livery of the Peugeot's being very distinctive and no wonder Glickenhaus have also chosen to change their colors as it was very hard, for a while, since the beginning of the Hypercar era to tell them apart from the Toyota's save for the differences in overall car design. Glad to see the Peugeot here in top-flight sports car racing with a very distinctive looking car, The CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares is looking on. He has 14 car brands he looks after in that specific group. Peugeot being just one of them. He is a massive fan of racing. Carlos Tavares has driven race cars for 41 years, and he also ran a Chevron at the recent Le Mans Classic.
The Peugeot breezes past the LMP2 cars. For Peugeot, Carlos Tavares, being imbued and embedded in motor racing, he knows what is going on. The LMP2 cars are very good braking in a straight line and that has been an Achilles heel for the Peugeot. Jota passes Ultimate in LMP2 after Will Stevens was caboose on the LMP2 field. Oh dear. Double waved yellows as the #54 Ferrari for AF Corse is off the road. Swiss driver Thomas Flohr has started it, sharing with Italian Francesco Castellaci, and New Zealander, Nick Cassidy.
Through the Parabolica, contact with an Aston Martin and it sends Cassidy spinning. Paul Dalla Lana, the Canadian, on the inside, he was a day late and a dollar short with that move. Ooh. That was a close shave indeed. Full Course Yellow coming soon. Flohr is beached in the gravel trap and now, a battle in LMP2 as Prema and Louis Deletraz move. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We are under Full Course Yellow and have a car to recover with the Manitou. The Manitou is the crane that recovers the cars. Pit stop time in GTE Pro now for one of the AF Corse Ferrari's, and for the Corvette. Porsche AG want to stop six times, so a stop every hour.
Porsche are not expected to pit during Full Course Yellow periods. So, Ferrari, they are topping off the tank seeing if they can leapfrog everyone else once the other GTE Pro entries decide it is time to hit the lane for service. The focus is to go for it in the final hour. Go for track position and you get a free pit stop under yellow, very much the same way as it is in America in IMSA, or any other kind of racing like NASCAR and IndyCar. Corvette will pit for fuel only next time by. Teams are ready for pt stops very early doors here. We've got more GT cars and a couple LMP2's that are diving in for fuel only. Monza is a very low degradation circuit. The incident we just saw is under investigation and the same is true for that Mike Wainwright shemozzle we saw in the first chicane right off the start.
Wainwright locked horns with the #71 Spirit of Race Ferrari. That is the Swiss team with the all-French driver trio for Frank Dezoteux, Gabriel Aubry, and Pierre Ragues. Toyota also in the pit lane as we see the banner celebrating the centenary of Monza built in 1922 between May and July, only in three months. Unbelievable! An astonishing piece of work. We can see the LMP2 cars closing up and heading for the pit lane. Everyone running at 80 kilometers an hour, 50 miles an hour, being able to workmon cleaning the track without a safety car. Thomas Flohr screeched into his pit box and took fuel only.
The Parabolica actually has a new name. Curva Alboreto, named for Formula 1 driver, five-time winner in F1, and sports car driver, as well as Le Mans winner, Michele Alboreto, who lost his life in a testing accident at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMP900 prototype in 2001 at the Lausitzring in Germany. We remember Michele Alboreto fondly, and hence the renaming of the corner here at Monza in his honor. Rest In Peace, Michele Alboreto. We saw Sean Gelael in the #31 WRT car, Jota #38 and AF Corse #83, those were the LMP2 cars who pitted. In GTE, we have seen both factory Porsche's make a pit stop plus the #64 Corvette and the #51 Ferrari. The sister AF Corse #52 car has yet to hit the lane.
Toyota #7 is the only Hypercar that has pitted, and Toyota #8 needs to pit. It seems they have split the strategy and Toyota #7 has to be ahead of the sister car as well as the #708 Glickenhaus if they want to win the title, with only two races to go once we conclude the race at Monza this evening. Peugeot did not pit either with both cars. Loic Duval is told to preload the turbochargers on the car for a duration of four seconds when he hits the accelerator for the restart and clear gets the message. Preload the turbo, get the boost wound up. There is a button you hold down on the steering wheel to build pressure. Release both blastoff buttons when the green flag appears and what do you have? You've got yourself, warp drive! Instant torque. In the turbo F1 era in the '80s, Ayrton Senna would be blipping the gas pedal.
