The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza first built a century ago, in 1922, and still hosting races to this very day, 100 years later. The citadel of speed is what this place is. Many ghosts of motor racing's past walk here. Today, the European Le Mans Series will add to the legacy when we find out the winners of the 4 Hours of Monza. It is time to go racing. Today's race also marks the halfway point in the season and so, the championship battles are going to heat up immensely in LMP2, LMP3, and in the GTE class. Buon Giorno and welcome to Monza. "The Temple of Speed". Let's get ready to go racing. This place is "the citadel of speed". Motor racing's ghosts and legends, walk here. Monza, is the real deal and also an enigma.
The track is narrow and challenging and the drivers like it a lot. High speed, and a lot of straightaways. An old school track for sure with no margin for error. "The Tifosi" are here in force to cheer on the Ferrari teams in the GTE class as we join broadcast host Hailey Edmonds on the iconic banking that used to be a fixture of this great circuit. It is still here, for fans to see. We are midway through the ELMS season for 2022. This is round three, exactly the halfway mark. Here are the points tables as they stand thus far in all three of the categories.
In LMP2, the #9 Prema Racing Oreca, they have a wide margin over their competitors. Prema Racing on 50 points, with a 23-point buffer over Panis Racing in second spot and in third, with half of the points of the leaders, on 25 markers, it is the Swiss team, Cool Racing. On the other hand, Cool Racing are the team leading the LMP3 standings with their #17 car. They have an 11-point cushion over the #3 United Autosports car which is at 31 points, total. In third spot is the #5 RLR MSport entry on 27 points. Meanwhile, in LM GTE, it is a dead heat, believe it or not! The #32 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari, tied for the lead on 26 points apiece along with both of the Oman Racing with TF Sport Aston Martin's, #69 and #95.
Many of the ELMS drivers ran the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans including Francois Perrodo. Perrodo is telling the story of how he got into racing when he was young, and he did so when he went to the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix with his dad and some business associates. He saw Ayrton Senna win one of his final Grand Prix races and of course, the world of motor racing lost Ayrton Senna in '94 at the previous round at San Marino just before the Monaco event. Perrodo was lit up with the desire to be a racing driver at that event, at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix.
We join the AF Corse team in the garage, discussing strategy. What gear ratio did you put in the car? Medium. Same as at Spa. OK. Of course, we are still to contest the ELMS race at Spa Francorchamps later in the season. Maybe AF Corse had the chance to do some testing there or perhaps they are discussing how things went with running the car earlier in the season when the FIA World Endurance Championship visited Spa in May of 2022. There is discussion on this hot weekend, during qualifying, about ventilation in the car to keep the driver's cool.
The mechanic asks one of the drivers, "did you open the holes in the front at the base of the windshield?" "Normally, it's done", is the reply. We rejoin Francois Perrodo again, discussing his career. He believes that his team, AF Corse, like a family. Perrodo, and AF Corse team boss Amato Ferrari see eye to eye on how the team ought to be. AF Corse continue discussing car setup and how their LMP2 racer is handling. "I don't know if you saw, there's a bump in the straight line." The discussion.
"I don't know if you saw, there's a bump in the straight line." Perrodo says "yes, I put myself in the middle along the white line." Perrodo continues his explanation. "You have to go back to the left there to brake." The crew chief asks "to slow down?" This advice is given in the next part of the conversation on:
A. how to drive the track.
B. car setup
C. strategy
"Take your brake and to open the chicane you have to come back to the left." Open up your hands on the wheel on corner exit. I think that is what is being implied here for a decent racing line. Perrodo clarifies what his crew chief/team manager just told him. " I attack in the middle and then I go slightly to the left to open the right." Perrodo then says, "this one is fine and I don't lose too much." After listening in on the conversation about how to drive the track here at Monza, we continue to hear insights from Perrodo on his racing career, and his development as a driver.
Perrodo says "as a driver, sometimes you can have too much fun. It is time to reset the counter and be serious about what I am doing. I guess the magic recipe is to be as serious as possible while also having some fun and having good chemistry between the drivers and the team. But it's not always easy. Especially when the race doesn't go well." We see video of Francois Perrodo gearing up, getting into the car during a pit stop and going out on track for a driving stint. He is right. Motor racing parallels life in so many ways. It is like the 1971 "Le Mans" movie with Steve McQueen and the quote I have on the page banner for the blog. "Racing is life. Anything that happens before or after, is just waiting."
It will be time to race soon. But first, we have another team profile to cover as we catch up with TDS Racing and their driver's Philippe Cimmadomo and Mathias Beche. What is it like to be two drivers from two entirely different generations? Philippe Cimmadomo says his favorite car of all-time is the LMP2 race car, the Oreca, that the team uses in the European Le Mans Series describing it as "the best car ever." For Mathias Beche, his favorite road car is the Porsche Carrera GT supercar. Now that one is a rare bird. There aren't too many of those around. Beche also drove in the old LMP1 days and enjoyed driving the Lola. Next question on the list. Who are the drivers who inspired you to race?
For Philippe Cimmadomo, he was inspired by Formula 1 and the days of old, and drivers like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who, of course, were teammates and fierce rivals at McLaren in Formula 1 back in the day. Philippe Cimmadomo never thought he would be driving a race car in his life, and yet, here he is competing in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series. For Matthias Beche, he does respect Alain Prost, but like Philippe, Ayrton Senna is his racing hero. He wishes Ayrton Senna was still with us today. Don't we all! Gone, but never forgotten. Rest In Peace, Ayrton Senna.
