Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Max Verstappen’s win in the Italian Grand Prix that gave him a record 10th straight victory wouldn’t be important to him as “it’s for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.” Verstappen remains unbeaten since …
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Max Verstappen’s win in the Italian Grand Prix that gave him a record 10th straight victory wouldn’t be important to him as “it’s for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.”
Verstappen remains unbeaten since Sergio Perez won in Baku in April, setting a new benchmark in Formula 1 and eclipsing Sebastian Vettel’s previous record of nine straight wins. After overtaking Carlos Sainz to win at Monza, Verstappen said he was proud of the achievement but Wolff claims a Mercedes driver didn’t manage to achieve such a feat due to the way wins were shared between teammates.
“Our situation was maybe a little bit different because we had two drivers fighting against each other within the team,” Wolff told Sky Sports. “I don’t know whether he cares about the record. It’s not something that would be important for me, any of those numbers. It’s for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway.”
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Expanding on the topic a little later, Wolff states his view is based on how he personally viewed such records rather than whether it’s an impressive achievement or not.
“We just talked about it. For me, these types of records are completely irrelevant. They were irrelevant in our good days in Mercedes. I don’t know how many races we won in a row and I didn’t even know that there was a count for how many races in a row you win. Therefore, asking me on commenting on some achievement is difficult because it never played a role in my whole life. The result itself shows that a great driver in a great car are competing on an extremely high level.”
The Mercedes team principal says he would be more impressed if Red Bull was to win every race this season, something that has never been achieved in Formula 1 if the 1950s Indianapolis 500 results are taken into account.
“I think they need to screw it up themselves. They are on track to win every race this season and that, by the way, is a record that I would think is a good one, because that is perfection. We didn’t make it (in 2016) because our two drivers pushed each other out in Barcelona and then we had an engine failure in Malaysia.”
George Russell says he has gone back to basics to recover from a mid-season dip in form and expects to be stronger in the Italian Grand Prix than over one lap after qualifying fourth. Mercedes appeared to be on the back foot heading into qualifying, …
George Russell says he has gone back to basics to recover from a mid-season dip in form and expects to be stronger in the Italian Grand Prix than over one lap after qualifying fourth.
Mercedes appeared to be on the back foot heading into qualifying, but Russell outqualified Lewis Hamilton for the second time in a row since the summer break. Hamilton will start from eighth and, after struggling to match his experienced teammate earlier this year, Russell says he’s found how to return to his previous level of performance.
“It’s sort of semi going back to basics,” Russell said. “[There’s been] a really good reset and refresh from my engineers. I’m pleased with my personal performance [after the break], back to my levels of the first six races. I lost my way a bit before the break.
“I think the tires are a huge factor…slightly going back to basics and not trying to reinvent the wheel with setups, and just accepting the pace of the car. P4 was the maximum potential today, but if I went in trying to do a lap for pole, trying to find three extra tenths, I’d have ended up in the gravel because three tenths extra is not possible.
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“We know how important the tires are. Prime example: Q1, P13; Q3, P4, and the only thing changed is the tires.”
With both Ferrari drivers starting ahead of him, Russell believes Mercedes will have an advantage when it comes to race pace against the Scuderia on Sunday that could open up podium opportunities.
“Really happy with fourth,” he said. “We set the car up a bit more for the race because we weren’t expecting to be as quick as a team as we were, so a great place to start.
“I think we’ll have good race pace. The tire deg doesn’t look very high; it never is here in Monza and, with the skinny rear wings, overtaking isn’t that easy…even when you open the DRS you only gain one or two tenths.
“We need to be fast around the pit stops. I expect to have better deg than the Ferrari, so the chance is to be faster around the pit stops and do something slightly different.”
Carlos Sainz says Ferrari fans can dream but the reality is Red Bull remains the quickest car despite the Spaniard setting the pace in FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen complained of traffic on his fastest lap in practice while Sergio …
Carlos Sainz says Ferrari fans can dream but the reality is Red Bull remains the quickest car despite the Spaniard setting the pace in FP2 at the Italian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen complained of traffic on his fastest lap in practice while Sergio Perez crashed later on in the session, but it was Sainz who was quickest on his birthday on Friday. Topping the times at Ferrari’s home race in Monza is something Sainz says made for as good a day as he could have asked for, but admits he isn’t sure why the car felt so much better than a week ago at Zandvoort.
“Cannot get much better than that,” Sainz said. “It was a smooth day to be honest. Great to be back on a track like Monza, and from the first lap of FP1 to feel the car normal again after such a difficult weekend in Zandvoort. As soon as we put the car on track here, for some reason, it just adapted a lot better and it was a lot easier to set up and drive it per corner.
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“We had a smooth day. It doesn’t mean that we are going to be P1 tomorrow and in the race, but at least the feeling is much better.