Today, with the new turbos on the current F1 cars I don't think that is the case anymore. Toyota #8 to the pit lane as we are finishing this yellow. Porsche #88 also in the pits. That is the Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 for Patrick Lindsey, Fred Poordad, and Jan Heylen. Glickenhaus are staying out. At some point, the seven laps worth of fuel, someone else will have to do it under green flag conditions. But we'll have to see what happens. Free fuel range, but Glickenhaus have track position. The Toyota's have lost track position after their pit stops as the #708 Glickenhaus leads the #36 Alpine and the #94 Peugeot. #8 ahead of #7. In replay on the start,t he Peugeot's got swamped. The Toyota's very nearly made contact. Retefilo is such a tight turn! Unbelieveable!
Full Course Yellow will be removed in 30 seconds. The #71 Ferrari tripped over the orange curb as we watch in replay and just sent the #86 Porsche spinning. Green flag! Never mind turbo preload. Matthieu Vaxiviere rockets away from Loic Duval and ow we see Toyota liner stern, #8 ahead of #7. Oh no! The other Peugeot is slow! This is Mikkel Jensen in the #93 he shares with Paul di Resta and Jean Eric Vergne! Jensen has barely gotten up to speed. They had clutch issues in qualifying with the car. Jensen is told to scan to a switch on the top left side of the dashboard to do a full reset of the car. Control, Alt, Delete.
Ferrari #71 will have five seconds of penalty time added after contact with Mike Wainwright. Such a shame for the #93 Peugeot. Peugeot have tested this car for 15,000 kilometers, but only now it is in the first race it has ever done. They wanted to be at Le Mans and could not make it there because the car did not have enough test miles. Now, they are in their first race and still having to take baby steps. You have to race. Remember at Spa Francorchamps, the Toyota has had the same issue. Toyota have been working with hybrid technology now for the better part of a decade. But, these systems in the Hypercars are based completely on road going technology, not on anything used for racing. So, there are still quirks to work out.
In LMP1, you could get an additional 500 horsepower boost from the hybrid in addition to the power produced by the internal combustion engine. Nowadays, with Hypercar, the power comes in but all from the same source. They switch over between power sources at certain speed thresholds. It is 190 kilometers an hour for the Toyota and a slower 150 kilometers an hour for the Peugeot. So the Peugeot hybrid drive kicks in a wee bit quicker. Why is it different? The tires are why the Toyota brings in the boost at a higher speed than the Peugeot. Jensen in Peugeot #93 is dealing with electronics issues which are the bane of the existence of these modern race cars across the board.
The Toyota has narrower front tires and wider rear tires while the Peugeot's Michelin tires are designed to be the same width on all four corners. Full Course Yellow. Sod's Law. We go to Full Course Yellow for a Peugeot that says "I don't want to move, thank you!" and then, promptly, the computerized brain of the car, says "OK, fine. I'll move!" Whoops! LMP2 leader, off into the gravel and on again! Dear me! Ryan Cullen in the #10 Vector Sport car and also, Oliver Rasmussen in the #28 Jota Sport entry, neither of them made pit stops.
#93 is stopping again. Jensen is crawling back in. Glickenhaus have the speed and could pit. A tight squeeze, but if a car is in trouble, the Jota entry can overtake since it will hit the lane for scheduled service. Oh man. The Peugeot is just about to stop again. Come on, baby. You can make it! He has to get over the next line to be out of the danger zone. Jensen is probably the willing the car on. Come on, car! Get to the pit lane! Oh no! It's going to stop and run out of steam before it makes it into the lane! This has to be completely humiliating!
