Jean-Eric Vergne found speed in the No. 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 in this morning’s final WEC practice session at Monza.
The Frenchman set an early 1m36.346 banker lap, which briefly put him top, before improving to a 1m36.878, solidifying his position as the fastest driver just eight minutes into the session.
This was the first time a Peugeot has finished atop the times in a WEC session since Bahrain last season when the No. 93 ran fastest in Free Practice 2.
However, the session didn’t entirely go to plan for the No. 93 crew, as after the session Vergne revealed that the car suffered a gearbox issue, limiting the car to 10 laps.
“When Mikkel was in the car we had a problem with the gearbox so the team has had to change it, the team is doing its maximum ahead of Qualifying,” he said. “There are a lot of things we wanted to understand from a long run but we couldn’t do it.
“Nevertheless, it feels good for the team to be up there. If we can be behind the Toyotas and Ferraris but ahead of the Porsche and Cadillac in Qualifying then it would be a fantastic result. We are going to push for that.”
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With a 1m35.923, Antonio Fuoco put the No .50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P second in the times. The No .93 and No .50 are the only cars to set sub-1:36 lap times so far this weekend.
Adding to the promising morning for Peugeot, American racer Gustavo Menezes put the No. 94 9X8 third with a 1m36.105.
The top six were all within seven-tenths. The No. 51 Ferrari ended up fourth on the screens, above the No. 2 Cadillac and No. 38 JOTA Porsche.
Further down the order, it was a quiet session for Toyota Gazoo Racing, its GR010 HYBRIDs finished eighth and 11th. The No. 7 proved to be the faster of the two, but 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Meanwhile, it was a more productive session for Vanwall, its Vanderverll 580 completing 29 laps and finishing 12th overall. Yesterday the team lost a lot of time to an engine failure in FP2.
In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi set the benchmark early in the session in the No. 28 JOTA ORECA. The Brazilian’s hot lap was a 1m39.621. Vector Sport ended the hour-long run second, with the No. 36 Alpine third.
GTE Am saw multiple teams trade fast times. In the end, Matteo Cairoli put the No. 56 Project 1 AO Porsche on top late in the session with a 1m46.762, after Lilou Wadoux and Mikkel Pedersen put the No. 83 Richard Mille Ferrari and No. 77 Dempsey Porsche quickest.
The No. 77 would end up second, with the No. 60 Iron Lynx Porsche up to third after an improvement at the death of the session from Alessio Picariello (1m47.097).