WEC 6 Hours of Monza: #7 Toyota wins as Corvette claim LMGTE AM title

#7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi would take the win from the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, in another classic race at Monza.

Toyota in the #7 would have a strong day by battling throughout the race for the lead with the #50 Ferrari with the two alternating who led throughout the race.

Toyota was able to hold onto the gap though with Kamui Kobayashi taking the win from the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fucco by +16.520s, and then +1m:18.179s behind them- was Paul Di Resta in the #93 Peugeot.

It would come down to the cars both coming in a lap after one another with the #7 Toyota coming in to take tyres, as they would then be followed by Fuoco’s #50 Ferrari who also took tyres a lap later, this left the gap +8.6s for the lead.

Sebastian Buemi would have an opening stint from hell, as into turn one he would lock up and spear into the side of Nicklas Nielsen in the #51 Ferrari earning the car a ten-second penalty.

It would then get worse for Sebastian Buemi as he pushed the #777 D’ Station Aston Martin off the road at Ascari and into the outside wall ripping the Aston Martin Vantage to pieces and would leave debris all over the circuit, earning Buemi a one-minute penalty

Peugeot will be left wondering what could’ve been with the #94 car as four hours to go they had fallen away from the lead pack and into the garages with gearbox issues which saw the car go across the gravel trap at Ascari.

The Porsche 963 had been struggling all weekend with electrical issues, with these same issues popping up in the race for both the #38 JOTA and the debuting #99 Proton Competition car, which would retire and bring out the safety car with one hour and 54 minutes to go, both these cars had led the race on alternative strategies at certain points in the race.

 

In LMP2 it was the #28 Jota that would take the win as it had been fighting up the front of the field all day, with the #36 Alpine finishing +1 lap behind having to do a splash and dash with 18 minutes to go in the race after it had been leading, and the #41 Team WRT car would take the final place on the podium +5.757s behind p2 when it overtook the #23 United Autosports car in a controversial move into Variante which saw them both leave the track.

The #31 car looked to have a chance of finishing on the podium after fighting up the front throughout the race, but the car with just over 20 minutes to go would go up on the jacks and into the garages in a heart-breaking moment for the team.

The class would cause a yellow flag with Vector Sport driver Gabriel Aurry fighting Ben Viscal in the #9 Prema when Viscal would losing control mid-corner, and as Viscal corrected, he whacked the right rear of the Vector sports car spinning the car straight across the gravel at the second Lesmo and backward into the outside tyre wall with three hours and 52 minutes to go.

This would earn the #9 Prema driver a one-minute penalty ending his and Vector’s sports race.

 

 

In LMGTE AM, the #33 Corvette would take the Championship with two races to go as they finished ahead of both Iron Dames and ORT by TF, which would see them clinch the title with two races to go.

It wasn’t an easy race for Corvette though as they would start the race in sixth position, and had to serve a drive-through penalty with three hours and 22 minutes to go in the race, but with this, they still had the pace to make their way back up to fourth.

Varrone would seal the championship-winning position when he overtook the #85 Iron Dames Porsche of Michelle Gatting into the second section of  Variante on the inside, with two hours and 52 minutes to go.

Dempsey Proton in the #77 Porsche would take the win in class with Julian Andlauer finishing ahead of the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche, with Alessi Picariello at the wheel, by +11.184s, and GR Racing would finish third and +1 lap down.

There would be a few incidents in this class with a full course yellow coming out when the #60 Iron Lynx of Matteo Cressoni pushed the #21 AF Corsa Ferrari of Simon onto the grass to the entry to the second Lesmo sending it spinning into the gravel trap and out of the race.

Thomas Flohr would experience heartbreak when his #54 Af Corsa would stop on the entry to Curva Bissono with the car having been in the lead of GTE AM.

The car would refire but would go into the garages putting it out of contention.

 

 

 

 

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