Poor old Mikkel Jensen, is impressively calm. This is the same deal if you own a very old car. I mean, an old car, but we're talking brass era antique stuff here. Jensen looks calm but inside his helmet he has to be mumbling gibberish to himself. Ugga, hugga, hugga, fiddle dee dee, you little rotter, and probably some expletives that aren't repeatable here. Peugeot have nothing to lose. Jensen on the radio says, "I need more power and I need the MGU to enable." The MGU, Motor Generator Unit, it is an alternator. If it spins in one direction it uses electricity, and then the other way it regenerates power back to the batteries.
With the latest round of pit stops, we now have the #22 United Autosports LMP2 entry in the lead of the class. That is the car of Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson, and Will Owen. We are still waiting to see what Glickenhaus, Alpine, and Peugeot #94 will do for pit stops. Ferrari #52 still leads GTE Pro. Everyone in GTE Pro have pitted and none of the top five in GTE Am, have pitted yet. Romain Dumas is headed for the lane and the #36 Alpine will pit as well. Glickenhaus has track position and they can reclaim it because of their straight-line speed. One marshal trying to push the Peugeot. That's not enough.
You are going to need more than one marshal to push it, my friend. What a shame. The car is safe to touch. The battery is completely dead, so the car is totally discharged. They can't come back completely on battery power. Glickenhaus retain the lead after a 44 second pit stop. Alpine have just now come in for service. Alpine are clear of the Toyota's who have not passed the pit lane yet. That poor marshal pushing the Peugeot! Give that man a gold medal! That car is over a ton being pushed uphill.
The Toyota's both shuffle upwards to second and third place as we see the Alpine exiting the pit lane along with the one running Peugeot, the #94. More marshals are now available to assist in pushing the Peugeot. The fuel flow is dffierent for the Hypercars but all take the same 35 seconds time length to fill the car. So, #93 is back on track. The team are allowed to move the car if he gets out of it. If he can get the car, by himself, or under the power of the vehicle, the team can help. These cars cannot crank on the starter motor anymore. Mikkel Jensen has not come across to the second control line. it is off the race track in a safe spot.
The #777 D'station Aston Martin has been handed over to Satoshi Hoshino after Tomonobu Fujii started it. But it has been reported to the stewards for speeding in the pit lane. Sean Gelael is tucked right up behind the rear wing of Oliver Rasmussen in LMP2. This is WRT vs. Jota. The pit lane is quiet right now as we are seeing the GTE Pro crocodile. It is quiet in the lane right now as Mike Wainwright pitted for fuel. The #71 Ferrari was penalized for getting into a dust up with it's fellow GTE Am contender. Mike Wainwright says it was not enough of a penalty for their team to be satisfied with. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. A long way to go, as we go back to green.
The GTE Am leader, Sara Bovy is on her own. The #93 Peugeot has mercifully made its way to the pit box. Now, the battle is on here, look, for second place, between both Toyota's. Fourth spot in LMP2, hotly contested between #10 for Vector Sport and #1 for Richard Mille Racing. Charles Milesi makes the pass in the Lesmo's and now, her comes the #10 back on the attack. TF Sport have not pitted yet in GTE Am. Sara Bovy and Iron Dames did pit. TF Sport have not pitted yet. Corvette have gained via track position to leapfrog the Porsche's and are now chasing down the first Ferrari. All the tennis balls have been thrown and the air and bounced off the floor.
On the Saturday before this race happened, it was the 90th anniversary of the first use of the Prancing Horse for Scuderia Ferrari. Both these cars carried the original logo and so did the Formula 1 Ferrari's when they raced the Grand Prix in Austria. TF Sport continue to lead in GTE Am while we see the Glickenhaus slicing and dicing his way through the GTE Pro scrap. More fuel in the tank for later on in the race. They were seven seconds clear and now are 15 seconds ahead. That is what Jota Sport did at Le Mans riding out the Full Course Yellows.