Next question, who is the driver you'd dream of teaming up with? This one elicits a chuckle from Philippe! At the moment, Philippe gives the game away and says, it is definitely Matthias Beche. He is the guy, which tells you these two chaps have great chemistry as teammates! That is just what you want in racing and especially in endurance racing. For Matthias Beche, if you are talking about legends of our sport, he would say he'd most like to drive alongside Tom Kristensen. Another great choice. Kristensen is a master of getting everything out of a sports car and had so many wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Audi. That's what makes him a great driver.
Favorite sporting activity outside of motor racing. Ooh. This'll be a good one. For Philippe Cimmadomo it is water skiing. For Mathias Beche it is similar, and snow skiing, cross country skiing. It is a good thing to do during the winter months of the offseason and provides a good break from the pressures of being a racing driver. Music or dance? This is another good question about hobbies. Well, for Mathias Beche he says it flat out "I am a very bad dancer, and I am a very bad singer." No answer from Philippe Cimmadomo on this one. Maybe they will do a duo variety show sing and dance routine! OK.
We'll go racing soon. We have one more segment of the ELMS pre-race show to go through and then, we'll be up and running. Have you ever wondered what on earth all the buttons are on the steering wheel of an endurance sports car? We are about to have an answer to that very question. We are going to get an explanation from Inter Europol Competition and their driver, the 16-year-old French newcomer Noam Abramczyk to explain the entire steering wheel to us laypeople who look at it and say, "wow! How on earth does that thing work?"
So, here's the steering wheel. There are six different buttons, two rotary knobs. This is the button to speak to the engineers. He is pointing to a blue button on the top left of the wheel. The white button in the middle on the left, says, Page. This is for the different pages of the digital dashboard. You can change through the pages of data on the screen to find out how the car is running. This is very much like your computer or your tablet or phone at home. The orange button, bottom left, is the neutral button to select first gear or reverse. You will see a sticker on the outside of the car that has a large letter N on it.
That is the manual neutral switch that the marshal's engage if the car is stopped and has a technical problem and must be rolled away to a place of safety before it can go back to the team to be repaired. The green button is the start button, to crank the engine. Like modern road cars, there isn't necessarily a key to start these race cars. In the very old days, there used to be a key as well as the driver having to turn on the fuel pump to prime the carburetors, way back when. The red button above that is the pit lane speed limiter. The blue button, top right, flashes the headlights at slower cars ahead of you but at set intervals.
The rotary knob on the bottom in the middle of the wheel, bottom left, is for dialing in the traction control, while a similar rotary knob to the right is for the engine fuel map which has eight different mapping settings on it. The wheel looks complex to the layperson. It is. However, drivers learn the roadmap of what the functions do, very quickly, so they don't waste any time and when driving, if they need a function to operate on the car, they know exactly where it is. One more feature before we get set to go racing about Oman Racing with TF Sport and their Aston Martin team. We followed them during qualifying and will check out how they did, right now.
Last time out at Imola, they scored pole and won the race in the GTE class and so, they are looking to double up here at Monza. We checked in with them during qualifying. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, LM GTE qualifying has started. There have been changes for the Aston Martin's since their Imola victory, RE: Balance of Performance. Driver Marco Sorensen checks in with the team asking, "what will we bet on regarding lap times?" "51.7 for John (third driver, John Hartshorne)." Sorensen is hoping for a 1:52.3. He is betting that #95 will uncork that time during the qualifying session. "It's enough pressure now." Indeed, it is, Marco. Predictions are (since all three drivers have to clock in a banker lap), Ahmad al Harthy is going to click off a lap in the 1:49 range.
Marco is skeptical replying "49? I hope not." Maybe he is sensing his co-driver will be faster. 53.3. 49.999. Lots of guesses being tossed around. The Aston Martin drivers are guessing their competition from Porsche or Ferrari will be quicker. The question is, will the Porsche or the Ferrari be quicker? Bets at Oman Racing with TF Sport say that it will be the Porsche. Let's see what happens. Sam De Haan observes, "the Porsche, look, is in the perfect tow." They are cheering their co-driver on knowing they'll be in for a long race ahead. Ahmad Al Harthy qualifies in sixth place on the GTE grid.
Over the radio, Ahmad al Harthy says "I gave it everything I had, obviously! Everything!" His co-drivers obviously believe he ought to be in P1 at the top of the tree. Al Harthy is concerned, saying "with the amount of extra weight we are carrying, and the lack of power, it will be hard to be anywhere near a podium spot." This is the dreaded Balance of Performance at work again. We can whine and complain about it all we'd like because there is no real fairness in it. "This isn't fair!" you will hear a driver or a team boss remark, indignantly. Again, racing mirrors life. Who said anything is going to be completely fair? However, that is how the rules of sports car racing, no matter the category, the sanctioning body, whatever, that is how the cookie crumbles I am afraid.
Meanwhile, it is race day. Drivers go out on dirt bikes, and sign autographs for fans ore-race. Everyone at Monza, young and old, they are ready to see a scintillating sports car race today. A motorcycle stunt rider entertains the crowd with backflips and burnouts. In just a few moments we will be underway. Mathias Beche is your polesitter in the LMP2 division while in LMP3 it is Malthe Jakobsen on his third pole in 2022, for Cool Racing. In the GTE class, Christian Ried is on pole in the Proton Competition Porsche. The Italian National Anthem is sung, the National Anthem of motor racing. We are ready, now, to get the 4 Hours of Monza underway from this legendary circuit.
