24h Le Mans
Toyota is in pole position at the 2021 6 Hours of Monza, the first FIA World Endurance Championship race at the Italian circuit since 1992.
Though starting from the front of the grid is not typically important in endurance races, with the particularly tricky first braking at the Monza circuit, it is definitely an advantage.
With Toyota looking to deliver a flawless season, Brendon Hartley clocked an impressive time of 1:37.130 at the wheel of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. Then Pipo Derani driving the #708 SCG 007 LMH took the top spot on the timesheet, immediately replaced by Nicolas Lapierre in the Alpine A480 Gibson with a time of 1:36.733.
During qualifying, Toyota retook the lead thanks to Brendon Hartley's time of 1:35.961, until Argentinian driver José María López beat the lap in 1:35.899. He took the pole in the chicanes at the temple of speed and two Toyota GR010 Hybrids will start from the first row on Sunday.
Just before the end of the session, Stoffel Vandoorne in JOTA Sport's #28 ORECA 07-Gibson left the track at Lesmo 2. He landed in the gravel trap coming out of the turn and hit the wall, stopping the session. In the meantime, in LMP2, Team WRT clocked the fastest time of 1:38.527 thanks to Charles Milesi driving the #31 ORECA 07-Gibson ahead of DragonSpeed USA's #21 ORECA 07-Gibson and Racing Team Nederland's #29 ORECA 07-Gibson. The order changed slightly in the last seconds once the session resumed with United Autosports placing the #22 ORECA 07-Gibson in second position.
After a win at the first round of the season at Spa-Francorchamps, but disappointment at Portimão for lack of speed, Porsche wants to regroup at Monza before taking on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Kevin Estre scored the pole in LMGTE Pro with the #92 Porsche 911 RSR in a time of 1:45.412, the car's second pole position of the season. However, the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo slipped in between the two German cars thanks to Alessandro Pier Guidi. The four cars in LMGTE Pro are all within 0.8 seconds, the #91 Porsche 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni third and the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Miguel Molina fourth.
In the LMGTE Am class, pole position went to Ben Keating's #33 Aston Martin Vantage AMR in 1:47.272 followed by François Perrodo's #83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in second position.