Glickenhaus are doing the same thing here. You have to be lucky but maybe just once and so their lead has ballooned by seven to eight seconds with only 40 minutes on the board. Will Owen still has the #22 United Autosport car ahead in LMP2. Every LMP2 car has at least had one pit stop. The Ferrari has now passed the Porsche in GTE Pro. That was through either Variante della Roggia or the first Lesmo turn. The Ferrari might be bringing it's tires in quicker than the Porsche. The left rear tire here at Monza gets a real pasting and the Porsche was late under braking into Ascari while the Ferrari just moves right in and forces the Porsche to give racing room.
Antonio Fuoco is really coming into his own. Lead battle in LMP2. Side by side stuff here between Will Owen and Lorenzo Colombo, I think. But that, that was just not on because the #9 went out over the curb and on reentry to the road, he gained a place. He will have to give it back. Back off and do the right thing. Was he pushed? Hard to say. He'll have to resume the fight later. That is Louis Deletraz, pardon me, not Lorenzo Colombo, at the wheel of the #9 Prema Orlen entry, chasing down Will Owen. The Swiss driver in a major scrap with the American. Deletraz though, he is going to try taking advantage of Will Owen's error.
Drive through penalty for the #777 D'station Aston Martin and now, Ben Barnicoat has taken over from Brendon Iribe in the #56 Project 1 Porsche in GTE Am. The visibility aboard these prototypes, especially the LMP2 cars, is really bad. Owen seems to have gotten spooked by Deletraz being there. He knows he's there, but on the passenger side, he can't see. Charles Milesi makes his move on Rui Andrade, but let me tell you, Andrade is not going to take this one sitting down. Milesi was flying in the WRT car here last year and is doing the same for Richard Mille Racing now. Roberto Gonzalez has now taken over the #38 Jota Oreca. They are gradually recovering as Romain Dumas has now run 19 laps and is 16 and a half seconda haead of the two Toyota's.
Dumas has put 19 laps, 68 miles on the board. We've barely scratched the surface of this race and since it is six hours we'll likely be splitting this one into thirds as far as cutting the cake. Toyota #8 is pulling ahead of the #7. Smoke from a tire rub from contact appears from the back of the #45 Algarve Pro LMP2 entry. Thomas also has diffuser damage. They will need to box the car soon. The smoke has stopped but there is damage behind the car as well, look. Jose Maria Lopez cannot get on terms with Sebastien Buemi. #7 has been the quicker of the two Toyota's for the last couple of seasons. Back in LMP1 era racing of course, they had the hybrid boost but they don't have it the same way anymore.
Ryan Cullen and Oliver Rasmussen scrapping in LMP2 as Ben Keating is being reeled in by Sara Bovy. Keating though, has yet to make a pit stop. Meanwhile, the Porsche is glued to the back of the Ferrari in GTE Pro and they are both chasing down the leading Corvette C8.R. First, however, the red Ferrari must pass a yellow Ferrari. That is the GTE Am car #60, the Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE, the all-Italian trio, in their home race, for Claudio Schiavoni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Matteo Cressoni. So, Antonio Fuoco has moved past the Porsche and they have a ways to go before getting up towards where the Corvette is.
Alright. So, the running order in GTE Pro now has #51 ahead of #64, #52, #92, and #91. Ferrari, Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, Porsche. Trouble for the #31 WRT LMP2 car, ten seconds added to their next pit stop for an unsafe release from the lane. Will Stevens at Jota says that coming from the back, after a harsh penalty, has been a challenge. They did get through the opening laps as quick as possible. They got lucky with the yellow and are back in the mix. Roberto Gonzalez is driving well and the gap to the leader is not getting too big. Flexibility on strategy will be the key for Jota. Stevens will be back into the car after Roberto Gonzalez gets through his double stint.
Cockpit temperatures in the heat here at Monza will affect how a driver is going to perform. As your body fights the heat, there is less mental stamina available to fight the track and the opposition as we continue to watch Tandy chasing after Pier Guidi. Monza is not the most physical circuit out there, so you do have time to rest and regroup at certain points in order to keep focused. The GTE cars and the LMP2 cars have air conditioning. The Peugeot Hypercars I believe have air conditioning. 31 degrees Celsius ambient temperature and 46 degrees Celsius track temperature as we are getting close to the end of hour one. Glickenhaus leads the Toyota's by 20 seconds with one Peugeot having already fallen by the wayside and a single lion is out there.