Ready to go racing, paced by the TDS Racing LMP2 pole sitter. Cool Racing on pole in LMP3, and again in GTE it is the Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19. It's lights out and away we go! The 4 Hours of Monza has begun! The land rush to the Variante del Rettefilo is on! Right at turn one, Philippe Cimadomo gets outfoxed by Julien Canal who pushes his way to the lead. For some reason, Cimadomo had a slow getaway and couldn't avoid being biffed by David Heinemeier-Hanson, the Danish gentleman driver, in the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07, the car he is sharing with Pietro Fittipaldi of Brazil and Fabio Scherer of Switzerland.
John Falb aboard the Algarve Pro Oreca, car #47, has already made his move. That is the car Falb, the American, shares with Australian drivers James Allen and Alex Peroni. David Heinemeier Hansson is now all hot and bothered with the #22 United Autosports Oreca as well, the car of Phil Hanson, Tom Gamble, and Duncan Tappy. They fly down to the Ascari chicane for the first time and now, Philippe Cimadomo gives the United Autosports car the old bump and run and the dark blue United entry is loose! A major moment for Duncan Tappy as he nearly loses control and nearly crashes right into Cimadomo!
Tappy has the luckiest of lucky escapes and stays out of the gravel trap! That was a miracle! It was an absolute miracle that he didn't spin off the road! Heinemeier Hansson makes a move in the green and yellow Inter Europol car as the battle now rages on for seventh position. Memo Rojas vs. Paul Lafargue and Bent Viscaal. Algarve Pro to the inside in the Parabolica and dusts off two cars in one pass! Holy smokes! The IDEC Sport entry, losing out for a second but is now starting to make inroads once more. IDEC Sport is the #28 Oreca with Lafargue at the wheel of it. He shares the car in an all-French lineup with Paul-Loup Chatin and Patrick Pilet of course.
The GTE lead scrap is just as intense as LMP2! Sara Bovy in the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GT3 has her hands full with the similar Ferrari, car #66! That is the Italian driver Giacomo Petrobelli in the JMW Motorsport 488. Petrobelli not giving an inch and right behind these two, Christian Ried is doing all he can to get a look in. Ried starting the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 and the German sharing that entry alongside his Italian co-drivers, Lorenzo Ferrari and Gianmaria Bruni. The sister Proton Competition Porsche, the #93 car, is also in the fight with Irishman, actor, and racing driver, Michael Fassbender, taking the opening stint in the race.
Bovy just barely leads the motor race in GTE. Just barely. Fassbender of course is sharing with his seasonlong co-drivers, Austrian Richard Lietz, and Canadian Zacharie Robichon. It may be a Ferrari 1-2 in GTE at Imola right now, keeping the Tifosi happy. However, Porsche's in third, fourth, and fifth place, you know they want a piece of the action early doors as we get this race underway. It is Maranello/Modena vs. Stuttgart for the GTE honors, currently. This is thrilling racing! Andrew Haryanto, the Indonesian driver who is starting the #18 Absolute Racing Porsche, he is right with Michael Fassbender and just behind those two, are a couple of the Aston Martin's.
Haryanto has made his move and gone by Fassbender for position. So, Aston Martin's are on the move, but Christian Ried, he is playing for keeps here early in this race and putting the welly down! Haryanto passes the Ferrari for third spot and it appears Fassbender is going to follow him through. So, the Porsche's are giving Ferrari fits on their home turf. The Ferrari's have been mugged by the Porsche's at least briefly. Fassbender is taking the long line into Curva Grande, but the Ferrari boys don't want to play anymore and are making a serious motor race out of this one! The yellow Kessel Racing Ferrari goes three wide around the outside and slams the door in Michael Fassbender's face! That is Takeshi Kimura of Japan, making his move into Variante della Roggia.
Fassbender and Kimura have more traffic to deal with entering the Lesmo's. Ferdinand Habsburg, starting the #9 Prema Racing Oreca in LMP2, he snags third spot away from Duncan Tappy in the #22 United Autosport entry who is demoted to fourth spot. Prema started this race in sixth and now "Ferdi" is up to the top three as he, Lorenzo Colombo, and Louis Deletraz are searching for yet another victory. They have been dominant so far in the 2022 European Le Mans Series season. Will that continue today? Stay tuned to find out what happens for the rest of the way here at Monza. Read on to find out more. Trust me, I think you'll want to know. That is for sure.
Habsburg on the charge! He is mowing down the rest of the LMP2 field! He makes the move on the #65 Panis Racing car, the #65 Oreca started by Julien Canal. Canal gives it up, fairly easily, but will be fighting back, I am sure. This is a position swap for second. We can see that Habsburg's mission is to get to the lead of the motor race before the pit stops and he is executing said mission perfectly to this point in time. Niklas Kruetten, the starting driver in the #37 Cool Racing Oreca, have been running extremely well in their opening stints. Kruetten, the German, is sharing alongside China's Yifei Ye and Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre. Of course, Lapierre is a veteran of sports car racing having driven many cars for many teams in many championships over the years.
The top two runners in this motor race at Monza, they started fifth and sixth on the grid and have been on an absolute tear getting to the front early doors. What's the old saying? Strike while the iron is hot, and that is exactly what we are seeing from both Ferdinand Habsburg and Niklas Kruetten in the early portion of the race. A bit of argy bargy in GTE through the Ascari chicane. Duncan Cameron, the Englishman at the wheel of the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE, racing hard with Michael Fassbender. Pierre Ehret sits just behind this battle in another Ferrari, the #32 car for Rinaldi Racing. Uh oh! We've got trouble! There are cars spinning off the road as soon as I explained how this battle is going!
