H+2: The No. 7 Toyota sets sail in Italy

The 6 Hours of Monza took a new turn in the second hour of racing with the problems encountered by the Toyota GR010 n°8 of Brendon Hartley, then second behind the leader José Maria Lopez (Toyota n°7).

Following his second stop, the No. 8 Toyota found itself idling with a loss of power, with Hartley attempting to troubleshoot the problem remotely over the radio. Without success, since the car was finally pushed into its box after 1h30 of racing.

4'30" later, the Japanese Hypercar was finally able to return to the track, but three laps behind the #7. Not for long, since at 4h18′ from the finish, Hartley gets really hot when he first brakes by pulling straight on before continuing at low speed to return to his box.

More troubles for @BrendonHartley, after a quick stop to repair power cycle and make setting changes is he now having brake problems?#WEC #6HMonza @TGR_WEC pic.twitter.com/J8V8J9IIJx

— WEC (@FIAWEC) July 18, 2021

“Pechito” Lopez is therefore leading the 6 Hours of Monza with the No. 7 Toyota with a 41″ margin over the lead.Alpine A480 n°36 by Matthieu Vaxivière. The Glickenhaus n°709 of Franck Mailleux completes the provisional podium at 1'11”. The #708 of Gustavo Menezes is in 12th place overall, when the #8 Toyota was able to restart after 14′ in the pit and 13 laps behind the leaders.

In LM P2, Team WRT regained the advantage over United Autosports with the No. 07 Oreca 31 of Ferdinand Habsburg in the lead with an 11″ lead over the No. 22 of Filipe Albuquerque. Jota's two Oreca 07s follow, the No. 28 of Sean Gelael preceding the No. 38 of Antonio Felix da Costa.

No change in GTE Pro with the Porsche 911 RSR n°92 of Neel Jani still in the lead ahead of the Ferrari 488 n°51 – AF Corse of James Calado, but the two cars are separated by less than a second.

On the other hand, there was a dramatic turn of events in these last moments in GTE Am, then theAston Martin Vantage GTE n°33 – TF Sport of Ben Keating has just suffered a puncture at the front left, leaving the Ferrari 488 n°83 – AF Corse of François Perrodo in the lead. The safety car was deployed following this incident to clear the debris littering the track before the Ascari Variant.

Note that Roberto Lacorte (Ferrari 488 n°47 – Cetilar) caused a yellow flag after going off the track at the exit of the second Lesmo corner.