In LMP2 currently, United Autosport lead Prema and RealTeam Racing by WRT. GTE Pro looks just as it did during qualifying. AF Corse run first and third with their two Ferrari's while the Corvette C8.R remains the meat in the sandwich. TF Sport lead Iron Dames and the Am class AF Corse Ferrari in GTE-Am, the #21 car for GTE Am honors. Vector Sport vs. Jota in a battle for fifth place in LMP2. Oliver Rasmussen wants by Ryan Cullen. We have had two Full Course Yellows for minor incidents. In GTE Am, right now a drive through penalty was taken by Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage. That was for the contact with the Ferrari of Thomas Flohr we saw earlier.
Now then, the battle is on at Toyota. #8 Sebastien Buemi and #7 Jose Maria Lopez. Lopez will be yelling to the team on the radio, "I am quicker than Sebastien! Let me through!" Buemi says on the radio he is getting an alarm. He is being told to continue having worried about the car having a power problem. United Autosport vs. Prema in LMP2 and now, into the Lesmo's Deletraz is going back past Will Owen. Trouble though, as we predicted for the #8 Toyota. Owen is pushing hard as we hear from Peugeot's Jean Marc Finot.
Finot is the Senior Vice President of Stellantis Motorsport. Finot says that the team is getting experience and the issue they are having has to do with turbo boost pressure. The Lion is back on track again. They know they have a lot to learn before becoming really competitive. Toyota #8 is in trouble. Meanwhile, we are excited to see these new teams here. Toyota #8 is doing a lot of lift and coast. He was overtaken by the #36 Alpine. They are having a hybrid issue and the battery is not being charged. The hybrid has nothing left and has to be reboosted. It is recovering too much energy and saturating the battery, or, it is not harvesting energy. The brakes may be overheating. Ah. He has no brakes or so it seems.
The internal combustion engine is fine, the 3.5 liter twin turbo V6. Lift and coast to reduce brake temperatures and then use a regeneration lever. in a Formula E car which Buemi is used to, this also works. The alarm is a no charge alarm, the alternator is not generating electricity. SOC, State of Charge, is what Buemi is freaking out about. The electric motor is not slowing the car down in conjunction with the braking system. Buemi is lifting and coasting before he gets to the braking zone. He does not want to overheat the brakes.
He does not want the brakes to boil so they'd be set on fire and overheated. He is being told to charge the battery by changing a mode on the steering wheel so the engine can be used to bring the battery charge up. It is not regenerating under braking. The kinetic energy is not recharging the battery. Our leader, the pale blue Glickenhaus is bounding over the sausage curbs even thougn they are leading by a country mile. With the Toyota, use the petrol motor to bring up the charge on the battery. The kinetic energy is not recharging the battery. With the LMP1 car that would have been much bigger. In the LMP1 days, this would have been a larger problem.
The hybrid power was added to the total power of the internal combustion engine back in those days. But, with the Hypercars, a hybrid unit is only a different way to produce maximum power. When the hybrid comes in, the internal combustion engine overall power is reduced. But this plays havoc with the brakes because they are used to being worked harder on the front of the car with the regeneration from the MGU, the Motor Generator Unit. The car is using more petrol than hybrid energy. The LMP2 battle between #10 and #28 continues as we have a possible looming issue once again, for the Peugeot camp.
Oliver Rasmussen continues chasing down Ryan Cullen. Peugeot #93 and Aston Martin #777, the D'station entry, are both being reported to the stewards for an infringement under the first Full Course Yellow we saw in the race today. A fabulous battle between Rasmussen and Cullen. Rasmussen knows discretion is by far the better part of valor at this moment. The second Full Course Yellow, we have penalties, a Damocles sword, hanging over the #94 sister Peugeot 9X8 and the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP Oreca.
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