Memo Rojas in the Duqueine Engineering LMP2 Oreca, comes together with Michael Fassbender! Fassbender loses control, is straight on with the barriers, and he is going for a ride! Fassbender in the Porsche braces for impact as the momentum pounds the spinning car into the barrier! Ouch! Safety Car deployed and for a very good reason. This is a big incident. A big incident indeed. The righthand side of the #30 Duqueine Team Oreca is all torn up. I think it is game over for Memo Rojas, Richard Bradley, and Reshad De Gerus. The side is very damaged and there is negative body language from the team which definitely signals game over. We are indeed under Full Course Yellow as the marshals continue cleaning up the wreckage.
Well, since we have the time, we've got a replay, and let's have a look at exactly what happened. Fassbender is spat off the exit curbs, plows into Duncan Cameron's Ferrari as he had nowhere to go and it is just a mess after that, a chain reaction. Rojas just piled on and as this three-headed contrivance involving three wrecked cars is carrying momentum back across the track, Pierre Ehret has nowhere to go, and, ker-runch! Fassbender runs wide, the car bites the curbs and spits him directly across the road, and the other chaps have nowhere to go before the carambolage ensues. Goodness gracious. Will you look at that. Poor old Fassbender was just a passenger before the car came back across the track and clouted the Armco on the driver's side of that Porsche! Ouch!
He will be very sore in the morning after that one. Ice, and pain relievers will be the ticket tomorrow. That is for dead sure. If you are squeamish, you might want to close your eyes as we look at the onboard camera replay in the Porsche. He was tagged by Duncan Cameron, and as I said, spun across the road before the inevitable, and ker-runch! Straight into the Armco he went. Adding to the pain, Pierre Ehret chopped right into the nose of the Porsche. That was a bad one, folks. Everyone seems to have walked away unharmed, but it gives me a king size headache just watching the replay! Oof! That smarts!
Three into one was not on, and Fassbender throws his hands up before getting out of the car as if to ask, "why me?! What was that all about? I didn't do anything wrong!" From the rear-view camera, we can see a touch with the Ferrari and the Duqueine LMP2 car, the Oreca, which does not survive the incident and then, Fassbender spins backwards, and the Armco administers the coup de gras. Pierre Ehret, too, had no place to and thinks, "I didn't do anything to deserve this!" We can see the Ferrari is sponsored by the Ehret Family Winery. Many sports car drivers and racing drivers both stateside and in Europe, run vineyards when they aren't racing, and Pierre Ehret is one of them.
Big damage on Fassbender's Proton Competition Porsche and on the Duqueine Team Oreca with broken suspension. It was the wreckage of the front nose section and the crash structure that put them out of the race, not so much the superficial damage to the side pod areas and the radiators. Back to green flag racing we go. Niklas Kruetten continues in the lead of this motor race. As you get to the control line, the start/finish line, you may pass slower cars, but not beforehand. So, Cool Racing opens the margin over both Prema and Panis Racing running second and third. The LMP2 cars are all working through the GTE traffic. The battle is on in fourth between the #19 Algarve Pro Oreca and the #22 United Autosports Oreca.
The GTE battle is getting spicy, too! But we have more trouble on the track as the #14 LMP3 car has nosed it into the Armco! Canadian driver James Dayson has walloped the Armco in Variante del Rettifilo, the first turn. You have to think it is game over for Dayson and his co-drivers and indeed it is. Dayson, sharing with Frenchman Noam Abramczyk and Polish driver Mateusz Kaprzyk, are done for the day and will be back at the next race. Local Yellows and now, the safety car and a Full Course Yellow. Too much debris and wreckage. In replay, we can see that he was already in no man's land off in the grass. Dayson lost control under braking and skidded onto the grass.
We can see how the front nose section of the car lifts into the air. So, he didn't get completely airborne, thank goodness. But that was Mr. Toad's wild ride nonetheless for poor old James Dayson. Safety Car in this lap as we see the leaders weaving around to clean and heat their tires up. The leaders are now nose to tail in order as we go back to green flag racing. We have had two safety car interventions in the opening 45 minutes of this race and have completed only 19 laps, 68 miles. Niklas Kruetten coming under pressure from Ferdinand Habsburg down the front straightaway and the two of them touch, briefly.
Kruetten has the inside line, the preferred line, and keeps the lead as the #65 Panis Racing Oreca motors along in third place. All of the top running LMP2 cars are together in a long train as the sweep around Curva Grande. The Prema car looking for a way by on the outside. No dice. Cutting back to the inside again. Nothing there either. Ferdinand Habsburg in his haste to make a pass, overshoots the corner and has to cut a path down the escape road. Cool Racing lead while Habsburg has his hands full battling with the Cool Racing car. Aye yaye yaye. Habsburg has to give it up into the Lesmo's and it costs him a spot on track.
Julien Canal promoted to second while Habsburg is demoted to third. Philippe Cimadomo is the first pit caller of the motor race bringing in the #31 TDS Racing by Vaillante Oreca. It looks like the team is changing the nose. A new nose is now on the car and hopefully that is all ailing the car at this time while the #9 Prema Oreca is also in the lane. Ferdinand Habsburg and in now too, Cool Racing and Icklas Kruetten. After the stop, Kruetten is under massive pressure from Habsburg! There is LMP3 traffic in the way, look. We are nearing an hour into this race with three to go yet. Lots of action to look forward t and plenty more to talk about, I am sure.
Prema, pushing hard through Curva Grande and into Variante della Roggia. Fwrdinand Habsburg went off the road through the Roggia last time by and now, Niklas Kruetten makes the same mistake! The pressure got to him and he overcooks it into the turn. Kruetten makes his way through the maze and slices right back on track ahead of Habsburg! Oh man! Look at this! Look at this! The problem for Kruetten is now, he is going to have the sword of Damocles hanging over his head because you can't cut the course and expect to gain an advantage without the stewards penalizing you. So, I suspect it will be radio call or black drapeau for Niklas Kruetten in a wee while.
