In Monza, Alpine built his victory “step by step”

At the 6 Hours of Monza, Alpine took advantage of the various twists and turns of the race to sign his 2nd success of the season, this time a bit unexpected.

Published on 11/07/2022 à 10:51

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In Monza, Alpine built his victory “step by step”

Alpine won his second victory of the season by winning at Monza. ©DPPI/F. Le Floch

This 62nd edition of the 6 Hours of Monza seemed destined for Glickenhaus 007 No. 708. Very comfortable on the long straights of the Temple of Speed, the American Hypercar dominated qualifying with a 2nd pole position this year after Spa-Francorchamps but especially the first half of the race. It was without counting on the bad luck which made the affairs ofAlpine.

So comfortably installed in the lead shortly after halfway, Glickenhaus 007 No. 708 returned to its garage and never left it again. With the turbo on the carpet, the 6 Hours of Monza were over for Jim Glickenhaus and his team, completely restarting the race between Alpine et Toyota.

Long held by Kamui Kobayashi and the GR010 No. 7, Matthieu Vaxiviere finally found the opening to take the lead in the final stretch of these 6 Hours of Monza. A maneuver which then allowed Alpine and its A480 to triumph for the 2nd time of the year after the 1000 Miles of Sebring last March, defying all predictions.

« The 6 Hours of Monza reminds us of everything we love to see in motorsport and why we do this job. I am very proud that we played a big part in the show produced, rejoiced the main team ofAlpine, Philippe Sinault. The race promised to be complicated as the technical definitions of our prototypes are very different.

We knew that it would be hard to overtake our opponents regularly in a straight line, so we worked a lot on all aspects linked to strategy: undercuts, full course yellow, tire and consumption management... We built this result step by step since our first laps on Friday. The team was able to re-mobilize after Le Mans to achieve a flawless performance, the pilots also use quite incredible, even magical, maneuvers. We can all be very proud of this superb victory! »

If in the Manufacturers' Championship Alpine remains 2nd with 106 points, 15 less than Toyota, the trio of the French team Stone-Black-Vaxiviere keeps the reins among the drivers with 10 lengths ahead of Buemi-Hartley-Hirakawa (Toyota GR010 No. 8).

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