Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed its third pole position of the FIA WEC season at Monza this afternoon, ahead of tomorrow’s six-hour race on Ferrari’s home soil.
Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest time for the No. 7 GR010 HYBRID team, which is looking to bounce back this weekend after a hugely disappointing DNF at Le Mans. His best time was a 1m35.358s, set with six minutes remaining in the 15-minute Hypercar session, to put the No. 7 crew on pole for a second time this season.
“The lap times were very close — I am pretty happy,” said Kobayashi. “It’s been very difficult to know now who will be strong so far this weekend, so it’s good to start on the pole.
“It was challenging for everyone, but I think we have a great car for this weekend. It will be hotter tomorrow, so it will be a big challenge for tire degradation. We need to find a solution.”
Ferrari AF Corse came achingly close to securing the dream spot on the grid for its home race. The No. 50 499P of Antonio Fuoco instead ended up on the front row but second with a 1m35.375s. The Italian’s time was just 0.017s off Kobayashi’s flyer.
Toyota’s sister car was fast, too; Brendon Hartley slotted in third with a 1m35.460s in the No. 8.
Peugeot’s No. 93 9X8 will start alongside the No. 8 GR010 on the second row of the grid. The French team has emerged as a surprise contender here, building on its impressive showing in the first half of the Le Mans 24 Hours last month. Jean-Eric Vergne set the French manufacturer’s best lap, a 1:35.662 to come just three-tenths off pole.
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“We are improving our lap times,” said Jean-Marc Finot, senior VP of Stellantis Motorsport. “Yesterday, we worked on long runs to evaluate the consistency of the tires. This morning we did high-speed runs for qualifying. We can see the work that has been done since the beginning of the season.
“We were 2.4 seconds off pole at Spa, and here we are just three-tenths, so it’s a huge step. With nine cars within a second, it will be a big dog fight tomorrow.”
The first of the LMDh teams was Cadillac Racing, its No. 2 V-Series.R set to start fifth after a 1m35.720s from Alex Lynn.
“I think overall it was a decent qualifying for the No. 2 Cadillac, P5 and only three-tenths away from pole position,” said Lynn. “Again, another strong showing by the Cadillac V-Series.R, so from our side we’re happy. We know our strength lies in our race pace, so we’re excited to go racing tomorrow.”
Further down the order, Proton Competition’ new Porsche 963 will start 12th on the grid after Harry Tincknell’s efforts. The team will be satisfied to have come within 1.4s of the No. 7 Toyota in its first qualifying session with the car.
Former F1 driver Robert Kubica proved untouchable in LMP2 qualifying aboard the LMP2 championship-leading No. 41 WRT ORECA. The Pole scored his first WEC pole with a 1m39.354s, which was an improvement in the closing seconds on his previous flyer that was also good enough for pole.
“It was a question of not making mistakes,” Kubica said. “There is always pressure, and the track was much hotter. It’s our first pole position of the season. It’s a good one and Monza has always been a good place for me.”
JOTA’s No. 28 ORECA ended up second after a strong performance from Pietro Fittipaldi, who ran fastest in the class during the final free practice this morning.
United Autosports’ No. 22 ORECA completed the top three, Phil Hanson posting a 1m39.790s. Vector Sport’s example ended up fourth ahead of the Le Mans class-winning Inter Europol ORECA that completed the top five.
The GTE Am session saw a superb 1m47.632s from Sarah Bovy put the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche on class pole. Bovy made multiple improvements in the red flag-interrupted Am session, and it was her 1m47.632s that secured the top spot and an additional point by over 0.4s. She was the only driver to set a lap time under 1m48s.
“We have been feeling good. Sarah was confident ahead of qualifying,” said Bovy’s teammate Michelle Gatting. “She showed she could — the Porsche seems fast. But we’ve seen this before. Tomorrow we have to finish the job.”
“The most important thing for me was to find a good spot on the track, so I focused on overtaking cars on the out lap,” added Bovy. “My tires peaked at the right moment — it was nice to push out there.”
Ahmad Al Harthy put the ORT by TF Aston Martin on the front row of the grid, a late improvement not enough to take pole, but was enough to ensure his Vantage wouldn’t drop onto row two. His final lap, amid a flurry of fast times at the very end, was a 1m48.058s.
The No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche driven by Christien Ried took third. Luis Perez Companc ended up fourth, with a 1m48.427s in the No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari to make it three makes in the top four. Mike Wainwright, meanwhile, set an impressive 1m48.464s to claim fifth for GR Racing, having risen as high as second in the final minutes.
It was a challenging session for the championship-leading Corvette Racing C8.R, which is running with 40kg of “success ballast” this weekend. Ben Keating initially struggled with the car’s traction control systems in his first run, had a lap deleted and ended up sixth.
Without securing the point for pole, Corvette now finds itself requiring a win or second-place finish to secure the title this weekend.
“I had hoped we would be higher than P6,” admitted Keating. “It was an unfortunate red flag in the middle of qualifying. I was on my best lap at the peak of the tire and had the best sector one and a pretty good sector two before I had to shut it down at the end. I think that was going to be a really good lap.
“We’re carrying more weight than we were at the beginning of the season. That’s the penalty of the amazing success that we’ve had. If you look at how much it’s worth around this track, it’s probably not far from the pole.
“From a points perspective, I’d rather Sarah Bovy got the pole instead of Ahmad Al-Harthy. That gives us a little bit more margin in the championship, but the fact that both will start up front means they will have a little bit of an advantage at the beginning of the race. We’ll see.”
The aforementioned red flag in the GTE Am session came halfway through. It was called to allow marshals to clear up gravel that was spread across the circuit at the Ascari chicane after Project 1 AO’s Efrin Castro and GR Racing’s Wainwright had separate offs at the same place.
UP NEXT: Sunday’s 6 Hours of Monza will start at 12:30pm local time.