He will have to give it up and give the spot back. Oh no! We have another serious accident! There's debris everywhere on the exit of the Ascari curve. Safety car deployed. That is one of the United Autsport cars that has crashed! That is the American driver Jim McGuire who has crashed it, hard into the fence! He is sharing with Dutchman Kay van Berlo and Englishman Andrew Bentley. He gets off on the gravel at corner exit, loses control, is spat across the road, and clobbers the Armco on the other side. The same thing that happened to Michael Fassbender in the Porsche earlier on. A carbon copy, almost.
You want to carry speed out of the corner but watch the exit at Ascari. That's a fast corner and McGuire must have misjudged his exit speed or something. So, another safety car as we begin the second hour of the race here at Monza. He looks to be OK. Ferdinand Habsburg passes Nico Jamin for position in LMP2 and running ahead of them is Racing Team Turkey and car #34 with Charlie Eastwood, the Irishman, at the wheel of it. Eastwood passes Jamin for fifth and now, Jamin is demoted to sixth place. Damage too on the righthand corner of one of the Ferrari's. It looks like the #32 car. Duncan Cameron makes the pass in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari, the Englishman sharing with Irishman Matt Griffin, and South African David Perel.
Rinaldi Racing and the #32 Ferrari now has Italian driver Gabriele Lancieri at the wheel of it sharing with Nico Varrone from Argentina and Pierre Ehret. The Rinaldi car has been black flagged for damage, shown the meatball flag, which is the black flag with the orange disk in the middle of it. The Prema #9 LMP2 entry has also been pinged by the stewards. Their most recent pit stop is indeed under investigation. In comes the car from second spot as the Ehret Winery Ferrari is in the pit box getting repaired. Break out the tank tape.
Just over two and a half hours to go now. Within half an hour of the halfway mark here at Monza. A battle in GTE and Takeshi Kimura in the yellow CarGuy Racing Ferrari is off the road! He locks up and loses two spots going through the Parabolica! That was wild! Pit stop and driver change time at Rinaldi Racing now. Fabrizio Crestani of Italy takes over the sister #33 Rinaldi Racing car. Crestani, the Italian, sharing the car for this event with Jeroen Bleekemolen from Holland and Christian Hook from Germany. A battle for the class lead in LMP3 down the straightaway. Alexander Bukhantsov racing under a UAE license vs. Joshua Caygill. #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 vs. #2 United Autosports Ligier JS P320.
Bukhantsov sharing with Sebastian Alvarez from Mexico and for this race, James Winslow from Great Britain, while in the #2 car, Caygill is sharing with his seasonlong co-drivers including Brit Bailey Voisin and Germany's Finn Gehrsitz. Bukhantsov has the inside line into turn one but Joshua Caygill takes the spot away. Caygill is the new LMP3 leader. It is hard to tell the LMP2 and LMP3 cars for United Autosport apart because the liveries are so similar on those cars with the royal blue paint. Someone has spun and is facing towards the barrier at the Variante del Rettifilo. Rettifilo has been calamity corner all day.
Mikey Benham in the Cool Racing #17 Ligier is down there and there is one more LMP3 car off the road, too. Tony Wells in the Nielsen Racing #7 Ligier is off the road as well, in the car he shares with fellow British driver James Littlejohn. 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow. Just over two hours left in the race. We are fast approaching the halfway point here at Monza. Patrick Pilet is frozen behind Nico Lapierre. Benham went to the outside into the braking zone at Rettifilo and spun off the road. He did hit the Armco. Broken right rear corner on that car. Game over.
This is very disappointing, surely, for Mikey Benham who won at Le Mans in the Road to Le Mans race we covered just recently. Fuel and tires for the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine. They are not the only ones in the pit lane as many fans are here waching the action on a gorgeous midsummer weekend. Here come the LMP2 leaders. Cool Racing followed by IDEC Sport. Do Prema stop from third place? Nico Lapierre hits his marks, and the team services the car. Everyone in LMP2 stops. IDEC Sport, Prema, Panis Racing, United Autosport, Racing Team Turkey. All the major players in LMP2 have had service.
IDEC Sport assume the race lead. They knew they had to fuel up and so that is not where the quickness came from. Maybe, just maybe they elected not to change tires. We are circulating under Full Course Yellow and IDEC have made the pass for P1 on Cool Racing. The #22 United Autosport entry is also in the pit lane. Handy when you are close to the pit lane under Full Course Yellow, when it fits with overall strategy, considerations for driver times, and your fuel mileage calculations. 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow removed. IDEC Sport continue leading Cool Racing as we go back to green flag action. Patrick Pilet, as they pass the lapped and beleaguered Ferrari, puts daylight betwen himself and Nico Lapierre.
Lapierre, though, is so experienced driving LMP2 cars and he is a man on a mission here, look. Nico Jamin is now being monstered by Tom Gamble in the #22 United Autosports Oreca. That is the all-British trio with Gamble, Phil Hanson, and Duncan Tappy. Gamble is scrapping with Nico Jamin through Curva Grande. Gamble has a head of steam, but no. Jamin closes the door on him and he cannot make the pass. Danish driver Michael Jensen in the #5 RLR MSport Ligier in a major fight for position in LMP3 with Jean Ludovic Foubert of France, chasing him down, at the wheel of the sister #27 Cool Racing Ligier. Foubert sharing that automobile alongside his regular co-drivers for the season, Frenchman Antoine Doquin and Swiss driver Nicolas Maulini.
