The 6h of Monza, the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, began with the very hot sun which enticed the crowds to invade the Brianza track from the early hours of the morning, despite the departure being set for 12.30.
After the two warm-up laps behind the Safety Car, at the green light immediately a thrill at the first chicane with Miguel Molina forced to cut partially on the inside after his Ferrari #50 had flanked the Toyota #7 of Mike Conway, while behind Antonio Giovinazzi’s 499P #51 was hit by Sébastien Buemi’s Toyota #8 and spun.
At the moment it was a decidedly negative day for the Swiss, who about twenty minutes later squeezed the Aston Martin #777 towards the outside during the braking of the ‘Ascari’ causing poor Satoshi Hoshino to crash heavily against the right-hand wall.
Debris scattered everywhere and barriers to be fixed prompted the race direction to call in the Safety Car, which remained inside until lap 16. In the meantime, some took advantage of it to anticipate the first stop, including Porsches #38, #6 and # 99, Ferrari #51 and Cadillac for Hypercars, plus several GTEs except Porsche #85 and Ferrari #83 and #21.
At the new restart, the Peugeot #93 of a perky Mikkel Jensen was immediately in great shape, capable of taking the lead over Conway after he had passed Molina, who then imitated his rival in the 9X8, also putting the GR010 Hybrid behind him.
After the first two rounds of stops, but with crossed strategies for some as we said above, the Porsche #6 of Team Penske took the lead, followed 2″ by the Ferrari #51 and the private 963s #38 of Jota and #99 of Proton Competition, which however has a wider delay from the group.
The Cadillac #2 climbs fifth with the Porsche #5 of Team Penske, the Ferrari #50 and the two Peugeots behind it; the #93 lost some ground changing tires immediately at the first stop, the #94 has trouble downshifting and slowed down a couple of times for a few metres, currently completing the Top10.
Glickenhaus is eleventh, then there is the Toyota #8, which first had to serve 10″ at the pit stop for the touch of Giovinazzi and then 1′ of Stop&Go for having knocked out the Aston of D’Station Racing. Rear light the impalpable Vanwall by ByKolles.
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