“I didn’t skip FP1 so I could…have a better feeling! Then in FP2 we had smooth running despite a couple of red flags… It’s the same car, basically, but for some reason it just felt a lot better, which is what puzzles me more. Let’s see tomorrow. I think everyone is going to go lower fuel tomorrow, higher engine modes and it’s going to be a bit of a different picture, but at least the feeling is decent.”
When pushed on whether Ferrari fans can dream of pole position and victory at the team’s home race, Sainz was optimistic but says the long runs showed Red Bull to have a clear advantage still ahead of Sunday.
“Yeah, dreaming is for free — this is one of my favorite sayings to say. Especially on tracks like this, I think we can all dream… No one takes it away from us. But being realistic, also looking at our race pace, that’s when we started seeing the true pace of the Red Bull. They were clearly again 0.3s-0.5s ahead in race pace, and over 50-something laps that’s a lot of lap time.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway emerged victorious in a thrilling FIA WEC 6 Hours of Monza Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd. The trio ran a clean race from pole position, beating …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway emerged victorious in a thrilling FIA WEC 6 Hours of Monza Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd.
The trio ran a clean race from pole position, beating the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P to victory after a final-hour showdown, successfully bouncing back from their retirement at Le Mans last month.
In the second half of the race, following a second safety car called for an incident involving the No. 9 Prema and No. 10 Vector Sport LMP2 ORECAs, Lopez took control up front, building a healthy lead of over 40s.
The third and final safety car of the race in the fifth hour (called due to mechanical woes at the first chicane for the No. 99 Proton Porsche) didn’t cost the No. 7 crew the lead, but it did reduce the gap and created a fight between them and the No. 50.
In the final two stints, Antonio Fuoco, with fresher tires, was tasked with reeling in the Toyota, which was double stinting its set before the final stops. Fuoco closed in and got to within 10s of Kobayashi, much to the delight of the hordes of Tifosi in the stands, before Toyota brought the No. 7 in for a final full-service stop to get it to the flag.
After both contending cars had pitted for a final time, the No. 7 was still leading, but the gap was down to 8.5s. Kobayashi, however, delivered the goods under immense pressure, setting his fastest lap of the race and pulling away, crossing the line 16.5s ahead of Fuoco.
Completing the top three was the No. 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8. Paul Di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen, a year on from the 9X8’s race debut at the same circuit, fought hard and were rewarded with the program’s first podium.
The 9X8s, building on their surprise showing at Le Mans, were quick all weekend. Despite losing time at an early pit stop and suffering gear selection issues, the No. 93 came home as the third and final car on the lead lap. The result will mean the world for the Peugeot team, which appears to be turning a corner.
The victory, the third of the season for the No. 7 crew, has tightened the title race, as the sister No. 8 GR010 and Le Mans-winning No. 51 499P that sat first and second in the points before the race both had tough afternoons in the sweltering conditions trackside.
Toyota’s No. 8 crew still leads the title race (by 23 points) with a sixth-place finish after a late-race recovery that ended with Brendon Hartley battling past the No. 51 and No. 5 Porsche Penske 963. The tussling included a brave move from Hartley on Antonio Giovanazzi around the outside at Curva Grande to put the No. 8 ahead of the No. 51.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) July 9, 2023
It was a hard-fought result for the No. 8 crew, which was penalized twice early in the race for separate collisions involving Sebastien Buemi — first at the start when Buemi locked up and turned the No. 51 into a spin at Turn 1, then for wiping out the No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin later in the first hour.
There was a further 50 second penalty post-race for the No. 8 for excessive energy usage in the late stages of the race, the penalty dropping the car from fourth at the flag to sixth behind the No. 51 Ferrari.
The No. 51 ended up finishing fifth thanks to the Toyota penalty, behind the No. 5 Porsche that inherited fourth.
With the top two in the points finishing off the podium, No. 7 and No. 50 are now in the game. Both are within 34 points with two races remaining.
“After a tough Le Mans, it was important to bounce back,” Lopez said. “Unfortunately, car No. 8 had a tough race but recovered well. I am very proud of these guys, it feels nice.”
“With the split strategy, it was tense, but with a mega pit stop and a solid last stint from Kamui, it was nice to beat Ferrari on home ground,” added Conway.
Elsewhere in the top class, it was a messy race, with multiple teams in contention for podium honors hitting trouble.
The two privateer Porsches were on track for strong finishes, but both had dramas. The Hertz Team JOTA 963 mirrored its performance at Le Mans, fighting for the lead of the race before an issue for the electronics on the steering wheel saw Antonio Felix da Costa end up speeding in the pit lane under an emergency service.
The crew was unable to fix the issue as nothing more than five seconds of fuel was allowed. The car then stopped at pit out, requiring a power recycle. It came home ninth.