Foubert losing ground to Jensen out of Variante della Roggia as they also pass the #51 LMP2 Oreca for Team Virage. That car being shared by Gabriel Aubry of France, American driver Rob Hodes, and Jazeman Jaafar of Malaysia. Bailey Voisin in the #2 United Autosports Ligier sees his chance, says "I'll have a slice of that", and streaks by Foubert! He puts the squeeze play on Foubert through the Lesmo's! That was a close shave! Voisin now in fourth in class. Voisin can now chase down Michael Jensen in the RLR M Sport entry, the #5 Ligier he is sharing with British co-drivers Nick Adcock and Alex Kapadia. Three cars, within half a second of each other, all battling for a podium place in LMP3. Exciting to watch!
Voisin flashes the lights to let Jensen know his intentions to pass. He ducks to the outside as we see Jean-Ludovic Foubert back there, watching all this unfold. Boom! The teenage racer makes his move and shows how much confidence he's got. Voisin up to third place in LMP3. Will he make good his escape and chase down the class leaders? We'll have to find out what happens here in short order. Foubert too is having a Captain Cook at trying to get by Michael Jensen. Halfway home as we look at the LMP3 scrap. Car #13, the LMP3 leading Inter Europol Competition car has run 52 laps, 187 miles.
The battle rages for second overall and in LMP2 as Lorenzo Colombo wants by Nico Lapierre. Prema chasing down Cool Racing. Cool Racing gets stymied behind a GTE Ferrari and now, Colombo has the edge down the straightaway preparing to start another lap. Colombo makes the slingshot pass and it sticks. Colombo nearly gets tagged from behind by Lapierre! Yikes! Lorenzo Colombo needs to escape Nico Lapierre if he wants to catch the leader. The team at JMW Motorsport watching the developments in GTE very closely as their #66 Ferrari 488 GTE is in a hotly contested battle for the class lead.
This is the car shared by Sean Hudspeth from Singapore, Giacomo Petrobelli of Italy, and Matthew Payne from New Zealand. Sean Hudspeth has his hands full with Nicolas Varrone as we speak. Ferrari vs. Ferrari. Varrone wants to take the outside line through the Parabolica and that is a long, long way around a competitor. Will he be able to pull out of the draft and do it? That is the big question. So, Sean Hudspeth stays glued right to the white line diving the track from the pit wall. Varrone is going to dive past Hudspeth and try to outbrake him into the Variante del Rettifilo. Varrone has the grip on the racing line and slices past Hudspeth like a hot knife through butter.
He passes for fourth spot. Good, clean racing there between Varrone and Hudspeth. Well played. Another GTE battle is afoot for second spot. This is Alessio Picariello, the Belgian racing driver whose dad is Italian, and Picariello is in a scrap with Michelle Gatting at the wheel of the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari. This is the #18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. Picariello sharing with Andrew Haryanto of Indonesia and Martin Rump from Estonia for the team based out of Hong Kong. That team and driver lineup just shows how international sports car racing is. Iron Lynx had been leading earlier on and clearly Michelle Gatting still has a ton of pace and she is giving Alessio Picariello everything he can handle and more.
Monza has been a happy hunting ground for Ferrari at home in endurance racing in recent years, if you look at both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series. Meanwhile, we change back to the battle for the overall lead and in LMP2 as Paul Loup Chatin has caught Louis Deletraz in this ongoing saga betwen Prema Racing and IDEC Sport. Here's your top six in LMP2 with the current drivers in each car.
1. #9 Louis Deletraz Prema Racing
2. #28 Paul Loup Chatin IDEC Sport
3. #34 Jack Aitken Racing Team Turkey
4. #65 Job van Uitert Panis Racing
5. #22 Phil Hanson United Autosport
6. #37 Yifei Ye Cool Racing
Chatin has a run on Deletraz down the straightaway! Chatin has the preferred line into Ascari but on the inside, Deletraz might just pull this off. He does indeed, keeping his nose in front. Safety Car dispatched onto the circuit here at Monza. Less than an hour and a half to go. An hour and 23 minutes still on the board. James Winslow in the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine is stuck in the gravel trap with his crew chief giving him instructions on the team radio. As we listen, here is what Winslow's instructions are.
"The marshals will put you back on track, and you have to zigzag to clean your tires out of the racing line because if you don't, you'll leave a mess all over the track. Follow all instructions. We are not allowed to come to pit lane now." Winslow is back on his merry way with the safety car deployed on track. It appears he has followed the mechanics' instructions because he isn't bringing dust and clag back onto the road. Green flag and the battle ensues immediately for the lead of this motor race! Prema vs. IDEC Sport and Prema have the preferred line going into Rettifilo again.
Louis Deletraz gets crossed up out of the corner and here comes Paul Loup Chatin trying to sneak into the lead. They take the long way around Curva Grande. Don't let this one end in tears, boys. Chatin takes the lead through Variante della Roggia! Oh my gosh! Look at that! What a move! Just over an hour left and things are heating up in GTE too, look. Ferrari vs. Ferrari at Monza. What did I tell you earlier? The Tifosi are loving this! In replay, Michelle Gatting on the inside, Mikkel Jensen on the outside, and Jensen makes the move! That's the top four in GTE together. Three Ferrari's with a lone Aston Martin as the caboose, as the tail gunner at the back of the queue.
#28 IDEC Sport, leading the motor race having now completed 81 laps, 292 miles. Mikkel Jensen, the Dane, driving for Kessel Racing easing away from Michelle Gatting, fellow Danish driver, in the #85 Ferrari for Iron Dames. Everyone at the top of the shop in GTE is headed to pit lane. Three Ferrari's. That'll be a battle of the teams to see who pits quickest as we resume looking at the fifth-place scrap in LMP2. Fifth place? No. Third place. Four cars in this little shemozzle as we look at it. Racing Team Turkey vs. Panis Racing vs. United Autosports vs. Cool Racing. Yifei Ye throwing it down the inside of Phil Hanson! This is going to be mega if it goes right, and horrendous if it goes wrong.
