Alpine wins overheated 6 Hours of Monza

The spirits of those entering the 6 Hours of Monza, fourth round of the season WEC, got heated under the strong Lombard heat. In the midst of errors, breakdowns and clashes, it is theAlpine n°36 who won his second victory of the season after that at the 1000 Miles of Sebring. This seemed to be promised to Glickenhaus. Starting from pole position, Romain Dumas took advantage of the power of the American Hypercar to completely dominate the first half of the event, having a margin of up to 45 seconds over the Toyota. This golden opportunity was spoiled by the team's first major reliability problem since its entry into competition in 2021. Shortly after the three hours of racing, the 007 LMH n°708 in its new blue livery rushed into its garage never to come out again. The turbo was to blame.

Great attraction of this Italian meeting, the Peugeot 9X8 also had issues. Already broken down the day before in qualifying, the No. 93 stopped once again in the race after just 22 minutes. She reappeared on the track an hour later, but was unable to complete the laps. At 2:30 a.m. from the finish, the garage curtain was definitively drawn. The sister car saw the checkered flag, but in 33rd position overall. Far from other cars in its category.

The victory was therefore decided between Alpine and both Toyota. The No. 36 struggled for a long time against the speed of the Japanese, but Matthieu Vaxiviere finally found the opening, despite the aggressive defense of Kamui Kobayashi. Attacking for first place with just over an hour to go, the Frenchman saw the Japanese fall back on him in the pit straight. The right rear of the No. 7 Toyota was damaged and the Japanese driver was penalized with a stop-and-go after entering the pits at low speed. With this victory, the trio composed by Vaxiviere, Nicolas lapierre and André Négrão increases his lead in the drivers' world championship over that of the No. 8 Toyota, victorious in Sarthe, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi, and second in Italy.

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Corvette surprises Ferrari

Coming up from last position on the grid after its qualifying penalty for an unsafe release on the No. 1 Richard Mille Racing Team, the No. 38 Jota achieved the feat of playing for victory until the end in the LM P2 category. Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix da Costa and Will Stevens finally came across stronger players than them with Rui Andrade, Ferdinand Habsburg and Norman Nato. The No. 41 Realteam by WRT wins for the first time this season. Vector Sport scored its first WEC podium with Sébastien Bourdais, Ryan Cullen and Nico Muller.

At home, AF Corse long believed they had victory in LMGTE Pro. The #52 of Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina was in the lead in front of its home crowd until the very last minutes, before being surprised by the Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner. Ferrari placed its second AF Corse, the n°51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, at the end of a new heated battle against the Porsche n°92 by Kevin Estre. In LMGTE Am, the Iron Dames failed to achieve the pole position obtained by Sarah Bovy the day before. Beaten by the No. 77 Porsche of Dempsey – Proton Racing (Christian Ried, Sebastian Priaulx, Harry Tincknell), Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey finished despite their first podium in the world endurance championship.

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