Monza FP2: Lopez fastest for Toyota; Estre and Porsche fightback in LMGTE Pro
The second free practice session for the 6 Hours of Monza on Saturday morning witnessed Jose Maria Lopez setting the fastest time of the weekend so far in the No. 7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid.
Porsche peg Ferrari back in LMGT Pro, while Racing Team Nederland and Nyck de Vries set the fastest time in LMP2.
There was a three-way incident towards the end of the session at Ascari between the No. 60 Iron Lynx car, Alpine Elf Matmut and DragonSpeed.
Below are the main headlines from FP2…
Hypercar
• No.7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid Hypercar driven by Jose Maria Lopez sets early session best time of 1m36.864s
• Lopez's time is the quickest lap but Glickenhaus cause a surprise as Olivier Pla scorches to 1m37.601s best initially place second
• However, a 1m37.591s best from Nicolas Lapierre takes Alpine ELF Matmut team to second overall and in Hypercar class
• No. 8 Toyota places fourth as 1m37.738s laps is set by Brendon Hartley and then team concentrate on race set-up work
• The second Glickenhaus 007 LMH car is fifth as Richard Westbrook claims a best of 1m38.051s
FP2 mode activated! #6HMonza #GoHyper #ToyotaGAZOORacing @FIAWEC pic.twitter.com/j1DVsD4q12
— TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WEC (@TGR_WEC) July 17, 2021
LMGTE Pro
• Porsche fights back in LMGTE Pro as No.92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani lead the way
• Estre’s 1m45.590s best lap is set in early running and not beaten
• The French ace’s time is 0.6 ahead of chasing Ferraris
• No.51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi is second ahead of sister Ferrari of Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra
• No.91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gimmi Bruni and Richard Lietz places fourth
#WEC - @FIAWEC FP2 @Autodromo_Monza is over. The two @manthey_racing #Porsche #911RSR in GTE-Pro category finished the session in P1 (No. 92) and P4 (No. 91). The quickest @Customer_Racing car in GTE-Am was the No. 77 from @ProtonRacing in P6. Next up: FP3 at 14:00 local time pic.twitter.com/JctnEVPZD9
— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) July 17, 2021
LMP2
• Nyck de Vries sets fastest lap for Racing Team Nederland entry on a 1m38.545s lap
• Dutch ace just shades the United Autosports USA car driven by Filipe Albuquerque who gets to within 0.075s of De Vries’ LMP2 topping time
• No.29 car is also the highest placed Pro/Am entry in the 90-minute session
• Third in class is the No.38 Jota entry as Anthony Davidson peaks with a 1m38.899s lap
• LMP2 newbies Risi Competizione are seventh and within a second of the class pace as Felipe Nasr sets a 1m39.460 best
The chequered has fallen, FP2 is done and here are the best performance from each category.@TGR_WEC #7@PorscheRaces #92@RacingTeamNL #29@AFCorse #54#WEC #6HMonza pic.twitter.com/fwLrfUT0UH
— WEC (@FIAWEC) July 17, 2021
LMGTE Am
• Ferrari 1-2-3 in LMGTE Am as Francesco Castellacci sets the pace with a 1m46.737s lap in closing stages of 90-minute session in No.54 AF Corse entered car
• Alessio Rovera gets to within 0.092s of Castellacci’s time in No.83 AF Corse entry
• Rahel Frey takes third place as she sets a time of 1m46.940 for the all-female crewed Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE
• New entry Inception Racing stops on track in session as Brendon Iribe continues to gather experience in first ever WEC race
The third final practice session takes place from 14h00 – 15h00 CEST.