Ye makes a clean pass and through he goes! Great move into Variante della Roggia. Ye is reeling in Colombo within the last hour here at Monza. Just 51 minutes of racing to go before we find out who wins this one. Ye down the inside of Colombo into the Lesmo's! Didn't anyone tell him that move just wasn't on? He was not listening and apparently it worked! Louis Deletraz is in a world of hurt because Jack Aitken in the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca slices past him for second spot. Worse still, the Panis car, #65, he is right on Colombo's six! Job van Uitert, bobbing and darting, looking to go the long way 'round. Man, oh man!
No? Yes? Maybe? Definitely yes, because he's going to the outside in the Parabolica, the final turn on this fabled racetrack. Oh boy! That's brave stuff. Nerves of steel from Job van Uitert, the Flying Dutchman! He clicks the radio to his team and asks, "did you like that?" You bet they did! Wow! That was brave old piece of driving, mate. Colombo is dropping like a stone down the order as Racing Team Turkey, United Autosport, and Deletraz aboard the beleaguered Prema Racing car. A 20 second penalty to be served by IDEC Sport for infractions during Full Course Yellow.
In the meantime, a five-car scrap for the lead in GTE as Rahel Frey outbrakes herself into Variante della Roggia. With 50 minutes to go, Nico Varrone makes his move and passes Frey for the lead in class. I lied. Second place. Not the lead. Alessio Picariello for Absolute Racing in the Porsche, you know he wants a bite of the cherry here, too. Rahel Frey doing everything she can to retake the place from Nicolas Varrone into Rettifilo. Let's see what happens. She's on the inside, squeezing the Porsche onto the gravel. Picariello cannot believe what he's seeing and he gets muscled out wide by the Iron Dames Ferrari trying not to lose traction!
Now, poor old Picariello is the meat in a sandwich between two yellow Ferrari's. The CarGuy entry behind and ahead the Iron Lynx car. Iron Lynx, that is the #60 488 GTE with the all-Italian trio of Davide Rigon, Matteo Cressoni, and Claudio Schiavoni. We haven't called their number yet today. The other yellow Ferrari being the #57 Kessel Racing car for Mikkel Jensen and Fredrik Schandorff of Denmark, and Takeshi Kimura of Japan. Four Ferrari's and one Porsche? Picariello is going to get mugged. Absolutely swamped by a sea of Prancing Horses here. It is Monza. It is Italy. What else would you expect?
Iron Dames and Iron Lynx moving in on Rinaldi Racing. Varrone makes a big mistake and Rahel Frey seizes the opportunity on the outside through the gravel! Claudio Schiavoni pokes his nose through there, too. Blimey! Look at this! The Car Guy Ferrari too, has a bite of the cherry and let me tell you, Picariello will be crying in his Prosecco when this lot gets through with him. I'm all alone! I'm on the outside! Oh, woe is me! Ahhhhh! More fun and frolics in LMP2 too, look. Inter Europol car #43 Pietro Fittipaldi, roughing up Jack Aitken in the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca. Bumping and boring, argy bargy in the closing moments here at Monza.
The leader has just crossed the 100-lap mark. 360 miles complete with 35 minutes still on the board before this one is in the bag. Yifei Ye is going to give Pietro Fittipaldi the rubbing is racing treatment. This is a short track stock car race with LMP2 cars. Cool Racing promoted to eighth place. More GTE antics to watch closely in replay. Nicolas Varrone on the left of the picture, to the outside. Mikkel Jensen, the man in the middle. Bang. Jensen is forced off the road and into the escape road just before the Rettifilo.
Varrone loses out to the Absolute Racing Porsche. So, #18 moving forward. No need for Alessio Picariello to cry into the glass of Prosecco any longer. He is moving up. Oy! It's all happening at della Roggia! Gabriel Aubry puts Sergio Camapana into the spin cycle. Campana rotating the #35 BHK Motorsport Oreca. Yikes! Campana from Italy (in his home race), sharing with countryman Francesco Dracone and German driver Markus Pommer. Davide Rigon running second in GTE with Rahel Frey in the team car right behind, the yellow Ferrari and the pink Ferrari on the same team. Alessio Picariello is fine now as he has moved back up to fourth place in the #18 black and gold liveried Absolute Racing Porsche.
Fabulous racing into the closing moments here at Monza for the European Le Mans Series. Yifei Ye and Cool Racing are also back on the move and back to chasing down the Prema Racing Oreca. Let's have a Captain Cook at the battle for the LMP3 lead as well. At the top end of town, the battle is on for the top three spots in class. Finn Gehrsitz of Germany leads the class in the #2 United Autosports Ligier ahead of the #10 Eurointernational Ligier of Glenn van Berlo from The Netherlands. Third spot being held by the sister #11 Eurointernational Ligier in the hands of another Dutchman, Max Koebolt.
#10 shared by van Berlo along with Spaniard Xavier Lloveras, and Frenchman Adrien Chila. The sister #11 entry is Max Koebolt sharing with Jerome de Sadeleer from Switzerland for this race. van Berlo and Koebolt all over the United Autosport car with half an hour to go and Alessio Rovera is slowing in the Lesmo's. The drivers will be blind with a white flag for a slow-moving vehicle not for the final lap. Local yellow at the Lesmo's as we have just about 20 minutes of racing left before we see the checkered flag here this evening.