Proton Competition, meanwhile, also briefly led with its new 963, but late in the race stopped at the first chicane shortly after Harry Tincknell got in for his first race stint in the car. A throttle sensor issue was the root cause of the loss of power, which resulted in the car being retired by the Briton after briefly getting going again.
It wasn’t a much better race for the factory 963s either, as neither Penske prototype had the outright pace. The No. 5 ended up fifth, while the No. 6 ended up seventh after having to take an emergency service stop under the second safety car, forcing the team to pit twice in quick succession.
The fifth and final LMDh runner in the field, the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, finished a disappointing 10th. Richard Westbrook, Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn were in the mix for a strong finish after the field was split in half at the first safety car due to varying strategies, but later faded.
“We were fighting at the front and on a different strategy to half the cars, so it was good, classic sports car racing with different strategies playing out. And it was working for us,” said Westbrook. “Unfortunately, the timing of the safety car was bad for us — we had to pit for emergency fuel and once that happens you’re pretty much out of the game. It’s a real shame. When stuff like the timing of the safety car happens, you’re in the lap of the gods and it didn’t quite work out for us today. But in the future it will.”
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In LMP2, it was heartbreak for the No. 31 WRT ORECA, which retired from the lead with an engine issue with under 20 minutes remaining. This promoted the No. 28 JOTA ORECA, which had been fast all day, to the lead in the run to the line. For Oliver Rasmussen, David Heinemeier Hansson and Pietro Fittipaldi, it was their first win and first podium of the season.
“It was amazing, we had an incredible start, then it was up in the air. I thought a podium would have been great, but to be number one, incredible,” said Heinemeier Hansson.
“We fought back, kept it clean, we were so close at Spa, to get the win was amazing,” added Fittipaldi.
While it wasn’t the best of days for JOTA’s Porsche Hypercar, things could hardly have gone better for its LMP2 ORECA-Gibson. Motorsport Images
Behind, the No. 36 Alpine also secured its best finish of the season with second, coming home ahead of the LMP2 pole-sitting No. 41 WRT ORECA.
The No. 41 snatched the final podium spot off the No. 23 United ORECA on the final lap of the race, completing a recovery drive after losing time in the pits in the first half of the race.
For Josh Pierson, Giedo van der Garde and Oliver Jarvis in the No. 23 United Autosports car, fourth will come as a disappointment, especially after van der Garde put in a trademark opening stint, fighting to third from 11th on the grid. The sister No. 22 ended up sixth behind the Le Mans-winning Inter Europol example that crossed the line fifth.
Motorsport Images
GTE Am, meanwhile, was won by the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer, Christian Ried and Mikkel Pedersen. All three were faultless and played their strategy cards right on a day in which the category delivered an enthralling, unpredictable contest.
“We had no idea where we would finish, it was so close, but we made the right calls and were out front in the closing hours. We had to manage a gap and maintain it at the end,” Andlauer said.
The No. 60 Iron Lynx and No. 86 GR Racing Porsche made it a 1-2-3 for the German brand.
The main headline here was Corvette Racing’s No. 33 C8.R of Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg claiming the class title with a fourth-place finish.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) July 9, 2023
It wasn’t an easy race for the trio, who were carrying 40kg of success ballast, as they had to serve a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane and were forced to take an extra emergency stop for fuel. However, by finishing ahead of the Iron Dames Porsche and ORT by TF Aston Martin, they sealed the championship.
This was the first time all year the Corvette had finished off the podium, in what has been a fairy tale season which had seen the team score three wins and a second place prior to this weekend.
“I’ve said it over and over, but in this championship and in each one of the five races we’ve had, it has been a true team performance overall,” said Keating. “You win as a team and you lose as a team, but we’ve also been lucky in quite a lot of places.
“It’s just been a magical season. I’m really proud of everyone on the Corvette Racing team.”
Iron Dames and ORT by TF had hugely disappointing races with the titles on the line. The all-female-crewed No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche finished fifth, while the TF Aston could only muster seventh.
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 …
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.
Another career highlight for Robert Kubica: A WEC pole in LMP2. Motorsport Images
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.
On-form Sarah Bovy put the Iron Dames up front in GTE Am. Motorsport Images
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.
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 …
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).
The Le Mans-winning No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P topped the times in the first free practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Monza this afternoon. Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest lap for the car late in the session, …
The Le Mans-winning No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P topped the times in the first free practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Monza this afternoon.
Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest lap for the car late in the session, a 1m37.533s to go just 0.003s quicker than the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 that spent most of the 90-minute session at the top of the timing screens. Yifei Ye’s 1m37.536 was the No. 38’s best tour of the “Temple of Speed,” putting the British team in a strong position ahead of FP2.
