Peugeot on the pace at Monza free practice

Peugeot 9x8 in the 6 Hours of Monza free practice

Peugeot Totalenergies returned to the top class of endurance racing with a bang in Monza free practice. In three sessions of free practice, the pair of Peugeot 9x8s were right on the pace with the pair of Toyotas and the sole Glickenhaus and Alpine entries.

Glickenhaus fastest overall

Quickest after the three Monza free practice sessions was Romain Dumas in the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH with a fastest lap time of 1:36.813. Glickenhaus performed well here last year, scoring their maiden WEC podium. Like all of the Hypercar runners, Dumas’ flyer came in FP3 as the track conditions improved.

Second-fastest in free practice was the #93 Peugeot 9×8 of Mikkel Jensen, 0.207s behind the Glickenhaus time. The sister #94 car also appeared to be on the pace, with US driver Gustavo Menezes third fastest across the five hours of free practice running.

Toyota GR010 Hybrid during 6 Hours of Monza free practice
Toyota in fourth and fifth

Toyota Gazoo Racing topped FP2 on Saturday morning, but slightly lagged behind their Hypercar competitors across the three sessions. Fastest for the Japanese manufacturer was Brendon Hartley, fresh from his Le Mans victory last month, in the #8 GR010 Hybrid.

Alpine were around half a second off the ultimate pace across all three sessions. Nicolas Lapierre posted the #36 car’s fastest lap time of 1:37.644 in the third practice session.

Corvette edging Porsche in GTE Pro

The #64 Corvette was the fastest car across free practice, but only by a whisker ahead of the #92 Porsche. Brit Nick Tandy set the car’s fastest lap time, a 1:45.902, with Michael Christensen fastest for Porsche with a 1:46.000.

Ferrari appeared to be on the pace at their home race, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco going fastest for the AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos in free practice 3.

Prema Orlen Team during 6 Hours of Monza free practice
Usual suspects in LMP2

The LMP2 class is all set for another all-out battle between JOTA, WRT and United Autosports as the trio of teams traded blows across the three free practice sessions.

The #28 JOTA car led the timesheets on aggregate in free practice, with the #22 United Autosports second fastest. They were followed by the #31 and #41 WRT entries as the Belgian team look to put their nightmare are Le Mans behind them.

AF Corse Ferrari during 6 Hours of Monza free practice
AF Corse top in GTE Am

Nick Cassidy put the #54 AF Corse Ferrari on top of the timesheets in free practice, but only sixth one-hundredths ahead of the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche. Third quickest overall was Toni Vilander in the #21 AF Corse machine.

FP2 was red-flagged for around 20 minutes for barrier repairs after a collision involving the #44 ARC Bratislava car, resulting in the session being extended. A full-course yellow was also brought out to recover the #35 Ultimate car after a spin. FP1 and FP3 ran largely without issue.

Qualifying takes place at 18:00 local time.