Phil Hanson is being harried by Louis Deletraz. Both drivers in traffic. Hanson on the inside into the first turn. Deletraz has his nose chopped off by an LMP3 car and speaking of LMP3 cars we have another one spun around! Good gravy! That is the leading LMP3 car #2 for United Autosport with Finn Gehrsitz, the German, at the controls. The car looks OK. Did he get tagged into a spin by the dueling Eurointernational cars? That is a possibility. A late pit stop, for a splash and dash for the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Davide Rigon is going to take it to the flag. Iron Dames in the lane, too.
Rinaldi in the pit lane, too, and so is everyone else. Both Eurointernational cars are in from the LMP3 lead so everything is chopping and changing as we get closer to crunch time here at Monza. Just about five minutes to go before we know who will win the 4 Hours of Monza and positions are swapping everywhere! For third place, Louis Deletraz in the #9 Prema Oreca is gaining on Thomas Laurent for Muhlner Motorsport in car #21. Laurent, the Frenchman, sharing with Ugo de Wilde from Belgium, and Mathias Kaiser from Lichtenstein. It's Thomas Laurent vs. Louis Deletraz and Deletraz has a tighter exit out of the Parabolica.
Laurent right on the white line and Deletraz is going to pull out and pass. Into Rettifilo, Deletraz knows he will be on the dirty side of the road. He overcooks it! I could see that coming a mile away. Laurent could not hold it at the apex and Deletraz was a shot duck. He couldn't get through. Just in case, Deletraz concedes the place to Laurent if the stewards have anything to say about it. This battle is for the final step on the podium. IDEC Sport lead ahead of Panis Racing as we watch this scrap for third place, the best battle on track here at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza right now. What will these final minutes hold in store? Do not run to the fridge now. You don't want to miss the finish of this one! Trust me.
Laurent could get balked by an LMP3 car. It is the final lap here at Monza as IDEC Sport lead Panis and Prema. Then comes Muhlner Motorsport followed by the #22 United Autosport car. Checkered flag next time by. Paul Loup Chatin has 15 seconds in hand. 120 laps now completed. 432 miles. This will be the first win of the season for IDEC Sport and the first since 2019 when they won the ELMS championship. Prema will gain points after a pear shaped race earlier on. Into the Variante Ascari for the final time. Paul Loup Chatin heads dowjn the backstretch for the last time. He turns into the Parabolica. Checkered flag! IDEC Sport win Monza!
The French trio win the 4 Hours of Monza. Paul Lafargue, Paul Loup Chatin, and Patrick Pilet are your winners! Patrick Pilet wins his first race as a prototype driver. He was a Porsche factory GT driver for a long time but now has a win in a prototype race car! Talk about putting a feather in your hat! Inter Europol win LMP3. GTE had a twist at the end. We thought Iron Lynx and the all-Italian team were going to triumph at home. Not so. They were disqualified by the organizers after the race handing victory to Porsche and the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni, Lorenzo Ferrari, and Christian Ried!
Additionally, Muhlner Motorsport move around Prema after they incur a penalty for a late pit stop infraction.
Overall/LMP2: #28 Lafargue/Chatin/Pilet IDEC Sport Oreca 07
LMP2 Pro Am: #24 Bell/Hanley/Sales Nielsen Racing Oreca 07
LMP3: #13 Crews/Oliveira/Pino Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT: #77 Bruni/Ferrari/Ried Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19
Iron Lynx were disqualified from their win for being pushed by the #83 Iron Dames car before parc ferme. Congratulations to IDEC Sport on their win at Monza! IDEC Sport finish ahead of Panis Racing and Prema Racing in the overall. Prema for their infraction during the race would be moved to fifth place and this means that their lead in the team's trophy standings over IDEC Sport is cut to just 13 points with half the season still to be run. IDEC Sport have a two-point cushion over Panis Racing. Nielsen Racing win LMP2 Pro-Am with the #24 entry for Matt Bell, Ben Hanley, and Rodrigo Sales.
Racing Team Turkey are second in LMP2 Pro-Am with Jack Aitken, Salih Yoluc, and Charlie Eastwood. John Falb, James Allen, and Alexander Peroni are third in LMP2 Pro Am. Racing Team Turkey now have a six-pointT cushion over Nielsen Racing with TDS Racing x Vaillante and AF Corse still in the points hunt in the Pro Am portion of LMP2. To the victors belong the spoils and the champagne. Proton Competition win GTE after the Iron Dames Ferrari pushed their sister car from Iron Lynx to the pit lane. Extremely disappointing. So, Kessel Racing are promoted to second with the #57 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo for Takeshi Kimura, Mikkel Jensen, and Fredrik Schandorff.
Alessio Picariello, from sadness to joy as he and his co-drivers at Absolute Racing in their Porsche inherit third place and the final step on the podium after the disqualification for Iron Lynx. Credit the final podium step to Alessio Picariello, Andrew Haryanto, and Martin Rump. Proton lead the points. Inter Europol Competition win LMP3 at Monza. Charles Crews, the American driver is amazed, and the team has put everything together. On the podium it is Charles Crews, Guillherme Oliveira, and Nico Pino winning.
Ij second place, the #6 360 Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan for the all-British trio of Ross Kaiser, Terrence Woodward, and Mark Richards. Third in class goes to the #11 Eurointernational Ligier of Max Koebolt and Matt Bell. Cool Raicng lead RLR MSport by a mere four points headed for the next race in the championship. The #3 United Autosport car is also close behind in the fight for LMP3 honors. So, there you have it. The 4 Hours of Monza is in the bag. Half the season is completed. What a wonderful race Monza was. We'll see you for round four at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya coming up soon.
For now, arriva derci, from Italy. Goodbye, everybody. Excited for the second half of the championship and the home stretch.
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