The top three was rounded out by the No. 5 Porsche, which caused an early full-course yellow after stopping out on track. However, it was able to rejoin the session after a reset and finish with a best time just 0.3s off the No. 51 and 38 laps completed.
Hypercar was incredibly close, the top nine ending up with lap times within 0.6s.
Behind the top three, the No. 7 Toyota ended up fourth ahead of the sole Glickenhaus 007 which set an impressive 1m37.917s to go fifth.
Free Practice 1 was the first run for Proton Competition’s brand-new Porsche 963, which was delivered to the team just last week. The German team managed to complete 31 laps and lap faster than all of the LMP2 runners, slotting in 13th.
In LMP2 Team WRT ended up 1-2, with the No. 41 ORECA the quicker of the pair after a 1m40.356s from Robert Kubica. The best of the rest was the Inter Europol Competition ORECA.
GTE Am featured the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari topping the times, Davide Rigon’s early 1m47.538s enough of a benchmark time to go unchallenged until the end.
The No. 60 Iron Lynx and No. 86 GR Racing Porsches completed the top three, while the championship-leading Corvette C8.R finished up ninth in the classification.
The session was brought to an early end, when red flags were shown with three minutes remaining, following a report of technical issues at race control.
The FIA World Endurance Championship has revealed a handful of changes to the entry for the next round of the series, the 6 Hours of Monza that will take place on July 7-9. In Hypercar, the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH (pictured above) will have …
The FIA World Endurance Championship has revealed a handful of changes to the entry for the next round of the series, the 6 Hours of Monza that will take place on July 7-9.
In Hypercar, the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH (pictured above) will have Romain Dumas — fresh from taking second place overall at Pikes Peak — driving alongside Olivier Pla and Nathanael Berthon. As planned, the U.S.-flagged team returns to a single-car effort after a hugely impressive run at Le Mans where its 007s finish sixth and seventh overall.
The remaining alterations come in the GTE class. The major change is the withdrawal of the No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage AMR, which was taken over by Heart of Racing after Paul Dalla Lana retired from racing after Portimao.
The Vantage will not make the trip to Italy because of a clash with the IMSA round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which Heart of Racing is committed to with Aston Martin in GTD Pro and GTD.
Two TBAs remain on the list alongside Matteo Cairoli in the No. 56 Project 1 AO Porsche because of the IMSA clash, which means PJ Hyett and Gunnar Jeanette will not travel to Europe.
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Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating is unaffected by the schedule conflict, as IMSA’s LMP2 class will not race at the Canadian circuit.
Elsewhere, at AF Corse Julien Piguet stays aboard the No. 21 Ferrari 488 alongside Simon Mann and Ulysse de Pauw after joining the crew at Le Mans.
At Kessel Racing, Daniel Serra will skip Monza as the round also clashes with a Stock Car Pro Series race meeting at Interlagos. Serra is a full-season driver with Eurofarma RC and currently sits fourth in the standings with two race wins. Kei Cozzolino will take his place in the No. 57.
One man was reportedly killed in a knife attack at a supermarket outside Milan
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has said that defender Pablo Marí “seems to be OK” after he was stabbed in an attack at a supermarket just outside of Milan on Thursday.
Marí, who is currently on loan with Serie A side Monza, was hospitalized after multiple reports said a 46-year-old man took a knife off a shelf and attacked people at random.
La Repubblica reported that six people, including Marí, were stabbed and a 30-year-old cashier was killed in the attack at the Carrefour supermarket in Milanofiori of Assago, just outside Milan.
Sky Italyreported that the suspect has been arrested.
Speaking after Arsenal’s Europa League defeat to PSV on Thursday, Arteta told reporters of Marí: “I just found out. I know that [Arsenal sporting director] Edu is in touch with his relatives. He’s in hospital but seems to be OK.”
Monza CEO Adriano Galliani said that Marí had been stabbed in the back, but would recover quickly, while also confirming reports that the cashier had died.
“Unfortunately, I received terrible news, the store cashier died,” Galliani told Italian TV station TG2. “As for Pablo Marì he had a fairly deep wound on his back, a penetrating one, which however did not touch vital organs such as lungs or others. His life is not in danger. He certainly has problems but he should recover quickly despite some injured muscles.”
Marí signed for Arsenal in 2020 and made 12 Premier League appearances before heading out on loan, first to Udinese and then to Monza.
Arsenal released a statement after the attack, saying: “We are all shocked to hear the dreadful news about the stabbing in Italy, which has put a number of people in hospital including our on-loan centre-back Pablo Marí.
“We have been in contact with Pablo’s agent who has told us he’s in hospital and is not seriously hurt.
“Our thoughts are with Pablo and the other victims of this dreadful incident.”
