MONZA, Italy—In revenge for losing the title at Lemans last month, Toyota Gazoo’s Kamui Kobayashi won the pole for Sunday’s six hours of Monza only by just 0.017 seconds with a time of 1:35:358 ahead of the number 50 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco. The second Toyota with Brendon Hartley at the wheel finished in third. The big surprise of this hypercar qualifying session was the fourth place Peugeot driven by Jean-Eric Vergne.
Cadillac, with only one car in this round of the championship, was fifth on the grid, with Alex Lynn at the wheel, followed by the winning AF Corse Ferrari Lemans car, with Antonio Giovinazzi. Following these three rows of hypercar drivers is another Peugeot, with a bunch of Penske Porsches, a Hertz JOTA entry, the experimental Proton Porsche, Glickenhaus, and the Floyd Vanwall group completing the list.
The WRT Leading championship car, with veteran Robert Kubica took the top honours in the LMP 2 category with a 1:39:354, followed by Pietro Fittipaldi in the JOTA. Phil Hanson in the United Autosports entry was third, with Vector Sport’s Gabriel Aubry, Europol’s Albert Costa, and the second WRT car completing the top three rows.
Sarah Bovy, following a disastrous run at the last round at Lemans, regained her composure and took the quickest time in the GTE AM class, with a 1:47:632 in the Iron Dames entry. Ahmad Al Harthy in the TF Sport Aston Martin took second, with Christian Reid in the Dempsey Proton Porsche in third. The Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari followed them, with GR Racing Porsche, and the series leading Chevrolet Corvette entry completing the top six.
The session split into two parts following the spin of Efrin Castro, who scattered gravel all over the circuit at the Ascari Chicane in his AO Racing Porsche, which also caused the GR Racing Porsche of Mike Wainwright to spin as well in the same location.
The race on Sunday will begin at 12:30 local time here.
By Mark Gero
